Feeling the Clout Crunch

Right now, I am feeling what I am going to call the "clout crunch." Earlier today, I wrote about how clout is really not that important. I stand by that, mostly because I said it really wasn't that important until the Clout 6 to Clout 7 transition. This is the transition that I am coming up on. I name this as the transition that is important because Clout 7 is the clout level at which the payment per thousand views (PPM) increases. Granted, it only increases by a nickel, but that's still money to be gained or lost, depending on how prolific of a writer I am.

Basically, I am trying to boost my clout multiplier. One's clout index is determined by the equation: Clout Index = (1+(PA/100))(PV), where PA is equal to the number of Published Articles and PV is equal to the total number of page views. The clout multiplier is the (1+(PA/100)) part of the equation. The maximum multiplier is equal to three. Doing some simple algebra, one finds that 200 published articles will maximize the multiplier. One also finds that the fewest number of page views that a CP would need to get to Clout 7 is 16,667.

This is where I begin to get nervous. I've published 113 articles, including this one, and have 7 more articles waiting to be reviewed. That means that I need to publish 80 more articles before I maximize my clout multiplier. I have about 11,340 page views right now, meaning that I'd have to get about 5,330 more views to get to the 16,667 page view mark. How much time do I have? Well, assuming I get 250 page views per day, I have about 21 days, or three weeks, to publish 80 articles. If I get more page views than that, I have even less time to publish.

Is this really that big of a deal? In the long run, not really. Even if I had no multiplier and had to get to the 50,000 page view mark before reaching Clout 7 or 8, I would only lose about $2.55. Still, I'd like to maximize my multiplier as soon as possible in order to maximize my profit from Associated Content. It would also be a motivation to keep going, as clout upgrades become less and less frequent as one increases through the clout ranks.

What do you think? Is clout really that big of a deal? Is this something I should stress about? Feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the form of a comment. Thank you for reading!