Writing for Associated Content for Fun and Profit

Over the past several months I've had friends ask me about writing articles for Associated Content, specifically how did I get started and how to make money at it. I always respond that I'm no expert, I just kind of stumbled on it but that I do make a few bucks each month from it (let's say enough to go out for a very nice meal or a few nights out at the movies each month). Because of the questions, and because I would love to see others succeed in writing for Associated Content, I decided to write this article about how I got started, how I do it (not to say it's the right way, it's just the way I've found to make a few bucks), and how you can get started.

I started writing for Associated Content about two years ago. At the time I worked for a company that was on the verge of moving its operations to another country. It wasn't official that the company would be moving, I just had the feeling I would be looking for a new job soon. I wanted to do something to help me financially while I looked for a new job if it came to that (and it did) and something that would keep me busy while I looked for a new job. So on February 15, 2008, I wrote my first article, The 10 Best Rides at Walt Disney World for Teens (you can read it at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/602617/the_10_best_rides_at_walt_disney_world.html).

Now when you write for Associated Content your first three articles are reviewed for correct writing style. After that, you can publish in real time. So my first article sat in review status for about a week before being approved and going live on www.accociatedcontent.com. The nice thing about Associated Content is you're allowed to write about anything. A lot of my articles are about Walt Disney World because I live in Orlando, go to Walt Disney World often, and it was my first job. So it was something that's easy for me to write about. I also write about it because it's an "evergreen" topic, but more on that later.

You can make money with Associated Content several ways. Once you sign-up at Associated Content you can select a writing assignment an assignment on a particular topic for which you will be paid an established up front fee. If you prefer, you can write about any topic you want and submit it to Associated Content for possible upfront payment. That means is the content is unique enough, Associated Content will make you an offer to buy the article. The amount of the offer will be a few dollars usually. In both of these cases you give up ownership of the content to Associated Content for a few bucks. However, in most cases, you will earn the upfront payment plus a certain amount based on the number of times the article is viewed on the Associated Content site for as long as the article is posted on www.accociatedcontent.com.

Another way to earn money on your content is to upload it to Associated Content as "view only." This means that you retain ownership of the article and you can remove it anytime. This also means, because you own the content and didn't sell your rights to it upfront, you can republish it elsewhere and/or sell the rights to another company.

If you decide not to accept writing assignments and rather write about your own topics, you may want to think about what to write. Earlier, I mentioned that I write about "evergreen" topics. That is, topics that not time specific or have a limited "shelf life." For example, if I wrote an article about a new movie coming out, the article might get a lot of traffic for a few weeks when the movie comes out, but the traffic would die down to very few page views after that. And because Associated Content pays based on the number of page views, I might earn some money on a movie review for the first month, but after that, I probably earn very little based on page views after that.

However, remember my first article was The 10 Best Rides at Walt Disney World for Teens? That's an evergreen topic. People are always visiting Walt Disney World and therefore this article will have a long shelf life. Even today, over two years after writing this that article, I'm still earning money on it month after month. That said, what you write about should be something you like and interested in but look for something that is also "evergreen."

Overall, Associated Content is a great way to share your articles with others an in the process earn some extra money. Will you get rich writing for Associated Content? Probably not, but you will have fun, meet some great people, and earn some extra spending money.