Advantages

Looking for some great reasons to become an About.com guide?
Check out this list:

Create Your Own Hours

About.com Guides are freelancers, giving them the flexibility to work when they have the time. Most Guides work their magic at night and on the weekends, allowing them to keep their day jobs or other freelance gigs. In fact, with a time commitment of about 10 to 15 hours per week, 60 percent of our Guides are Guides on the side, working with About.com as a secondary job.

Work From Anywhere

About.com's corporate offices may be located in New York City, but our Guides live in more than 35 countries all around the world. Our self-guided training program happens online, so you don't need to travel in order to become a Guide.

Advice and Support from a Highly-Trained Editorial Team

Although About.com's publish-first model means you'll be producing content on your time, you'll have guidance from About.com's team of editors, who will work with you to help you generate story ideas, improve the user experience, and build a large audience for your work.

Competitive Compensation

All Guides are paid a base amount, plus an additional payment based on the number of page views their site generates each month, with incentives for growing traffic. In addition, we guarantee a minimum of $725 per month for all Guides in their first two years. For more information, check out the compensation section.

Expanded Influence in Your Topic Area

Guides write books, are interviewed by the press, serve on panels at trade events, and establish a variety of professional contacts because of their work at About.com.

Press Access

About.com is a New York Times Company, an association that grants the kind of prestige helpful in opening doors to obtain interviews, get products to review, and take part in other media-only events.

Extensive PR and Marketing Support

Guides are a big part of About.com's brand, so we do a lot of promotion of the Guides as experts, including press releases for new GuideSites, appearances for Guides at trade shows, and coverage of Guide successes, like book deals, television and radio appearances, etc.