Frustrated with Associated Content...back to Helium

I guess the answer to which works best depends on my frame of mind at the time. AC can be good if you get upfront payments, but for strictly page views, I do better at Helium. Part of that may be due to the fact that I also have more articles over on Helium. I would need for the article number to be even to judge.

I don't know Shvoong. Why do you like that site? Maybe I should give that one a try?

because shvoong welcome our writing in my language. it can helps many of my country people write in svoong. but maybe the payment is poor.

Yes, MyLot comes without complications, like writing sites. However, you have to spend a lot of time here to make any money. It's quicker to make money on writing sites, but it's a lot more work (researching information and putting it all together into an article).

MyLot is someplace I come just to enjoy myself and see what's new.

I don't ever threaten to leave AC, I just take a break from writing for them. They have rejected my articles, but they will let you post them without paying you. Who wants to do all that work for the promise of payment and then not get paid? They complained my article was "too general" but I think it was just an excuse.

So when I get fed up with AC, I go over and write for Helium. Don't think I won't have problems with Helium. They have a crazy star rating system that makes me cranky. So eventually, when I get tired of them, I will return to AC. See what I mean...I am like a yo-yo!

As for Bukisa, I signed up under a friend. Then when I tried to post something, it said I didn't do it quickly enough, so I didn't have an account. When I tried to email them (twice!), no one ever responded. So I haven't bothered since. I never even got to publish a single article with them.

I seem to make more money over on Helium, too, but I think that's because I have more articles there than on AC. I like that they provide the titles to write to, as well. It's easier for me to pick among their titles than to think things up. Usually when I suggest a new title over at Helium, they take it as well. The only thing I don't like is their crazy star rating system.

I tried to sign up for Bukisa (see my story on the comment above), but could never get it to work out for me. And no one at Bukisa would email me back.

Do you write for any other sites?

You have more money coming from helium because it is easier to earn money there. If you were just starting and you posted 1 article a day for 4 weeks you would have 28 articles. As you know, the earn a writing star the first few should be competitive and to earn a rating star you have to rate. Assuming you understood these things from the start and rated a few articles each time you posted an article you would have your first rating star right away and your first writing star within a week or so provided your articles were well rated.

Under the old system of 25% of articles needing to be competive you would have wanted to post 1 for every three to an empty title. So that would have meant 21 empty title articles at the end of the month plus the $5 signup bonus. Now had you also earned the $3 rating bonus you would have qualified for payout after the first month regardless of page views.

No such luck at AC unless they liked everything you submitted for their "unique libray of quality content" (isn't that what they say they are building when they reject you for upfront payment?)

I just think it is so much easier because so many of the titles are really easy to write to and don't require research or lengthy, deep thought.

And for the most part, the site is user friendly. I also like that you get one lump sum instead of $2 here and $3 there like AC. If you had the magic key for AC and were getting a bunch of upfronts at a time so that they added up to something significant it would be different.

Of course, I never figured out how to earn at Helium until quite awhile after having joined the site. Still, it does seem that the process of having your articles accepted (or these days at AC, rejected) seems to slow down the whole writing format. I think the folks at AC don't really want to pay people for upfront articles, except maybe a few that they choose. They'd prefer it if everyone just submitted them for page views only, and I think that's what many people are doing. At least from what I can tell by checking out AC's forum.

I'ld love to know if Twitter really helped anyone. LOL I didn't join, but someone must be tweeting my articles because I made over $40 this past month. YAY me. LOL

I can't do anything on helium compared to AC. AC has changed their payments and article acceptances, but I don't know what's going on. I can't get any money from Helium worth mentioning, but I am finally getting a little for writing to empty titles. Of course, I writing against you and you are ahead of me. I'll catch you. LOL (somehow I doubt it. LOL)

I am sure it is just me reading every one of your articles over and over. What do you mean writing against me? I am so confused. Yes, I twitted your articles - don't know if it helped though.

I actually make more money on page views from Helium, but then I have more articles there. If I ever get my numbers equal on Helium and AC, it will be a real test.

As for Twitter, I do think that the Tweeting helped for that month that I did use Twitter. I was doing it every day and at the end of the month, my page views were up. However, I never saw any comments by anyone other than people already on Associated Content, so I am not sure it was really getting more attention from outside folks (ie, those not on AC already).

I think that Twitter has potential, but it is one more thing to take up time that probably would be just as well spent writing articles. It doesn't take that much effort, but you have to be conscious of doing it, and I tend to forget about Twitter. Do you think it works for you???

Trensue, you are such a sweetie. I got more page views last month than ever, I don't know if it was from the tweeting because most of it was on my Halloween stuff. You are such a dear. I thought someone must of tweeted me. LOL

I finally put an article in a title you had one in. I don't even remember which one it was now, but I was right behind you in the ratings. That why I said I was competing with you and going to catch you. LOL

I'm not real sure tweeting helps. I didn't even sign up for it after some of the things people said about it. I am still doing pv for pv for people that are leaving comments. Then, there are these people that rarely publish on AC. LOL

Anything, how long have you been on Helium to have over 1000 articles? I'm getting close to 900 on ac and will definitely be over that by the end of the year.

I meant Trensue with her 1,000 articles. Sorry anything.

I'm not conscious of following things like that so I won't be adding it anytime soon. lOL

In all fairness to helium MommaJ just recently figured out how to make payout...

I have looked at my page view earnings at both and for the articles I posted at both helium is still better. You see the results of each and every view whereas with AC I am still trying to see that first $1.50

On helium, a hundred articles earning at least $0.01 per day is enough to get to payout each month. You can't see what your AC articles earn per day.

Oh, Canellita, they are getting ready to fix that. They do show if you go into reports, how many views you got for one day. You may want to check that out. Looks like they had a glitch Thurs and Fri. Anyway you can figure out how much you made for each individual day. Go to your account page, click on content, then on the bottom right tab under community and help tabs. It says reports. It's a cute graph and everything. LOL

They can be frustrating to write for! With Helium, the star rating system makes me crazy. With AC, it can be even worse because you have people reject your articles for payment with very little reason why (I suspect some of it is budgetary on their part). MyLot is where I come to just chat. I don't really consider it writing, but it's fun for me. I wish I could figure out an easier way to make money online besides writing, but writing seems to work with my personality. (Even though I am a big complainer...sorry!)

Well, whatever works is what I say. I usually make more from Helium in the page views category, but I am not sure if that's because I have more articles there, too. Anyway, I am a long way from Trensue, with her 1,000+ articles. If I ever get to that point, I will be singing.

Just wait, however, in a couple of weeks, I will be complaining about Helium and the star rating system! Then it will be back to AC for me. Actually, I decided I would just post things I had already written to AC instead of new stuff. That way, I won't get mad when they reject it.

Writing really makes me crazy, but I do like it or I wouldn't keep on with it. Instead, I just drive everyone else nuts by complaining all the time. MyLot becomes my outlet for the madness!

HEHE. That is what I am doing with Helium. I am taking my articles from AC and putting them on Helium. Hopefully someday it will work out well. LOL I would like to see more page views. LOL

That's really the best way to do it...taking articles that (hopefully) you got upfront payment for and transferring them to Helium. Unfortunately, I am doing the reverse because I find it easier to use Helium's titles when writing. I was doing Calls for Content these past several weeks at AC, but it takes so long to research, even when I have traveled to the place or know a certain kind of wine. On the Calls for Content, they always want some odd detail (like information about the company making the wine...how often do you know that when you buy wine?). I found it was taking me all day and night just to write one of those $2 articles. Then I wrote a Call for Content and they rejected it, so I just threw in the towel and went back to Helium...where you can only get rejected by your fellow writers. LOL

I find that a worse type of rejection. I know ac is only reading a little of the article and putting it in a computer program. I hate to think someone doesn't like my writing. That type of rejection is harder. LOL Most of the articles I put on AC I get upfront payment for.

As far as the writing stars go this is where niche topics serve you well. If you are an expert in something or if you know enough about something that has competitive titles you can rise to the top at you won't have to worry about your writing stars. I finally brought my score back up with a carefully chosen competitve article and a couple leapfrogs.

It didn't even drop again when I posted two new articles to titles that had one article already.

I am in the parenting category MOST of the time. My stars usually come and go. LOL My percentage is yo-yoing even when I don't write any articles. I guess I am in a very competitive niche and it's still hard to maintain. Of course it helps to have a lot of articles.

I think it's beneficial, but it's hard to measure the results. My page views did go up for the month that I did the Twitter challenge at Associated Content, but I am not sure if that was just coming from other people on AC as I did not see any new commenters from the outside world. I did have new people find me on Twitter. For example, I posted info on an article on collecting watches, and suddenly I had these watch companies following me on Twitter or I wrote a review of a book about a woman lawyer, and had a few women lawyers wanting to follow me on Twitter. But did they read the article? That's hard to say.

I haven't tried it with Helium articles or anything else for that matter. Do you tweet about your articles over on Helium? Do you get any results?

I didn't do a whole lot of mine, but I think overall it was a waste of time. Know that sometimes I would sign in and there would be literally 100 tweets from one author on their articles. I would stop following that one just to clear things out and see if there was anything else interesting. I would tweet one of mine of two of others. I don't think it is something that I will keep up with.

I have to laugh because I do exactly the same thing. If one person floods my Twitter page, out they go as a "friend." Most of the time, they are tweeting about contests...did you notice that? Anyway, I am about where you are with Twitter. I still try and go over there occasionally, but I can't really demonstrate any tangible benefits.

Sorry that you experienced harassment over on AC. I know that there are a lot of very opinionated folks there, particularly when it comes to politics. I try not to get in the middle of it because I usually seem to be on the opposite side. I mostly write about art, books, and travel.

I guess in that sense, Helium is best because people can't leave comments. Well, they can comment directly to you, but no one else will see their comments if they happen to be rude...but I have never received a trollish comment over on Helium.

I think people should not throw stones. I don't always agree with what people have to say, but I try not to be rude even when I completely disagree with them. I don't know what people get out of that kind of rude behavior? Does it make them feel like a big deal? It just shows everyone else what a jerk they are.

I've signed up for Triond, but never written there. Maybe I should explore that site for awhile. Do you like it? Helium can be frustrating because of the rating star system, but if you look beyond that, you can make some money there. I usually make payout every other month without too much trouble.