About.com Freelance Rates

How Are Guides Paid?

In addition to a base payment (guaranteed to be $725 per month for Guides in their first two years, with a minimum of $500 per month afterwards), About.com pays Guides by measuring page view growth (month-over-month for Guides in their first year, and year-over-year every year after) with payment incentives for pageview growth. If your page views grow, you will never make less than $725 per month.

Are There Any Minimum Publishing Requirements?

Guides in their first two years must publish four articles every month with gaps of no greater than 14 days between articles, and update their blog one to three times every seven days. We've found that these baselines help new Guides grow their sites (and their earnings) more quickly by establishing a strong base of content that will garner a lot of repeat visits.

How Much Do Guides Typically Make?

On average, a Guide in his or her first two years will make $1,000 a month. The average Guide compensation is around $2,000 a month, and we have Guides who earn more than $100,000 a year.

The Legalese:

All Guides are independent contractors and shall not be subject to the direction, control, or supervision of About.com regarding time spent or procedures followed in performing services hereunder. However, About.com is the final decision maker in regard to the produced product and reserves the right to request modification and/or modify the product to ensure, among other things, that it complies with quality standards. All Guides are responsible for all tax liabilities emanating from their payments. Guides are not eligible for any benefits from About.com and waive any right to them.

Please note: compensation earned by other Guides is not a guarantee of any kind that any other Guide who meets the minimum expectations will earn that much, or any specific amount. About.com offers this information as a means of sharing with applicants the potential compensation that they may earn. About.com reserves the right to terminate a Guide's engagement and/or change the Guide compensation model at any time for any reason, notwithstanding any information contained in the engagement materials.