Sustainability and Writing for Associated Content

Every time you write an article for Associated Content, you are making an investment. You are investing time and effort into an article, and if you do not get upfront payment or enough page views to repay you for this effort, it is unlikely that it is worth writing the article. It is with this perspective that I intend to analyze the concept of sustainable writing in this article.

What is Sustainable Writing?
I define sustainable writing as writing that is centered on subjects that have a fairly constant level of interest. Some examples of sustainable writing would be articles about health, gardening, or automotive maintenance. Even though demand for these articles might not ever be massive if you look at just the page views for a day or two, their constant level of interest means that the number of total page views these articles draw will increase steadily without fail. Examples of articles that are not sustainable would be news items, gossip, and movie reviews. However, unsustainable writing has its place.

Why Write Sustainably?
Going back to the idea of an investment, sustainable writing ensures that you have a larger return on the initial investment of time and effort that you make when you write an article. Even though certain current events articles might draw a large volume of page views quickly, it is unlikely that this will endure.

For example, consider how many page views an article about how to start an organic garden would get versus how many page views an article reviewing the fifth episode of the third season of American Idol would receive. While the American Idol article might draw a thousand page views in the week after the episode's airing, very few people are going to be interested in the article in a month. However, an article about organic gardening will draw a smaller, constant stream of page views that will endure over time.

Let's assign some numbers to our analysis. Let's say that the American Idol article receives 1000 page views the first day, 500 the next, and so on. This can continue for 11 days, until less than one page view is obtained per day. The sum of all of the page views is roughly 2000.

Then, let's say that the first month the organic gardening article gets 300 page views, 360 views the next month, 420 views the third month, and so on. Is this reasonable? Assuming that the content producer promotes the article and continues writing other articles, it's more likely that people will be drawn to the article whether intentionally searching or exploring the CP's words. The total number of views in a year with this method would be 7560. Even assuming a constant 10 page views a day, this article would draw 3650 page views in a year. You can do the math for yourself and determine which article is the better investment of time and energy.

Is This a Valid Example of Sustainability?
Is it fair to compare the page views that a current events article would draw in a little over a week with the number of page views that a general interest article would draw in a year? I believe it is. News articles, op-ed pieces, and gossip columns all have a finite lifespan. It's for that reason that newspapers and magazines are published frequently. However, some books remain on bestseller lists for months and years. More people would read an informational article about environmental from two years ago than an episode recap of Survivor written on the same day. For a further examination of a real-life example of sustainable writing, look at my article on a case study in sustainability.

How Do I Know if My Articles Are Sustainable?
This is easy. Ask yourself, "Will people search for this in a week? In two weeks? In a month? In six months? In a year? In two years?" If the answer to most or all of these questions is "yes," then your article is sustainable. Likewise, sustainable articles are ones that are more likely to qualify for upfront payment. This is worth keeping in mind.

As a final thought on sustainability and writing, I'd like to share a quote from Don McLean, the musician that wrote the song "American Pie." When asked what the song meant, he replied, "It means that I don't have to work if I don't want to." Writing sustainable articles can ensure that you have a long-term residual income from Associated Content and a long-term return on your investment of time and effort in writing your articles. If you have any other thoughts on sustainability while writing for Associated Content, feel free to share them in the form of a comment. Thank you for reading!