A Sneaky Money Maker for Bum Marketers

October 12th, 2007 | 18 comments

I’ve been promoting Associated Content (AC) for several months now. I’m actually their #2 referrer. I always saw it as an easy way for newbies to make money online without a large learning curve and I think I was correct in that assumption, as 90% of those who I refer publish content there. Many have already published hundreds of articles. What I didn’t realize was the fact that it can be a bigger money maker than I originally thought. More on that in a minute. First I’ll explain what AC is.

AC is pretty much an article directory, but it’s not your average article directory. The difference between AC and EzineArticles for example is AC actually directly pays you for your articles. You submit an article, wait a few days and they send you an offer. The offer is usually $6-$9 and the articles don’t have to be unique. You have the option of submitting your articles with exclusive rights or non-exclusive. Exclusive rights meaning they will own the rights and you can’t do anything with it. Non-exclusive meaning you still own it, your just letting them publish it.

The downfall is that you cannot insert a signature at the end, which is the main purpose of submitting to sites like EzineArticles. But, this is where the “sneaky” money maker comes in. (also as far as I know they are still only paying U.S. residents for content non-U.S. residents can still submit content using the following technique though.)

AC has been accepting articles that contain affiliate links! That wouldn’t be all that exciting if it were just any site, but it’s not! I’ve been seeing AC articles on the front page for more and more competitive keywords. I don’t know if this is allowed or not (Their TOS is a mile long) but I know they’re accepting them so why not give it a shot.

Not too bad of a deal. Get paid for the article and then make affiliate sells for eternity. Just go to http://www.associatedcontent.com/ and sign up. It’s free and I highly recommend it.

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18 comments

Vern (35 comments.)
12th October, 2007 at 3:38 am

Hi Josh,

I’m pleasantly surprised at your new revamped
blog theme. It makes me all the more “empowered”
to want to push myself to get my blog revamped soon.

Anyway, I’m trying to see some warriors to work with
at an agreeable price and conditions.

However, I have just registered with your recommendation.

Looks like a good start for a “budding writer”

Cheers!
Vern
Josh Spaulding
12th October, 2007 at 4:07 am

Hey Vern,thanks I’m very happy with it as well. I was going for a more professional look and I think I achieved that.

Sean Lowery does my graphics and his work is amazing. If you want his email send me an email.

Yep, AC is definitely a great way to make some easy money. I haven’t tried the affiliate link insertion, but I’ve seen several articles that contain them so that makes it even more worth it to give it a go.
Maurice (TheCaymanHost) (66 comments.)
13th October, 2007 at 2:40 am

This looks interesting Josh and not something I knew about. I’m going to add to your referrals list shortly although where I’ll find the time to write Lord only knows

I’m thinking it could be good for writing about all sorts of things though so I’m willing to give it a try. Thanks for the heads up.
Maurice (TheCaymanHost) (66 comments.)
13th October, 2007 at 2:44 am

Ah dang, just noticed they will only pay U.S. Residents…..sorry bud, no referral after all.
Josh Spaulding
13th October, 2007 at 2:58 am

I thought I mentioned that originally but obviously I didn’t. Sorry about that Maurice. It’s in there now. You can still submit articles there and include affiliate links and references though.
Maurice (TheCaymanHost) (66 comments.)
13th October, 2007 at 3:40 am

No worries, I’m happy to sign up if you get something out of it and, as you say, might be a good place for some self promotion. Can’t do any harm.
Warrior Blog (2 comments.)
13th October, 2007 at 5:23 am

I signed up long ago but never used it much…lazy. I began submitting articles since yesterday though, I am now trying to crank out at least 20 articles a day (rewritten article).

Hopefully I can make an extra 100-200 with them
Courtney - Web Writing Info
15th October, 2007 at 8:20 pm

I got my “start” at AC over two years ago as a way to get an online portfolio. I never thought about the marketing implications. I wonder how long before AC catches on and bans links? In the meantime, I’ve got some articles to submit.
Melissa Burton (4 comments.)
17th March, 2008 at 1:26 am

I’ve got quite a few articles out there, including in my own article directory, but I’ve really just started getting serious about submitting to Associated Content and Helium.
Watching their progress — I’d be interested to know whether your regular readers who also use this service submit only original content or revamped articles they’ve used elsewhere, despite the lower pay scale?
Melissa
Michael (earners forum) (1 comments.)
31st March, 2008 at 9:33 pm

I came across a link to Affiliated Content about a month ago. My intention was to use it like ezinearticles, but I quickly noticed they weren’t allowing the links. I had no idea you could place affiliate links in the articles. Since this information is a little old, I’ll check and make sure they’re still allowing it.

It would be great if anyone with some experience would let us know how if they’ve had good results.
3dogs (3 comments.)
15th July, 2008 at 5:30 pm

I, too, signed up a long time ago, but never really did anything with it. I just revisited, and checked out a few articles related to one of my niches. I didn’t see any affiliate links, just the wiki-type links AC has in every article. The affiliate links you’re talking about – are they naked links or actual <a href type links? I’m intrigued to learn more.
Josh Spaulding
15th July, 2008 at 8:48 pm

@ 3 dogs – they are whatever the author decides to use.
Peggy Jayne (1 comments.)
21st July, 2008 at 7:14 pm

Hi, Josh! Your blog looks mighty fine. So glad to see that you are featuring Caroline’s Stumble Rush. Thank you for the heads up about AC. I’ve placed a lot of articles with them but never got more than four dollars…boy, am I miffed…! Who gets $6-$9???? Anyhow, I’ll try them again with some links…
Josh Spaulding
21st July, 2008 at 7:22 pm

Hi Peggy,

Thanks, appreciate it

This post is pretty old and the time in which I submited articles to them was even longer ago.

I believe the few I submitted sold for at least $9. That may have changed by now.

At one time I was their #1 referrer. I send LOADS of people their way and the A**holes gave me nothing at all in return.

Because of that all bridges were broken and I no longer support those sleazy dirt bags who run Associated Content
Internet Junkie (10 comments.)
19th August, 2008 at 11:25 am

Sorry but this is against their TOS. Last January I had noticed that some people were doing this on Associated Content so I tried and made 4 sales in a few days (I even wrote a blog post about this) but AC quickly realized what I was doing and removed my articles. People who get caught too often doing this can get kicked out of AC, not worth taking the risk.

I stopped doing this on AC but now I am using Squidoo instead to do this; at least they allow you to post affiliate links in your lenses.
Josh Spaulding
19th August, 2008 at 12:35 pm

That’s wrong for them to delete the acconts of those who were doing it. Their editors should have caught it when submitted, but since they didn’t they punish their authors?

AC is one of the most unethical companies I’ve ever dealt with. I’ve still yet to receive ANYTHING for referring over 1,000 new authors to them last year.
Jonathan@Friends&Money (5 comments.)
16th December, 2008 at 1:20 pm

I’m based over in the UK and Associated Content is a complete waste of time for me (other than for article promotion – but there are better sites than AC) However I have some friends based in the US who make about $50-100 per week from writing articles for AC and they sing it’s praises. They also include affiliate links and if you do it carefully you can get away with it.
Elisabeth Kuhn (2 comments.)
24th April, 2009 at 3:19 am

I’ve published a few articles at AC, just reprint rights, and it will take me years to make any money off those. But I have also gotten paid for a few exclusive articles — though not as much as I would have liked. One of them paid well ($7 – was a great article), but I only got $3 each for the two companion articles.
About the affil links… yeah, I agree that the editors ought to be the ones who catch it, but if it’s in their TOS, they’ve got their back covered.

I have to say that I’ll get more out of a lot of other directories, including ezinearticles.