Jerry Allen asked me about Associated Content (a.k.a., The People's Media Company) in a comment, and I thought it would be better if I answered his question in a post, because there may be others reading wondering the same thing. Jerry asked, "Tell me about AC. IS it a pretty good gig?"
Well, Jerry, to be totally honest with you, it is a nice place to earn a little extra money, but I wouldn't recommend trying to make a living off of it alone, and you're certainly not going to get rich.
I've been a content producer for AC since February of 2006, and since that time -- not including the performance payments, which they just recently started -- I've earned a grand total of $1,019.31. In the beginning, I wrote more often for them, because their one-time offers were a bit higher than they are now. In fact, when I first started writing for them, I got quite a few $10 offers for my articles, but since they've introduced the performance payments, their one-time offers decreased. As I've said before, the performance payments are a nice addition, but I think it was more of way for them to decrease their one-time offers without looking bad.
Since I've been struggling financially lately, I figured up how many articles I would have to write a day for AC to contribute to the bills enough to keep hubby happy. Nevertheless, to be honest, at the rates they offer, there are times when I find myself uninspired to keep that commitment to myself because of their low offers. And this is where I'll admit that I sometimes miss a day of writing for AC, because I don't want to feel uninspired when I write… I believe it hurts my writing when I'm not inspired and just write, and because I don't want to shell out low quality content, I choose not to write for AC at all on those days. Instead, I write query letters and submit them to markets that pay fair rates. Believe it or not, I feel more inspired writing query letters and submitting them to well paying markets than I do writing an article for AC… even if they may be rejected.
I have refused offers from AC, because I have set a minimum amount on what I'm willing to accept from them, and if they don't offer me that amount, I'm more than happy to submit the article to a better paying market. Moreover, 99.9% of the time I only give them non-exclusive rights. You have two options with AC on rights: exclusive or non-exclusive, and if you give them exclusive, then you're signing away ALL your rights, and for the offers they make -- even with the performance payments -- it's not worth it to hand over all my rights for such low pay. At least with non-exclusive, I can sell the article as a reprint and earn more for it later down the road.
So would I recommend AC to you, Jerry, or to anyone else? Yes, I do recommend them as a side job. AC is the only one I know of on the Internet that will make you a one-time offer and pay you for performance (page views) too. There is no obligation to accept their offers either. If you don't think the offer they make is fair, then refuse it, delete your article and submit it to a trade magazine or other publication that will give you a fair rate for your hard work. The offers AC seems to be making right now range from $3.00 up to $7.00, and their performance payment is $1.50 for every 1,000 page views.
Best wishes!
PS
Since the performance payment was released in February 2007, I have earned a grand total of $185.90 for those. Not too bad, eh.
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Once again I've been published in print, and this time I sold the article through a clip! Yes, friends, you read that correctly. See, a few months back I queried Southern Families Magazine and pitched my Make it Special: Crafts for Children article to them. At the end of my query, I listed links to two of my parenting-related clips. Well, when the editor replied she asked if the reprint rights were still available to one of the clips I had sent her. I immediately e-mailed her back to let her know the reprint rights were available. Soon after, she bought the reprint rights to the clip. I may not have sold the article I originally pitched, but I did make a sell, and it was the first time I've ever sold a clip through a query letter. The moral of this success story: Don't forget to include those clips. You may not sell the article you pitched, but you could sell reprint rights to the clip you included as a sample of your writing.
