by C.V.Rajan

Created on: November 24, 2008   Last Updated: May 28, 2009

This question "Has anyone ever been paid by Associated Content?" is rather damning because Associatedcontent.com is one of the prestigious websites like Helium, where thousands and thousands of writers write their articles there and earn their money on a regular basis. Associatedcontent is by far the most sought-after site for global information seekers in comparison with competitive sites Helium.com (AC is ~5 times more) and suite101.com (AC is ~1.5 times more) according to alexa.com (as in 4th week of May 09).

I have been a member of Associatedcontent.com for the past one year and I have been regularly receiving my "performance payments" for the articles I have posted at the site regularly every month through Paypal.

Unlike Helium where the minimum payout amount is 25$ or Suite101 where the amount is 10 dollars, In Associated Content, the minimum payout amount is as low as 1.5 dollars! Perhaps the only other site which has still smaller minimum payout amount is Triond.com where it is 0.5 dollars. While I had to wait for several months for my earnings to accumulate past $25 in Helium, I started pocketing my little income right from the second month of my membership at AC.

If the question is "Has anyone residing outside US ever been paid by Associated Content?", at least there is some rationale in the question, because, as per Associated Content's policies, non-resident US writers are not eligible for getting "upfront payments" from the site. However, they have no problem in getting "performance payments" from the site.

By the way, what is "upfront payment"? Associated Content will pay for original, unpublished articles which have high relevance and reading interest for the information seekers at the Internet. The articles submitted by authors for upfront payment will be accepted by AC only after editorial review. If the article is not up to the mark, they will reject it out of upfront payment eligibility. It will take 1 to 2 weeks to get the acceptance or rejection status from AC after submission of article.

On the other hand, "performance payment" is your "penny-earnings" based on page views you get for your articles. Approved authors (those whose first 3 articles are subjected to scrutiny after joining the site) can earn performance payments for all their articles including those which are approved under upfront payment (or rejected but re-posted under-performance pay-only category) for lifetime. Associated Content also declares at what rate they pay: it is 1.5$ per 1000 page views.

For reasons related to US Tax laws, AssociatedContent is not willing to pay any upfront payment to non-US resident authors. But they keep paying performance payment to ALL their authors across the globe through Paypal once in a month.

This way, currently my seventy plus (all of them are previously published elsewhere) articles are earning me a regular (though very small, not worth boasting about) income month after month. Because of the fact that I cannot earn upfront payment from AC, I post my original articles at Helium where I get $2 to $2.5 per article at upfront payment. That way, my earnings from Helium are far better than my residual income from Associatedcontent.

For a more elaborate and balanced review of Associatedcontent.com, read THIS.

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