I find it hard to believe it is worth doing much more than writing “google, apple apple apple mac google google mac mac google.” Which is, incidentially, enough to get dugg to the fp. /. is a little tougher and you have to know who to bribe but that would cut into profit margins here.

I’m surprised your site rakes in over 1,700 a month. It makes it more clear to me why people seem like that will do absolutely anything to get eyeballs. I had no idea that even fairly small sites can earn that much.

http://ifakedit.com/log/2005/11/09/what-its-like-to-be-dugg-a-detailed-graphical-report-of-what-happens-to-a-site-on-digg/

As for the Slashdot business… I don’t know where you get your figures. In total, I’ve submitted fifteen stories to Slashdot. Three were picked up. Had I gotten $25 for each story that got picked up, that would still have worked out to $5 a submission.

And Thomas, I really appreciate your support, but I do need to put some things out there for the sake of full disclosure. A Slashdotting is quite possinly the most frightening experience, traffic-wise. Each time I saw a spike of around 60,000 visitors. Each time, my server crashed.

Also, $15-$20 might be industry standard, but I’m not offering that, even. I’m offering that per post that gets picked up. You might write me ten posts and not make a penny. I hate to say it, but I can’t afford industry standard just yet.

That said, I still think it’s not a completely unreasonable offer. I know, for one, that when I started blogging, and for the first five months, I would have LOVED an opportunity to make that money.

That said, I appreciate your honesty with your figures. What I also want to point out is that $25 per post isn’t accurate (my $35 was a typo). Maybe, maybe 1 in 250 posts gets picked up by slashdot that a contributor makes. that means that poster is working for 10 cents per post. You only made 90 total posts last month, so at that rate, one would need to wait nearly 3 months to get $25.

I can’t make the world go round any faster, I can only offer suggestions. Consider giving something away for free that you can for someone who posts quality work, like ad space. Ad space costs you nothing and carries a good deal of value to it.

Pay $5 per 10 posts, regardless if they get picked up. Give a bonus of $5 if that person makes more then 100 total posts per month (more then you did last month).

Lastly, and I will do this as gently as I can, look at your business model and advertisiment model. My 2 cents is that your blog is about 400 pixels wide and justified on the left, ads are about 375 pixels wide and justified on the right. As a reader, I am tending to block out the ads. Consider consoladating your ads down and working them into posts / between posts. Consider loosing some of them so it doesn’t look so clutered and focus in on the ones that are really making money. Sell ad space outright. For me, this has always been the best payout, although it does require more work on your end as you need to solicit (spelling? its early, lol) other forums for it like WHT or sitepoint, but it could give you a more steady income.

People don’t realize how very difficult it is to find a bunch of great new products day in and day out. It is quite tough indeed. I would also like to say to everyone that $25 IS a generous offer for a blog story. Industry standard is 15-20 bucks. Your only writing about 40 words!!! Lots of people work for free merely to get a byline. Not to mention that SlashDot is completely user driven and they don’t pay one cent!

So. How much does this site bring in? Last month, November, Google Adsense revenue was close to $700 (not allowed to give you actual figure), Blogads revenue was around $121, DU Network stipend was $150, Chitika was around $212, direct ads were $410 and Vibrantmedia was $140. That makes for a total of $1733.

On that same month, I was able to find the time to make 90 posts. Pathetic, but there you have it. I’m burning candles at boths ends, I also go to college full time, and barely have the time to do anything. Now, that works out to around $19 per post.

Now, Mike, you say you wouldn’t mind getting paid $35 per post, regardless of whether it gets picked up or not. I, myself, don’t even get that much. I worked for Gizmodo for a while. THEY don’t even pay that much. Matter of fact, they don’t even pay a third that much. You’re telling me that you think $35 a post is reasonable?

The only way that I’m able to offer $25 per Slashdotted or Digged post, is because at those times, revenue increase about threefold. The first time, I made an extra $65, the second time, an extra $70 and the third time was not a direct link to my site, so I barely even noticed it. You can dispute those numbers if you want, but I’m being completely honest.

Yeah, maybe $25 is too low. I can understand that. I’ll get repeat visitors, my overall traffic will increase, and on the long run, it’ll be worth more to me than $25. Sure. It’s true. So, if it’s the consensus that I should raise the “incentive” to more than that, then I’m willing to listen.

As far as actually paying my writers… yes, of course I’ve thought of that. I would love to turn my website into a real business, where I can pay employees and boss them around. But the sad truth is, I use this revenue to sustain myself. My revenue is going up, slowly, so eventually I will reach the point where I can actually hire someone, for real. But I’m not there yet. For now, all I can afford is to offer these incentives. And maybe I’ve set them too low.

I’m open to that. Maybe it’s too low. So. People… chime in! Tell me what you think is fair for a Slashdotting or a Digging. Tell me what you’d be willing to go out there and find stuff that’s worth being Slashdotted for.

As for all the Alexa talk, thats fine and dandy but who do you know who really has the Alexa toolbar installed? To add fuel to the fire, it is a proven fact that those numbers can be extremely manipulated.