In all the time that I’ve been writing for eHow, I can’t count the number of times that the issue of the earnings algorithm has been discussed in the forums. Writers are always trying to figure out precisely how eHow figures their earnings. eHow’s FAQ page states:

Your article’s earning potential can be based on a combination of several elements, including the amount of times it’s been viewed and its category. The more useful your articles are to the reader, the more money you could make.

Because of the vague wording, some writers think that it’s important to increase page views and article ratings, as well as on the number of comments each article receives.

I’ve thought about this for a while, and figure that it’s probably not as complicated as that. The rating/commenting that goes on at eHow all day long… I suspect is not as important as some writers think that it is. In fact, my theory is that it’s not important at all. I think the earnings are based on more organic things. Natural searches. Outside readers. I figured this out because some of my highest-earning articles have little, no, or low comments/ratings. This coupled with some stories of people who wrote for eHow, gave up, then met payout without being active on the site got me thinking.

So, I’ve embarked on a new experiment.

Most writers at eHow know the “importance” of reciprocation. If a writer comments on your work, you’re supposed to comment back, so that both of you benefit from this exchange. To this end, there is a “daily thread” in one of the forums, where eHowers place links to one or two (or in the case of some overly-ambitious eHowers, up to 15) of the articles they’ve written that day. The purpose of this is that everyone who replies to the thread is supposed to read, rate, and comment on the articles of everyone else who has replied to thread.

For my experiment, I’m taking a total break from the eHow reciprocity. I am not placing any articles in the daily thread. I’m not commenting on any articles (because commenting on anyone’s article would earn me a reciprical comment/rating). On Sunday night, I’ll take full stock of my earnings, to see if they’ve been affected at all.

Today is my third day of not participating in any exchanges, and tonight will be my fourth night of not linking.

So far my earnings have not suffered. In fact, my earnings are up a little bit over last week’s stats. We’ll see how the rest of the week pans out.