A Struggling Writer

I found Nancy Canfield, a fellow writer on AC via the most commented links. I actually found the most commented section (which I don't usually check) after reading this article from Jennifer Wagner.

Any way, I was intrigued by the title: "My Love/Hate Affair with Associated Content". This writer's struggle is what causes many writers on AC to give up and remain as an inactive source on AC from that point on. You can read her article here.

Thank you, Nancy, for continuing on. I feel I need to quote Tim Allen here. "Never give up! Never surrender!

Is Associated Content Worth It?

When I logged on to Stat Counter yesterday to check my blog statistics, I was surprised by a keyword phrase that was used to locate this blog. The phrase was, "is associated content worth it". I can see the person sitting there, contemplating how to make some extra money, or maybe even try to work full time online. Apparently they've been enticed by the Associated Content blurbs and wanted to hear some testimonies on the subject.

So I'm going to answer that question now. Is Associated Content worth it? My answer is that it is only worth what you make of it. As with any other online venture, you have to work at it and keep writing new content in order to keep upping your page view averages. It's the same with blogs or anything else you do. And sometimes it is really frustrating work as you soon discover that some articles get hit big and some do not.

Finding a regular full time job online where you are making the same thing you could make outside the home is very few and far between. It is so rare in fact that many employers who offer these types of jobs often have the job filled before even posting it anywhere. The problem? Millions upon millions of people want to work from home. Whether it's to be close to your children or just so you can sit in your jammies and work, working at home is the top rated job dream. And THAT'S why there are so, so many scams out there.

Let me just tell you a little bit about working at home. For me, it was a necessity. We couldn't exactly be comfortable with one income but when I started checking around for day care prices when I was pregnant (surprise!) with my second son, I realized that between day care for two children, gas, and all the little other expenses required for commuting back and forth to work, that I would only bring home around 10% of my paycheck. I needed to stay home with them. So I began to search for an online job or a job I could do at home. If you'll read back when I first started this blog, you'll see where I started out writing for Helium but was dissatisfied with it. But keep in mind, up until that point, I'd been searching. I tried a few things here and there that I didn't like and just didn't have the heart to stick to.

It took me a little time to start writing for Associated Content, but when I did start, I began to realize that it was worth it for me. Now, Associated Content is long past the point of offering twenty something dollars an article. Most offers for me hover between $3 and $5. Some writers have reported receiving up to $7 upfront. (Let me reiterate that upfront offers are only available to United States residence because of red tape international tax code stuff that I don't understand enough to explain.) Even if you do get upfronts plus page view bonuses, you need to realize that it is gonna take some networking and time to be able to make your articles really worth something. I know of writers who make in excess of $400 a month from AC. But they've also been there awhile and have learned the ropes. They had the patience to stick it out and make it worth something to them. While I can't boast those numbers yet, I do feel like I'm on the right track, (*cough* bragging to follow) especially when I checked my Google alerts this morning and found my AC article links on half a dozen websites including The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

So what does this mean to you? You sign up, you start writing and submitting. That's it. Along the way, you'll learn more, you'll write more, you'll start to gain a following. My first month on AC earned me 4 fans, approximately $20 something in upfront payments and a whopping $.09 on the page view bonus. Now I have 40 fans, many of them actual subscribers, and I've more then tripled my earnings and it's only been six months. I can only imagine what I can do in six more. Some new AC writers are earning even more in their first month. But you have to stick with it and keep working at it.

One more thing. Don't expect AC to become a full time gig. Many of the "seasoned" writers on AC also write for other sites or maintain their own blogs as a source of income. But AC is a great place to start the learning process.

Not that I want to go pick out china patterns with AC but you get the drift.

I Still Don't Know Nothin'

Interesting goings on in the land of AC. My experience this week with SEO was, for one article a bit of a failure, and for another one a good one. After rewriting one article after declining the upfront, I submitted it again and got the same offer I did the first time. I thought that was kinda funny that I spent more time on it and ended up getting the same thing. Then, the article I expected to get rejected for upfront actually pulled in the highest upfront offer I've ever received! Let's give a round of applause to the fact that I still don't know nothin' 'bout nothin'. I have to give kudos to Tsu Dho Nimh for taking the time to offer valuable feedback to me in the forums. I'm taking the advice to heart and will work hard to not let that feedback go to waste.

While I don't often have time to pop my head into the AC forums so much lately, I did feel compelled to put a warning there when I saw an ad on an AC article for a questionable literary agency that is being investigated for unethical practices. ACDarnell was quick to respond and the ads have reportedly been removed. Thanks for the quick work, guys. There's enough scam stuff that writers have to put up with and it makes me feel better knowing that AC is taking steps to reduce the promoting of scams on their site. Hoo-ra.

And off topic just a bit, but still pertaining to AC, I would like to spread a little etiquette for new sources. It is not proper etiquette to ask another source to favorite you or subscribe to you just because you've subscribed to them. If you wish to swap subscriptions with other sources, then there is a place in the AC forum for doing just that. The way I see it, if someone likes what I write, then they will either favorite me or subscribe to me. This is the equivalent of inviting people to your birthday party and then telling them that you want them to get you a $50 gift card from The Home Depot. It borders on rude. If I like your work enough to want to get updates, then I'll subscribe to you. Please don't ask me to do so just because you've favorited me. Thank you.

And with that, I've got a short story to publish.

The Bad Part of Writing for AC

I got an article pulled today. It was an article highlighting various win cash sweepstakes. The feedback to this article said that it was too promotional. This only makes the second article in six months that's been pulled from AC after I've published them as a DO. Even though I know it's not personal, I still can't help but feel like I've been cut down a notch every time something like this happens.

The thing is that I've seen a number of articles on AC that follow the format of, "I've looked up these things online, and here are a few noteworthy ones." That's exactly how I formed my article. I researched through a great number of individual sweepstakes (spending more time then I usually would on an article, I might add) and only chose the ones to write about that were easy, free, and offered a substantial reward. The comments I had gotten already for it the few days it was up was promising. It had 41 page views that I can't get back now. Thank goodness it wasn't higher.

While my first impulse was to be offended, I took a little while to take stock. While I can see the idea that it might be too promotional, I don't understand why it was pulled while other similar content remains. But, alas, it is not my site, I don't own it and they are certainly within their rights to reject it. They pay me to put up what they want. I don't pay them to put up what I want.

On a side note, I had an article awhile back that was rejected for upfront being called a "website review" while another source got an upfront offer for a similar article about another website. Sometimes I just don't understand the inconsistency. I suspect it's the theory of different AC employees have different opinions when it comes to deciphering the guidelines.

It's not going to discourage me from submitting content. On the bright side, I was offered upfronts for two articles today that I wrote last week, one of which I accepted, the other which I declined and posted in the Workshop forum for some SEO pointers in hopes to improve it. I'm almost certain that my next article to be reviewed will be declined for upfront. Guess we'll see.

My week has been all outta whack! Time to regroup and reorganize if I want to reach my 20 article goal by the end of the month.

Reorganizing is Not a Bad Thing

So I'm on the road to accomplishing my goals for the month when out of nowhere a child swoops down and is now a semi-permanent fixture in my household while her mother is working. It's a hard job, taking care of three children under the age of 6. I'm going slightly out of my mind at this point.

This coupled with me acquiring another job this week (I'm the new Toddler section contributing editor for USMOMSTODAY.com! Yay!) has seriously impaired my ability to be organized. But that's okay. As time progresses, it is okay to change goals so as not to be overwhelmed and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.

So instead of eight articles for AC this week, I'm knocking it down to four, two which will be submitted for upfront. Other article ideas I'm saving for next week. I can only do so much and when it starts to get flabbergasting, I need to step back and reorganize. I'm also concerned about my fiction goals for the week. I'm hoping to get at least 4,000 words done on my novel. (You can read my fiction journey here.) I also have to print out another novel to submit.

In any case, I'm happy to report that my "Best of May" article is completed! You can read my picks here.

Have a great day, all!

Goals Met for the Week

After what I consider a very good month with Associated Content, I jumped into the first week of June with gusto! Unfortunately, because I concentrated so much on entertainment news last month, I've almost forgotten how to write general content articles! Ahhhhh! So I struggled for topics to write about that wasn't entertainment. I did two entertainment news last week (which earned me a surprise celebrity follower on Twitter), and submitted three others for upfront. I haven't yet been offered anything on those; I almost suspect one will be rejected, but I wasn't sure about it so I submitted it for upfront anyway. One's a newbie guide to a popular website, another is a challenge to become a cloth shopping bag user, and another is how to save some money on your electric bill. I've read up on SEO quite a bit this past week so I'm hoping I'll get some higher upfronts. If not, I'm gonna beg the Workshop forum for help.

In store next week: I have three display only articles planned, two along the theme of free money and stuff and the other will be the publishing of my second installment of "Pamela's Best of AC Creative Writing and Slideshows". (I'm publishing the latter so that Han Van Meegerin will stop bugging me! Just kidding, friend.) I also have four upfront articles planned (all articles along the same theme). K. Karl's pregnancy series has my brain a'churning.

So my monthly goals are going along so far so good. After over a month without upfronts, I'll be happy to get some extra money coming in again.

Tripling Earnings

As May comes to a close, I find myself having tripled what I earned in April. This is due in large part to the number of entertainment news articles I've done. I published 14 articles in May - Nothing I wrote qualified for upfront payments as I did 6 entertainment news articles, 1 book review, 1 movie review, 1 memoir for Mother's Day, 1 humor piece, 1 general news article (which was rejected for upfront so I published it as a Display Only and it was picked up by USA Today the next day), 1 general entertainment article, and 1 review of AC Creative Writing and Slideshows for April. To view the articles I wrote just click on my profile here and scroll down the list.

But even though I didn't get upfront for anything last month, my page views skyrocketed and I found myself at Clout 6 before I even realized I was close to doing so. This will be my biggest performance payment yet.

At current status, I'm averaging over a hundred page views a day. Woo-hoo! I was excited about this until one of my fellow writers I'm following on Twitter bragged that she was averaging over 7,000 page views a day. Wow. Bragging rights well deserved.

My goal for June is to write at least 20 articles this month, learn more about SEO which I've been basically ignoring, and to submit more for upfront. I want to be able to come back and brag that I've tripled my earnings again.