Associated Content Vs. eHow - How Much Do They Pay?

Although there are plenty of sites soliciting articles for performance payments these days, Associated Content and eHow are two of the biggest names, and also the best opportunities. If you're a new writer looking to publish this type of content, which site are you better off choosing?

eHow

I've written over 200 articles for eHow in the past few years, and so far I've received about 200,000 page views and made about $400 in performance payments. This comes out to almost exactly $2.00 per thousand page views. The trick is that these payments vary widely according to article and subject. for example, some of my articles have 1,000 or 2,000 page views but have paid over $50, while others have thousands of page views and have paid less than a dollar.

eHow does offer an upfront payment program similar to AC's if you apply through a group called Demand Studios and are approved before you begin writing, but you must choose between upfront payments or performance payments (and my research suggests you're better off choosing performance payments, unless you're desperate for quick cash).

Associated Content

AC pays a fixed rate between 1.50 and 2.00 per thousand page views, which is similar to that offered by Demand Studios, except that you are also eligible for upfront payments on the same articles if your content is exclusive. The rate may be slightly lower than my eHow average, but at least you know where you stand, and the difference is really pretty small.

Also, I've just joined AC recently, so I can't say for sure how the actual number of page views I can generate on each site will compare, but all the research I've done suggests that writers tend to report more page views for similar articles on Associated Content. I'm not surprised by this, since the design and user interface of AC seem more professional and accessible.

Another feature that I really like about AC is the calls for content, which give you ideas of popular topics likely to generate a lot of page views. On eHow it seems extremely important to choose topics popular with advertisers as well as readers, but unless you have the time and skills to research this yourself, it's almost impossible to guess which direction you should take.

Duplicating Content

Some reviewers suggest submitting the same or extremely similar content to both sites. I don't recommend this, however. Submitting duplicate content to AC is allowed, but means you're not eligible for upfront payments, which seems like a shame. I'm also pretty sure that eHow doesn't allow duplicate content, so submitting to both sites may risk violating your service agreement and losing your work and performance payments altogether.