June '09 Best of AC Winners Announced!

Associated Content is excited to announce the winners of our June 2009 Best of AC Awards in Automotive, Summer Travel Guides and Web Technology. Congrats to the deserving winners

Source: AC Darnell
Published: Jul 02, 2009

AC ON ZDNet, and Evergreen Content

ZDNet posted an article with Patrick Keane, the CEO of Associated Content. While there are some factual errors regarding payment in the article, web writers and contributors to AC can learn an essential passive income lesson from this one paragraph about evergreen content:

"How-to stories. Advice. Narrow, unique articles based on accomplishing tasks. Like making clothes you might wear once a year. But every year you do it." - Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, AP, Meet AC. And, BTW, News is Not Really 'Monetizable,' on the Web, June 17th, 2009.

Breaking it down, this is a concise explanation of how to monetize evergreen content and grow your passive income.

How-tos

We all know How-to stories work. Demand Studios has an entire domain dedicated to the topic for a reason. As a Home Improvement Category Editor for AC I can explain to you the difference between a good How-to and a bad How-to.

A bad How-to does not deliver the goods. There are too many headlines promising an explanation of How-to do something that only go on to explain how important it is do the task at hand, and how to prepare for it. Too many of these articles never get to the point.

A good How-to is actionable. A reader should be able to print out the article and follow it in the order presented and at the end, the task should be completed.

Advice

Evergreen articles focusing on advice need to be written from either

1) personal experience
2) in-depth research
3) both

Advice articles which cover narrow topics fill more needs than more broad-based topics. For example, How to Pick a Wedding Dress is too general. White Wedding Dress Shopping for Your Skin Tone is more specific, and still universal.

Seasonal Content

Over the years I have tried to explain the importance of seasonal content. Take a walk through the magazine aisle at any local store and you will see the same topics as last year, but written for this year. As a web writer, you can earn passive income writing on these seasonal topics because every year people need the same information: pumpkin carvings, gardening tips, winterizing tips, storm clean-up, financial advice, back to school articles, summer recipes, craft articles, DIY home improvement articles, birthday party ideas......

The writer nailed it on the head when he wrote, "Like making clothes you might wear once a year. But every year you do it."

These annual topics, that I like to call seasonal, are the topics that will keep your passive income flowing and give you the freedom to pursue other activities and create new content for different venues.

Factual Errors

Disclaimer: As for the factual errors in the article. These are unofficial numbers based on my three years of experience at AC, not the official and outdated payment numbers AC uses.

1. Upfront payment is realistically between 50 cents and $13. Most contributors will earn an average of $4-6 and seasoned contributors will earn an average of $7-$8. A select few earn an average of $9-$10 per article.

2. The $50 have not existed for at least a year, if not more.

3. The only articles which pay $15-$25 are partner articles. In 2006, $10-$25 upfront payments were more common when AC was trying to build its library.

4. "Each thousand page views only generates $1.50 additional." That is only at the first level of Clout. Some contributors earn $2.00 per thousand.

In the article the author wrote, "So, if you got $25 upfront for that Halloween piece and you got 50,000 views, you’ll get $75 on top of that. Or, $100, all told. Maybe enough to buy one costume, instead of make it from scratch."

First, a Halloween article at AC is more likely to earn $4-$8 upfront, with the average being $6. While it may earn 20,000 views one year, it could earn 20,000 pageviews every year for five years or more. The final payment could add up to hundreds of dollars or more over time. That's for one article.

I have five Halloween articles which earned 25,000 pageviews each. That means I've been paid $50 for each one so far, plus $7 upfront. That's in three years. For me, this type of article is quick, easy and enjoyable. After six years I could potentially have earned $107 for each article, which took me less than half an hour to complete. That rivals any magazine print publication payment, as long as you are willing to earn your money over time. This is why evergreen content is a good investment of your time.

June 2009 Writing Contest Topics

AC announced the June 2009 Writing contest topics. They are:

Automotive
Summer Travel Guides
Web Technology

For contest rules and details, read this.

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