Associated Content...what are your thoughts and projections for your experience?
By coffeebreak
@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
June 17, 2010 10:44am CST
Can all AC writers chime in here and give your current thoughts and concerns of how you think Associated Content is doing now that Yahoo has bought it out and where do you think AC is going now and in the future?
I hear that INternational writers have to "upgrade" and don't get paid unless they do and things like that. I am national so it doesn't concern me other than..is this possibly the first step Yahoo is taking to weed out the "little guys"? Being one of the "little guys" myself, this was my first thought.
I have not written an article for about a year, but I rely on page views...and those have been usually less than $5/mo lately. Granted could be my own fault for not promoting very much. Monthly I submit the URLS to several search engines and other things, but still...not much in the way of page views.
I hear that upfront payments have dropped drastically in the last year.
The reason I ask is I am regrouping my online earning endeavors and am thinking to just end it with AC since I just can't seem to get out off writers block black hole, and to promote for $5 a month, maybe I should just take my efforts elsewhere. I can delete articles that I didn't sell rights to but those that I did, have to stay. Maybe I'll get from those, maybe not but since I sold them...that was my choice.
I have another area of writing I am working with and of course blogs..which have not been to profitable either. I always linked my blogs with my AC articles in some acceptable fashion to AC and still it didn't improve my page views.
So before I make a decision, I'd like some feed back from those that continue to write on AC and what you all think about how its going there and what you might expect or not expect from/with AC.
So...tell me your thoughts on AC being in your future!
2 people like this
9 responses
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
17 Jun 10
AC is not in my future and probably not in the future of many writers. They had a great run for awhile but have been going steadily downhill. I think it is going to go down even faster with acquisition.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
17 Jun 10
Yeah, I started about 4 years ago and it was great and they paid really well upfront and I seemed to get more page views to! But the last 18 months or so, page views are down and the last articles I submitted about same time ago was only offered like $2 or something. I know I haven't written anything, but I just haven't heard to many good things about the site lately. And now with Yahoo buying it...history has it that acquisitions usually mean a downhill slide to get rid of "them" (the guys that were bought) and put in their own people and things are gonna change.
1 person likes this
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
17 Jun 10
I still write actively for Associated Content and have not noticed a significant change from the buyout so far. That said, I do think that they are trying to consolidate the writing members somewhat and seem to be placing greater emphasis on Featured Writers. Not sure if this is indicative of any changes, but if you want to continue in a serious way with AC, I would suggest applying for one of these positions. They also seem to be more interested in local reporting, which meshes with what Yahoo wants from the site.
While the rate of offers has decreased since the time I joined, when you are a Featured Writer in a category, you are guaranteed x number of articles per month at a decent rate, depending on your category.
I enjoy AC and will continue to write there. Like any sensible author, however, I would not put all my writing eggs in one basket, whether it is AC, blogs, or any other single venue. The more variety in the places you write, the more successful you will be in the long run.
Just my two cents. Good luck with your writing!
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
17 Jun 10
Hi anything! Nothing is actually supposed to change until about Oct. when Yahoo takes over. At least that is what I think I read. LOL I hope nothing changes too much. It took so long to get where I am with page views and clout. I would hate to have to start over.
2 people like this
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
17 Jun 10
MommaJ: You've come back from the playground! I've missed you around here. I've been slacking off at AC lately, although I did submit an article last night. Hope you haven't lost your mind yet with all the kids home from school. It's going to be a long, hot (oily) summer.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
17 Jun 10
Wouldn't think anything would change until the buy-out is all settled. They'll need that time to evaluate everything. Seems like everything I join something, I get in on the last couple months of the "good times" and then it starts to roll down hill until it isn't worth bothering with anymore!
I would think that they'd like to keep the common writing folks...maybe a little less professional than some as that is a huge market that is reached...the common folks. Things get to "professional" and "uppity", I find somewhere else to go and I'm sure I'm not alone on that one. I dont like that a place caters to a certain kind of person, yet expect me to be part of the earnings.
Ebay kind of did this while back, and I had to stop selling... couldn't afford the fees. They steered toward the big sellers and stores, apparently trying to weed out the little guys (like me) and raised fees to the point that if you couldn't get over $10 for the item, you couldn't afford to list it and make a profit. This was a huge issue back then and many many left Ebay. I haven't even been back to buy since then! I went to Amazon.com!
1 person likes this
@cotton0821 (259)
• United States
18 Jun 10
I do not know how the purchase of Associated Content by Yahoo! will eventually play out, however it has the potential of becoming very profitable for people who write for Associated Content. Because of the purchase, Yahoo! will not only decide what content is displayed when a person does a search but will have the option of displaying content which they own at the top of the results page.
For example, if a person searches for 'MyLot' at this time, Yahoo! sorts and displays all of the content related to MyLot through its proprietary algorithm. Now that Yahoo! owns Associated Content, I think it is safe to assume that the algorithm will be adjusted to give top placement to those items of content about MyLot that are owned by Associated Content and therefore owned by Yahoo!
Unless Yahoo! reduces the payment rate per page view, writers for Associated Content may very well see some extra money since Yahoo! may be doing their promoting for them.
1 person likes this
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
18 Jun 10
Some very astute observations. Yes, writers on AC could really up their page views when being used by the Yahoo search engine.
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
17 Jun 10
I don't see any sense in "ending it" as if it is going to fizzle, why not just let it end itself? It could, at least in theory, get better. Certainly the layout is cleaner now. What the rumors about them shutting it down in the 3rd quarter mean, I have no idea, because it does not make sense for them to spend that much much just to shut something down, and if they are still going to want articles written by the "people" so to speak, then surely they realize that the "people" include busy professional folks who do not have time to be PTW groupies and may not write on a regular basis, and may not ever self-promote.
Maybe I am missing something. What is "promote for $5 a month"--? Are you saying that you actively promote your AC articles and only earn $5 month? How much would you earn there if you did no promotion?
I like residual income even if it is only pennies. Why is it necessary to make a decision as opposed to just playing wait and see?
1 person likes this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
18 Jun 10
I didn't know there was a #20 min cash out on AC. Is that new? I thought they paid quarterly with no min. I am sure that I have gotten payouts as little as 60 cents from them before when I was inactive. I just reread the TOS and it still says we only have to log in every 90 days. I think.
1 person likes this
@sheena0501 (7)
• United States
16 Jan 12
I am a writer on ac, and I know this is an older thread, but thought I would share anyway, I use to make hundreds of dollars every month on ac, and had great upfront payments and reviews of my articles. A lot of mine were selected for partners and put up on different sights, but lately since yahoo took over I can't get an upfront payment on ANYTHING. For instance, the April 27th tornado hit us and took our house and the house we were buying, I wrote about it and they said it was not original... At that time the people who were effected did not have Internet to write anything, and i know for a fact that noone had, so I tried again a few months later on our story and how cleanup was going, same generic "not original"message, needless to say I have not been able to get an upfront payment in over a year now!!!!!!! I do NOT like ac now that yahoo has it and honestly don't like yahoo itself either!
1 person likes this
@carolscash (9492)
• United States
18 Feb 12
The past few months I would say that AC ( now Yahoo Voices) really has not been a site to write for. None of my articles ever get published for upfront payment and I used to get money for almost everything that I published. I am not sure as to what happened with them other than the Yahoo buyout, but I must say that I am very disappointed that a great site like AC has gone downhill so fast.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
16 Jan 12
I know what you mean. Granted none of mine were things like your tornado story, but good grief...not original? Wonder if they had so many or maybe just didn't really want to hear about that kind of thing. Either way...not to be original..that sucks.
I haven't submitted in about 2 years now. I wasnt' at hundreds a month, but $25 or so and that dwindled to nearly nothing, and hten they didn't want any of my articles so now I just get couple bucks from viewers. I have not heard anyone say they really like it better, but most just say...they aren't to happy but stick with it as something is better than nothing.
Hope you found another avenue for earning with your writing.
@oscar6 (1938)
• United States
17 Jun 11
I was really concerned when I found out that associatedcontent was getting bought out by yahoo. However now that it has happened there really hasnt been much change to the site. I thought that there would be and was nervous because this site is the one that makes me the most money out of all the sites that I use. They just changed the layout and that seems like all they did.
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
20 Jul 10
I don't know what has happened to AC but the latest news is that Yahoo has bought?? I don't know how true that is..so if it's true, then perhaps members will have to think twice about continuing writing. It reminds me of the situation with Ciao.com before.. don't know if it's similar or not..
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
20 Jun 10
Yahoo did mention they will close down Associated Content and scatter the articles across Yahoo sites.
I think you can wait and see before you make any decision.
If Yahoo is going to change the payment scheme completely, you can consider the new scheme before deciding to join or not.
I suggest that you source for a few alternatives, just in case Yahoo does not pay upfront for the articles.
Payment by page views hardly earn in the short run.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
3 Feb 11
All my articles...page views payments are less than $3 a month except for Nov and Dec I will get more.
