Associated Content is Not Unethical nor is it a Scam

You've heard it before. "Associated Content is unethical! It's a scam!" This unfounded smear occasionally rears its ugly head around the blogosphere, and I feel the need to directly correct these misconceptions and rumors about Associated Content. Despite the fact that AC is NOT unethical and NOT a scam, there are, unfortunately, inflammatory posts out there claiming it is. I contact their authors directly when possible in an effort to open a dialogue with them. Amazingly, many of them have never published with Associated Content, so they don't understand the way our publishing process works. I explain it to them, we have a nice conversation and often the issue is settled. On a few occasions I've come across posts written by disgruntled individuals we've had to ban from AC for trying to scam us. Below are my answers to the Associated Content scam accusations.

CLAIM: Associated Content is not truthful in our page view reporting or Associated Content lies to its Content Partners

RESPONSE: FALSE. Associated Content views our relationship with our Content Producers as a partnership that is critical to the success of our business. We strive to provide the best, most honest publishing experience on the Web because we want our Content Producers to be happy. We are the only publishing site that keeps users apprised of their page view information in close to real time (numbers are updated site-wide twice a week), and we are working every day to shorten that time. CPs see the same traffic numbers that we do at the AC offices. We keep our system as transparent as possible so that Content Producers continue to place their trust in AC and publish their content with us. Some of the shady operators in the online content world do not share exact page view numbers on articles or allow you to continue to earn residual payments for content that has been paid for up front. Working with us is safe. Associated Content is not unethical because we are honest, reliable and we truly partner with our Content Producers. Are things perfect? No. But we are striving everyday to make our system quicker, more user friendly, and as transparent as possible.

CLAIM: Associated Content is a scam because it doesn't pay enough

RESPONSE: FALSE. Associated Content offers the most versatile payment options for your content. Other sites only offer you a deferred payment based on the eventual performance of your content over time or a single, one-time upfront payment. Unlike any other site, we offer performance payments in addition to upfront payment for your content. We can do this because we have developed a sophisticated and proprietary set of algorithms that helps us to evaluate the future performance of content right when you submit it. With this system in place, CPs can get paid in a matter of hours or days, not weeks or months like the other guys. And your content keeps earning for you. If you want your content to earn more, be proactive about promoting your work and driving page views to your articles. You get out of it what you put into it. Scam sites are those that promise easy dollars, magically appearing in your bank account for little-to-no effort and we don't make those kinds of claims. Our PPV system of Performance Payments at $1.50/1,000 page views is a higher rate of pay than most ad networks that are commonly used on blogs and personal websites (not to mention your rank in search is far higher on AC than it is on a personal blog). Additionally, our new "clout" program gives our most successful producers higher levels of compensation on the back end. If a CP is unhappy with their earnings, there are numerous ways to learn how to up earning potential outlined by tutorials and helpful articles by other Content Producers, as well as a great community of Content Producers in the Forum.

Many Content Producers have addressed these topics directly. If you'd like your testimonials about how Associated Content is not unethical or a scam straight from the keyboards of actual site users, visit the Forum discussions about article payments and Monthly PPV payments.

If you want some outside analysis of our business model, read Work at Home No Scams (linked below) to hear what people who don't work for Associated Content have to say.

I and everyone else at AC stand by our honesty in our relationship with our Content Producers. Flame-war blog posts and libelous slams crying "scam" may be easy in this age of Internet anonymity, but they're not professional or constructive. We truly believe that Associated Content is a great opportunity for everyone to earn money in the new content economy.