2009 People's Media Award for Content of the Year Award

In early January, I was notified by Associated Content that I was a finalist for the PMA Content of the Year Award for an article that I had published with Associated Content in October of this year. The article about the effects of tourism on the people and ecology of the Galapagos Islands was one that I had spent quite a bit of time on, including several lengthy discussions with Eduardo del Solar, a Boston area teacher and photographer. At the time, I was writing a an announcement about his photography exhibit Birds of the Americas III and his Galapagos Islands presentation both being held at the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan, MA. As I read through his correspondence and heard what he had to say about his recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, I decided to also write the article which won this year's award.

I did not write the article expecting that it would get tens of thousands of page views, and, although it did received a good upfront payment, to date it has received less than 1000 page views overall. I wrote it, however, because it was a compelling story for me personally. I have always marvelled at the giant tortoises, birds, iguanas, and other species of wildlife that are found on the Galapagos Islands, but had no concept of the culture of the people who lived there or the way they viewed tourism and the restrictions placed on large tracts of their islands. The topic and the perspective of the main source of this article waas profoundly interesting to me, and, I hope, interesting to those who read it as well.

I've written about how I came to look for writing opportunities such as that provided by Associated Content, and after joining Associated Content on May 27th, 2008 I published about 140-150 articles here during the remainder of that year. That was enough to get me into the top 100 content producers of the year for 2008. My first articles languished for a while; one of them did not even break double digit page views for that first year. On June 9th of 2008, I scored my first "hit." One of my articles received something like 12-15,000 page views within a day or two of being published. Once I knew that it was possible, I was hooked. One of my favorite sayings is "Opportunities multiply as they are seized," from Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and I decided to seize the opportunity to try to write full time.

I found several writing outlets on the web, some of which I liked and some of which I didn't. The idea of building a library of royalty-producing content was, and still is, very appealling to me. Combined with the upfront payments, opportunities for higher paying partner calls, and targeted calls for content, this on-going page view revenue makes Associated Content one of my favorite writing outlets.

In 2009, I was inundated with private contract writing work for SEO companies and website developers, so I only managed to write 24 page-view articles on this account at Associated Content, but that combined with my existing library was enough for another 100,000 page views. I also was granted a request for a second account for which all of the articles are based around a single topic. Most of the articles that I write for Associated Content and other such sites these days are things that I want to write about, pieces that I enjoy writing. In 2010, I am resolved to write more of these "enjoyable" articles for Associated Content.

To wrap up this acceptance speech, before the orchestra swells and I am dragged off the stage for turning a requested 350 word acceptance speech into 750 words, I'd like to thank Associated Content for helping me discover that I can write for a living, for providing a ready outlet for whatever I have to say, and for the Content of the Year Award for 2009. It is very nice to know that one's work is appreciated. I'd also like to thank all those that have offered me advice along the way, and those who have struggled past my "occasional" typos to read my articles. I would encourage everyone to peruse the other content at Associated Content; there are many excellent writers contributing here. When you find one you like, subscribe to their articles and let them know that you enjoy their work.