“Write for elephant journal, get Rich!” Here’s who won last month.

elephant is dedicated to sharing the good word re: “the mindful life” beyond the core or choir and to all those who might give a care. We focus on anything that’s good (& fun, or sad if appropriate) for others, our planet, & ourselves.

Oh words, words, wonderful words!

Want to write, get paid? We believe in paying those writers who consistently contribute quality work to our community.

Pro-tips: > subscribe to our Walk the Talk Show video series on youtube, ask questions live. Basically: jump in, treat this like a part-time job, and you’ll make some good money every month.

> Join the Writers group on Facebook and comment on one another’s posts on elephant, share favorite posts, support one another. Under the new plan, team spirit is key.

> Write quality consistently and get it shared up and we’ll pay you. Here’s the new plan: New Payment Plan for Writers.

> What makes a mindful contribution? Poetry, photos, adventure, green, videos (a great way to, a la Upworthy, share quality with minimal intro—that said, a video plus a quality article, is a consistent winner), family, meditation, Dharma, politics, social good, conscious consumerism, contemplative arts…oh my. You can blog up anything that connects with our mission: to share the mindful life beyond our choir.

What’s “best”? Hard to say. But a combination of consistent, quality, and reach-beyond-the-choir is a good starting point.

This month, we did not grow 10 percent–in fact, we lost one million readers, far fewer than other media facing the faucet-closing of Facebook, the virtual newsstand of 2014. Read here for more.

For those few who chose to try out the new plan, which is explained here and will pay steadily no matter any fluctuations in WordPress viewcounts, thank you. We have decided to pay whichever plan would have paid you more, costing us an extra $1000, plus. And this from a site that does not make a lot of money, because we have thus far chosen to forgo selling 90% of the ads our peers do.

For May, this is the New Plan for all:

New Payment Plan for Writers.

Kimberly Lo: 18 articles; 64,735 views for dyam gurl of $200

Freya Watson: 6 articles; 30,785 views for a bow of $75

 Victoria Fedden: 8 articles; 31,293 views gassho of $75

 Erica Leibrandt: 19 articles; 42,766 views for thankya, thankya very much of $75

Anna Jorgensen: 10 articles; 58,846 views for a high five of $75

 Carolyn Riker: 10 articles; 23,351 views for a ‘sup of $75

 Heather Grimes: 6 articles; 168,151 views for a salute of $200

 Edie Lazenby: 10 articles; 16,821 views for a mwuah of a gift subscription

Laura Kutney: 24 articles; 69,537 views for a nice work of $200

Ashleigh Hitchcock: 9 articles; 21,473 views for a yes of $75

 Tammy Stone: 16 articles; 21,538 views for a Shambhala bow of $75

Bronwyn Petry: 5 articles; 52,093 views for a bear hug of $75

Kara-Leah Grant: 10 articles; 153,336 views for a eureka of $400

Kristin Monk: 17 articles; 33,725 views for a hallelujah of $75

Ruth Lera: 6 articles; 15,524 views for a hug for way too long of a gift subscription

Angel Kalafatis: 6 articles; 66,568 views for a up high, down low of $200

Rachel Astarte: 10 articles; 42,941 views for a gassho of $75

Saraswati J. Miller: 9 articles; 16,812 views for a svaha of a gift subscription

Note: if you wish to collect your winnings, you must email your totals (list of articles with view counts) by 12pm MST on April 30th at the latest to editorial@elephantjournal dot com. Five minutes late? You get nothing.

Seriously.

Seriously.

Nothing.

THE DEADLINE IS FIRM (yes, it’s CAPS LOCK firm—no joke): No exceptions. If you submit early, we’re cool. If you submit late, we cannot and will not be able to pay you (don’t blow it).

Seriously.

Seriously.

Seriously.

Nothing.

If you miss the deadline, we might pay you, but you won’t be eligible to receive payment again. We’re a business and our accountant wants to pay everyone at once and we need to get these new blogs up the first of each month and Waylon gets to pay an editor who gets to take 12 hours, paid, to total up the totals by the 1st. So:

Seriously.

General guidelines:

Good writers deserve to get paid.

First, you have to be >consistent< to “win.”

Secondly, we will not share anything that’s not >quality<, making it difficult for pointlessly sexy (lascivious) or kitteny (cute) posts lacking other merits to win. Thirdly, if your consistent and quality writing is popular, we’ll pay you for your work and I’m happy to be able to do this, based on our growth.

If you don’t want to get paid, you don’t have to play. Writing for the sake of love and sharing is wonderful.

Writers who are playing cannot share their own posts on Facebook main page, but can on our appropriate focus pages.

Anyone who shares anything like “Help me win so I can make money” will be disqualified: We reserve the right to disqualify anyone who is not writing or sharing in the spirit of our mission. A more mindful approach: “Help support my work on elephant, here’s an article about xxx yyyy” or “Help me, friends, by reading and sharing if so inspired.”

Join the Cause! Send your article to: elephantjournal.com/submit

(Note: editors and volunteers are eligible, but cannot share their own articles on our main Facebook page [you can, however, share the article once per day on appropriate focus pages] if you choose to “play.”