Han Van Meegerin's Race to Page Views Contest

Associated Content Contributor Han Van Meegerin stormed into AC in late March and has since gained over 150 fans with his interviews of fellow contributors and enthusiasm to make himself a success on AC. But with his page views totaling less then 15,000 thus far, he has taken it upon himself to run a contest of sorts within AC.

Racing to page views is its theme and there are several different contests being held at once, depending on where the participants page views currently lie. He has lain out the contest very well, his articles on the subject humorous, as if he's announcing a NASCAR race. And the picture above shows an example of how Meegerin has lain out the contest for everyone in a simple to read database.

I applaud Meegerin's gumption, eagerness, and initiative. Contributors who support their fellow writers out of the goodness of their own hearts is something I admire. It is also the sense of comraderie that surrounds most of the contributors that I find appealing about AC. We all love to write and we all have the same goals.

If you'd like to support the racers and the emcee of the race, check out Meegerin's Contributor's Profile and take a look at the slideshows to see who's in the lead. Take a look at the articles detailing the race and have a nice chuckle as you imagine him announcing a foot race. Leave a comment on his page for him to tell him what a great job he is doing.

A Couple of Newbie Tips

Tip #1 - If you read any information on the content you are writing, you must cite your source or you'll risk having the article declined. Even after all my time on AC, I received a decline notice the other day because I inadvertently included my sources in the "Resources" section instead of at the end of my article like the guidelines stipulate. Write that one up at a big Homer Simpson, "Doh!" for me. I knew better. I must've been super tired. In other words, at the end of your articles, write like so:

Sources: (then proceed to link up your sources here)

Tip #2 - It is unlikely you'll make enough money to live off of just by writing for AC. Look around to write for other sites. Having said this, you can make the most out of your content by offering them to AC as non-exclusive. I've made this mistake so trust me. There's not much difference in the amount of upfront payment that AC will offer you compared to the money you can make by offering the same article (maybe tweeked a little) to another site. Don't limit your options! Offer as non-exclusive!

Thank you. That's all I have for today.

Pulled Article - Update

I got an unexpected notice a few minutes ago about my original pulled sweeps article. AC republished it and sent me a note of apologies. However, since most of the sweeps listed in the article were null and void now, having been originally published a month ago, I decided to go ahead and take down the article myself, as it was a display only article, before I was able to obtain page views. I didn't want my readers to be reading up on sweeps that they couldn't enter at this point in time.

I appreciate the time the AC staff put in to finding out about the situation, but again, I got no definitive answer as to why it was pulled in the first place, just a "We apologize." And I'm glad that my inquiry did not lead to the other contributor's articles being pulled. I'm also glad that there weren't very many page views initially associated with it because my old page views from the article were not restored when the article republished.

Thank you, AC, for responding to my inquiry and taking the time to look into it for me and I'm sorry that I had to pull the article myself after you guys taking the time to republish it for me. I meant no disrespect in doing so, but I didn't want my readers thinking this was something current when it wasn't.

Associated Content Month End Review

Welcome to the official month end review for my Associated Content writing. This month will mark my fifth completed month with AC. Here's how the stats look so far: My average daily page views are 248 views a day. That's up 27 from last month. My page view bonus earnings are only a few cents shy of a dollar higher then last month. Even though it's not that much, it's still higher and I take pride in that. I published 23 articles this month. That was higher then my goal of at least 20. There are some writers that can accomplish hundreds of articles in one month. Just imagine the page views and upfronts for that!

In any case, the real money came from upfront offers this month. While upfront offers are considered low by most writers' standards, Associated Content is probably the second highest paying site there is when it comes to paying upfront for content articles. I was paid upfront for 12 of the 23 articles this month and pulled in a nice chunk of change for them.

As far as July is concerned, I'm going to be doing something different. I was considering an experiment in page views but I have to abandon that idea for now in favor of something less then monetary. I need to finish the first draft of my novel. Anyone who has been reading my Touch of Fiction blog knows I've been feverishly trying to sell one of my novels and also know that I've been slowly (very slowly) making headway with a new novel I'm writing. I've decided to slack on AC this month in order to focus my attention on my novel. I will be writing a few articles and blog posts here and there as the time and inspiration strike but it won't be near the 20 something count this month. I'm choosing to make my fiction a priority at this time. Creative writers will understand this need.

I also need to update a current situation. Associated Content wrote me back about my DO article that had been pulled last month and about the similar articles other sources told me about. (Please note that if you ever have to contact AC about an article, yours or anyone else's, it's not enough to provide a link. You have to put in the title as well.) I provided them with additional information and they said they would get back to me. I applaud their efforts to find the solution to problems such as this.

What are your goals for July?

Still Frustrated - Update

I did get a nice reply from AC yesterday about the photo that had been removed from one of my articles. Their response was that they didn't know what happened or why it had been removed but that it was up now (yes, because I resubmitted it) but to contact them in the future should another issue arise like it. Maybe who ever reviewed my original piece decided that I couldn't have taken that picture? I mean, I think it's a pretty good picture and the effects I did on it were pretty cool. I don't know. At this point, I can only speculate why. I've had problems with photos before because there is a very strict rule when using photos on AC. I don't have a problem with the rules, though, and understand why they are in place. But when I use a photo that is from an approved source and cite all relevant credits and it still doesn't get put up with the article, then I feel that extra work to provide a photo is all for nothing. Most of the time, I put my own work up.

BUT, then I get another upfront rejection on an article about proper social networking. I'm going to publish it as a DO (display only) as soon as I get finished typing this. They said it didn't contain enough new information. Okay, maybe I'm getting a little too comfortable with submitting for upfront (I have had many articles accepted this month) that I'm getting a little burnt here.

I think it's time to take the rest of the week off from AC and work on my fiction. Let's start fresh with gusto on Monday.

See you then.

Not Very Happy About AC Right Now

I'm all about blogging for the good of Associated Content. But I also don't want to ignore the other stuff that comes my way. No matter how much I like AC, no matter how much anyone likes something, there will inevitably be those times that are frustrating.

If you've been following this blog (which has gotten hundreds of hits so I know someone's reading it!), then you know about the sweepstakes article that I wrote earlier in the month that was pulled for being too promotional. I get it. What I don't get is the number of similar articles that have went up on AC this past month which were nothing short of the same format I used to write my sweeps articles. Days after the first article of its kind went up, it remains available to view. I was actually alerted to these articles after more then one source read my blog and contacted me about them. I waited for them to be pulled and when they weren't, I contacted AC yesterday concerning the inconsistency in pulling DO (Display Only) articles. When I hear something, I will update. In any case, it's not that I want another source's articles pulled. I don't. I would just like to know why AC will pull mine but leave other similar articles up.

I also had a picture removed from one of my articles. It was a picture that I took and edited myself and was relevant to the article. Granted, it is not an article that gets a lot of page views but I know statistically, articles with pictures get more page views then others. I don't know how long it had been removed before I noticed it. I had the same photograph on an article before that and it hadn't been removed. Since the article in question was a DO, I resubmitted the picture with the article. So far, it hasn't been removed. I also wrote admin and let them know that I had resubmitted the photo and was wondering why it had been removed in the first place as sources are not notified of picture removals. I received an odd email back, letting me know that they would take a look at the situation and wanted to know the title of the article in question, even though in my original email stood the link to the article itself. I wrote them back. I haven't heard anything back as of yet but the picture remains on my article. That would be fine, but I would still like to know why it was pulled, if not for anything but my future reference when submitting articles. The two articles which have the same photograph was the HIV article (which was also picked up by both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today), which was published first and the photo was never removed and The Other Pam in which I resubmitted the photo with the article.

In any case, when and if I hear anything back about these issues, I will update to let my readers know.

The next problem I've had with AC this week stems from an article concerning toddler transitional objects. I write for USMOMSTODAY as the toddler section contributing editor. So while I write toddler related articles for them, I will offer the article first to AC for upfront. I knew it wouldn't pull in a high upfront but I wasn't expecting them to decline it altogether. Their reason? It wasn't a topic typically searched about. I don't get that. I get a lot of my toddler article ideas from Yahoo! Answers, paying attention to what people ask there and then deciding what to write about. There were many questions about transitional objects. I have also had articles in the past that I've submitted and they've accepted for upfront (even if it was a low upfront) that I know weren't topics typically searched. For example, my article about writing for role playing games, and more recent my article about geeks, nerds, and dorks, and even more recent, A Toddler's Garbage Can Fascination. I see the declined article being no different then any of those subject matters which were all offered upfront payment.

In any case, like I said, I'll update with any new news. That's enough of my griping for now.

I Want to Be Optimistic

Next week will mark the end of June. While I know this is a little premature, I'm going to start taking stock of my end of month review. First, I made a mathematical error on my averages for last month. I don't know how I made this error (only reason maybe is that math and I don't jive), but my average daily page views last month totaled 221 views a day, not the just over 100 views a day that I previously quoted. Good, right? Not really. The reason I discovered this error is that despite all the writing I've done so far, my page views are simply holding. I'm told that June is usually a bad time for page views. I'm hoping it's just a slump in the year and nothing more. In any case, this month, I've felt like I was struggling just to keep up my page view average, which is currently standing at 225 views a day. Upfront payments, considering I had nothing for upfront last month, is of course considerably higher. I haven't checked yet, but I believe my upfront earnings are higher then I've ever gotten. I will confirm that at a later date.

Did I learn more about SEO like I wanted? Yes and no. There were a number of very nice sources who had no problem being critical in the forums for me. Thanks to Tsu Dho Nimh and Carol Bengle Gilbert for their insight. I needed that. But, I still don't know much more then I did before. It's not about trying to pack keywords into an article. It's about focusing, zeroing in an a particular topic. I'm still learning.

Did I reach my goal of at least 20 articles? Yes, and then some. Even though I still write for another site and my blogs, I still managed, so far to have 21 articles published and a few more still waiting in the queue. I've had two articles declined to edit and resubmit and one that was completely pulled for being "too promotional".

Overall, I feel like it has been a good month. Not resounding, but good, nonetheless. I'm also hoping to be able to write even more next month but with three children all day, I'm not sure I can actually do it without overwhelming myself. I really don't know how those who write 10+ articles a day can do it. I guess it takes practice and persistence.

Stay tuned for my "official" end of the month review and for an experiment in page views that I want to try next month. Happy writing!