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What is About.com?

About.com is an online community site in which volunteering experts called "guides" help others on specific topics to relay information to people who are sending in questions about a variety of topics.

How does About.com do its business?

Content is written by a network of writers called Guides are all assigned to one and only one topic/subject which they are considered to be an expert. Each guide is given a base stipend on top of bonuses based on web traffic.

How do they create and manage their community?

Guides are evaluated based on their education, personal experience, and writing abilities. They are often recognized authors or professionally certified experts in their given subject area. All content provided by a guide is evaluated by editors and each Guide gets further training from about.com that helps them to maintain their subject area's content in accordance to their audience's interest.

Cheers,
Eric Summers