by Marlin Bressi

Created on: December 15, 2010

Having a writing portfolio is just like having an investing portfolio.  Every investor knows that a balanced portfolio, containing stocks and bonds and other securities, is a smart way to minimize risk and ensure returns.  Similarly, a serious writer should have an article portfolio that is balanced by page view earnings as well as upfront earnings.

However, compared side by side, upfront payments have several distinct advantages over page view earnings.  The biggest advantage of upfront payments is that it provides a writer a chance to establish production quotas as well as goals.  This is a big factor to those who write on a daily basis.  For instance, assuming a publisher pays 2.00 as an upfront payment, the writer knows that he or she needs to produce 50 articles in order to reach a 100.00 payout.  The writer can therefore establish how many articles need to be written in a specific amount of time.

With page view earnings, however, the benefit of predictability is not there.  It might take a day to hit 100.00 in earnings, or it may take a year.  Even though page view earnings may, in the long run, provide the writer with a better return, it is an unpredictable and unstable method of compensation.  With page view earnings, it is impossible to "project" earnings; one article may receive 1,000 page views in April, bit only 150 in May.

Switching to a system that pays per page views instead of upfront payments will indeed benefit certain types of writers, but these writers are in the minority.  Once a writer has a massive "library" of published articles, there is enough revenue generated by page views to ensure a steady stream of income.  As a result, upfront payments are not nearly as vital or as valuable.

Oddly, this is the point where all writers would like to be at some point.  Most writers believe that once they have attained a massive library of work, they can sit back and let the money come in from page views.  However, in order for most writers to get to that point, they need to have an incentive to produce work.  Upfront payments are that incentive.

Without upfront payments, a writer will be less inclined to be productive, and without productivity they will never reach the point where they can enjoy a steady income stream through page view payments.

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