Firsthand Testimony from an AC Newbie

This is the 2nd installment in our weekly series of guest bloggers here on the AC blog.
Today's guest is Radell, who joined AC on March 2, 2009.

Thank you to AC Laura for her gracious invitation to me, a mere Newbie, to write as a guest on AC’s Blog, and thank you to all the AC writers (a.k.a. Sources) who take the time to read this post, or were instrumental in helping me learn the ropes. I owe you all!

I hail from a print media writing background (newspapers and magazines), so I’m not totally new to writing for pay, but the online writing term “SEO” through me for a loop, initially. However, that was nothing compared to the difficulty I had once I learned the term’s meaning and set about actually trying to do it!

For those of you still in the dark, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization; but don’t ask me to explain that process in this short write-up, I can’t do it. I’m just not qualified. Fortunately for you I know someone who is, and she wrote two AC articles about it this month: Momie Tullottes.

Visit Momie’s articles, entitled “Tips on Writing for AC and the Web Part I: SEO Tips” and “Tips on Writing for AC and the Web Part 2,” for everything you need to know as a newbie.

If you don’t master SEO, or don’t even want to try, then you will knock yourself out of one of the big reasons to write for AC in the first place, and that is Performance Payments. What writer doesn’t want to kick back one day and rake in the dough for articles they wrote a year or so earlier (that’s what is driving Heidi Hutchinson, a new AC Source who is already an established writer elsewhere)?

From what I’ve been reading in the AC Forum’s General Discussion section, some more seasoned AC Sources are raking in page view checks over $500 a month (Pam Gaulin is a good example). Make the effort to learn SEO and you’ll start receiving those payments fairly soon after joining.

To get a more in-depth idea of all the learning curves I have experienced as a Newbie – and tips I have learned along the way – read my Newbie articles (there are 4) on my profile page.

I would be remiss if I didn’t close this post with a nod to some of the AC Sources I have met who went out of their way to make me feel welcome: Tamara Waters, AC Category Editor for Home Improvement, the “Gardening Guru” to me, has gone above and beyond on my behalf. Thanks Tamara! Do yourself a big favor and read her articles. Momie Tullottes, winner of this month’s “AC’s Best” in the Parenting Category, is willing to lend a hand when asked and, of course, the two sisters who have been amazing from from practically day one, Coral Levang and Soldierz Soul. These two are a wealth of encouragement for a Newbie, so visit their profiles, too!