Phrasemaker is an independent digital news publication founded by Branden Zavaleta in 2024, and led with Grace Black,Tarun Sayal, & Branden Lizardi. In little over a year, we’ve grown to a quarter million monthly views. You might say our success is via the classic methods; SEO, quality reporting, timely coverage, and effective promotion. We’ve done all that, but that’s not our secret. Our secret is that, uniquely, we’re all paid directly via ad revenue.
Interested in Phrasemaker? Here’s the pitch:
We work on a system like no other outlet. There are no set rates, not for anything. Pay is entirely based on the performance of your articles. If you can garner one million views for your exposé, breaking news, or even listicle? You won’t be paid twenty five bucks like you would at a content mill. You’ll get 95% of the ad revenue.
Now if you’ve only worked for rates, you won’t know what that means. Why? There’s a reason that other company’s aren’t transparent with the numbers: A viral hit with a million views can make thousands.
Phrasemaker gives you chance to enjoy the fruits of a viral success unlike anywhere else, and we want that for you. Your success is our success, and together we support each other to find those viral stories.
We are not a content mill, we’re transparent with our writers, support them and share the goal of create engaging written work.
Requirements
Where you start depends on your experience.
If you have only written lists, guides or reviews before, you will likely begin on our bounty board. This is a curated list of topics prepared by our editorial team using research and search data. Editors take a 10 percent share on these pieces for the research and optimisation work, but many of our top performing articles start here, so it’s a great place to start.
If you are a journalist or editor with publication experience, you can pitch what you know works. You can also contribute ideas to the bounty board and receive that 10 percent share when another writer takes the topic.
How Does Pay Work Exactly?
The biggest thing to note with our revenue share model is that we’re dependant on our ad provider.
Ad providers pay 65 days after the end of each revenue month. That means your pay is heavily delayed. After three months the pay is monthly, but until then you’ll be waiting for the ad revenue to come in.
For example: If you publish in January, payment arrives in early April. It’s a big ask, but our team of 50+ agree that it’s worth the wait.
For example, a 4,000 view article at a 17 dollar RPM earns 68 dollars in ad revenue. That’s triple what you’d earn at most content mills, and it’s a common view count for our bounty board pieces. Go viral though? 40,000 views? That’s 680USD in ad revenue. Now imagine a million.
Working together, our site has been growing consistently month on month, and that means we rank better on Google, and your articles get more views. Here’s an example of our RPMs and performing articles:
Fees
- There is a 5 percent site fee on all revenue to cover overhead.
- Bounty board articles include a 10 percent share to the editor who prepared the topic.
- You can only invoice the first 30 days of revenue per article.
- Payments are done via Wise, people outside the U.S. may incur a fee. If your country doesn’t support Wise, you can still be paid via bank transfer, but the fees are higher (6USD+ per transfer).
Training and Benefits
We provide onboarding and guidance, but you will do best if you already understand SEO and how to attract readers.
Writers also receive all the benefits of being press; Access to review products, game codes, early screenings and local premiere invitations. If you’re a seasoned journalist or freelancer, you’re welcome to pitch brands and PR under the Phrasemaker name too.
If that sounds like a fit, email us with a short introduction, your experience and links to your best published work.
