There’s a movement calling for writers to be paid what you’re worth. I’m a writer.

If you’re writing for free on Instagram and Facebook, check yourself. Elephant (a big but comparatively puny independent site) has paid $4k to 12k a month for many years, because genuine writers like my father, a journalist, deserve to make a living when they offer work of value.

We’ve long received big ups for calling for readers to pay (after two free reads a day, enough for 90% of our readers to read free—our paygate preceded that of the NY Times, and was created by a handsome volunteer, we were so broke) and writers to get paid, and though we’re small we’ve spent big (for us) on paying our top (consistent, quality, reader-favorite) writers. But we can and must do more. Thus, I’ve created the Ecosystem, which will be “finished” this Spring. The Rating is already up and live, and reflects quality, not just popularity.

If you’re a reader calling for writers to be paid but you don’t subscribe, check yourself. This month, we paid everything we can. Our Ecosystem will eventually enable readers to directly and indirectly “tip” writers for helpful articles.

Write, reach a new audience beyond your choir, get more fans to your Insta/youtube/retreat/offerings: elephantjournal.com/post (instantly)

If you share your article up, we then edit and promote it to our Magazine section, and share it with some/most of our 5 million fans on 60 FB pages, our Newsletter to 100,000s, our award-winning twitter, and feature it on our Front Page at elephantjournal.com.

If your article does well with readers and editors, it will be eligible to get paid. To see November’s paid writers (click here)