Succeed on Associated Content: Earn More, Gain Publishing Experience, Build Your Portfolio and Get Recognized

Associated Content paved the way for new writers to become published and discovered. We need to realize that AC is a tool to mark our pathway to our dreams, not the final answer to the dream itself.

Using AC correctly, we can earn moderate extra income, gain publishing experience, build our portfolio and get recognized. Listen up! The big dogs are watching.

Network

Network with other writers inside and outside AC. Make comments, participate in the forums and get to know people. Make business cards with the URL to your AC profile and pass them out at writer conventions. You can also join online business networking sites such as Ryze and Ecademy.com.

Opportunities at AC

Did you know AC sometimes assigns projects to Content Producers? Get in the AC spotlight by networking within AC, participating in the forums and being super at attracting page views.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a way to share bookmarks and favorites with other people. Take advantage of websites such as Digg.com and del.icio.us to help spread the word about your article. One of my personal favorites is StumbleUpon.com.

Fill Out All Fields

Remember to fill in all fields of your submission such as: images, sub-headlines, abstracts, takeaways, etc. These things may seem petty but they help with keyword density, which in turn helps with better offers, pageviews and readability.

Readability

This may seem petty but no one wants to read an unorganized article. Even if your content is that good, a messy article will turn people off. Take the time to edit your content correctly in AC's editor.

Some tips:

- Bold titles

- Short paragraphs are easier to read

- Create proper hyperlinks

- Organize ideas/points by sections

- Keep formatting constant. If your lists are seperated, make all seperated. If your titles are underlined, make all titles underlined.

Write a Great Headline and Sub-Headline

Make your readers want to click on your article by creating an interesting headline and sub-headline. Something that says "I'm interesting, you want to read me!" and something that summarizes your content.

Here are good examples I came across recently:

"Life as a Wal-Mart Employee" instead of "Working at Wal-mart"

"I Survived Paxil Hell! Read This Before Undergoing a Chemical Lobotomy" instead of "Dangers of Paxil"

"Confessions of an AC Content Producer" instead of "About Content Producers"

This will also help your keyword density and payment offers. Brainstorming (see below) also helps you with creative, eye catching titles.

Promote Your Content

Promoting your content will help raise your Clout Level which, in turn will help raise your payment offer. There are many free and low cost ways of promoting your content:

- Put a link to your articles on your website

- Tell your friends, family and co-workers

- If you write a guest article on a website or newsletter, link to your profile on AC

- List the articles or AC profile in your portfolio or resume

- If you participate in message boards or forums, include a link to your AC page

- Include a link to your AC profile in your email signature

Write Your Passion

Stick to topics you know well or topics that can be reasonably researched. If you're genuinely interested in the topic you're writing about, it will show to your readers. Overall, it will enhance the quality of your article.

Do Your Research

Before you brainstorm, you should research on AC to find out who else has written about the topic and what they wrote about. This will help you determine if AC will accept the article or not. If a topic has already been written, search for other variations by brainstorming (see below).

Keep up with current news, trends and public concerns to help you discover multiple topics people will search for.

Brainstorm

If you haven't discovered the bubble brainstorm method, you don't know what you're missing! The bubble method is elementary but highly effective in mapping out new ideas and topics.

Start with your topic idea and write it in the middle of your paper. Put a circle around it. Now, branch off with other sub-topics and create circles around those. Keep going until you cannot bubble any further.

The idea is to narrow and niche your topics as much as possible. For example, let's say I wanted to write about bicycles. My bubble method would look something like this:

(repairing bicycles) - (do it yourself bicycle repair)
|
(Bicycles)
|
(riding bicycles) - (bicycle rider laws)

No one has written a topic about Do-It-Yourself Bicycle Repair and now I'm free to write one! (not really. If you want to write about this topic, feel free).

Keywords

Keywords are important but keyword density is the golden nuggets in your content. Keyword density is the result of the certain keywords appearing multiple times in your article. Search engines and AC view keyword density as a highly regarded attribute to accepting your content.

For example, some of the keywords in this article are:

- keywords

- bicycle

- associated

But my keyword density words are:

- keyword density

- repairing bicycles

- associated content

It isn't the number of words that repeat, but the quality of words that repeat. For example, "the" would not be considered a quality keyword.

Make sure your keyword density is: related to your article, enriches the quality of your content, does not overly repeat, will be looked for in search engines and on AC.

To help with keyword density, upload your article to a website. Don't include any images, just the content itself. Go to SEOChat.com and click on their "Keyword Density" tool. You can also visit NicheBot.com.

More Than Just Content

Did you know you can submit audio and video in addition to articles on AC? If you're experienced in these areas, I would highly suggest submitting and showcasing your abilities.

Keep Up With AC

Read messages by AC because they contain contests and submission requests. Also, visit the forums frequently. Last but not least, read AC's blog. You'll find interesting information there. One I recommend reading is the article titled: "The Economics Behind Being a Content Producer".

Be Creative!

AC has made it clear that it wants unique, searchable content. The amount of research and energy you dedicate to your content will not equal higher offers. What matters is stuff that no one else has thought of! How do you do that? Brainstorm! Write your passion! Treat AC like an exclusive magazine. How would you treat your client?

Ideas are all around you. It's advisable to purchase a tiny composition book that fits in your pocket or purse. When the gears start cranking, write it down!

Get Organized!

For those of us who aren't very organized: get organized! Create a folder on your computer dedicated to AC. Then, make 4 sub-folders called: Works in Progress, Already Submitted, Accepted and Rejected. The rejected pile is for submissions you can now sell elsewhere.

Also keep a spreadsheet (on paper or on excel) of submissions you made, the date, the title, rights assigned (exclusive, non-exclusive, etc), Content Producer's name, offer amount and status. This will help figure out which topics/areas are higher paying.

Last but not least, make an area for your topic ideas. I currently keep a .txt file filled with topic ideas so I'll always have my tiny digital muse. When I have writing time, I look at the file to grab some ideas. This definitely helps with writers block and productivity.

Conclusion

If you're new to AC, it's only a matter of time before you read complaints about payment. However, success on AC is up to you. You probably won't get rich on AC or even discovered but it isn't out of the question. Stars fly but complainers never launch. Who will you choose to be?

Footnote

The image embedded in this article is a new sticker design I created and submitted to AC. So what do you think?