Do You Use Associated Content to Make Money Online?
Jul 16th, 2007 by msdanielle
For you bloggers out there, I’m interested to know if any of you use Associated Content [AC] to make any significant money through writing. I ran across a CNET News article the other day entitled “Pay-for blogging site raises questions,” so naturally I had to check it out.
There were two things going on in my mind as I read the article. First, there’s the issue of the article itself. In a nutshell: AC publishes user-provided content; AC makes money off AdSense; writers are paid a variable portion for accepted articles; Google’s head of advertising sits on AC’s board of directors; a Yahoo! board member also sits on AC’s board. Is there a conflict of interest, and if so, is it unethical or illegal? Although interesting, I’m not enough of an expert in business to know the answers to these questions raised. For those of you who are, feel free to leave your thoughts here. I’m more concerned about how AC’s business model is presented to its users — those who generate their unique content for them. So of course, I immediately signed up with AC to see how their system works.
In their About Us page, they claim to be “The People’s Media Company.” Personally, I’m wary about any corporation that claims to be “for the people,” especially when there is monetary incentive for contributions such as news and opinion. But I digress. I couldn’t find any specific information on what they pay their writers. Interestingly enough, the next day I came across Chris Bibey’s blog and he had written a recent article about his recent performance at AC, asking if there are others experiencing similar trends. Bingo! Just what I was looking for. He also publishes a breakdown of how he’s paid on average per article submitted. Feel free to check it out.
I didn’t spend much more time on AC after I discovered Chris’ blog since I didn’t have time to write unique articles for them and wait to see what would be compensated for in return, if anything. But after seeing Chris’ numbers, I have to ask you all, Chris included, if an average of $6.47 per article seems fair for the amount of time spent writing? What additional compensation is included in submitting to AC? Back links? Traffic? I just want to get an idea of what you guys think since I don’t know much about AC. Please leave your thoughts. Thanks!
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If you’re writing posts for AC just for the monetary gain, I think you are better off with some of the other paid posting opportunities such as PPP. With PPP I’ve earned $22 for 2 posts, although most posts are in the $5-$6 range and only require 100-200 words.
Without being familiar with AC, I would assume part of the appeal would be potential traffic or back links. But that would depend on whether they allow a signature line/box that points back to your site and if they allow you to link back to your own site within the context of the article.
Based on your post and what I read at Chris’s blog, it doesn’t seem worth it to me and I don’t have any plans of signing up with them.
how much traffic would make it worth it to you to contribute to them? bc another thing to consider about the difference between PPP and AC is that posting on your own site (PPP) increases your content value, not theirs (AC).
…ok just got back from checking out AC. i clicked on this post right now on the home page (1st link, top right column, in “Showcase”): http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/314396/top_ten_restaurant_pet_peeves.html
in the article, there is no direct link that i can see to the author’s web site. references to “restaurant” and “japanese” go to other AC category pages, thus increasing their SEO (prob using some auto links plugin). i did locate one static link to his blog from his about page which is a PR5: http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/13567/s_thompson.html
Helium is another similar website..
$6.46 is the going rate? I wonder how much that would equate to in hourly pay..
I am not approved for PPP yet but as he said $5-$6 is the going rate for reviews. Considering it takes you 15-20 minutes, that makes an hourly rate of anywhere from $15-$24 which isnt bad. Now if you were making money in the $10 range then you would see an hourly rate of $30-$40 which is quite respectable.
I actually looked into AC myself but because of the restrictions on the content you submit, I decided against it. As Jeff Kee stated, I looked into Helium myself but once again I was turned off because of the restrictions. The pay isn’t significant when compared to the amount you can earn through ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews or PayPerPost. So far, I havent received any offers from either of the three websites but I am sure that as orders start coming in, that I would have a better chance of earning higher income through those websites when compared to Helium or AC.
The main problem is that your article submission to Helium or AC cannot be duplicated on your blog so basically you are “guest blogging” for them where you earn a part of their earnings and above all, you lose some really good content that you could have on your own blog.
Writing for $$$ on blogs is a peon’s drill. I would never do it. Through my web development/marketing/design/consulting business I net anywhere between $50~$100/hr (with few exceptions), and I’m getting into other higher-commission projects (which I will disclose on my blog later) that can potentially land me 6 figures a year while travelling to other countries.
Ask me to write my professional opinion on AJAX and XML technology - I’ll even do that for free (which I’ve done on my blog) for self-marketing and self-development. Ask me to write the future outlook of the Canadian retirement trends in association with the CPP balance as well as housing prices and health care costs, and connect it to the concept of foreign-outsourcing of health care and retirement - I’ll write for the fun of it.
However I would never waste my time sitting at my computer writing corporate-fed junk to make $5~$10/article.
I totally agree with Jeff . . . . i think that time is better spent prospecting for new clients, but if you’re a student or a work at home mom . . . i don’t think it’s that bad of a job to do part time to pay for an extra night out at sizzler, ya know?
Yeah I guess it’s like how I used to wash dishes in highschool to pay for my weekend share of beers. But I’m far past the stages of small petty work like this.
I like what you said to Jeff. I think they make money because people are desperate for ways to make a buck these days, and they will try to make any of these programs work. But the only one it helps out is the owner of the sites that publish the articles. It’s a cheap way for them to sift through submissions for the best content.
Thanks so much for the mention of my blog. I do a lot of posts about AC, and hopefully they will be able to help some people out.
Derek, I definitely see where you are coming from, and PPP is something to consider. But as mentioned, you do have to make the posts on your blog which could detract from your overall goal.
Blogging the Movie, $6.46 is what I made in that one month span, but I would venture to guess that others are doing a bit better. For me, I write AC articles in batches of five; they usually take just about an hour. As you can see, that would work out to just about $32/hour; which is not that bad when you look at it that way. Of course, that would be if you worked full-time, etc.
If anybody has anymore questions, let me know. I am always writing for AC, and always make more posts about it at www.chrisblogging.com!
AC is not for everybody, but is a good way to make some extra money.
hi chris, thank you for adding to this discussion. i fully understand now why you use this service. i’ve been on the fence about publishing sponsored reviews and/or articles, and haven’t done so yet. so it completely makes sense to use another service to host your paid content. you could write about anything and not worry about it mixing with your niche blog content…
if you write in batches of five in the span of one hour, do you consider this content as high quality as the content you would put on your own blog? just trying to get a feel of the level of quality from your perspective. it could well be the same high quality, and that you’re only publishing it on AC bc it’s off topic, yes? or maybe it’s less than the quality you have on your blog?
i’d like to know if you think there is a tipping point at which you are gaining much more from the service than the average user. have your articles landed on the home page, and if so, did it drive a lot of traffic to your blog?
Anytime! As far as quality is concerned, I would say that it is about the same. The main difference being that I spend more time thinking about topics when I write for www.chrisblogging.com. With AC, I enjoy writing about anything and everything. That is what makes AC so great; you can take on any niche.
I have heard that getting on the front page of AC can do wonders, but I have yet to make it there. Hopefully it will come soon enough!
Great write-up Danielle and for Chris, after looking through your posts, have you seen any linkbacks to your site to help drive your own traffic? Or would one just rely on trying to get to the front page to get some traffic?
hi Rob
thanks for your input. i’d like to know as well what kind of traffic someone would get from the home page.
It is good that Chris makes 32 an hour when he does a 5 post batch, but I believe the true dream of making money online is to have your website earning dollars while you play. It does not seem that AC could dirve traffic to your own site. I could be wrong but from looking at it, I do not see how it would.
The only way that I can see that it would drive traffic to your site is if someone saw who posted the article then did some googling to find the author’s site. I’d love to be wrong though…
I think you’ve got to live in the US to get paid by AC. Seems unfair to me.
These are all great points. This is why I like to write so much about AC; the topics of conversation are nearly endless.
Take a look at my content producer page at http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/7539/christopher_bibey.html.You will notice that there is an “affiliations” section where you can add a link to your blog, writing service, etc. I have done both, and must say that I get some traffic this way. In fact, I have received a couple of job offers at www.keywordsandcopy.com because a client has read through my AC page!
i suppose getting exposure to receive additional freelance work would be another great benefit
I sold an article for $45 on www.constant-content.com. Generally speaking, I’d certainly recommend it over Associated Content. Any way you look at it, though, to make money, you’ve got to be able to write quality articles very, very quickly!
hmm i’m going to look into this. you’re a much better writer than i am though. i’d prob get more love at AC
lol
www.constant-content.com is definitely an option; I have used them in the past, but like AC better because you will at least get a yes or no answer on your articles. At constant-content your articles can sit for months on end if nobody wants to buy them…
[…] committing on other blogs everyday I ran across an interesting post over at MsDanielle.com. The post discusses Associated Content and some concerns Ms. Danielle has with said company, she also discusses what they pay one […]
Chris you’ve got to get an avatar!
I have made about $70 on Associated Content and about $50 on Helium. This is all from a couple hundred articles over a few months time. Another site I like is articlepanda.com, they don’t pay but allow you to link back to your site and the minimum word count is only 200 words. You can also try selling your writing on ebay in the form of ebooks. Hope this helps.
I am a member of AC and I have over 700 views and I make pretty appalling income. It would be great if I could make more $ while still being able to write my articles…
I have a hard time believing this is even a debate. Writers should be paid for content when they make it, not when and if it gets popular enough.
I started using AC just because I love to write, and blogging for the sake of blogging isn’t enough for me.
They accept any topic, all sorts of content, but they also have articles up for grabs, of which I have claimed two. One of those made it to their front page recently because of the quake.
I have written 3 articles… two assigned and so I was paid 4 bucks per article upon review. They paid via pay pal right away. And I market my posts so my pay per thousand monies is adding up. This is just for those three.
They also have incentive this month to write 5 and get paid a bonus 10 bucks. Articles don’t take too much time to write but siting sources sometimes does… however what was appealing to me was the residuals… that can potentially add up. Also you can choose to give them exclusive, non exclusive or no rights. You might not get paid per post that way but you will always make money on residuals according to page views.
I like it so far. But I am not dependent on it. It is however, great ebay shopping money for me right now.