My Top Page View Associated Content Articles and What They Taught Me About Online Writing

Wahoo! I just passed the 100,000 page view mark 2 months before my goal. In the past 10 months I've learned so much about article writing online for Associated Content. In fact I've learned so much that I'm now writing for three other online sites and beginning to develop a base at each of those sites.

I jumped into article writing by signing up with Associated Content the last week of December 2008. The first thing I've learned about writing for Associated Content is to wait for the beginning of a year or a month to start your writing career at a particular site. I missed all the 2009 award deadlines because of my start date, of course, I might not have won any of them anyway, but I disqualified myself immediately by my sign up date.

Tip #1 for writing for Associated Content or other online article writing services: Start at the beginning of the month!

I also knew nothing about SEO and didn't even know what it was until I had been writing for about four months.

Tip #2 for writing for Associated Content: Research SEO writing before you even begin. Just take some time to do that. Here is a recent article by AC writer Lyn Lomasi, an experienced veteran here at AC that will give you the basics in a quick tutorial.

I really didn't know what people would read or be interested in, so I just wrote about what I knew and liked. Probably a good idea for writing for certain places, but if you're writing to earn money via page views bonus payments, then knowing what people are looking to read each day is a good idea. I decided to look at the types of articles I had written this past 10 months and see which articles had garnered the most page views and see what I might learn by studying those articles to see what attracted readership.

A New American Tea Party tops my page view lists with almost 9,000 page views and it continues to receive page views each month, although fewer this past month than before. This article also remains one of my favorite that I've written at Associated Content. it's a political opinion piece that was promoted on the front page by Associated Content- which probably accounts for the large amount of page views the first week that I published it. If I could receive 9,000 page views for every article, I'm be a happy little blogger!

Then I had several thousand page views for the next few articles and here's where it gets more difficult to see what readers were looking for. Let's look at them.

What Ted Kennedy Did for You was an impassioned opinion piece that garnered over 3000 page views. I did not use any SEO in the article deliberately. Didn't even think of it when I wrote it. I think it would have received more page views if I had. When I look at the opening paragraph, I can see how weak the SEO was, now that I know what I'm looking for.

The Healthcare debate heated up pretty big in June and July and my article, Betsy McCaughey and the Deceptive GOP is my third top viewed article. Hmm, I'm seeing a trend here..wonder if it will continue. Politics draws page views, even if it's opinion. And this article was a mix of presenting fact and adding my personal opinion about the debate.

Susan Boyles Rocks Britain's Got Talent Show is right up in the top with over 3000 page views also. I accidentally had better SEO in the title and the first paragraph which probably helped propel it there and it was a popular subject for a couple of months. i wrote two other articles on her that didn't do as well.

President Obama's speech to school children had lots of news buzz and my opinion article, Boycott President Obama's Speech, on it received over 2000 page views in two days. Those of you who know my progressive voice, know I was mocking those who were calling for the speech to be boycotted!

And then comes an article that garnered very few page views when I wrote it way back in Feburary, one of my first articles, but it has slowly and steadily climbed to 1600 page views, every month adding a couple of hundred. It's a lesson plan on Harriet Tubman,

And then there are several how to do things articles that are around the 1500 to 2000 mark and each month continue to add page views. They are listed below.

How to Make Rabbit Manure Tea (I'm disappointed that my gardening articles don't get more page views and have decided that I need better SEO on all of them and more unique subjects and titles!

Another lesson plan on Stone Soup that i wrote way back in February is steadily growing.

Tip # 3 for writing at Associated Content and other online writing sites:
So what can we learn from this listing of my top page view articles? Well, politics is controversial and pays well right at the time it is written, but slows way down within month or two as new news cycles changes.

Tip #4 for writing at Associated Content
And those articles that have a steady interest level, will steadily gain page views so they might be considered a good investment.

Tip #5: Write some lesson plans??
Perhaps I need to write more lesson plans! They take forever though to do them well, but if I could simplify them they could be a steady stream of page views. (My actual goal is to take the many lesson plans that I already have and put them on a website of my own so I haven't published them here, but might do a Display only with some of them as I build the website)

Tip #6: USE SEO in your writing of articles for Associated Content!!
And the most important key fact I learned from this review of my top page view articles is that I must employ better SEO and work at it consistently. Sure wish I could go back in to those exclusive articles and add in better SEO writing, but I guess we all live and learn, don't we.

I hope you learn something from my experience and are able to increase your page views. While it's fun to write, it's also fun to get paid to write and more importantly, to know that someone is reading your hard work!

Happy writing this November! I'm writing about Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving memories, fall activities and of course, more Christmas stuff like so many of us here at Associated Content. Write, write, write!