Common About.com Guide Training and Hiring Questions

How are Guides selected?

Anyone can apply to be a Guide. Qualified applicants with proven expertise in a topic are accepted into our self-guided online training program. In this training program, prospective Guides become familiar with About.com's writing standards and publishing tools by writing a series of articles on pre-defined topics and publishing them in mock sites. Editors evaluate these sample sites and choose the most qualified applicant. For more information, please see our detailed explanation of the training program.

How much experience do I need to be a Guide?

When selecting potential Guides, our editors are looking for applicants we can put forward as experts. In general, this perspective means that a prospective Guide should have more than five years experience in their chosen topic area, either through professional involvement or as a dedicated hobbyist, or as a book author or journalist (online or print). You can read about necessary qualifications for each topic on the application page.

Will I be building off of an existing site in training, or creating something new? Does About.com hold on to old material when they hire a new Guide?

You'll always create a totally new site in training. On the rare occasions where we do decide to keep the old content, we'll integrate it with the content and structure you've created in training, not the other way around.

How does Guide payment work? How much will I be paid? How frequently?

We pay Guides on a monthly basis. Pay varies from month-to-month, depending on pageviews. For more information, please see this detailed explanation of Guide compensation.

Is being a Guide a full-time job?

Being a Guide can be a full-time job, both in terms of time spent working and money earned, but generally it takes years of work to reach that level. The majority of Guides balance their work for About with other freelancing opportunities, or have full-time jobs elsewhere. Most Guides report that they spend between 25 and 30 hours a week writing for their sites.

Do I have an editor?

All Guides have an editor who evaluates their work on a regular basis. Editors are also available to help make suggestions or critique work. However, About does have a publish-first model, so - with the exception of health topics - editors will not read Guides' work before it goes live on About.com.

In addition to working directly with an editor, About.com offers other forms of interaction to help Guides generate ideas and learn from their editors and each other, including email listservs, forums, conference calls, and quarterly get-togethers in cities around the US.

How long is the training program?

Our training program takes place in two stages over the course of a month. For more information, please see this detailed explanation of the training program.

Do I get paid for the work done in the training program?

There is no payment for work done in the training program, but we do pay a hiring bonus of $250 to new Guides. Any and all work created by the applicant during training is property of the applicant; if he or she does not become a Guide, he or she may use it as desired afterwards. About.com deletes all work from failed applicants from its servers on a regular basis; no work created by an applicant will ever be used without his or her express permission.

Do I retain copyright to the work I produce as a Guide?

Yes, you'll retain copyright to any material you produce for About.com. In return, About.com obtains an exclusive, perpetual online license to any material you produce for us. We retain this license in order to control reprints, so the articles you produce for us aren't competiting against other copies of the same article on other sites.

What level of technical experience is necessary? Do I need any equipment?

About.com supplies you with all the tools necessary to build a GuideSite, as well as documentation on how to use those tools. No equipment - beyond a computer and Internet access - is necessary, although having access to a digital camera is a strongly recommended. Although About.com strives to make the process of creating a site as simple as possible, we advise any applicant to have a basic knowledge of HTML and to be comfortable working with computers.

How do I check on the status of my application to be a Guide?

We've created a form that will send you an update on your application to your email address. You can access the form here.

The topic I wanted to apply for is not appearing, but I checked the site and there's no Guide listed. What's going on?

We've hired a person for the job, but they haven't started yet. Chances are, if you check back on the site in a few weeks, you'll see the new Guide in place.

I applied to be a Guide and have not yet heard back from About.com, but recently went back to the application site and saw that the topic I applied for is no longer listed. What's going on?

This means we hired a person for the position some time after you applied. We have not officially notified you about the hiring because we hold on to all applications for a topic until a Guide starts on the job; once the person we've hired has started we'll send you a note letting you know.