Just got my first offer from Associated Content and it was a joke!

I wrote a article of almost 1400 words, 5 of their pages, and submitted it to Associated Content as an exclusive. I wasn't thinking I would get a lot, but I thought probably around $8 or so. HA! Their offer was almost half of that!

I was totally insulted. I changed it to non-exclusive and resubmitted just to see what would happen, but they're probably going to offer me $2 now.

Is this normal for them? I just can't see accepting that much money for the article, because I can make more than that on adsense putting it on Hubpages. I would have accepted $8, it being my first article, but less than $5 is just ludicrous.

 

I tried submitting a few as exclusive and then as non-exclusive to see the difference in the offer. I found it made very little, if any difference, in the amount offered. With AC, you are better off only submitting non-exclusive so you can possibly use the material again later.

I also rarely write longer pieces for AC as it just isn't worth it to me. Smaller pieces (500-800) words seem to do better for me. I really only use them as practice anyhow but it brings in a few dollars here and there from performance bonuses.

 

Yeah, I had accepted it, and contacted the admin to see if I could retract it. She seemed to think it was an offer for non-exclusive, so maybe that explains it. I didn't want to be a pest, but I wrote her back and told her I'd accept the offer for non-exclusive. I can put a lead-in to it on my blog with a "more" link and get some traffic, plus possibly get some adsense hits while it's there.

You're right. I'm not gonna submit any longer articles to them anymore. I just submitted it because it didn't really fit in any of my blogs, but I can do a snippet and get by with it.

 

I really never used them as a major income source, I only placed them there if a client didn't purchase FULL RIGHTS from me. I have received a $50 offer for a 300 word article before though. But then again I've been active on there a long time, have a clout of 8 (about 150K page views) and am a TOP 1000 producer, so that may affect the earnings I receive there.

 

Well, yeah, I didn't expect to make mega bucks on my first piece, but seriously, they gave me the same offer for the non-exclusive as they did for exclusive. I think they just thought it was non-exclusive from the start, but that's o.k. I'm not writing there for a steady income, instead, just for a few extra bucks until I get Adsense rolling (which it is doing faster and faster these days) and some affiliate stuff coming in (which it isn't so far).

Was just shocked, since .01/a word is considered the bottom of the run.

I will definitely not be writing over 500 words much there anymore, though, until I get my clout up.

 

That is insane. I'd rather work free. Glad you did not sell yourself short.

 

Less than $5 for that many words is a big insult.

 

But now I know why there are so many crappy articles on there. Nobody would put much effort into something for that much money.

The funniest thing was that I read a "tutorial" about how you progressed on AC, and it said that the average person after a year is only making like $120 a month, because they only get 100 page hits on each article. Are they for real? I get more hits than that on Hubpages in a day! Looks like the people at AC don't read each other's articles, and neither does anyone else.

Come to think of it, the articles don't come up much in search results. There must not be much Google Love for AC.

 

I haven't submitted that many articles to AC but the page views is so variable. If it is a timely topic with a lot of interest, you can get a lot more page views than 100. My suggestion to you, since you like HubPages anyway, is to create HubPages that promote your AC articles.

You didn't mention what the topic was but if you can create 1400 words on it, I'm sure you could whip up a decent 300-400 word piece to post at HubPages with a link to the other article over at AC. You already did the initial work so you might as well promote it a bit and earn more.

 

AC is a good place to learn from other writers. That's where I first heard about DP.

 

Wow, that's bad.

Yet another reason why writers should learn how to profit from their own work.

There's a lot of money out there.

 

Yeah, AssociatedContent is tough when it comes to trying to make money. They pay better for:

1) heavily trafficked keywords/topics. If your topic/keywords aren't MAJOR competitive in the big scheme of what's being searched for online, they aren't going to pay you much for the article.

2) writing with strong keyword density that still reads well but doesn't alarm Google by being ridiculously keyword-heavy.

AC has tutorials about how to achieve this fine balance. Did you read those articles?

All that being said, AC is simply not a smart place to try to make money. For most people, AC is a just a great place to showcase your work in a niche in order to make money elsewhere.

Potential clients may be impressed when you send them links to your work there, and hire you.

Also, a few new clients may click your signature link and come contact you at your website because they discovered you on AC.

That, to me, is the reason to write on AC. It's not a place to directly make a living for 90% of the people who're there.

Bottom line is, you probably need to change the way you view AC as a benefit. It can be beneficial as a potential outside job-getter. That's about it. And there's nothing wrong with that, if you're pursuing work elsewhere.

 

I write for ac regularly and i have some tips:
1. Write articles of 400-410 words,y uo save time, and they don't pay you more for quantity.
2. Include pictures, it can increase your offer by 50c to 1.50, and you can just get them off google images as long as you credit the site you go it from
3. There isn't a lot of money in page views. You are paid 1.50 for 1000 page views, which is hard tog et, and 1.50 is dirt. I recommend spending time writing more articles instead of promoting existing ones.
4. They don't really care about quality. It can be horrible writing, as long as spelling, grammar, and its in the right form, and you can still get pretty good money for it.

And when you look at the payments, at an average of 4 dollars per article + 20c pageviews, divided by 400 words, you're getting about .0105 per word.

-Noah

 

also, you CAN get good pageviews from articles. I have an article on there about having a better golf swing ( http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/188548/how_to_swing_a_golf_club.html?cat=50 ) it has 2759 views, in other words, 3.86 cents for pageviews plus $4.56 up front for a grand total of $8.42 for a little article SO FAR

-Noah

 

My wife used them for a while. She is still getting a couple of dollars a month for pageviews. I would venture to say that most articles she made at least $9 an article. It is still not big money but she enjoyed doing it.

 

I wouldn't discount them completely. I barely write for them simply because I don't have a creative bone in my body and can't come up with ideas. That said, they aren't your spot for serious articles. If you really write a good 1400 word piece, I'd try to sell it on Constant Content or Daily Article (depending on whether the niche is good).

Associated Content certainly isn't for professional work though and you won't get a lot of benefit from the base offer. I will say something about the page views though, they are really nice. I wrote about 2 serious articles for them. One was about why I liked Trident splash (That ranks really high for the keyword too ). I then wrote a guide for how to fight enemies in Stubbs the Zombie. They each had $3.38 offered. I went ahead and sold them.

These weren't exactly genius pieces. I was basically bored while my Internet connection was dead, so I threw a piece together. The rate for the Trident one was actually close to 1 cent a word even.

The page views were what I really liked though. Those stupid articles have earned about $3.50 over the last few months. My advertising efforts included a few stumbles and a submission to digg. I've done nothing with them for a long time, and it just puts another 3 cents into the account each week, like clockwork.

The key is to write SEO articles or tips pages. These do better in the long run. You may write a moving piece, but AC just isn't established enough for it to be truly appreciated.

I haven't personally tried HubPages though. I guess I can't really compare the two. I am interested in how you did with those. I could never get the hang of sites like that.

Just my 2 cents.

 

sounds like arip off.

By the time you get done writing the article, and submitting it to AC, you would have been better off setting up your own website, driving traffic to it and make way more in adsense

 

I Absolutely agree with Josef! Selling articles, no matter how bad or small, for less than $5 is a crime for writers! Chin up, eyes red, knuckled up and ready to bloody bone! Be like that and success will be your own biatch!

 

Associated Content doesn't really care how long the article is, as long as it's over 400 words. They won't pay more for more words. Most people don't stick around to read that long of an article on a website anyway, unless they're really interested in it.

I think that the way to make money there is through pageviews. At least, considering the number of articles I have published there, I think I get a decent amount deposited into my paypal account every month even though I haven't published anything there in a while.

 

I would suggest you submit a smaller article and see what they are willing to pay you. IF the earnings are on similar lines, I would rather quit AC!