It looks like SeekingAlpha is trying to cover under the radar stocks mostly in the small cap world – see below for an email from the website
Dear contributor,
It’s been quite some time since you published an article on SA, and we wanted to make sure you’re not missing out on some big things happening on the site right now.
The start of 2018 brought with it a couple changes that should positively impact your experience as a contributor. These include: (1) access to PRO content, and (2) a new contributor payment system.
Access to PRO
All active authors (defined as authors who have published an article within the past 90 days) now have free access to all PRO research they encounter on the site. No article is hidden from active SA authors behind a paywall. This change provides our author base with a full suite of Seeking Alpha research tools to generate the best articles possible - we certainly hope you’ll take full advantage of it!
Payments
In the new contributor payment system, we introduced the ability to measure and reward article quality. Our previous system did not account for quality, which is the factor contributors care about most and have the greatest control over.
In the past, you’ve covered at least one ticker which has little to no coverage on SA, which provides great value for our readers. The new payment system is designed to reward contributors who now cover these tickers; please see Tier 4 in item #3, below.
The new system went live on Jan. 1. Here's what you need to know:
- Calculation of article payments is now as follows:
PVs (greater of actual PVs or 'minimum pageview guarantee' (MPG) if it exists) x CPM x quality score (QS)
- The CPM is locked down on a monthly basis at midnight of the first day of the new month. On Feb. 1, the CPM (previously $10 per 1,000 PVs) changed to $12.80.
- The MPG is a way to fix minimum payments by guaranteeing a minimum number of PVs. There are currently 4 tiers of MPG:
- Tier 1: Primary ticker articles on most stocks. MPG = 4,000 PVs.
- Tier 2: Articles with no primary ticker. MPG = 3,000 PVs.
- Tier 3: Primary ticker articles on i) high-coverage stocks (see current list here), and ii) mutual funds. MPG = 0 PVs.
- Tier 4: Primary ticker articles on low-coverage stocks (see current list here). MPG = 5,000 PVs.
- The QS was fixed at 1 for January with one exception: authors who currently don't receive the $35 fixed payment (there are a small number - if you don't know then you're not on the list) will have a fixed QS of 0.5. We expect to launch an initial quality score soon. We will provide transparency about the type of factors we're measuring as the QS evolves.
- Article payment factors are locked down at time of publication, with the exception of QS which will be locked down 10 days after publication.
- We’ve provided a tool for authors to look up MPGs for specific tickers.
We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about these new developments, and to help you reactivate your presence on the site. Here’s to a successful 2018!
Abby Estikangi-Carmel
Director, Contributor Success
