Here is another great way to make money online.
Make approximately $150/month writing 1 article per day, 5 days a week.
About a month ago I wrote and submitted an article to About.com to be a guide for their used car section. I have been a car salesman, finance manager and a used car manager so I figured I was a perfect fit for the job. Long story short, they didn’t agree. That left me with a pretty good article discussing how a CARFAX report can save you money on a used car titled “What Used Car Managers Don’t Want You to Know“.
I didn’t know what to do with the article. I have been pondering a site about car buying advice, but there are a lot of other good sites out there about the same thing. Then I thought about just posting the article here, but since the article had nothing to do with making money online, I knew you wouldn’t care. After all, good content should never go to waste.
That’s when I found AssociatedContent.com (aff). I didn’t (and still don’t) know much about the site, but they thought my article was worth $7.03. I think it also might be eligible for some sort of bonus, but I’m not sure how that works.
It took about 5 days after I originally submitted the article for them to approve it and send me an offer for $7.03. I don’t know what would have happened if I denied the offer, but I chose to accept it.
My account now shows that my article has a total of 0 page views (which isn’t accurate) and says that I’ve earned $0.00 as a “Current Bonus”. I don’t know how to get a bonus, or who is eligible. I assume it is based on the amount of page views your article generates, but it’s a little unclear to me.
I really like the format and all of the tools that AC offers, and it seems like a great way to make money online. Like I said, I’m still a little confused by the whole process, but it could be a great way to make money online if you are a good writer.
Associated Content offer a newsletter that is sent daily giving you some advice on the topics they are looking for. That is a great way to get ideas for new content.
If you were to write an article a day, 5 days a week and averaged $7 per article, you would earn approximately $150 a month. Not shabby for just 1 article per day. I’ve read that some articles are worth up to $40 each!
Some of you articles might be rejected, and some might not be worth $7, but that could be your goal, 1 approved article worth $7 a day.
From what I understand, Associated Content pays via Paypal whenever your account reaches $15, twice a month (1st and 15th).
For more information check out AssociatedContent.com and please use my affiliate link. I don’t know what I get, but when I find out I’ll let you know!
I was so close to joining, and then at the very last second I spotted
You must be 18 or over and a legal US resident to receive payment from Associated Content.
So basically they will take my article but won’t pay me (UK citizen)!
So for non US citizens be aware they will take your articles but have no plans on paying you 🙁
I applied for an About.com position once, at the urging of an agent for writers. They replied with a rather terse one-line statement that my writing wasn’t what they had in mind. Reading it must have been a traumatic experience, because they also yanked the subject off of their “authors wanted” list and it still hasn’t reappeared.
If you want, write a full set of original articles based on the subjects listed in the “used cars” subject description… that’s twenty of them… and assuming your writing is of similar caliber to your blogging I’ll pay you $10 per article. I suspect I would be undervaluing your work, but apparently not as much as you do. 😉
Aaron, my denial email was very automated and similar to what you describe. Do you have a blog? $10 per article is better than the AC payout for that article, but you are right that I value my “well written” articles at much more than $10 each 🙂
Associated Content looks great. I just wish they would pay quicker. I have four articles that haven’t gotten an offer. It’s been five business days already.
About the page views bonus, every 1000 views per specific article gives you $1.50.
Also, did you submit your article exclusive or non-exclusive?
Nice blog, by the way. Keep up the good work 🙂
Dee, my article was submitted as exclusive. What is the difference?
I do have a blog of my random thoughts, but I’ve not been posting to it much in recent months.
Brandon, you’ve been tagged!
http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog/2007/04/09/why-i-blog/
Non-exclusive means you can publish the article again to your own websites as long as the byline is the same as your associated content (AC) byline.
Exclusive means that only AC has the right to publish your article.
You get more money submitting exclusive articles over non-exclusive.
Here’s the official statement on this topic from AC.
By the way, I got $13 for my first three (non-exclusive) articles. 🙂
Brandon – you increase your AC bonus money by increasing page views for your articles. I’ve been using Digg, Furl & de.licious. I believe the min. bonus payout is $15. I’ve received pay (non-exclusive with the exception of 2) on all 8 articles submitted and have 2 waiting for an offer.
I like your idea and had a similar one. But its kind of hard to figure out which articles are going to pay the most. A medical article I thought would pay $20, only generated a $7 offer, and a credit card article I thought would get me $4, brought me $15.
Dee – There was a thread in AC’s forum about the difference in pay for non-exclusive vs. exclusive. It wasn’t a great difference, if I remember correctly it was something like $3 or so. I’m experimenting with the types of articles I submit there. I wrote an article on a currently hot topic to see if those generate higher offers.