Why Aren’t My Y!CN Articles Getting More Page Views?

If you write for the Yahoo! Contributor's Network (Y!CN), then you understand the importance of page views and performance bonuses. For example, if you write an article and receive $4 as an upfront payment, that doesn't seem like much. But if that article gets enough page views, it could double, triple or even quadruple in value. It seems like whenever I do a search in the Y!CN forums for "page views," the most common thing I see people saying is "why aren't my articles getting more page views?"

Now, by no means would I consider myself a page views expert, but I haven't done bad compared to a lot of other contributors. I frequently see writers complaining that they don't have a single article with even 1,000 page views. At the time of writing this, my top-performing article, about burning DVDs in Windows Movie Maker, has more than 96,000 page views. At $2 PPM, that article has earned me almost $200. So, I must be doing something right.

Social Networks and Email

These are the first two suggestions I see other contributors make to those who are frustrated with the amount of page views they're getting. Honestly, I think they are a waste of time. Let's do some simple math, shall we. Let's graciously assume you have 1,000 friends across Facebook, Twitter, etc… do you really think each of your 1,000 friends is going to read every article you post or email to them? No. Even if they did, you'd still only make an extra $2 per article assuming you're a clout level 10.

Bookmarking Sites

Next, there are the social bookmarking sites - Digg, Reddit, etc… again, probably a waste of time for the most part. I did this for a while and never really saw a fast improvement in page views. You know if you have an article that will pique a lot of interest and possible go viral and if you don't. Posting every single article you write, no matter how banal, to every bookmarking site is a waste of time. Save it for you most engaging pieces content.

Evergreen Content

This is an absolute must. If you're only writing news pieces, current events, reviews, etc… then you know why you're not getting a lot of page views. Once the article is no longer topical and relevant, no one is reading. You can find plenty of in depth information on evergreen content by searching the Y!CN.

SEO

Personally, I think it's a little overrated, especially after Panda, the latest Google update. Here's all you need to know about SEO: Pick a searchable phrase as the title of your article - "How to [insert phrase] - use that phrase a handful of times throughout your article and stay on topic. That's it. Done.

Being Featured on the Y!CN

This might actually be the most important thing you should work toward to bring up your overall page views. You want to get features on the Y!CN site and other Yahoo! verticals as much as possible - Yahoo! News, Sports, Entertainment, Finance, etc… Being featured around the site(s) will only give you a temporary bump in page views, but if you're not being featured, you're doing something wrong.

First, you're probably not attaching pictures to your articles. Y!CN only features articles with pictures (to the best of my knowledge) and articles with pictures almost always get more page views than ones that without them. Second, you're probably not writing to the best of your abilities. Your content is either too short, too vague, not engaging enough, or not comprehensive enough. Again, articles that don't meet all of those criteria are not going to get a lot of page views weather they're featured or not.

Patience

Lastly, there is patience. Sometimes you just need to be patient. My article with 96 thousand page views did not get those views in a couple weeks or even a couple of months; it's accumulated those views over a few years. The same goes for all of my other articles that have tens of thousands of views. It takes time for an article to get indexed by search engines and build authority and get passed around and linked back to. If you've only been writing for the Y!CN for less than a year, you have been here long enough to be complaining about page views. I didn't start to see a huge improvement in my page views until almost two years after I started writing here.