More than 600,000 writers will soon have millions their articles and photographs disappear from the Internet thanks to Yahoo. Their topics varied from Arts and Entertainment, Business and Finance, Health and Wellness, Travel, and Automotive.
On July 2, 2014, the Yahoo Contributor Network sent out an e-mail explaining they “have to make tough decisions to no longer support a product” and that “as part of our ongoing effort to sharpen our focus, on July 31, 2014, Voices.yahoo.com will be shut down; on August 15, we will make the final Performance Payment before Contributor.yahoo.com closes. With the exception of content you provided to Yahoo under a work for hire license, or unless Yahoo arranges differently with you, we will remove from Yahoo all content published through Yahoo Contributor Network and rights for all of your Yahoo Contributor Network content will revert to you.”
Long Journey
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For myself, writing for Yahoo is a journey that started June 18, 2006 with Yahoo’s predecessor Associated Content. For eight years, I have used this medium to have an online writing portfolio to highlight my college term papers from Eastern Connecticut State University and articles which have been published in newspapers such as Pictorial Gazette, Main Street News, Shore View, and Reminder Newspapers as well as websites such as Triond and Patch.
Pictorial Gazette and Main Street News covered the Connecticut River Valley from Old Lyme to Chester to Westbrook. Both newspapers shut down at the end of 2008. Shore View covered Connecticut’s shoreline from Old Lyme to East Haven and the CT River Valley. It is now known as Shoreline Times.
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Additionally, I wrote articles exclusively to Yahoo regarding business openings, highways, hotels, rest areas, arcades, shopping malls, visitor centers, restaurants, shows, and much more.
Now comes the pain staking effort of downloading 937 articles individually as text files that can be read on Mac’s and PC’s. I might have many of them on disk somewhere with disks varying from USB to 3.5” to 8.25” floppies but as a writer I never want to lose anything.
Recognition
During my time writing for Yahoo, I won awards for being a top 1,000 contributor for the years 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2009. For many consecutive months, I won the “Hot 500 Yahoo” award as one of the top 500 contributors to Yahoo based on site traffic.
As I write this blog, my page view count stands at 1,187,814 and I’m completed the Yahoo Contributor Academy level 1. To learn as much as I can about writing, I plan to complete as many classes as I can through the Yahoo Contributor Academy before it shuts down at the end of the month.
According to a daily estimated page view graph, site traffic on my Yahoo Contributor page varied from 50 to 883 views in one day.
Articles with the highest views included college term papers, articles on the history of Norwich State Hospital, a review of Shawshank Redemption, articles on a number of businesses, an article on fighting a traffic violation in Connecticut, and an article on the Breakwater Lighthouse in Old Saybrook. They all received more than 10,000 views.
It was fun writing and taking photos for Yahoo. Articles I wrote exclusively for Yahoo I got up-front payments and money based on site traffic while others I just received money based on site traffic. It certainly was not enough to quit my regular job, but it was helpful in paying for extras.
Other Sites
As for other sites I have been writing for, I have been on Patch since September 2011 writing 155 articles about various topics ranging from highway rest areas to state parks and some controversial topics from keno to Hobby Lobby’s views on abortifacient drugs. In order to gain exposure, I currently submit content to many Patch’s throughout Connecticut about topics of regional appeal.
Future After Yahoo
I plan to use my Patch blog as my online writing portfolio as it features a good number of articles that I am proud to have written.
I plan to continue to freelance for Reminder Newspapers, which was recently acquired by the Hartford Courant. For Reminder News, I report and take photos for feature stories in towns in northern Connecticut. I also plan to continue to write on Patch and on Triond.
While Yahoo suggests writers go to Tumblr, several of Yahoo’s contributors indicated in the forum boards that they regard the site as just a blog and not a website that is geared for professional writing. I’d like to ask the writers out there what websites they use to share their writing which either offer upfront payments or pay based on site traffic.
I admire those writers who have created their own news websites but my lack of experience on the advertising end and my inability to cover evening meetings and weekend festivities due to my job doesn’t allow me to pursue that goal as others have done.
While I wouldn’t mind working with someone who has ad experience and had a more flexible schedule for covering news and other happenings, I can’t really guarantee how much money such a news website would create and it’s my understanding it’s as risky as starting a new business. If anyone is interested in such an endeavor, I would be willing to entertain a discussion though.
Full-time writing jobs are certainly hard to come by and it seems newspapers and news websites only want those with the most experience and refuse to interview anyone who does not have it. Hopefully my luck will change and the closing of the Yahoo Contributor Network will allow the opening of a new door in the journalism world. If you are a writer and wish to contribute your thoughts, feel free to do so.
