Do you purchase content?

[ENF]

We're beginning to fork into a new market/direction and I'd like to get some input from other site/forum managers and owners.

This is in regards to content generation and if you pay writers for their content contribution. If you do not pay for commercial, free lance or internal content generation, then this does not apply to you

1) Do you purchase content?

• What type of content do you purchase (Articles, Media, Imagery)?
• Do you pay independent writers?
• Do you pay in commission or a set rate per article?

2) Do you employ staff writers?

• What kind of benefits to you provide to content providers?

3) Of the content you receive, do you pay any commercial media service for licensing fees (syndication, etc.)?

(Note: I'm sure I need not say this, but just in case, please do not post any figures/rates on what you pay. I'm after methodology and approach in the content model instead of the actual costs of what other people pay.)

The location that we are forking will have an attached forum and we are actually trying as much as possible to keep as much as we can in XenForo only. (Now that some relatively functional ad systems have been released, this fork is now commercially viable.) We may still go with WordPress for a front end, but we are working on it, mainly just for the articles which we will tie into the forums in some fashion later on.

Long story short, I'd like to hear what other site owners are doing so my partner and I don't go off the deep end.

Cheers.



PS: I have already done some interviews with writers that are on my short list of authors. Some of the prices they said that they were being paid was a lot lower than I expected. Then again, one guy, with a few writings under his belt, was asking for an astronomical amount.

 

[ENF]

Hmm. No replies.

Guess I'll troll around other sites and gather up some information and post up some findings for anyone who may be interested.

 

[cclaerhout]

If you need a frontend, you should try Concrete5 instead of Wordpress. You will just spend a full day to get how it works. It's easy to use and it's cheap, you will probably buy one skin, then customize it. Note that the skins seem to be well coded (that was clearly not the case with some of Wordpress). I didn't spend time on the coding part. All I can say is that on Wordpress it mixes php & html (which I don't like).

For your question, if you look at some very targeted audience websites (ie: computer news) having its own writers team is important. They participate to the community and have a direct access to the readers. That creates a kind of close relationships.

May be you can start with some freelancers, see how your community responds to them, and integrate them as permanent staff after.

Good luck with your project!

 

[newyorksportstown]

Right now I am paying for threads and posting until I get some activity going.

 

[Motobaka]

Right now I am paying for threads and posting until I get some activity going.

This might not be the right place to ask, but I honestly don’t have any idea of how much to pay a couple of people to generate original content. Could anyone give me an idea?

I don’t want to pay too little or too much.

 

[ENF]

This might not be the right place to ask, but I honestly don’t have any idea of how much to pay a couple of people to generate original content. Could anyone give me an idea?

I don’t want to pay too little or too much.

There are several factors to consider, but for smaller sites, I've found that general articles are paid a flat rate. Anywhere from as little as $15 USD to as much as $150 USD per article. Obviously, the more in depth or complex the article is, the cost usually goes up. I have a friend that writes for a pop culture site and she's paid a flat rate of $25 USD per article. The editors are paid a commission based on how many articles they review and also a percentage of revenue generated from the advertisements.

Just to clarify, I'm only looking at articles targeted at specific demographic and region. This isn't related to threads or posts on a forum.

I'm still researching various points, but there are about 3 common patterns that most sites follow:

1) Management/User Generated Content (Articles, Guides, Wikis etc.)
2) Syndicated Content, Licensed from Larger Sources
3) Paid writers who are usually freelance and not exclusive. (some are exclusive, but usually at a higher rate.)

Imagery, Videos and other Interactive Media, still looking at these.

 

[Motobaka]

Thanks for the information, very helpful!

 

[dvsDave]

Honestly, you should be investing more time into the community than paying for content. If threads and posts are paid for, those "members" won't be on hand for followup questions, and cannot keep the conversation going. You need to reach out to people who are big in the subject area of your site and invite them personally to join. They will help bring people to your site. Initially you will be doing a lot of content and conversations yourself, but when you find that you are no longer carrying the conversation and that they happen by themselves and are sustained by the community instead of you, then you will have reached that magical point of knowing that your community is starting to thrive instead of struggling for life.

 

[KensonPlays]

Honestly, you should be investing more time into the community than paying for content. If threads and posts are paid for, those "members" won't be on hand for followup questions, and cannot keep the conversation going. You need to reach out to people who are big in the subject area of your site and invite them personally to join. They will help bring people to your site. Initially you will be doing a lot of content and conversations yourself, but when you find that you are no longer carrying the conversation and that they happen by themselves and are sustained by the community instead of you, then you will have reached that magical point of knowing that your community is starting to thrive instead of struggling for life.

Exactly this, I don't do pay-for-content, I just wait for them to come naturally and join to create content!