Review: Associated Content

I began writing for Associated Content about a year ago when finances were getting difficult and I needed some quick income without having to wait for the application process to a real full-time job (at the time, Albuquerque’s job market was already crashing and has not improved since, unfortunately). A roommate told me about the money she was making writing for Associated Content, so I decided to give it a try.

How it works

Associated Content is a site which pays you to submit original articles you have written, which they will then publish and pay you for the views generated. They also have an up-front payment option for most categories of articles, though I’m finding few actually end up accepted for this.

How I work

I treat Associated Content like an internship and write when the fancy strikes me and I have a topic idea that I think will sell well on Stumble Upon or a similar website. I treat the page-view money (currently CPM $1.50) and any up-front payment as a bonus, which happens on about 2/5ths of my articles so far. Recently, I have had a higher – around 50% success rate – after figuring out what sells well to the editors.

Sometimes, articles you think sucked will actually do incredibly on Stumble Upon when somebody picks it up. Most of the money I have made through the site has been random bouts of social media love, which each generated over 1,000 views.

My opinion

I think Associated Content is a decent site with a few misguided editors. The people who review articles are often seemingly stingy and will easily refuse something you have worked on for hours for upfront payment. I like the prompt payments, and they are certainly legitimate, but I don’t know that I write for them as often as I could – or, rather, should – so I don’t have a lot to say. If I ever start writing for them very frequently, I will update with a fresher review.

Survival tips

Surviving the editorial process is kind of difficult. Here are my best pieces of advice:

• Follow trends before they become burned out and others pick up on them.
• Learn what the editors like early on and write only that material.
• Search for every topic idea on both AC and Google before you start planning it out. It’ll save you a lot of heartache.
• Treat page-views as income and up-front payments as bonuses. This is the only way you will maintain your sanity.
• Don’t get disappointed easily. If you do take criticism hard, or have little patience, do NOT use this site. I assure you it will suck.
• Have little pride in your writing and change your writing when they do criticize your topics or approach.

That’s all I have to say for now. I’ll be updating this list from time to time as I learn something new. Hope I helped somebody.