Empire Avenue felt their dividend algorithm was to easy for spammers to exploit and recently changed it up. I used to be the #1 earning influencer in the US., now it’s Chris Pirillo. To me it makes sense that he should be there over me (I know you probably disagree but it’s ok, he’s a cool dude). This suggests to me the changes are having the proper effect. Remember: We are all affected by these changes. Even if we don’t like them we are still on the same playing field and all under the same system. If everyones divs go down together has anything really “changed?” 

Here’s what you need to know about Empire Avenue dividends:

Reactions are more important

Across the board comments, likes, shares, and other responses to your activity have increased in earnings potential. Meanwhile posting has activity has remained constant or declined based on the network.

How it affects your dividends: If you send out a massive stream of garbage no one likes your divs are going to go down a lot.

Dividends are more heavily affected by network scores

Lets say an individual with a Twitter score of 25 produces 50 in earnings from Twitter. The same day someone with a Twitter score of 50 produces 50 in earnings from Twitter. Theoretically the second guy will produce twice as much in dividend payouts from Twitter as the first guy.

How it affects your dividends: If you have a low score then you are probably producing a lot less dividends from that network than you used to. Focus on growing the size of your network if you want to increase it’s score and dividends.

Only 5 networks produce dividends

Previously dividends were paid from every network active that day. The more networks you had hooked up the more you could produce. This wasn’t fair as someone that had a huge community on 1 or two networks couldn’t produce as much earnings as those that spammed every single network. Now dividends are based only on the 5 highest earning networks that day (not the networks with the highest network scores).

This reduces stress as well as spam exploitation. You only have to focus on 5 networks rather than trying to keep up with every single one.

How it affects your dividends: Previously I maintained high activity on FB, pages, EAv, Twitter, Flickr, Blogs, 4sq, and Instagram. That means I was creating earnings from 7 networks. These earnings were all used to calculate my dividends. With recent changes 3 of them got cut off. Of course cutting out 3 networks had a huge impact in my dividend payout. If you were active on over 5 networks then you most likely saw a pretty large hit to your dividends.

Blog posts got nerfed (effectiveness reduced)

You used to be able to crank out 100 posts through various ways and really crank up your dividends. Now there is a very minimal flat amount associated with it. If you are active on 5 networks it probably won’t even come into play (LinkedIn pays the same way). It’s really just a backup in case you are active on fewer than 5 other networks.

How it affects your dividends: If your blog posts produced a lot of earnings, or are in your top 5 for activity, then you get a big hit to dividends.

Flickr and YouTube uploads got nerfed

Uploading 200 pics to Flickr and 5 videos a day to YouTube produced a lot of earnings. Now the actual uploads produce much less and comments and favorites produce much more.

How it affects your dividends: If you don’t get any comments on what you upload you are wasting your time. Rather than upload 200 pics try and get comments/faves on a few.

Twitter calculations updated

Previously earnings were more or less based on how many tweets you could broadcast and ignored RT and replies. The new system gives credit to people engaging with you rather than just being based on how loud you are.

How it affects your dividends: If you tweet 100 times per day and get little to no replies or RT you are probably getting hit here. If you tweet 10 times per day but get a ton of replies and RT then you might be seeing an increase in dividends.

There are essentially 2 formulas that calculate your dividends.

1. Earnings calculation – The first formula looks at all your network activity and adds up the “earnings.” Earnings are based on posts as well as responses to those posts (likes/RT/comments/etc.)
2. Dividend Calculation – Only the top 5 earning networks for the day are taken from the earnings. Then the network scores are applied to the 5 top earning networks to determine the weighted dividend.

I’ve determined these items from my experience, discussing things with other influencers, and the blog post from Empire Avenue developers about the dividend changes. After a little more analyzing I will report on efficient ways to produce quality dividends under the new earnings system. In the meantime please let me know if I missed anything or have any incorrect statements. Until then I leave you with a dividend tip: Instagram.