How to Make Money With Associated Content

Associated Content is an online content site that has published hundreds of thousands of quality content articles.

AC is much like Wikipedia, About.com, and other informational sources like that, but they are a lot better. AC has a much better organized view and get what you are looking for with out having to sift through dozens of links and work your way around ads.

So how do they get all this content? You guessed- people have to write about it. Associated Content has a knowledgeable team that is constantly submitting articles on various subjects.

Everything from business, health, games, product reviews, science, poetry recipes, and much more is submitted by their team of Content Producers.

AC is not only fun but it's a great way to get noticed. If you enjoy freelance work the Associated Content is a great place to start or even continue your journey.

Not sure what to write about? No problem, Associated Content usually has a long list of Calls for Content (C4C's).

In addition to having fun and getting noticed, AC pays you for your work!

Upfront Payment
Associated Content pays $3-20 per article! The pay depends on the quality of the article including format, grammar, and spelling.

Among the basics of writing, AC also requests that are helpful to their unique library. Articles that are saturated on the web usually won't get an upfront payment. However, they still would be eligible for submission and you could still make money with the Page View Bonus! An example would be writing about Brittney Spears. If you were to write an article about Brittney Spears shaving her head, it most likely wouldn't receive an upfront payment. Why? Because there are already millions of pieces out there about that same thing. However, while you didn't get an upfront payment because it's too common, you would still get plenty of page views as long as you were searchable (sometimes several, several thousands which equals a good Page View Bonus).

By being searchable I mean using keywords that would help you get to the top of the list and actually be found on search engines with out having to go to the 959 page of Google.

Writing an article such as How to Grow Gardenias would be acceptable. I actually just made $5.01 off of a 400 word article that was about growing and caring for Gardenias.

Not to mention as time goes by your pay gets better. AC factors in several and I mean several things when offering a payment for an article. Other then the obvious such as grammar, spelling, keywords, searchable, good topic, etc...they also look at how your page views are. If you have 100 articles and only 6,000 page views over the last year chances are that you aren't doing something write and your content isn't searchable or else you aren't writing about things people are actually interested in. But, if you have 60 articles and have 50,000 page views then you are doing ok. However, if you just published all those articles a week ago then that is GREAT!

I have some articles that only get 100 views a week and then I have some that are getting a few thousand a week. Over time your average page view builds up. The higher your page view average the higher your upfront offer will be.

Performance Bonus (Page View Bonus)
In addition to paying you for each submission you get a Bonus Payment each month! For every 1000 page views, you get $1.50. I know doesn't sound like much does it? Well it adds up! Trust me! 10,000 page views will easily get you $15. And when you are getting updates every 3-7 days it's nice. I tend to get about a $35 payout every month just on page views alone. Don't get me wrong. When I first started it wasn't that good. My first payout was I think....$7 and some change. However, I only had $15 plus I made $48 off of those articles from upfront payments.

The page views bonus has continued to rise. Some of the top producers who have a few hundred articles are bringing in a few hundred dollars a month just off of page views. Not even writing articles. The best part is even if you stop writing, you will continue to get your page view bonus for as long as your account exists. Simply logging in once every 90 days will keep you active.

What can I say? This is the 21st century and it's a transaction on the computer...how do you think you get paid? PAYPAL! Yep, Paypal! It's quick and easy and honestly it works better for me then a check because I can use my Paypal account immediately.

Simply sign up for Paypal if you haven't already. You can also get a Paypal debit card like I did. I can use my Paypal money anywhere that Master Card is accepted; Wal-Mart, the mall, online shops, etc.

Paypal requires a bank account or credit card when you sign up so you can add your money from Associated Content to your bank account with in a few minutes with a few simple clicks.

Not long! When you submit an article it goes into review. Once in review it usually takes 1-5 days to get it reviewed then once it's accepted they will offer you certain amount for your article.

Once you accept the article it will go into processing and then be published on the Internet with in a day or two. Usually you get paid 2 days after you accept the offer (if not sooner).

Performance Bonus works a little different. AC is constantly doing page view updates at least once a week if not more. Every update you get to see how many page views you had for each article and how much you made. The page views add up each update and go onto your dashboard along with how much money you have earned for the current month. Usually by the tenth of each month they do a full payout of last months Performance Bonus. Like I said before, my first payout for page views was less then $10 but now I am near a $100 a month. Not counting the payments I get for my articles when they are published. Those of coarse get paid immediately.

Well that just changed! Depending on what clout you are you now get different pay.

At the least it's $1.50 per 1,000 page views. However, with the new changes you can earn up to $2.00 per every 1,000 page views depending on your clout.

Here is the Performance Bonus Scale from Associated Content:

AC's Performance Bonus Scale

This scale also explains how the clout levels work.

To help get a better feel for what to expect I will share my story on page views.

When I first started out I knew nothing about key words or what was popular. I started writing about what ever came to my mind next. My first month my payment was only like $2 the next month it was $7, the third month I was making $15 and it constantly went up. The more articles you have the more page views you will get each month. As I build my library up my page views bonus gets higher. I usually average between 15,000 and 30,000 page views a month. I have had a lot more and them months where they were lower. Now that I know more about keywords and how to promote my work, my page views are constantly rising!

There are some CP's that are making a few hundred a month just from page views because they have a few hundred articles and some real searchable articles!

Simply writing an article by throwing together sentences doesn't necessarily mean you will get paid. You need to have a nice article that is searchable, has valuable information, good keywords and ad alignment. Here, you will find valuable articles that explain all of this to you including how to use keywords and much more. These articles have been written by some of the finest AC Content Producers and have helped hundreds of CP's.

Web Writing, SEO and Keywords by Pam Gaulin

5-Minutes to More Page Views - Make Your Content Netscape Friendly by Donna Porter

Keyword Density Not Enough for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by Nannette Richford

Promote Your Content Online by Bartleby

How to Promote Your Articles on Associated Content by Michelle Devon (Michy)

AC Learning Curve by Pam Gaulin

How to Improve Your Writing for AC by Brandi Thornsberry

In addition to Associated Content, I also write for a few other good online publishers.

Helium is another great online site that I write for! Check out, How to Make Money With Helium

And of course Squidoo. Squidoo has been very beneficial for me because not only does it allow me to create 'mini sites' for myself it gives me that chance to link all my articles in a central location and then branch off with my articles to a specific topic such as Gardening.

This lens has won 1st Place in The Squidoo Lens Contest! Thanks to everyone who voted for it!