FoKn Roll or Play on PAA

This piece arose as a response to a question that Becky Brooks asked on my article Post Away: The PAA Way, that I published on PostAnyArticle. I initially left it as a comment, but other editors felt it would reach a wider audience and make more of an impact if it was published as an article on FullofKnowledge rather than as a comment on PostAnyArticle.

Becky's question was as follows:

"what are the benefits to me as a freelance writer to post on full of knowledge or expert pages instead of PAA. I did sign up at the other pages but I can not see that the pay rate is much better there than it is here, plus there I have to keep up a certain level of added content each month or I am not making as much on my page views."

Let me preface my statement, by saying that I appreciate that Becky asked her questions and I am glad that she asked them. I hope my long winded response that follows will provide some clarity. I hope everyone feels free Please feel free to ask questions and I hope that everyone's experience on FoK, EP and PAA family of sites is positive.

There is an age old debate among writers and sites about quality vs quantity, and which provides more substantial income opportunities both in the short term and in the long term.

PAA provides a platform that emphasizes quantity over quality, brevity over longevity, and is perfect for those articles that their creators have pimped all around the net.

It is lightly moderated with standards that most elementary school students can manage. Simply conform to the simple rules of conduct, type 100 words, and you are are ready to Post Away - The PAA Way.

FoK and EP offer a unique editor assisted site that focuses on quality. Keep in mind quality comes in many shapes, formats and styles. Editors will attempt to assist all writers that are sincere in improving and/or polishing their articles. Many writers do not need this and publish with only minimal review. The sites prefer virgin articles, but do allow posts that are active only in one other relationship (posted on just one other site).
FoK and EP allow images and links to be used. Some actual artists have reported back that they appreciate the fact that EP and FoK have a "no-nonsense approach" about not allowing stolen images, or images without appropriate attribution to be used.

Becky, I see on Bubblews you post, on average of about, 150 articles per month. If this work were to meet the FoK/EP 300 word count and the basic expectations of a fairly well constructed article, you would no have no problem earning the same 75% rate - as you would on PAA. However, you could also be among the top five each month that earn anywhere from 80%-100% of the writer cpm.

Pretend you are your own post, look around PAA and then FoK/EP, and ask yourself where you would hope your author would raise you. The editors can help steer a particular piece of work to it's proper resting place. However, what is good for FoK/EP will always make the grade on PAA, but if an author wants to raise a well written article that would have conformed to the standards on FoK/EP on the PAA farm, that will remain their personal choice. However, because FoK/EP maintain higher standards, not everything from PAA is suitable for FoK/EP.

However, if you can spew, snort, sputter and stutter with a sense of originality and flare you may find you can post even these sorts of articles on FoK/EP too. FoK/EP also authors the one -two punch of posting the same article on both FoK and EP, but not on PAA. PAA allows publishing on just PAA and not on FoK/EP.

Only time will tell which model will work the best for the writers and the sites. At the end of the day what really only matters is that you as an author provide your articles the best opportunity for your articles to live happy, healthy and productive lives, while giving you a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of mission accomplished.

If you are concerned about how you or your articles will be treated by the FoK/EP editing team, I would be happy to make a forum thread for that topic. I am sure there are plenty of writers that will tell you the ins and outs of the editing process and what they like and don't like about it.

Let's be clear about one vital fact. The sites are trying to be distinct from each other. Though there may be some overlap, at their roots they are not geared to attracting the same type of article. Any attempt to try and encourage writers to post their best work on PAA is irresponsible, creates confusion and ultimately is not helpful to the sites development.

Image Attribution: Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Copyrighted and originally published on FullofKnowledge on October 17, 2013