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August 3, 2014

Write for elephant, Get Paid—& July’s Winners!

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Editor’s note: all instructions below on how to win money while writing are old new! See more info about our new Ecosystem here and check the sidebar of any of Elephant’s pages or articles to see a current list of winners! 

Write for elephant, change the world, get rich!*

15 years ago, the public paid for media. Media, in turn, paid writers. And advertisers advertised. Now, advertisers spend money on cool videos, the public expects to read online for free, and so most online media can’t afford to pay writers.

But as a writer myself, I believe in paying writers for quality work, and elephant members (our subscribers) make it possible. Despite the fact that we make very little off of ads—about 1/40th other sites our size—I voluntarily pay the equivalent of three staff salaries each month to writers who are: 1. consistent, 2. quality and 3. popular.

Our system is intended to: 1) establish stable goals for writers every month 2) create a cooperative, team-effort system that encourages writers to support one another.

Elephant Journal’s Writer Payment Plan:

Our incentives are founded on 1) popularity, 2) consistency and 3) quality, not just one of the three.

We’re paid as a group for group success, so there’s direct financial incentive to support one another with likes, tweets, comments and shares.

We measure total elephant readership numbers (currently at 8.5 million/month) through Google Analytics, not individual numbers through WordPress (WP numbers can be fuzzy). This has the effect of ensuring that our incentive payment system rewards group effort, as well as individual achievement.

Payment:

$50 or one annual gift subscription

> Everyone who shares five or more blogs (with quality sufficient that we accept) in the month gets paid $50… If we grow.

> If elephant doesn’t grow at least 10 percent a month, everyone who submits five or more blogs in that month gets a year-long gift subscription for that month to give to a loved one. (Basically, it’s like pooling tips.)

> Writers are directly incentivized to support one another with comments, shares, tweets and likes, shares to reddit, stumbleupon etc.

10 Most Popular Writers

Additionally, I’d like to reward our most 10 most popular bloggers each month. I’ll be able to pay 15, then 20 popular writers, etc, as elephant grows, and makes more money.

To qualify for one of our 10 monthly bonuses, you’ll have to fulfill three criteria:

1) 5 or more quality blogs that we accept and probably are inspired to share up through our social media

2) consistency: as mentioned, five quality blogs, or more, published in the month—note: do not wait to send in blogs toward the end of the month, we may not get them up in time,

3) popularity : reach beyond the choir to keep individual incentive alive.

I’ll pay the top 10 most popular folks who submit view counts by noon MST on the last day of the month—if you submit your view count even one hour late, no payment.

> If we grow, #1 writer gets $1,000 for that month, #2 and #3 get $450, and #4 – #10 get $108

> If elephant doesn’t grow: #1 gets $250, #2 and #3 get $108, and #4 – #10 get a second free gift subscription for a loved one.

If you think you may qualify for our top 10, you must submit your total WordPress viewcount for that month (as in the past) by noon of the last day of said month. Based on the viewcounts from submitted numbers, we’ll determine the top 10 winners. Be on time or early: no exceptions.

Here are July’s Winners:

(Let’s work extra hard to share our work and reach beyond the choir this month so we can grow and increase our payments!!)

 

Jennifer White

 

Jennifer White: 13 articles, 137,237 views for $250!

 

 

 

Michelle Fajkus-1607

 

 

Michelle Margaret Fajkus: 12 articles, 97,769 views for $108!

 

 

Phil Watt bioz    Phil Watt: 9 articles, 91,489 views for $108!

 

Hannah Hilton-1975   Hannah Hilton: 8 articles, 69,684 views for 2 free gift subscriptions!

 

Sarah Miller-1468   Saraswati J.:  7 articles, 67,783 views for 2 free gift subscriptions!

 

Anna Jorgensen

 

 

 

Anna Jorgensen: 7 articles, 52,000 views for 2 free gift subscriptions!

 

Jamie Khoo-1647   Jamie Khoo: 6 articles, 31, 836 views for 2 free gift subscriptions!

 

Erica Leibrandt-1553

 

 

Erica Leibrandt: 11 articles, 28,892 views for 2 free gift subscriptions!

 

 

Yoli Ramazzina

 

 

Yoli Ramazzina: 6 articles, 22,179 views for 2 free gift subscriptions!

 

 

Kimberly Lo-1812  Kimberly Lo:  16 articles, 20, 644 views for 2 free gift subscriptions!

 

ashleigh hitchcock

 

 

 

: 6 articles, 18,397 views for one free gift subscription!

 

Lynn Shattuck-1811   Lynn Shattuck: 5 articles, 11,669 views for one free gift subscription!

 

Jes Wright-1993   Jes Wright: 5 articles, 10,455 views for one free gift subscription!

 Brenna Fischer    Brenna Fisher: 8 articles, 9679 views for one free gift subscription!

 

Kathryn Muyskens Author pic1

 

Kathryn Muyskens: 5 articles, 9,177 views for one free gift subscription!

 

 

 

rachel astarte thumb 100x100

 

Rachel Astarte Piccione: 8 articles, 7,193 views for one free gift subscription!

 

 

 

Laura Kutney-1912   Laura Kutney:  5 articles, 7,026 views for one free gift subscription!

 

 

Daniel Scharpenburg

 

 

Daniel Scharpenburg: 5 articles, 6,076 views for one free gift subscription!

 

 

 

Michael Mark-1760   Michael Mark: 5 articles, 5,908 views for one free gift subscription!

 

 

tammy stone

 

 

Tammy Stone: 7 articles, 5,298 views for one free gift subscription!

 

 

 

Guenevere Neufeld-1939   Guenevere Neufeld:  9 articles, 3, 427 views for one free gift subscription!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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