Truckers Savings Journalists FAQ

This page covers Truckers Savings Journalists FAQ -- or Frequently Asked Questions about the Truckers Savings Journalists program.

What steps must I take to publish articles or reviews as a Truckers Savings Journalist?

1. Read the information about the program to see if you qualify and agree to our Terms and Conditions.
   
   If so, apply to become a Truckers Savings Journalist. When you are applying, you will be asked to select a topic or "beat" that you want to cover in your articles or reviews.
   
   
2. Wait to be approved.
   
   
3. Your choice of a topic or "beat" to cover as a Truckers Savings Journalist will determine if you need to use "formed" reviews or articles and "free-form" reviews.
   
   For each article or free-form review you intend to write, pitch your idea to us first. ("Formed" reviews need no pitch.)
   
   
4. If you pitched an idea, wait to have it approved.
   
   
5. Once your pitched idea is approved, write your article or free-form review on the idea pitched.
   
   
6. Submit
   • your article or "free-form" review and up to 4 applicable photos through a designated form on our website (which we'll review and if all looks good, to which we'll add your ad info and byline info before publishing) or
   • your "formed" truck stop review title, your name and up to 4 review-specific photos (to which we will add the information you submitted through the online form you used for your review, your ad info and your byline info before publishing).

What does "pitching" an idea involve?

As an example, you may see a new article online that falls within your "beat." You do some research to learn more and you think that other professional truck drivers would benefit from knowing what you learned. (An example of this is here.)

Send (or "pitch") your article idea to us for approval. The pitches that we are most likely to approve are those that clearly indicate how truckers can save money.

What's the difference between an article, a "free-form" review and a "formed" review?

An article addresses a topic about how professional truck drivers can save money or are being forced to spend more money in trucking.

One of the definitions that Dictionary.com lists for a "review" is "a general survey of something, especially in words; a report or account of something." We have provided some suggestions which we recommend Journalists use as the basis for writing free-form reviews.

A "free-form" review allows the author to write freely, like an essay. It contains a description of how one has personally used a product or service (except for those covered by our "formed" reviews) and one's experience with it.

• An example of a free-form service review is here.
• An example of a free-form product review is here.

A "formed" review is one in which the author will fill out a form on our site to address specific attributes of the truck stop fuel island, restaurant or shower being reviewed. Formed reviews are the only ones that need no "pitching."

How do you keep track of my Google AdSense info and byline info?

It is your responsibility as a Journalist to make sure that we have your current Google AdSense info and byline info. As a safeguard to you, all forms through which articles or reviews may be submitted have fields where Journalists may enter this information.

The first time you pre-submit an article or review, we will build two special files (Server Side Includes or SSIs):

• one containing your ad info and
• the other containing your byline info.

When uploaded with your content, SSI file changes are made site-wide to all of your content simultaneously. If your information is current, you need not update it.

When we publish your article or review, we will embed your ad info SSI with it (at least 150 characters below the top of your submission) and your byline info SSI below it.

Google addresses "Most successful ad sizes" and of the three listed, we will publish the first one listed: Large Rectangle (336 x 280) (336 pixels wide by 280 pixels high). You may see the dimensions of this ad here.

After you have your Google AdSense account opened, create an ad this size. Within Google, you have the option to choose your "ad style." We require that all ads submitted to us by Journalists be in the "Google default" style and text only.

When you pre-submit your article or review, copy and paste the entire code into the appropriate field in the form. You will do this the first time you pre-submit content. From then on, you need only submit the ad code if it changes.

Where exactly will my articles/reviews appear?

Articles and reviews submitted through this program will be published directly on Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com's website, linked on the page best suited for them. (For example, an article about preventive maintenance will be linked on the preventive maintenance page of our site.)

New articles and reviews published on Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com are automatically picked up on our RSS news feed and sent to our Truckers Savings Blog and social media accounts. The link remains on our blog page until it rotates off (when 48 newer items are published).

As articles and reviews are published, they are listed in the next issue of our free monthly Truck Drivers Money Saving Tips Email Newsletter, which has a growing number of subscribers. Newsletters are archived so that readers may click and read items that interest them.

How often do I submit articles/reviews to Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com?

• For Journalists writing articles or free-form reviews, we ask that you pitch, get approval on, write about, pre-submit and submit a minimum of one (1) article or review per month (400 words minimum; 2000 words maximum).
• For Journalists writing "formed" truck stop reviews, we ask that you submit a minimum of one (1) review every two (2) weeks. For maximum benefit, choose to write reviews on a good variety of locations and a good variety of services, with no more than one review of its type per location per month.

You may contribute more articles and reviews if you choose. For example, if you visit a truck stop and use the fuel island, get a shower and eat at the restaurant, feel free to submit three individual formed reviews (one for each).

What if I need to update an article or review?

If you need to update an article or free-form review, we ask that you write and submit a follow-up separately. Let us know what article or review is being updated (write the URL on the form) and we will link it to your previous article.

Truck stop reviews are intended to be "snapshots" of the conditions of a fuel island, restaurant or shower at the time a professional truck driver visits. We trust that truck stop managers who read truck stop reviews on our site will make positive changes that will help all drivers who use the facilities. We anticipate that conditions or services may change from visit to visit. You are free to submit a formed review of the same service at the same location once a month.

Will any other ads besides my AdSense ad on the page appear with my article or review?

Yes, Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com posts its own ads on the page. According to Google's "Heat map for pages" the ad nearest the top of the content performs the best. On pages containing your articles and reviews, the ad nearest the top of your content will always be your AdSense ad.

How can I make sure my AdSense ad is the one nearest the top of my content?

Within your browser, visit your article or review page, then view the source code of that page.

• In Internet Explorer, you would select View | Source.
• In Mozilla Firefox, right click on the article and select View Page Source.

From there, you will be able to see the code of your Google AdSense ad, and you will see your AdSense account number embedded in the ad code. This is your assurance that all clicks on your ads are being paid to you.

Are there any requirements on the articles or reviews I submit?

Yes, we have the following requirements:

• Your application to become a Truckers Savings Journalist must be submitted online and approved by us before we will accept any articles or reviews under this program. You are free to submit content through our site apart from the program, but content submitted outside the program will not have your own Google AdSense ad associated with it.
• You must write your own articles based on your own personal research or experience.
• You must write your own reviews based on your own observations and experiences.
• When writing reviews, you must write in an even-handed way, examining the pros and cons of a product or service. (Rarely is a product or service so good that it cannot improve, or so bad that that there is nothing good about it. Something about the product or service must have enticed you to buy or use it.)
• We do not permit articles or reviews to be submitted anonymously, under a pseudonym or ghost-written by someone else. Although you can refer to another trucker's experience, you cannot write the majority of an article based on someone else's experience; it must be your own.
• If you intend to interview someone for an article, you must include that in your pitch. If we approve a pitched interview-type article, we need for the questions we supply to be asked and answered.
• All "formed" truck stop reviews must be dated (month, day and year) and be done within 24 hours of visiting. Titles of these reviews must follow our format.
• You must write all articles and reviews from the perspective of saving professional truck drivers money; general articles about trucking are not acceptable.
• All images (photos and drawings) you submit must be your own. Every image must be accompanied by a caption. We we will not "hotlink" to images from other sites.
• Articles and reviews must match the theme and tone of Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com.

Are there any restrictions on the articles or reviews I submit?

Yes, we have following restrictions:

• You cannot place affiliate links in your content or byline info.
• You cannot write about products or organizations in which you have a financial stake.
• You cannot plagiarize content or violate the copyright of others. We define plagiarism as copying and pasting whole sentences, paragraphs or images from other content sources without attribution. It is fine to copy and paste short quotes or citations as long as they are properly quoted and attributed. Plagiarism is strictly spot-checked and will not be tolerated. Any Journalist who is caught plagiarizing content will be banned.
• You cannot publish the same article anywhere else for the first 90 days following publication on Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com.
• Since ours is a family-friendly website, all words and images which are considered profane will be removed from articles and reviews.

How should I name a truck stop review title (and format a file name)?

We use a specific format for naming truck stop reviews:

• type of review,
• chain or name of truck stop,
• state,
• city,
• number (if applicable).

Here are examples of titles and file names that we used on truck stop reviews (with our descriptions):

• Title: Fuel Island Review WilcoHess North Carolina Wake Forest
  File name: fuel-island-review-wilcohess-north-carolina-wake-forest.html
  This was a review of a fuel island at the WilcoHess Convenience Store in Wake Forest, NC, USA.
• Title: Restaurant Review North 40 Tennessee Holladay
  File name: restaurant-review-north-40-tennessee-holladay.html
  This was a review of the restaurant at the North 40 Truck Stop in Holladay, TN, USA.
• Title: Shower Review Pilot South Carolina Florence 2
  File name: shower-review-pilot-south-carolina-florence-2.html
  This was a review of a shower facility at the "other" Pilot Travel Center in Florence, SC, USA. (Numbers following a file name may also refer to a later review of the same place.)

How do I get paid?

You are paid directly by Google for the AdSense revenue generated by your ad block appearing with your articles and/or reviews. Earnings may vary widely, depending on the topic, reader response, and so on. Google pays on a 30 - 60 day schedule, meaning you will typically have to wait 30 - 60 days from the day of your earnings to actually receive a deposit into your checking account. Google also has its own payment thresholds. Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com has no influence over your Google payments.

How much money will I realistically earn?

Money should not be the primary reason to become a Truckers Savings Journalist with Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com, because earnings alone are not enough of a reward for someone who isn't simultaneously passionate about helping professional truck drivers save money. The authors most likely to enjoy becoming Truckers Savings Journalists will be those who wish to be involved in something significant to benefit the worldwide trucking community, not merely something that generates a paycheck.

Earnings are impossible to predict, but they will have the structure of generating the most revenue within the first 72 hours of being posted. From there, earnings will slow down and level off at a significantly lower amount of ongoing earnings for that particular article. In the first 72 hours, one article about truck drivers might typically earn anywhere from an estimated $5 - $25, depending on its success with readers (and its headline). From there, earnings for that one article would typically drop to $1 a day or less. The best way to maximize earnings is to have a new article each week, generating immediate revenues from new articles while accumulating the ongoing revenues from old articles.

Professional truck drivers must never compromise their sleeper berth time or other work-related duties in order to write articles or reviews under this program.

As Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com continues to expand its reach, earnings may rise as the readership increases. So having content published on Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com positions you to receive earnings from future increases in traffic from interested readers.

This program on Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com does not generate lucrative earnings on a per-article basis. Those who are likely to participate are those who have a strong personal passion for writing about these topics and who want to see their work published while participating in Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com's success in reaching more professional truck drivers. The AdSense pay is only a small reason for participating in this program, but it at least provides some sort of compensation so that you're not working for free.

Can I participate from anywhere in the world?

Since our website covers worldwide news about truckers saving money or being forced to spend more money in their jobs, we have no restrictions on your geographic location. Google, however, may have restrictions.

In order for you to become a Truckers Savings Journalist, you are required to have a Google AdSense account. Currently, we only accept articles in English. Readers who read in other languages may be able to use Google's free Translation service:
https://translate.google.com/.

In what format must pitched and approved articles and reviews be submitted?

No HTML coding is necessary. Everything is done through the forms on our site.

If you desire to use a word processor program to write your content, please be aware that embedded hyperlinks such as those in MS Word will not show up as linked when you copy and paste your content in the form. Full website URLs need to be written out.

It is best to place a list of URLs as references at the bottom of your articles.

What can I put in my author byline?

The author byline is the place for each Journalist to include basic biographical information including

• your name,
• how many years of professional truck driving experience you have, and
• a short list of your other projects or websites.

No affiliate links are allowed. We will place your byline information in a Server Side Include that will read the same site-wide following every article or review you write that we publish. Once submitted through our Pre-Submission Form the first time, you need only enter this information again if it changes.

How soon after submitting my articles will they be published?

We strive to read articles and reviews within one (1) business day. We will be publishing content as rapidly as we can get it up on the website.

Can others rate or comment on my article?

The new technology we are using -- the same technology that allows us remove the "pre-submit" step from our process -- does not automatically allow for ratings and comments from others. However, we plan to insert a method of leaving comments through Facebook below each article or review.

Is the Truckers Savings Journalists Program using the Google AdSense Host API program revenue sharing set-up?

No. We are not using any program through which we can get a percentage of the revenue that is generated from ads submitted by Truckers Savings Journalists.

We require you as a Journalist to have your own Google AdSense account and submit the code for the ad size specified so that one hundred percent (100%) of the revenue that is generated from your ads on your content pages goes to you.

Why are you willing to "split" a page's potential ad revenue with Truckers Savings Journalists?

Here's our rationale:

• Since 2009, Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com has been proven to be the place to "Get and share great money saving tips for truck drivers."
• We provide real world tips that help professional truck drivers save hard earned money and personal reporting about products and services for use on the road. We've developed our unique website as a place to share the tips we have learned through the years -- and where other professional drivers can do the same.
• Our goal is for Truck-Drivers-Money-Saving-Tips.com to become a clearinghouse of how truckers around the world save money. To help accomplish that, we are building a community where professional truck drivers from all over the world focus on helping each other to save money and not to fall in money pits.
• Because of their mobile lifestyles, many truckers are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to saving money. Only those who have been truckers understand the challenges. The content on our site is written by professional drivers for professional drivers.
• While we have written about us and what does and does not work for us in the trucks we have driven, you may have a different opinion. And that's OK! Perhaps you have mastered something we haven't. When we all share what has and has not worked for us, we all gain valuable knowledge that has the power to help us save a lot of money.
• The theme of our website focuses on professional truck drivers saving money. The more money truckers can earn, the more money they can save.
  It gives us joy to provide a program through which approved Truckers Savings Journalists can increase their income -- and increase their savings -- while at the same time helping other truckers save money.
  We think it's a win-win-win situation all the way around.

Can I see examples of how pages look when published under the Truckers Savings Journalists program?

Certainly! Here are examples of:

• A "formed" review (of a truck stop restaurant); and
• A "free-form" review (of a product marketed and sold to truck drivers).

Note: The format of a free-form review is about the same as that of an article.

How do I contact you to ask other questions?

We have tried to be thorough. However, if you have a question not answered here, you may contact us.

How do I get started?

You may apply to become a Truckers Savings Journalist here:
https://www.truck-drivers-money-saving-tips.com/truckers-savings-journalists.html.

Please allow 3-5 business days to hear back from us concerning your application. There is no fee to participate. There are also no guarantees that you will be accepted into the program. We intend to accept those who match our philosophy and mission, who have really strong writing skills, and whose articles and/or reviews match the tone and theme of our site.

Return from Truckers Savings Journalists FAQ to our Truckers Savings Journalists page or our Truck Drivers Money Saving Tips home page.