On May 4, I published what has easily become my highest-preforming article in terms of page views on Suite. It was about the upcoming Sex and the City movie and the new, character-based cocktails that were being created by Skyy Vodka to promote the film. Since the time it was published, it received 1,017 page views. To put this in perspective, my next-highest-performing article had 681 page views during the same time period. Needless to say, in large part to this one article, my pay this month on Suite is going to be the highest ever since I started in December of last year. Oddly, the closer the time comes to the movie’s theatrical release (5/30) the less page views I seem to be getting. I can also safely assume that once the movie excitement has weaned the page views will all but disappear.
So how do you feel about articles that are time-sensitive? Do you think it’s a good thing to write a “hot” article that has a lot of initial interest due to its timeliness or is it better to write articles that are evergreen and can stand the test of time? Do you have any articles that you wrote that you were especially surprised by how well they preformed?
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May 28, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Dee
I think that question is best answered by the owners of Suite 101. However, I doubt that they would have any problem with you continuing to write about the hot topic. One could argue and say that it would ‘look’ better if the article drew readers without the help of an upcoming movie release. However, I can’t imagine letting this opportunity slip through your fingers. If I had ever watched Sex and the City, I might have done the same thing!
May 29, 2008 at 4:15 pm
wordvixen
Well, I’d say it depends on what kind of bonuses you can get. I wrote a Harry Potter article (I think it was a movie prediction, but maybe it was a book prediction) and submitted it the day before they announced a contest for HP articles. I considered withdrawing it and then re-submitting, but then shrugged it off since I rarely win anything anyway.
Lo and behold- while I got a decent offer (decent for AC) and a load of pageviews (meaning I got a nice-ish paypal deposit that month), I also placed in the contest! Got a $20 gift card for B&N.
What I got paid for the article was worth it since it would have been a blog post if I hadn’t submitted it. But the bonus? Totally worth it. I haven’t gotten a single hit on that article since the second week after the movie-or-book was released.
That said, I still get hits on a compare/contrast I wrote for Helium on Princess Bride, movie vs book. Though, that’s a classic, so it’s not really the same thing.