Editor Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What should I include in my application?
A. The application is our indication of who you are and what your abilities are, so present your best face! Include a writing sample and anything else you want us to see. Spell check and grammar check it. We are looking for quality, enthusiasm, and a caring heart.

Q. How soon will I hear from you after I apply to become a editor?
A. It depends on the number of applications we're processing that month. We will get back to you as soon as we possibly can - we need you! We try to move fast, but we are all volunteers here and sometimes get backed up. Please refer to our application process overview for details.

Q. Do I need to know any HTML, web design, or programming?
A. You don't need to know about HTML, web design or programming. Our easy to use forms let you add and edit articles, links, and other information through simple interfaces.

Q. Do I have to have my own web site to do this?
A. No. BellaOnline is intended to teach aspiring writers every aspect of writing for the web, including providing training to learn HTML, working with images, creating popular articles, and much more.

Q. Who pays to host the content and site images?
A. BellaOnline pays ALL site hosting fees, image serving fees, bandwidth fees and software fees. BellaOnline actively works to bring publicity in to your site and to get your name known and respected. A BellaOnline editor pays ZERO for his or her content being read by millions of visitors, for the free expert training, and for the ability to recommend and sell related products to that market. No other site provides this level of hands-on training and 100% profit retention by the editor.

Q. What support do you provide to your editors?
A. We provide support for all levels of incoming writers. We assist with training in editorial, production, image-use, forum-building, chat moderation, ebook creation, and much more. We have an affiliate library to help you find the best affiliate deals for your site area. We provide a variety of promotions and free web-based applications that can be used to enhance your personal site's content and traffic. These range from fun and games to calendars, polls, online calculators and much more. And of course, our entire community of editors are available to offer personal and professional guidance and support. We are a very friendly group of writers, and we love to help each other out!

Q. Do I just edit other peoples' content and submissions?
A. No! Editors write all of their own content. Each editor is the sole writer for their topic. We are the Voice of Women, and the point of BellaOnline is to let a woman (or man) speak his or her mind and be heard. Note that all content must be 100% your own words and not cut-and-pasted from another website, or slightly rewritten from existing content written by another person. We take plagiarism very seriously here.

Q. How seriously do I have to take this and how much responsibility is it?
A. Being an editor requires a serious effort akin to a weekly club membership. It's only a few hours each week, but you need to stay on schedule. A key training focus is to help editors learn the discipline to write weekly. Your visitors build up interest in you, and enjoy seeing fresh content weekly on your topic. It is meant to be a truly fun and enjoyable experience. It's about taking a topic you're passionate about and sharing it with the world.

Q. How much time is required of me?
A. The time necessary to maintain a site depends on your level of expertise, how much research you'll have to do to keep the site new and interesting, and how much time you have available. The goal of BellaOnline is to provide the most useful, efficient, and enjoyable experience on the Internet. We estimate that an average of 3-4 hours per week is sufficient to develop and maintain a quality web site.

Q. I write for another website. Can I be a BellaOnline editor?
A. BellaOnline is focussed at the brand new editor who wants to learn how to write for the web from the ground up. If you are already an expert writer, being paid to write on other sites, you might not benefit from what we are providing as far as training and support. Also, most content sites will not allow you to write on the same topic elsewhere. If you are writing for another site on the topic of "dogs", you are probably not a viable candidate for the "dogs" site at BellaOnline. Finally, if you are accepted, our site has a privacy clause in our contract - and the other site you write for probably does as well. You need to respect the privacy of other BellaOnline editors and not spread private BellaOnline information to your other networks. BellaOnline will never ask you for any information about any other site you work with, nor about private information about any other person. You need to provide us that same level of respect.

Q. Can I earn money?
A. You take home 100% of any and all sales you make on your site. You are paid directly by whichever vendors you choose to work with. Your sales are all context-driven by the content of your articles and we boast a 10% or higher clickthrough rate on many of our targetted sales items. You're free to sign up with Amazon.com, CJ.com, Art.com, and any other affiliate program you wish. We also let you sell ebooks you write, and you keep 100% of the money. Most publishing houses charge a large up-front fee and 50% or more of profits for this ability. Editors at BellaOnline care about their topics, and this helps them build a trusting relationship with their visitors. When editors then recommend quality products related to their topics that they find useful, visitors are likely to trust these suggestions and buy them. Visitors don't have to "search out" a separate shop area or interrupt their reading pleasure. They simply read your quality content, see the link for the related product, and click the link to purchase it.

Q. Why wouldn't I just create my own website on my topic?
A. Many editors do in fact run their own websites in addition for writing at BellaOnline. Remember, your own website costs you money to host, requires HTML to create, and then traffic has to be built up for it from scratch. Even the largest personal sites often get only 50,000 pageviews or less a month. In comparison, the BellaOnline network gets over 20 million pageviews a months and is recognized as the 2nd largest women's site on the web. If for example you wrote about gardening on your personal site, you might get a few readers. By writing about gardening as the BellaOnline Gardening Editor, you immediately have high traffic and a newsletter membership. You'll receive free books to review, free products to review, requests for radio interviews, and many editors even get asked to write books based on their online content. Being an editor with BellaOnline brings you free publicity for your personal site, publicity for products you sell, and recognition for you. Plus, we offer free training, forums and chats by recognized experts to help you with search engine ranking, great content creation, and much more. That all being said, if you wish to make your own website, then we wish you the best of luck. BellaOnline is about helping to support and train women who do not wish to take that step just yet.

Q. Who owns my content?
A. You always own your own content. You are free to use it elsewhere, to use it in a book, to use it in magazines, to use it on other sites. You grant BellaOnline permission to show it, but if you choose to leave or to use your content in other manners, it's completely up to you! BellaOnline only shows your content while you grant us permission to do so. Many editors write for BellaOnline for a year or so, then gather those 52 articles up and turn them into a book! They then use their BellaOnline site to promote their book, getting more sales for it. All of the content you write for BellaOnline is never "lost" - it is always yours, to do with what you wish. And unlike writing a book offline, with BellaOnline you are building up a loyal following and getting instant feedback while you put together your content.

Q. What type of personality works best at BellaOnline?
A. We are an extremely nurturing, supportive group. A person who was very competitive and wanted to "outdo their neighbors" would not be a great fit for us. We all share our tricks and tips with each other, to help each other get better. We are all volunteers, so we have to be patient with each other on getting things done. We come from different countries and different cultures, and are different races and religions. So a tolerance for different opinions is also important! We take respect very seriously - respect for each other, and respect for our visitors. If you have a low tolerance for disagreements and a tendency to want to 'get back' at people who upset you, this is probably not a good environment for you. Being a web writer tends to attract both praise from supporters and negative attention from those who feel differently than you do. We've found this even on generally 'neutral' topics like Birding. So you need to honestly look at your personality and see if this would be a good fit for you.

Q. I would like to apply. Where do I go?
A. Please go to our BellaOnline Editor Application. We look forward to hearing more about you!