Fulfill a Part-Time Income by Writing for About.Com

Owned by the New York Times Company, About.com is a paid writing site that serves as a comprehensive online hub for top of the line advice, interactive tests, videos, online courses, and informative articles, it sports a high page rank, earning over $40 million in daily revenue, and maintains an current estimated net worth of over $30 million.

The structure of About.com is divided into topic sub-sites all of which are grouped within channels, these topics range from health care, weather, teen advice, astronomy, to wedding planning and beyond. About.com has a network of 750-800 'Guides' who are topic experts (think of Examiner.com's 'Examiners'), each one experienced in their own particular topic/field, remaining as the sole exclusive writer for the particular topic.

About.com is perhaps the biggest and possibly the best website to write for on the web. The site's overall net worth and what it makes in daily revenue is completely mind-boggling when compared to other paid writing sites like Examiner, Hubpages, Associated Content, and among others.

They say a site's worth and income speak volumes about itself. Well, that saying rings very true as what they are offering in terms of compensation for their guides is enough to cover a part-time job. Most of About.com's guides are paid a starting salary of $675 per month for the first two years and $500 per month afterwards. However, there are several guides there who are raking in over $100,000 per year, indicating that there is no roof over this income. I haven't even gotten into their payment incentives for page-view growth, mind you.

Upon what I have learned of this site and just by looking it, I don't find those numbers hard to believe at all, especially considering that it's owned by (drum roll...) The New York Times Company, so you know the cash is definitely there. The biggest letdown of About.com is that they have a painstaking application process for new guides. These people not only want top quality articles, they want articles that seemingly topple top quality articles (sounds dizzying, doesn't it?).

The most difficult step in their application process is the very first one: a writing sample. You will be given a list of available topics to choose from (which there is plenty of) and you must submit a writing sample on that topic. They say it will take a month for them to get back to you although they give you an Application Status tool which you can use as often as you want.

If you pass this step then you're well on your way but the problem is that these people usually don't get back to you when they say they will. I submitted an original 650 word article for the Teen Advice category, waited a month, and received no response. It wasn't until I checked the status which informed me that I wasn't selected but they will keep me on file for future positions. Mind you, I put a lot of work into that article which has now received $10 upfront plus page view bonuses on Bright Hub since then (oh well, About.com's loss, I guess).

If you think you're tough enough to get pass their first stage, then by all means give it a shot. I mean what have you got to lose? If nothing happens with your writing sample after a month, submit it somewhere else and move on. Those of who are rejected can only dream of making a salary of $500-$1000 a month by simply writing informative articles in our pajamas.