Depending on the program, contributors may be paid or unpaid; paid contributors are typically compensated based on the volume of articles they produce or the amount of web traffic their articles generate.
[1][2] Online publications use contributor networks to expand their content selection inexpensively.
Some publications that use the contributor model exercise limited editorial oversight.
For example, online articles written by Forbes contributors are not reviewed by editors prior to publication.
[2] Public relations agents and marketing companies have advertised their clients by submitting promotional articles to the contributor networks of Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, HuffPost, Inc., Insider, and Mashable.