In This Economy, Associated Content is a Freelance Writer's Best Friend

I am a college student who lives at home. Two years ago, after making the switch from an arts major to an English discipline, I decided to also make the switch from waitress to freelance writer. (Note to waitresses - seriously, if you are a waitress, make the switch from waitress to anything. I don't care if it's garbage person. Do it. Serving food or cocktails makes military prisons look desirable)

It was wonderful at first. I don't know if it was because I was new and fresh, because I sent my theatrical headshot out with many of my professional blogger applications (I now know that this is a big no-no in most stuffy journalistic jobs), or because I was lucky. I had some great critic jobs with dot coms and various magazines. The free beauty products, dinners, and movies were heaven. I did Associated Content, but never seriously. If I had free time I'd throw a few articles up. As I write this, I only have twenty six published articles. I have a decent clout, but I'm not an AC super producer, that's for sure.

However, between my sophomore and junior year, something awful has happened. The economy, in case anyone hasn't noticed, has crashed. And by crashed, I mean it's fallen through a sewer grate into a pile of broken glass and sea urchins, and then through a sub-sewer grate into an underground community of mole people that have lava and battery acid on the ground. The economy is screwed. And the first people to go, the very first people to go, are the freelancers. Real estate agents, actors and artists, consultants, and of course, writers. In a screwy economy, there is no room for excess spending.

Going from a fabulous dream job to being flat broke is awful. I still have a lot of great things going for me, but being a freelance critic and columnist defined me. I've taken a few pretty awful SEO gigs in the past months, to the tune of 20,000 words for a measly one hundred or two hundred dollars. Some of my old gigs owe me money from past work. I'm not furious at them. I understand that everyone is suffering.

This of course, brings me to Associated Content. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? I'd always viewed AC as a screw around job. But today, I decided to investigate a little bit. Could I use this "screw around job" as a source of solid part time income?

I've read some pretty great articles about this from AC producers with a boatload of clout. Unless they're lying, these are people who are supporting apartments and bills via Associated Content. Surely, someone with no bills like myself, could have an extremely satisfying existence doing even half the work they're doing.

While browsing AC aimlessly, I decided to click on my "payments" tab. Remember, I've only published twenty six articles. Since the payouts trickle in in small doses to my PayPal account, I'd utilized my extremely poor math skills to conclude off hand that I'd probably only made thirty or forty bucks from Associated Content.

Wrong. Wrong. Double wrong. Super wrong.

One hundred and eight dollars and some odd cents. I did a massive quadruple take. That absolutely could not be right. From twenty six measly articles, I've made one hundred and eight dollars? Twenty six small, 400 word articles? For realsies?

I did a little mental math. Twenty six articles, in an average month, breaks down to one article a day. None of these took me more than fifteen minutes to write. Fifteen minutes a day for a month for a one hundred and eight dollar payout is not bad. And, as months progress, your performance payouts can only rise, as you'll have more published content under your belt. It's sort of like the stock market for writers, really. Or maybe even more of a savings account. Theoretically you could get to a point where you don't even need to write anymore to generate a great income.

I have decided to devote myself to Associated Content until things turn back around for the economy. I am going to attempt to do a minimum of four hours a day, which is the same amount of work I would do at a part time job, were I to go out and find one. Theoretically, I could produce sixteen articles a day if I am finishing one every fifteen minutes. However, I think that's unrealistic if you consider the bouts of writers block you're bound to have. And considering that I only need a comfy part time income due to my lifestyle, even producing five to eight articles a day would satisfy me.

As it stands now, I plan to find analogs of my old jobs once the economy is back on track. But who knows? Maybe I just might end up an Associated Content super producer.