You may already know that I’m not a huge fan of sites like Associated Content. However, I do have to occasionally admit that they can be a better option for writers on the low end of the pay spectrum than taking $5 per article gigs where they give up exclusive rights (as AC offers a non-exclusive option).
I hadn’t checked in on AC in quite some time. I used to occasionally post non-exclusive copies of a few of my articles and blog posts there, or slightly-edited versions when I had some down time early on. I now see that they’re offering not only up front payments, but a separate performance-based pay model per article that’s quite similar to that of current and former pay models from large content networks.
I have to admit that my interest is piqued. I’ve decided to give the new model a try. I’m going to submit a goal of five articles per week to Associated Content, only non-exclusively (articles I’ve already published or articles I plan to soon after alter and publish on one of my own sites or blogs). I’ll be doing that through the rest of December. I won’t likely keep it up past then. I’m just curious about the performance-based pay option in addition to their up-front pay, and how that would pan out compared to other systems I’ve worked under in the past.
I won’t be taking time out of my normal work week for this… just an hour or two of my “spare time” for the submissions of things generally already written. I’m not expecting to see anything exciting. I’ll likely still consider them a poor option for professional writers and a better option for new, amateur, or hobby writers than the lower-end webmaster market. It never hurts to give something a second look though.
Have any of you been working with their new model, and if so, how have you been making out with the pay-for-performance aspect? Share your thoughts on the viability of something like Associated Content as a large part of a freelance writer’s business model.
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Cathy Miller
Amandah
Andrew Kardon
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Lori
I tried this experiment last month and ended up having every article rejected for upfront payment. I have sent them articles off an on for two years and this was a first.
I blogged about my experience on my writing blog, the link which you will find above. There were lots of comments from AC writers who are having the same thing happen, even a comment from the founder trying to justify their actions.
I am curious to see if the same thing happens to you, Jennifer. Of course, I hope it doesn’t!
My first was actually rejected, because it was displayed on another site without my byline (although they did credit my site as the source). It was an illegal copy, and I got them to take it down, but still haven’t heard back from AC yet. I don’t want to waste time doing any more until I see what happens with this one. So far not so good, but I’ll still keep my fingers crossed. I definitely didn’t have high hopes here, so nothing lost really.
I’m not eligible to receive an upfront payment, so I’m not exactly too keen on getting on with them. I do have a few articles lying around. Maybe I’ll give them a try sometime around next year, just to see what the experience would be like.
Honestly, I have used A.C. when I first started out, however the program mostly rejects all up front articles now because there are articles on nearly EVERYTHING imaginable so finding unique topics on the site is hard. I have received a $50 offer for the best article of the day however.
I mostly use it for performance based things now — it’s an extra few $$$ that pay for part of the internet bill each month.
Please update on what you discover yourself.
@Mariella – Are you not eligible because of a location restriction? Sorry… I’m not overly familiar with their system anymore.
@Jessica – How many articles do you tend to submit monthly for the performance-based model?
As for myself, still no response from AC about the re-submission issue, so I haven’t taken the time to try to submit anything else yet.
@Jenn>> Yes, that’s it. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe they offer upfront payment only for US-based writers.
@ Jenn —- I don’t do it monthly anymore, sometimes if I have an idea and I think it will get a lot of readership, I’ll post, I have 200+ articles on there — and about 80K page views (Without promoting it at all). Not bad? :)
@Mariella – Good to know. Thanks for sharing for any non-US writers. :)
@Jessica – Not bad at all. Are all of the articles (including older ones) now falling under their new plan, or is it only their newer submissions?
I’d be interested to know your results for this experiment. I used to write for Finetuning about a year or so ago. They were somehow similar to Associated Content but paid really well (I guess that’s why they went under!). I’ve been reluctant to try AC because the pay is so low but if the new system really works, then maybe I’d give them a try. Would you be updating us on how you did?
@ JENN Yes, they all fall in their new plan :)
ALSO —- This coming week (I hope), I’m going to do an in-depth post about this —- and revealing how many articles, how many views versus how much performance i made — etc.
Be on the lookout!!
There’s a really interesting thread at Absolute Write about using AC just to generate performance money (but without waiting for upfront approval and money). I didn’t know this was an option, which makes the whole thing a little more interesting for me. Jenn, is this what you do? Here’s the thread, if you’re interested:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1868293
@ DIANA, I will be highlighting this this week and will def. alert this thread when it is posted so people can see my thoughts, my performances vs. how many articles and my earnings from the website since I have been a member, MARCH 2006 ON. :)
STAY TUNED!!
@Diana – No, that’s not what I do. I actually still haven’t submitted anything else, because they didn’t bother getting back to me about the last article issue, even after the illegal copy was removed from that blog. I’ll check out the thread though. Thanks. :)
I’ll be interested to see the highlights Jessica.
So I just went on my A.C. account, and apparently I have much more than the 200 I estimated to you both, but 483!!
Jessica – What kind of performance bonuses do you get from that many articles?
I had tried AC when I first started out too. I don’t think I’ve gotten more than $10 from the performance bonus. Only have several articles up, however.
It depends really, I didn’t write them to be SEO-optimized which is what writers do now to ensure high payment for performance wise — and also, they literally rob us of money — One month I had $80 in the queue and one day, “payments were wrong” and I received $12 — also the payrate is very low $1.50 per 1,000 views —- I have 80,000 profile views but only get about $15 a month on them…. definitely ISN’T worth it. They are making a fortunate off of us.
fortune*** wow — i need to read before i send these comments, haha.
@ Jenn. Will you be posting an update on how are you doing with AC throughout the month? I never considered it a worthy experience but it will be interesting to see how somebody who has more experience handled it. I usually don’t rewrite any of my pieces, so I was wondering how much you actually changed in the articles you submitted in order for them to be considered acceptable? Or did you submit them as “previously published”?
@ Jessica. Yes, that’s what I was afraid of. The thing is, in order to get enough views to make money, you need to promote your articles and get others to stop by and read them. I’m thinking that all the time you need to invest in promoting your articles can be better spent sending out queries, looking through job ads or simply promoting e-books or other type (read: more profitable!) of work. Unless you’re a beginner writer in need of clips, I really don’t see how AC can be of benefit (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!)
WEDNESDAY on my blog will be my post about A.C. — and you just gave me an extra topic to add to my existing draft already, so thank you!!!
Visit my blog then :)
Are there any other content websites besides AC and CC? Finetuning went under a while ago and I don’t know of any other.
@ DIANA — DAILYARTICLE.COM!! (JUST POSTED A REVIEW ABOUT THEM) …
ALSO just posted the A.C. article —
http://jmwriting.blogspot.com/
@ Jessica. Thanks for the link! I’m giving DailyArticle a try! I have a few pieces lying around in my computer that could work there, so we’ll see what happens. If they sell, I would consider writing short articles just for them, but I want to check first if the work is worth it. The only part that concerns me is that they take all rights, and I really want to keep a byline on the pieces, so maybe writing general pieces just for them makes more sense.
@ DIANA
Yeah, ultimately of these sites depend on the type of people that frequent them and what they want — however I sold a piece (200 words) for about $18 — not that high of a price, however it was a piece I never wanted to look at again (because of a BS client).
I decided I would copy/paste my blog about this topic here for people to get a feel for A.C. if they don’t know much about it:
Before I analyze and perhaps OVER-ANALYZE this website, I wanted to showcase some numbers to you first.
STARTED ACCOUNT IN MARCH 2006
TOTAL NUMBER OF ARTICLES: 483 (Note not all articles had upfront payments!)
TOTAL PAGE VIEWS: 76,983 (As of 12/10/07)
TOTAL EARNINGS (BOTH UPFRONT AND PERFORMANCE) – $ 2161.31
Before you go, “HOLY BATMAN!” — let me tell you how I got there and then you won’t be so impressed.
First of all, all articles on A.C. must be 300 words or more, most of my article are at that “quick” read format. However, some of the articles were edited SEVERAL times before accepted, many articles were given $3 offers, ONE however was given $50 for being the best submission of the day –
01/17/2007 – AC rewards a handful of the strongest submissions each day with a higher than average offer, and your content has been selected for this honor. Congratulations!
They are congratulating me for getting what I deserve on an article, what a laugh. Average upfront payment, I would guess is $3-$8 per article (VERY LOW). At this low rate, we are expected to have SEO-optimized text, as one editor mentioned to me with:
Before submitting content for our review, run it through a free keyword density analyzer, such as http://textalyser.net. Your main keywords or keyphrases (the words that a user would type into a web browser to discover your content) should have a density (or frequency) of around 2.5%. At minimum, they should have at least a 1% density count. Submissions which lack a strong keyword presence will not be discovered on the web.
Folks, it seems we need to be doing their job for them for $3 a pop. Do you see a problem here?
THE STORY CONTINUES…
The performance program ($1.50 per 1,000 page views) started in February of this year. My earnings are as follows:
Performance Bonus: February 2007 $8.25
Performance Bonus: March 2007 $11.13
Performance Bonus: April 2007 $8.19
Performance Bonus: May 2007 $4.72
Performance Bonus: June 2007 $3.89
Performance Bonus: July 2007 $5.78
Performance Bonus: August 2007 $9.32
Performance Bonus: September 2007 $9.96
Performance Bonus: October 2007 $13.79
Performance Bonus: November 2007 (NOT LISTED)
TOTAL EARNINGS: $76.71
(NOT INCLUDING NOV OR DEC).
Other points:
My articles include a LARGE variety of topics (many topics such as Health Pollution and Traffic Conditions Within Mega Cities has been read 1,800 times and a topic as important as Making Sure Your Computer is Secure was read only TWO times since MARCH 21ST.)
Simply, the page views don’t add up and I’m really thinking there’s a conspiracy theory involved in the Associated Content stuff here folks. I do not frequent their forums often, however many users tend to think that payments (especially performance) is being downsized. A month ago, a major glitch (according to A.C.) occured in the system, in which my performance payment said $75.00 and I was paid $7, and they never corrected the issue for me or any of the other writers. Is this what we SHOULD be getting each month? Makes me wonder. I cannot grasp the concept that 2 people read an article on securing their computer.
Also, A.C. does not provide quick references based on NON-EXCLUSIVE and EXCLUSIVE pieces, for the most part (unless they were meaningless topics/articles), I submitted non-exclusive pieces. However, a good handful (I’d say maybe 30-40% is exclusive to A.C.). And in my case, payment wasn’t much more, even though other contributors suggest they would or should be.
I thought the notes on the submission form said 400 words or more… can anyone confirm one way or the other?
Anyway, thanks for sharing Jessica. :)
I do think that I’m not going to waste time testing them out… not given the fact that they couldn’t respond to an inquiry about a fixed article. Seriously…
I spent FAR too much time promoting crappy content networks instead of my own sites, whether working in a writer or editor capacity. AC is looking more and more like a content network, although without the perks and occasional respect that come from being a dedicated niche author on a topic. I already learned one important lesson… spend your time promoting YOURSELF and not other sites where you write, and you’ll earn much more.
As an example, within 3 months or so of leaving Suite101, my business blog alone was earning me 4 times what they paid me as an editor for two full sections. The difference wasn’t so much in the posting, but in how much more time I had available to market the site. Now I’m working on updating, monetizing, and marketing my other sites and launching new ones, and frankly, the content networks can’t compete for the VAST majority of writers.
If you can market for them, you know enough to market for yourself. So yeah… test or no test, I’m getting a bad vibe from AC and reminders of the hell of network writing. No thank you!
Well I’m not sure the 400 word rule was always in effect during my duration as a member, and I would strongly urge you NOT to test it out, they do take forever to respond or sometimes NEVER do at all.
I see where you’re coming from, I like trying out new stuff to see what works and see what doesn’t – and it makes for good blog material nonetheless!
Well, a quick comment on DailyArticle. I actually created an account and uploaded one article I had lying around. It sold in two days, for $25. It was on the long side (about 600 words) but it’s not something I wanted to take the time to market. Thanks Jessica for the heads up! I think I’ll give this website a try over the next month or so and see what happens. I’ll start by trying to sell any articles I wrote but never placed anywhere else for one reason or another and then see if it’s worth it to write pieces especially for them. I’ll keep everybody updated!
I started toying with things back when this blog was still SixFigureWriters.com. That’s actually why I started creating PLR article sets. I do love trying things (especially things I’m skeptical about), so that I can report back on what I experience, so other writers can learn from it. In this case though, I think it’s pretty clear that AC isn’t a viable income stream for serious writers (at least not compared to pretty much every other option out there).
Dailyarticle is DEF. a good resource, and they are growing, so I like that I can be in the beginning stages of a business —
AND YES, take it from me, don’t waste time on A.C — although my name is all over the web now, and I have got good paying job from people who have read my articles :) – so maybe it was a useful investment.
I think AC may work for beginner writers. When I was first starting and had very few clips under my belt, I sold a lot of articles to Finetuning (gone now). I didn’t have a website at the time, so it also allowed me to create some type of online portfolio where I could send potential clients. It helped me land a lot of really nice gigs. So I would say it’s definitively worth it. Of course, Finetuning used to pay nicely for articles (I averaged $40 a piece), so it’s not like it was time invested for nothing… but still… for writers who have nothing to show, creating a small portfolio in AC can work.
Honestly a lot of my page views came from including that portfolio in my earliest cover letters and clients went there to read my work as samples :) So I have a large number now :) Sneaky sneaky, I know. I want to join Finetuning but it seems they aren’t accepting applications anymore?
No, they closed down a while ago. The website is still up (I guess they still make money from AdSense) but they don’t buy articles anymore (not even from former writers like me). When I was writing for them, I had a feeling they were not going to last long: the payments were too high compared to other content sites, and they were buying A LOT of articles. I think they couldn’t keep up.
Ohh thank you for the heads up – I emailed them!!! That’s a shame that a good paying site cannot last, does that give us hope at all?
I think I lost faith in AdSense when they closed down. My first reaction was –if a huge company that can invest hundreds in hiring pros cannot make enough to keep this going, it’s probably not worth it.
Yeah I really never worked hard at using it – and I really just gave up on it completely as of late.
I ran into a very interesting article today comparing the Associated Content vs eHow Writer Compensation Program (see here: http://tinyurl.com/379sr3). It’s a real eye-opener. AC may not be quite the same as CC, but I believe it’s close enough.
The more I write about my experience, the more I’m not wanting to use it except for a forum to out a company — such as my new article that should be posted today about paperbackswap — A SCAM!
The link isn’t working Diana.
Really? It works for me. I just clicked on it.
The website will not let me post the original one because it’s too long –That’s why I tried TinyURL. How about now? http://tinyurl.com/379sr3
Hmmm, that’s weird. The first time I got this error:
“Error: Unable to find site’s URL to redirect to.”
But now it seems OK. :)
Great :)