Is Associated Content a Scam? One Writer's Associated Content Review

You might be wondering if Associated Content is a scam, and I think you are right to be skeptical of any work-at-home scheme, given today's climate of a web overloaded with scams and sites designed to separate you from your money. I was skeptical of Associated Content myself, but I decided to give the website 30 days to prove me wrong. My first article, Ten Tips For Buying Jewelry and Stones Online, was published on October 14, 2008. In the past 30 days, I have received payments in the sum of $40.00 for articles that I have written / submitted, and my page views as of this moment are at 1,362, which has earned me my first $1.50 in residual payments. I published 26 articles in the last 30 days, close to one article per day. I also received a $10 bonus for the publishing 5 articles during the month of October.

I received upfront payments on 15 of the articles that I published, 14 of which were calls that I answered in the form of an article; the other is mentioned below. 5 were "reprints" of articles that I've published elsewhere (i.e. display only and no upfront payment). 4 were calls that were no payment, and the last an article that got rejected to payment ("We can only offer Upfront Payments for humor pieces when we believe they have a legitimate chance of being by search and/or spreading virally.") which I resubmitted as Display Only and is currently my second my popular article (with 205 views in a month).

You might think that $50 for a month's work is hardly worth the time and effort, and in some respects, you might be right. A fair value rate for professional writers is 5 cents a word; this is definitely not the rate that Associated Content is paying. Sometimes, it's more like 1 cents a word, or less. So, if you are looking at the site strictly at payment per word, you'll probably decide that Associate Content is a scam and leave it at that. However, if you think about it another way, you might change your mind.

I'm a professional freelance writer. I publish my work regularly in three different magazines here in Providence, Rhode Island. For each article that I write and publish in the print world, I earn between $20 - $60, quite a difference from the $1 - $4.50 that Associated Content has paid me per article. (I've seen claims that Associated Content pays between $3 - $40 per article, but don't believe that: the highest I've been offered for an exclusive, well-researched piece that we weren't able to use in one of my magazines was $4.36, an amount I found, frankly, insulting. I refused the offer and instead sold it for the same amount non-exclusive, which means that I can publish the article, slightly rewritten, in print in the Spring.) However, if you consider the time output, and think of the articles in terms of hourly rate versus word counts, you'll see quite a difference.

Here's an example:

Recently I wrote an article called Providence Does Burlesque. This article was a featured article in Campus Connection magazine and earned me $60. (I'm sorry, dear editor, if I shouldn't have revealed my pay scale; however, in the aim of truth, I needed to do so.) At 1000 words, this article rang in at 6 cents a word, not a great rate for a feature article, but considering the size of the magazine, the distribution throughout the city of Providence, and the coolness of the assignment and the fantastic people I got to interview, I consider it totally worth it.

But let's look at the time involved in writing this article:

Step One - I receive the assignment from my editor. Following her contact suggestions, and doing my own online research via google search and MySpace, I write a basic interview to be sent to anyone and everyone involved in the Burlesque scene, in the hopes that at least a few will write back to me. - 1 hour

Step Two - I head to the library to research the history of Burlesque, so that I know my stuff when I am in contact with anyone who might respond positively to my interview request. - 1 hour

Step Three - I do phone interviews with three different burlesque performers in Providence, each from different troops. Each interview lasts at least 25 minutes, and one extends to 45 minutes. - 2 hours

Step Four - I transcribe my taped interviews to text - 2 hours

Step Five - I print out the email interviews from miscellaneous burlesque performers - 15 minutes

Step Six - I write the article. I'm never quite sure how long an article takes to write, because once I'm in the zone, I stay there til it's done, but for the sake of argument, I'll venture a guess - 1.5 hours

Step Seven - I write a sidebar to accompany the article, detailing contact information for the people I interviewed, as well as listing upcoming shows. - 20 minutes.

Step Eight - I revise the article the following morning, removing glaring grammatical errors and checking for consistent punctuation - 15 minutes.

GRAND TOTAL TIME EXERTED - 8 hours, 20 minutes

HOURLY RATE - approximately $7 per hour

Now, let's look at an article I wrote for Associated Content:

Step One - I claim the call for Eliminating Disrespectful Behavior in Teens With Effective Consequences. - 1 minutes

Step Two - Being a former disrespectful teen, I know that I can write this article well by reflecting on my own history as a teenager (sooo many years ago!). I brainstorm on consequences that I think would have worked for me, or consequences that did actually work for me, when I was younger. - 5 minutes

Step Three - I create a bulleted list of 8 effective consequences, then write a short blurb about each piece - 10 minutes

Step Four - I write a brief introduction about my own history as a disrespectful teen. - 2 minutes

Step Five - I submit the article to Associated Content - 2 minutes

GRAND TOTAL TIME EXERTED - 20 minutes

HOURLY RATE - $6 per hour (I was paid $2 for this article)

Sure, that's $1 per hour less than my print publication, but a) this article is my top-performing article to date on Associated Content, already gathering nearly 300 page views in one short month, and b) I wrote this article in 20 minutes compared to the over 8 hours for the print publication piece. If this article continues to receive the traffic over the next few months that it's received, I could conceivably earn $1.50 every few months, just for this one article. This is an article that will consider to gather traffic because it is a constant problem with parents!

I have 25 other articles, as of today, with 5 or 6 waiting for review. So, let's say you spend 1 hour every morning writing articles for Associated Content. If you write about subjects about which you are already an expert, and everybody's an expert at something, you could easily write two - three short articles every day. Say you earn $8 every day on Associated Content, by the end of the month, you will have earned $240, which ain't a bad chunk of change. All of those articles will start to earn you traffic, which will further increase your earnings.

So, is Associated Content a scam? It all depends on how you look at it, but I'd have to say no. This offers a great way for freelance writers to increase their earnings potential, by writing short pieces in between longer, print-published assignments, and is also great practice for keeping the writing muscles agile. For people who aren't professional writers, Associated Content offers a chance to develop one's writing chops, as well as build a daily habit of writing, which is important since practice makes perfect.