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Evergreen Articles: Cash Cows of the Freelance Writer

The freelance writer can make an immediate return on topical articles but for an enduring income, writing articles containing evergreen content is the better investment.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is subject material that will be just as relevant to future readers, as it is to today’s reader. It is free from writing that would age or devalue the article over time. Hence it has the power to satisfy the reader’s requirements over a long period of time.

Importance of evergreen content.

Writers either get paid to write per article or by the advertisement revenue an article generates. Since evergreen content is durable, it is capable of continuing to generate traffic from search engines for many years. Having no requirement for maintenance, it becomes extremely valuable to builders of information collections and link directories, where an outdated web page costs them credibility with their users.

Topical articles will have higher initial page hits, followed by a rapid decline until they no longer attract any hits and fail to generate income. Evergreen articles however, despite attracting low initial page hits, generate high income overall because they continue to attract hits. Thus the return from an evergreen article to a writer can be considerably more in the longer term. A collection of these could produce a consistent residual income that does not appreciably fluctuate.

As new sites and publishing opportunities appear, a portfolio of evergreen articles provides the writer with immediate submissions, saving the writer time from writing, editing and rewriting.

Types of evergreen content.

The following list shows some of the more obvious subjects that lend themselves to this type of content.

• ‘How to’ tutorials
• Some product reviews
• Health issues
• Historical
• Well being
• Reference content

Any content that is unlikely to change or any subset from information that varies would be evergreen. Additionally by writing carefully on a subject, removing or generalising specifics, evergreen content can be generated.

Non-evergreen content.

Statistics, prices and numbers quickly date any work. The influence of inflation, price changes and general knowledge rapidly show the age of any numbers included. Fixed numbers that due to their nature are locked can be included, e.g. a historical population count.

Time and date references must be left out or where necessary, written with a change in emphasis such that specifics like “the June results” become “the latest results.”

Fashion references for clothes, trends and fads are obvious pitfalls. Care also needs to be taken around item descriptions, especially technology, where an item can change physically or functionally within the lifetime of the article.

Cultural references will change with time; brands and celebrities although once popular may see their popularity change with surprising speed. The use of generic references as opposed to specific ones will extend the life of the content. Cultural slang also evolves rapidly and would date any writing that contains it.

Targeting narrow audiences will limit the appeal, extending the suitability to a broader demographic will also extend the opportunity for reuse.

What it means to the freelance writer.

For the freelance writer, building a portfolio of articles with evergreen content allows some financial freedom and a greater selectivity on freelance writing contracts. It is a means of ensuring that they get paid to write on subjects that are important to them.

This post was contributed by Andy Shackcloth, who blogs at Shack’s Coming and Goings for new writers trying to find their own way on the writing road. He invites your feedback at andy at shackcloth dot net

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