WeekendNotes is a library of fun and interesting things to do on the weekend in various cities around the world, contributed by a community of writers and reviewers.
You can help by reviewing things you've done in your city.
To apply for a writer account use this page.
Notifications are sent via email. Sometimes they are accidentally placed in a spam or junk folder, so remember to check there as well.
WeekendNotes can provide some extra pocket money, however there are many reasons to write for WN.
1) It's fun.
Think you'll get a kick out of thousands of people reading your work? You're not alone.
2) Build up your portfolio.
Writing WeekendNotes articles is a great way to get published on a popular website, expose your writing to thousands of people, and build up your writing portfolio to help attract further work.
3) Promote your business or website in your signature.
If you have an business website or blog then advertise it for free in your signature. If you become a popular writer this can be a great source of new customers and readers.
4) It's flexible.
Unlike a regular job you can write for WeekendNotes at any time, and any place. You can even take a break for a few weeks or a few months and then come back to it if you become busy with other things.
5) Learn how to write good online articles.
The editors are always there to help you improve your writing, and along with the writers group WeekendNotes provides a great way to learn how to be a successful online writer.
6) Receive invites to great events and activities.
Work your way up the writer ranks and receive free invites to movie screenings, theatres, restaurants, cafes, and other fun activities.
7) Help us build up a library of fun things to do in your city.
The goal of WeekendNotes is to provide a collection of fun and interesting things to do in cities around the world. If you think that's a good idea, then give us a hand.
8) Build up your network.
WeekendNotes is a great way to meet other writers in your city, and learn about how they are going about making a living from their passion.
You sure can, but not by submitting a review.
To promote your business, click here.
Reviews should be only submitted by people who have nothing to do with the business being reviewed, other than being a customer.
You can however promote your business, website, or blog in your signature which is displayed above your articles.
WeekendNotes articles should be leisure related - which means anything to do with recreation, entertainment, food, sport, or generally enjoying yourself.
For instance reviews of restaurants, walks, parks, theatres, gardens, festivals, and parades are all fine.
Examples of topics which would not be published include anything regarding politics, religion, finance, or work unless it's an event or attraction of some sort.
Topics should also be local if possible - referring to things to do in a specific city or location. Exceptions include film and book reviews, recipes, and hobbies.
Articles should provide useful information for the reader to use after they've read the article, rather than simply be a source of entertainment in itself. For instance "10 Great Jokes about Sydney" would not be published.
Articles which review websites, apps, or businesses which are just online and do not have a real-world store, will not be published.
If in doubt ask an editor if a topic will be published before writing the article.
Writing for WeekendNotes won't make you rich, and is not a substitute for a full-time job. However if you have already an active lifestyle and enjoy writing about your experiences then it can be worthwhile.
Articles are paid in proportion to the number of people who read them.
Each article receives a CPM value on publication, determined by an editor score and the length of the article.
The CPM value is the amount you will receive for every 1000 readers. You do not have to wait for an article to receive 1000 readers to be paid, it's just how the CPM value is expressed. Your account is adjusted each time someone reads one of your articles.
A typical CPM value for an article will be around $10, or 1 cent per reader.
That may not sound like much, however it's much more than the usual paid-to-write rate of around $2 to $5 CPM. It's not that hard to write an article on WN that will attract a couple of thousand readers.
Payments will continue to accrue as long as the article remains published on the site, and the writer remains active (has published 1 article in the last 12 months).
Build up a collection of articles to increase your monthly readers and recurring commission as your old articles are read again and again.
The average article makes around $8 per year. So to make $100 per month, you'll need to build up a collection of around 150 articles.
The best articles for long term repeat readers are reviews of places like parks, cafes, and restaurants which remain useful over time.
Articles regarding upcoming events will attract more readers in the short term.
Maximum CPM rates per country:
USA: $10 USD
UK: £6 GBP
Australia: $10 AUD
There is also a bounty for writing about particular topics. The list is here.
The actual CPM rate is determined by multiplying half the maximum rate by each article's quality score (given by the editor) out of 10, and the other half by the length of the article in characters, divided by 2500.
So if an article received a score of 7/10, had a length of 2100, and attracted a topic bounty then the CPM rate would be:
($5 x 7/10) + ($5 x 2100/2500) + $2 = $9.7 CPM
Some new WeekendNotes cities for which we are trying to build up a readership attract higher CPM rates through the use of a CPM multiplier. At the moment these include Perth and Adelaide.
Note that 80% of your revenue will most likely come from just 20% of your articles, and it is very hard to predict in advance which articles will be the most successful.
It is important to focus on average payments across all of your articles rather than individual payments, as they will vary greatly and some of them are bound to be quite small while a few will be much larger.
When starting out try to publish at least 30 articles and then wait a couple of months before deciding if you are making enough per article to justify your time.
Many writers supplement their CPM payments by organising paid links. In fact many writers make more from paid links than writing reviews. Read about paid links here.
Editor's Choice Awards also attract extra payments.
By submitting articles to WeekendNotes you agree that you have read and agree to the following conditions. These conditions may be changed at any time without notice.
Australian residents have the option of being paid via bank transfer as well as PayPal.
Australian residents requesting an individual payment greater than $75 AUD will need to supply a "statement by supplier form" (see below) or quote an ABN (Australian Business Number). If neither a supplier form or ABN is provided the maximum payment of $75 will be made with the remainder credited to your account for future payment.
Australian residents can register for an ABN here if necessary. It's a simple process and will allow you to claim things like computers and other work related expenses on tax.
You can read about statement by supplier forms, and decide if this applies to you here. We are unable to provide advice as to whether a particular writer qualifies to use a statement by supplier, however we will accept them if provided. The forms can be sent as an email attachment to accounts -at- weekendnotes.com. State on your payment requests that you have supplied the form.
Writers not residing in Australia are paid via PayPal and are not required to submit an ABN or any other taxation information for any size of payment.
By submitting articles to WeekendNotes you agree that you are working as a independent contractor and are responsible for paying any tax due on all payments we make to you as well as any superannuation or other work related payments or insurance. You are also responsible for submitting your own tax return.
If you are registered to collect GST, then GST is included in all payments made to you. Payment for articles submitted to WeekendNotes, and acceptance of those articles, may be suspended at any time for any writer for any reason. Being accepted as a WeekendNotes writer is in no way a promise of future employment. The amounts paid for articles, and the method of calculating payments may be changed without notice at any time.
Writers may submit articles for cities other than the one for which they are registered on WeekendNotes. Specify which city you would like to be registered for when applying to write for WeekendNotes, or send a request to change via the contact us form.
Payment requests are processed on the 4th working day of each month for accounts greater than $50. Note that the 4th working day can be as late as the 7th of the month after a long weekend.
To submit a Payment Request click on the "Payment Request" link on your writer page. Include your payment information such as a PayPal account or an Australian bank account.
Payment rates may change from time to time. The latest rates will be published on this page.
Account balances are only maintained, and payments only accrue for active WeekendNotes writers. A writer is considered active if they have had an article published in the last 12 months. The date of your most recent published article is listed on your writer page.
The main factors taken into account when calculating an article's editor score are:
Quality of the idea behind the article.
The amount of useful information contained in the article. Does it provide all the necessary information to complete the described activity or event?
Quality of the writing.
How much editing the article required.
Spelling and grammar.
How entertaining is the article to read? This is more important for longer articles.
Are all the article fields completed, including the advanced options such as the Email Titles? How well are they completed?
Have categories been added and are they appropriate.
Quality and usefulness of the links in the article.
Quality of the images.
Quality of the title.
Remember that editors are asked to give an average score of 5, so don't worry too much about lower scores especially for shorter articles.
Articles without any of the advanced options section completed or any categories are given a maximum score of 5.
Articles with only some of the advanced options section and categories completed will have a reduced score.
Articles less that 600 characters long are given a maximum score of 5.
If the article is a duplicate, and is not significantly better than the previous article on the same topic, then the maximum possible score is 5.
Writers are encouraged to build up a catalogue of articles on activities and places which are useful to WeekendNotes readers on any weekend in addition to events.
These articles will be referred to again and again and will continue earning long after they have been published.
Examples of good "any weekend" article topics include picnic spots, nice beaches, interesting walks, museums and galleries, and restaurant and cafe reviews. See the bounty list.
It also helps if the article is about something which people will search for using a search engine which applies to most of the examples above.
Articles should be kept as short as possible while still providing all the information required for the reader to attend an event or complete an activity, with a little extra space for entertainment or background information.
Try not to pad out an article just to increase its length as it will generally lower the editor score.
Each article should be at least 600 characters long.
There is no maximum length for an article. The character length of an article is displayed on its preview page.
Any original images or videos included in an article add to the length used to calculate the CPM rate.
Articles covering the following topics attract a $2 CPM bounty. To qualify the article topic should also be unique and not covered by a previous article.
Parks
Playgrounds
Picnic Spots
Restaurants
Cafes
Pubs
Clubs
Bars
Walks
Beaches
National Parks
Museums
Art Galleries
Amusement Parks
Tourist Attractions
Sports Grounds
Sporting Facilities (tennis, swimming etc)
Markets
Wineries
Festivals
Street Parades
Major Musicals, Shows, Theatre, Exhibitions
Large Community Events
Major Retail Sales
Above each of your articles (underneath your name) some space is reserved for each writer to say a little bit about themselves and to promote their website, business, event, blog, facebook or linkedin page if they wish.
This space is called your "Signature".
An example could be:
"A freelance writer living in London, Jane Doe has been enjoying and reviewing restaurants since childhood. Check out her food blog at www.janedoeeats.com."
Your signature (the same text is displayed across all your articles) can be changed at any time using the "Signature" link on your writer page. It can include basic HTML links, but no javascript or third party ads.
See this page for advice on creating a link in HTML.
Any text starting with "www." will also be turned into a link automatically, for instance "www.testurl.com".
A signature should not include links to adult content, gambling sites, or any other content which WeekendNotes considers unsuitable.
At no time should links in your signature be sold. Doing so will result in your account being banned.
Note that as the independence of WeekendNotes articles is very important, the actual text of your articles should not promote any business or website with which you are associated. This should be reserved for your signature and profile page only.
It's possible to request approval for an article topic before writing the actual article to make sure it's appropriate for WeekendNotes - click on "request idea approval" to do so.
This link will appear underneath the article title on your writer page once you've created the article.
If you are unsure about a given topic then this is the safe approach to make sure your article will be published once it's finished.
To make $20 per hour or better you should be taking anything from 20 to 90 minutes to research and write an article, depending on its length.
It helps with the research time to review activities which you would have done (or have already done) even if you were not writing an article on it. Obviously this will not always be possible.
Your first few articles are always going to take longer as you learn the ropes. The trick is to become adept at producing high-quality articles in a short space of time and knowing where to look to find information quickly.
Speed and volume is the key to making money in the new world of online journalism.
Writers are paid for arranging links on other websites back to WeekendNotes.
Some people are great at picking up the phone and arranging links, while others prefer to concentrate on their writing. Either is fine. Some "writers" even concentrate just on arranging links.
The most highly paid links are those on the websites of businesses, events, or organisations which have been the subject of an article on WeekendNotes.
It's most common to link to the relevant article, however the links can point to any page on WeekendNotes such as city or category pages, or the home page.
These links are worth $30 upfront (30 GBP for UK writers) and another $30 if the link is still in place in 6 months. There is a further 50% commission of up to $500 per business if they sign up for further advertising (see below for more details).
All other links are worth $5 upfront, and another $5 if they are still there in 6 months. Examples include a link on your personal website or blog.
Linking to your articles also has the benefit of increasing your reader count and payments.
Links need to be on dedicated domains such as www.tomscafe.com, instead of a subdomain like tomscafe.blogspot.com. A press, news, links, supporters, or friends page such as www.tomscafe.com/links.html is fine.
Search for links which are already in the system by clicking on "Search Links" on your writer page. Only new links which are not already in the system are eligible for payment.
To register a link for payment click on "New Link" on your Writer Page, and enter the URL (web address) of the page on which the link is located.
In the event of two people claiming the same link, the first person to register the link on WeekendNotes will be paid. It's fine to ask for links back to WeekendNotes articles which you did not write, however you must have actively arranged the link, not just found it. For two months after a business/organisation review has been published only the author can claim a link from that business/organisation.
The easiest way to obtain a link is to send the article to the business/organisation which has been reviewed, asking if they'd like to link to it on their website. Email is fine, however a friendly phone call is usually more effective. You can do this for your own articles, or any other article on WeekendNotes however be aware of the 2 month exclusion rule mentioned above.
Expect a 1 in 20 success rate for emails, and around 1 in 5 for phone calls. At $60 per link it's worthwhile sending quite a few emails, and making quite a few phone calls, even if most of them are not successful.
The key is persistence and following up promises to place a link with a friendly reminder. Most links are only placed on the 2nd or 3rd contact. If you're a good talker, you'll be able to make more per hour arranging links than writing articles.
Many websites have a dedicated links, resources, friends, news or media page, and these are usually the easiest to arrange links with as they are familiar with the process.
The most effective system seems to be:
1) Find a business that is suitable for WeekendNotes that also has a links, friends, reviews, media, or press page on their website. These businesses are already familiar with the concept of "swapping links".
2) Contact them to see if they'd like to swap a link in return for a featured article. The phone is most effective, but email does sometimes work. This is getting easier as more and more people have already heard of WeekendNotes.
3) If they agree to a link then write a review of them, and then follow up to make sure they place the link. This may take a few reminders.
4) Submit the link for payment through your writers' page.
5) Get organised. Maintain a list of businesses which you've contacted along with notes, business details, contact names, and how far along they are in placing a link. Work through the list once per week or fortnight following up with contacts on progress.
Free Featured Article:
In exchange for a link you can also offer to feature their article for 1 month for free. The regular price is $99.50.
Featured articles are given extra promotion in the featured section of the email newsletter and website.
The business will be notified when the featured period runs out and if they purchase more time then you will earn a 50% commission up to $500 per business.
Selling the free advertising in return for a link is usually the easy part. Getting them to sign up for more advertising is harder.
That usually involves convincing them that the advertising is generating custom for them.
With small businesses, that is hard. Most of them are not web-savvy enough to track traffic and conversions properly.
I've found that the most effective system is to convince them to offer a small discount (say 10%) to WN customers, and then ask them to make a note of those customers who ask for the discount.
Ring them back after the featured period has expired (you'll be notified by email) to see if we sent them any customers. Those businesses which had a good result will usually sign up for more advertising.
Linking Conditions:
There are a few conditions related to paid links. Don't worry if you don't understand the technical details, most links on business/event/organisation websites should be ok.
Each link URL must be indexed by Google. To check enter the entire URL (including http) into a Google search.
Each link must be clickable.
You must have arranged a link to take credit for it. Simply searching for links on Google and then reporting them is not sufficient.
Each link must not have a "nofollow" in the html tag which which instructs search engines not use them to calculate webpage rank. To check for this look at the source code of the page, search for the "weekendnotes" link, and look for rel="nofollow". If you can find it, the link does not count. Most comments on blogs are now set to automatically include a "nofollow", which is a good thing as it discourages spammy comments.
There is a limit of 5 links per weekendnotes article, unless more are agreed with the editor.
Links must be direct, not via a linking service (like bit.ly), or a redirect, or generated by javascript.
Links must be on websites written in regular HTML. For instance javascript or Flash generated websites do not count.
Each link is paid for only once for each website or domain. Subdomains do not count as a separate domain.
Search for links which are already in the system by clicking on "Search Links" on your writer page.
Excluded domains: facebook.com (including facebook inserts on the business website), twitter.com, digg.com, blogger.com, flickr.com, myspace.com, tumblr.com, pinterest.com, wordpress.com, blogspot.com, bloglines.com, google.com. Any blogs/websites on subdomains such as mylife.wordpress.com.
Reviews can be submitted on topics which have already been covered in WeekendNotes.
A duplicate article is OK when:
1) You're covering a repeating event, and the previous article is out of date. For instance the old article covers last year's Italian Festival, and you would like to write about this year's upcoming festival.
2) You're replacing a listing which was submitted by an owner. You can spot these because they are on the domain list.weekendnotes.com.
3) Your article will be significantly better than the one currently in place. For instance, your article will include original images when the previous article included none, or the previous article is short, badly written, or leaves out important information.
In all cases it's safest to use the "request idea approval" link (underneath the article's title on your writer page) to ask the editor if it's OK to proceed before actually writing the duplicate article. Unless the above conditions are met, duplicate articles will be given a low editor score and in some circumstances not published at all.
It's up to the writer to check for previously published articles by searching for them using the WeekendNotes search box. This will also display previously approved articles which have not yet been published. Approval date, rather than publication date, is used to determine article precedence in terms of editor score as long as the article is published within 4 days of initial approval.
In the case of monthly repeating articles such as "The Best Free Events in Sydney in March", ask permission of the existing writer before you write a version for the following month. If the existing writer has not written a version for 3 or more months, then it's fair game.
It's possible to upload photos as part of a review, however it's also possible to upload single photos with a simple caption that are displayed on their own page.
To do so click on "New Photo" on your writer page, or "Add a Photo" on any other WeekendNotes page.
Each photo should include a title, and a caption giving a little background to what's in the photo. The caption should be at least one paragraph.
If you have a series of photos on a given subject, it's best to upload them as part of an article.
Individual photos should be artistic, unique, or interesting in some way so that they can stand on their own outside of an article.
They should also reflect life in your city. So for instance a picture of your dog walking through dappled sunlight in the local park would be OK - your dog looking cute on your couch would not.
Foods are photos of dishes that you've enjoyed at a local restaurant or cafe along with a comment describing the experience.
It can also extend to a pie from a bakery, or even a fancy cocktail from a bar.
To add a new food click on the "New Food" link on your writer page.
Each food includes a photo, a title (which should include the name of the restaurant/cafe) and a comment regarding what you thought of the food.
Foods are a quick and easy way to share your culinary adventures, however if you've got the time and inclination then you're still better off submitting a full restaurant review (or both) in terms of payment.
The three Email Title fields in the advanced section of the article editor are used to entice readers of the email newsletter to click on the link to read the article.
It's often hard to predict which email title will perform the best, so we provide room for three suggestions. These are tested on a small percentage of the WeekendNotes readership and the most successful are then used on the remaining readership.
If done correctly, this approach can greatly increase the number of readers for your articles as the best email title can often out-perform the worst by a factor of 2 or 3.
View statistics on the performance of the various email titles at the bottom of an article's preview page. Use this information to improve your email titles in the future.
The first email title should be similar or identical to the title of the article, in that it describes the contents of the article in a straight forward manner. It may have to be shortened to fit inside the 35 character limit.
For the 2nd and 3rd email titles try different variations which are fun and enticing, but still give a strong clue as to the contents of the article.
For instance if I was reviewing Trish's Seafood Restaurant the title and email titles could be:
---------------------
Title: "Trish's Seafood Restaurant"
Email Title 1: "Trish's Seafood Restaurant"
Email Title 2: "Super Seafood by the Seaside"
Email Title 3: "Trish's Fish is Delish"
---------------------
Note how the regular title is very direct, the 1st email title is similar to the regular title, and the 2nd and 3rd email titles are quite different. Try to make all three quite different and remember that alliteration, rhyming, and word-play usually work well.
Email titles (despite being playful) should always give a solid indication as to the contents of the article. Titles like "Weekend Fun", or "Family Fun" could apply to anything and are not appropriate.
Remember to capitalise all your titles, although this does not mean capitalising every word in a title. This is a good guide to correct title capitalisation.
The three Email Intro fields serve a similar purpose to the Email Titles. The Email Intro is the text shown underneath the title in the email newsletters and you can again experiment with different paragraphs (try to keep them to one sentence, two at the most) to see which works best.
A writer's rank reflects their contribution to their local edition of WeekendNotes.
You can view your writer rank on your profile page. To see your profile page, login to WeekendNotes and click on the profile link at the bottom of the page.
Writer rank is used to award articles to writers which include freebies such as tickets, meals, and experiences which businesses offer to WeekendNotes in return for articles.
Any general offers are sent to the top 20 writers in the relevant city and are awarded to the writer with the highest rank to register an interest.
Many businesses also send invites to specific writers, usually those with a higher rank.
Rank is calculated using the number of readers which all of a writer's articles have accumulated with greater weight given to readers generated by articles which have been published in the last 3 months (5x) and 1 month (10x).
The number of readers (used to calculate rank) is halved if the writer has contributed an article to WeekendNotes in the last month, and is reduced further for longer periods.
Each writers ranking score is displayed on their profile page, along with the calculation used. It is formatted as below.
In the equation below R = Readers.
RANK_SCORE =
ALL_R +
[5 x 3MONTH_R] +
[10 x 1MONTH_R]
You will have been given a login and password for the WeekendNotes website.
If you are not already logged in go to WeekendNotes and click on the "login" button at the bottom of the page.
Once you have logged in click on the "Settings" link, again in the navigation bar at the bottom of the page.
If you have not already, click on "Edit Details" and enter your name. This is the byline which will be used for all your articles.
Then click on the "Writer Page" link. From this page you will see a list of all the articles you have submitted to the WeekendNotes Editor.
A link to your writer page can be found at the bottom of the WeekendNotes website once you've logged in. If it's not there, click on "login" to enter your email and password.
To submit an idea for a new article navigate to your "Writer Page" and click on "New Review".
Enter a title for your article, and the content of your review in the box underneath.
That's it, you're done. However if you'd like a high editor score, you'll need to fill in the Advanced Options and add categories. These are described below.
To fill in the Advanced Options for an article, click on "Advanced Options" on the article's preview page.
Allocate a city to the article, or choose "All Cities" if not applicable.
Select a page view channel. If this is your first article it's best to select None and create your channels later on.
Select an article type. If in doubt select "Activity" and the editor will correct it if necessary.
Enter a Start Date and End Date for your article if you are writing about an event or sale which has a specific start date, otherwise leave it blank. Include a start date even if the event has already started.
Fill in the remaining fields. Email titles are explained here.
Click on Submit.
Add categories and locations if appropriate.
Note that cutting and pasting directly from a Word document can cause some problems with "funny" characters popping up in your article. To fix this problem save the document as a plain text file, open it in NotePad, and cut-paste from there. It's easier just to write in NotePad from the start.
Once you're happy with your article click on the Notify Editor link. The editor will then either leave a comment suggesting changes or will accept the article for publication. In either case you will be notified via email.
If you have any questions or problems submitting articles contact us using the link below.
More experienced writers will be given access to a list of article ideas which have been pre-approved by the editor. Click on the "Article Requests" link on your writer page, and then click on "Claim" for any articles which you would like to write about. These article ideas have been requested by the editor and will be automatically approved and placed onto your writer page.
Links in your article can be added using the link button (the little globe) above the content box. Highlight the text which you would like to turn into a link, click on the link button, and enter the URL (web address) in the popup box.
Each article should include at least one image.
To include an image in an article place the cursor at the position in the content box where you would like the image to appear, which is usually between two paragraphs.
Click on the little picture button above the content box, the one with the little mountain on it.
Follow the instructions to upload the image.
Images should be in either JPEG or GIF format. These images end in .jpg, .jpeg, or .gif.
If you would like to include an image which is not in one of these formats, use an image program such as Paint, or Picasa to convert it.
Some people have problems uploading images using Safari on Mac computers. If you have this problem try downloading Firefox or Chrome, and use one of these alternative browsers.
The image should be either copyright free (Wikipedia is a great source for this), from the website of the event or activity you are writing about, or taken by yourself.
If you use a creative commons photo from Wikipedia, make sure you credfit the source appropriately.
If submitting an image taken from your own camera it's a good idea to shrink it down before uploading over the net as large images take a long time to upload and will use up your bandwidth.
A Map Address is required for articles which have a specific location.
It should be a formal address like "21 Lyons Rd, Drummoyne, NSW", however it can also include places like "Sydney Town Hall", "Agave Restaurant, Surry Hills", or "Bondi Beach".
This address is used to map the articles (extract a latitude and longitude), so it's important that it generates the correct coordinates.
To check that the correct coordinates have been generated view the map displayed underneath the article, or click on the "map editor" link next to the address on the article's "view" page. A map will be displayed with a little red marker showing the position inferred from the address.
If the address you've entered is not generating the correct coordinates, try adding in a region and country. For instance instead of "21 Lyons Rd, Drummoyne", try "21 Lyons Rd, Drummoyne, NSW, Australia".
If that still does not work try a nearby address.
If you're still having problems use the map editor to manually specify a point on the map. There are instructions on the map editor page.
If an article does not refer to a specific location (such as "Muffin Recipie" or "Bank Holiday Ideas", then the field should be left blank.
Article sections are used to split an article into multiple pages (sections), which are then displayed one at a time to the reader.
This breaks up the article into more digestible parts, and increases the number of pages (and therefore advertising) which are displayed to a reader for one article.
Sections are created in the text of the article itself using section headers. At the start of a section place the tag:
[SECTION]Section Title[/SECTION]
Replace "Section Title" with the title of the section.
It's possible to either type in the [SECTION] tags, or highlight some text and click on the "Section" button in the markup toolbar above the content box. Do not highlight the entire section, just the section title.
The first section is usually an introduction and has the same title as the article itself.
For instance the article "The Best Beaches in Sydney" would most likely have the sections:
----------------
The Best Beaches in Sydney
Bondi Beach
Manly Beach
Coogee Beach
etc..
----------------
The first line of an article that is split into sections should be the first section title. There should be no other text before this.
Not every article is suitable for sections. The most suitable are lists such as "The Best X in Y". However a non-listing article such as a restaurant review is not normally suitable to being split into sections.
Articles which have been split into at least 4 sections and which are good enough for the email newsletter are given a a $2 CPM bounty (in addition to other bounties).
Each section of an article must contain at least one image, and at least one good paragraph of text.
A list of related articles is shown underneath the text of each article. The function of the list is to show the reader other WeekendNotes articles which they may be interested in viewing, based on the fact that they are reading the current article.
For instance if two articles review the same cafe, then they should be related. A review of a particular dish at a restaurant could be related to a review of the restaurant itself. An article about walking along Manly Beach could be related to an article about Manly Market.
To mark two articles as being related click on the "add related" link underneath one of the articles, and on the following page enter the article ID of the other article. The ID number of any article can be found right next to the "add related" link at the bottom of the page.
An editor will then approve the creation of the related link so allow up to 2 working days for the link to actually appear.
Some articles are "related" automatically. This happens if one article links to another article in its text, or if two articles share the same directory.
Do not breach copyright. Always use italics and quotation marks when appropriate and attribute. For instance:
--------------
From the Festival Website:
"The interesting and informative quote"
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If you are found to have cut-and-paste from another website or source without attribution you will not be paid and will be removed from the WeekendNotes writers list. Using Google it is very easy to check for copyright breaches. If in doubt ask first.
By submitting an article to WeekendNotes you acknowledge that On Topic Media assumes copyright of that article, and you agree not to publish the same article elsewhere without written permission from On Topic Media.
On Topic Media also assumes all rights to photographs taken by you and submitted as "original" under "work for hire", and we ask that you do not publish these elsewhere. If you would like to retain copyright of a photograph do not specify them as "original", in which case you grant On Topic Media non-exclusive digital and print rights to the photograph. By submitting a photograph to WeekendNotes you agree to the above terms.
Writer accounts become inactive after there have been no articles published on the account for 12 months.
Your account status and date of your last published article is displayed on your writer page.
Account balances are only maintained, and payments only accrue for active WeekendNotes accounts.
If your account has become inactive, you can still login and publish articles, and your account will become active again.
Reminder emails are sent 10 days before an account becomes inactive, however as always with email we cannot absolutely guarantee that it will arrive. It's up to each writer to remember when their last article was published and to keep their account active.
All articles with an editor score of 7 or more are placed in the email newsletter pool.
They are then sent to a random selection of readers to see how popular the article is. The most popular articles are then sent to larger numbers of email newsletter readers.
Because of this it is very important to create good email titles for your articles, which encourage readers to click through and read more.
Each email title is tested to see which is most effective. You can see the click through rate (ctr) for each email title on the article's preview page.
Some businesses offer affiliate programs where you can post special links to products (such as event tickets) in your article, and if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase you are given a commission.
Below is a list of affiliate programs which are approved for use on WeekendNotes, along with information which you can use to sign up for them.
Only these affiliate programs should be used on WeekendNotes. Use of any other programs may result in your writer account being suspended.
Affiliate links should be directly related to the content of the article in which they have been placed.
The editor should be notified of any affiliate links in an article by leaving a comment on the article's preview page.
If you would like to submit an affiliate program for approval, submit the details to the writers' group.
Approved Affiliate Programs
No affiliate programs have yet been approved.
After submitting an article for publication many new writers are perplexed when they visit their writer page the next day to see that they've only earned a few cents.
Because each article is paid in proportion to the number of people who have read it, it can take a while for earnings to accumulate.
The average article earns around $8 per year. That's only a couple of cents per day, so patience and persistence is the key.
Every WeekendNotes writer started in the same way, even those that have hundreds of thousands of readers.
Work on building up a library of articles that will keep attracting readers for months or years, and your readers and earnings will start to build up more quickly.
Here are a few tried and true suggestions to increase your readers.
1) Put more effort into your email titles.
For most writers the 3 email titles are a bit of an after-thought, but some putting some extra time into coming up with effective titles can make all the difference.
The email titles are what entice newsletter readers to click on your article and go to the website to read it. It's also not uncommon for the best performing email title to be twice as good as the next. On top of that it's very hard to predict which email title will actually perform the best, which is why 3 options are provided so we can test them all and then run with the best one.
So instead of just changing a few words for each one, try to come up with clever and witty email titles and make each one quite different. Put some time and effort into it and it's sure to pay off.
Remember that you can check to see how each email title performed on the article's preview page.
2) Submit at least 3 images, and make them all colourful and interesting.
The top 3 images in each article are used in the same way as the email titles. Each is tested in the newsletter (underneath the email title) to see which attracts the most readers to click through to your article on the website.
The difference in performance can be even more dramatic here than with the email titles.
The best performing images are usually colourful, attractive, and feature smiling people (though that's not always the case) and related to the topic of the article. As with the email titles try to submit 3 quite different images.
The stats for each image will also be displayed on the article's preview page (as soon as I get a chance to put them up).
This is probably the most under-utilised method of attracting more readers to each article.
3) Look at which articles have been popular in other cities, and write about similar topics in your own city.
Sydney | Recent Sydney
Melbourne | Recent Melbourne
Brisbane | Recent Brisbane
Perth | Recent Perth
Adelaide | Recent Adelaide
London | Recent London
New York | Recent New York
You can also see which writers have been attracting lots of readers, and then click on their name to view a list of their most popular articles.
Sydney | Recent Sydney
Melbourne | Recent Melbourne
Brisbane | Recent Brisbane
Perth | Recent Perth
Adelaide | Recent Adelaide
London | Recent London
New York | Recent New York
It's also possible to see the most popular writers across all cities (or recently), and the most popular articles (recently).
4) Write more questions. These are still the most popular article type (in terms of average readers) by quite a margin. Make sure you put them all into a separte page view channel.
5) Pay attention to the search engines - they generate 70% of the traffic for WN. The email newsletter is definitely not the only (or biggest) source of readers. There are some general tips for getting more search engine traffic here:
http://www.weekendnotes.com/writer-faq/#goog
Reviews of places (cafes, restaurants, parks, etc) attract great long-term search engine traffic.
6) Write about popular local festivals, parades, and community events. These are consistently the best performers in the email newsletter.
7) Try to get a paid link for each of your articles.
The best writers (in terms of links) manage to get a paid link back to around 1 in 3 of their articles, with each paid link being worth an extra $100.
http://www.weekendnotes.com/writer-faq/#link
One writer in Melbourne manages a link rate of around 1 in 2, which means on average an extra $50 for each article. This writer contacts the business before writing the article to see if they'll swap a link in exchange for the publicity which is more efficient than writing the article first, and then asking for a link.
No problem. Many writers have lived in or traveled to other cities.
When creating an article for a city other than your default, click on "New Review" and then the "change" link next to the city name.
If in doubt as an editor for help.
Some articles may be suitable for every city; for instance a film review. In this case ask the editor to change your article to "All Cities".
To make a change to a published article go to its preview page (using the link on your writer's page) and leave a message there for the editor.
They'll either make the change for you, or unpublish the article so that you can edit it.
Articles of exceptional quality are rewarded with Editor's Choice Awards.
The awards come in 4 flavours: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Newbie.
In addition to the undeniable kudos of being acknowledged as a great WeekendNotes writer, the awards attract a payment bonus of $20 for gold, $10 for silver, and $5 for bronze and newbie in addition to any CPM payments.
They also get a little extra boost in the email newsletter and are featured in the editors choice list.
There is a limit to the number of awards given out each month: 12 gold, 32 silver, 100 bronze, and 100 newbie which makes 240 awards in total.
There are well over 1000 articles published every month so please don't feel bad if your article does not attract an award. The vast majority of writer payments are CPM based - the awards are just a bit of fun on the side.
Editors take a number of factors into account when considering an article for an award.
1) Quality of the writing.
2) Topic interest and/or originality.
3) Amount of effort put into the article.
4) Entertainment value.
5) Award articles should all be local, not multi-city.
6) Encouraging new writers.
7) Spreading the love around.
8) You know I cannot put my finger on it, but I just really liked this article.
9) Newbie awards are just for those writers who have published less than 30 articles, to provide encouragement while they build up a collection of articles.
Unlike editor scores which are as objective as possible, editor awards are given with a bit of whimsy and impulsiveness. Asking an editor how an article can attract a higher editor score is encouraged, but please don't ask how an article can attract an award. They just do - or don't. Good luck!
Publishing your WeekendNotes articles on your own blog (or website), or publishing articles from your blog on WeekendNotes is not allowed.
The main reason for this is that duplication of content harms search engine rank.
The WeekendNotes Writer Group is a forum where writers can ask questions, look at answers to previous questions, and exchange tips.
It's a great place to start if you have a question.
Each new writer is assigned an experienced writer as a WeekendNotes mentor.
The job of the mentor is to provide encouragement and support to a new writer as they learn how WeekendNotes works and build up a library of articles.
Writers who have published more than 50 articles are eligible to become mentors who will have new writers automatically assigned.
Writers who have published more than 10 articles can serve as mentors to new writers who specifically ask for them.
Learn more about being a mentor here.
Yes we do. You can find it here.
Be sure to read it before submitting an article.
Location photos are for advanced writers. If you are new do yourself a favour and skip this section.
Location photos are photographs which have been tagged with a comment and a location, and which can be easily inserted into articles and mapped.
They are really useful for writing articles on activities which cover more than one location such as a walk, tour, or car trip where it's useful to the reader to see where on the map a photo was taken.
Here is an example.
Location photos can be created manually from your writer account. Do so so click on "Location Photos", and then "create new".
The album field groups photos together. So for instance to keep all of the photos from your Bondi Trip together, use the same album name "Bondi Photos" for all these images.
You can also add a comment (displayed underneath the image as a caption - this can be left blank), a tag (displayed underneath the image in bold - basically an image title), and a letter which is used on the map marker denoting where this image was taken.
Once you've added a few photos click on "Location Photos" and then the album name to view all the photos listed in that album.
From here you can edit the photo attributes including it's location on a map.
As well as through your writer account, location photos can be created directly using an iPhone app. To download the app search for "weekendnotes" on the Apple app store.
Once you've installed the app, login using your WeekendNotes email and password. You'll then be able to specify an album, and a comment. Tags and letters need to be added through your writer account.
Each photo uploaded via the app is automatically tagged with your location at the time you tap on the submit button. Sometimes the location given to a photo is a little off, and you'll want to edit it through your writer account.
Once a location photo has been created using the iPhone app (or through your writer account) it can be used in articles, or quickly turned into a "food" or "photo".
To turn a location photo into a food or photo, click on the "food" or "photo" link underneath the thumbnail.
To include it in an article, copy the "[MOB***]" from above the thumbnail, and paste it into your article. Easy.
To display the image at half width to the right use [MOB***R], and for the left [MOB***L].
To map a photo use the following code:
[MAP]
zoom=16
height=300
25
[/MAP]
The zoom does just that: zooms the map in and out. Any number between 11 and 17 should be OK. The lower the number, the larger the area covered.
The height specifies the height of the map in pixels. 300 should be OK in most cases.
Replace the "25" with the number of the location photo. This is the number next to "MOB" above the thumbnail.
Both of the zoom and height fields can be left out and will default to the numbers above. So you could just use:
[MAP]
25
[/MAP]
It's possible to map multiple location photos on the one map by simply listing multiple numbers. So for instance:
[MAP]
zoom=16
height=300
25
31
35
57
[/MAP]
will map location photos 25, 31, 35, and 57.
The map will be centered on the average location of all the photos mapped.
OK, that's it. Leave a message on the Writers' Group if you have any questions.
These are some statistics that have been retrieved from our visitor logs.
Use them to increase the Google traffic to your articles.
Questions attract 5x page views as other article types, and 3x Google traffic.
Articles listed in at least 5 categories (including locations & areas) attract 3x Google traffic when compared to 3 categories or less.
In general more images (original or copied) results in more google traffic.
Articles with at least 1 original image attract 2x google traffic compared to those with just copied images.
Articles longer than 1000 characters attract 2x google traffic compared to shorter articles.
If you live in a large city which WeekendNotes has not yet reached, and are keen to submit some articles, please contact us.