The Transformation of the Associated Content Website

You may be a little too young to remember or you may be called what veterans of Associate Content call a "rookie" or a "newbie" but can you think back to a year or two ago when Associated Content first came out and started growing in membership? Gee that was a while ago. Since 2005 I believe or around that year and period in time, Associated Content was relatively unknown on the World Wide Web. Can you remember how you first became acquainted with Associated Content? I sure do. I was holding a part time job in college and I needed the extra money to start paying off part of my loans for college. I had been asking my friends if they knew of any online gigs or websites to use to make money. That's when one of my friends referred me to Associated Content. The funny thing about it looking back is that Associated Content did not yet pay for referring your family and friends to the website so my friend who referred me did not get his $3. Oh well. Still, I remember when Associated Content first started expanding, improving and getting better and better. Can you? Can you recall all of the great changes that Associated Content has made to its website? Let's take a look as we go back in the time machine.

The "My Content" Tab was completely different as I recall now. There was a link for my payment which allowed you to see which articles you already got paid for and how much money you had made on Associated Content. That featured was momentarily taken away a few weeks ago until AC content producers complained and AC listened to the people as it so often does, and brought back that great and helpful feature. Still, the design of the page was different and there was no "Confirm all payments" button which most AC content producers still don't know what it is for. There was no payment date feature or no writing that stated that the article you submitted was "PROCESSING." There was no "INCOMPLETE" status for articles that you had brainstormed but could not finish writing. And there certainly was no color coordination as everything was written in black. Now AC has red, orange, green and black to describe the status of articles.

Can you recall of the different AC content managers who have looked at your articles. Once upon a time AC actually listed the content manager looking at your article. I liked playing the guessing game of which content manager would show up on my screen next to the article once I picked the article category. For example, I knew that Sam Dewitt looks at sports articles.

The community section still hasn't changed much. Content producers have added new threads but the biggest change that I see is that the AC content manager named Mike is constantly looked at the community boards and responding to questions and concerns that people have which has been a big help. There has been talk of installing a chartroom on the AC site which be a tremendous addition and connect content producers like never before.

The AC homepage has undergone so much construction that I have trouble picturing what it looked like two years or even one year ago. A showcase or Editor's picks section was added. I learned that AC changed the category name from Editor's picks to Showcase articles. In addition, the articles which are the top rated are listed on the homepage. Which reminds me... do you remember that AC use to feature content producers with their face and bio instead of the daily featured article. What a change that has been as it certainly has attracted more page views to the daily featured article.

Under the profile section of yourself, AC has added a column for any favorite AC content producers you have and any comments you would like to add. The Library tab has also changed as a featured article in each section with a picture of that article has been added to highlight that category. A recently published section has also been added.

Finally, the My Account tab has not been altered that much as content producers are still receiving the same messages for CSO articles from AC and messages from fellow content producers.

If there are other changes that AC has made that have been important feel free to jot them down in the comments section. Which also reminds me: AC got rid of the thumbs up or down feature and instead you can now block users who give you negative or poor feedback from your article and remove their comment from your article. In addition, AC has created more contests for users like the clout gift certificate contest, the read and wins contests, the money awarded for best wedding or Valentines Day story etc. Now AC came out with an advertising blitz, so to speak with the AC Media Awards scheduled to come out in January. This also brings me to the point of response time for article. With the increased amount of users on AC numbering in the thousands, AC has hired a lot more content managers and website designers to monitor traffic and to constantly update the site.

New features on the horizon include fixing the clout meter which has been broken for a couple of months now, and possibly adding a page counter to see how many times your article has been viewed. An AC get together at their Denver or New York City offices is also in the works as the content manager Mike has been discussing.