How much do YOU get paid for your up-front articles?

@maezee (41997)
United States
February 3, 2010 8:35pm CST
I'm just curious what the average is. Is it based on quality? Or the subject of what you're writing about? Or your seniority? Length of the article? Or how much traffic your article will possibly bring in? How do they rate it? (And yes - I read the "payment policies" and the TOS but I'm still at a loss.) Anyway I was excited when my dry cleaning article (Check it out! http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2653921/how_to_save_on_your_dry_cleaning_bill.html?cat=3) was published and AC said they'll send me $2.05 for it! Two bucks isn't really much of anything but I thought it was going to be more around the range of .50 cents or something. How much do you typically get from your upfront payments for articles? What have you found that helps increase it? Or is it just luck? Anyway I'm excited to hear all of your responses!
3 people like this
4 responses
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
8 Feb 10
AC pays based on the amount of page views after one year. You need to have at least a 400 pg view avg per article to get over $4. I'm so close I'll let you know if my pay ever goes up. LOL
1 person likes this
• United States
9 Feb 10
That's interesting news, MommaJ. Didn't realize they had a formula. Do you spend a lot of time online promoting your articles?
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
9 Feb 10
Hi anythng! Unfortunately, I do not have time to promote my articles. I'm not even on Twitter. Once and awhile someone will share my article, but it's rare so no there is no promotion for me. My avg per article is $3.70 for upfront payment. Sometimes less, sometimes more. RARELY more. LOL
@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
8 Feb 10
On average I make around $5 per article. But I use to make $14 - $15. I've noticed a lot of retired athletes, like Bill Romanowski from the Patriots, starting to write. Obviously, he would be an expert on football. I imagine he's probably gets the bigger bucks. But I'm happy with $5. What helps increase payment is putting your articles on sites like Twitter and Facebook, not to mention using keywords in your articles and all that stuff. Well, that's my two cents worth. You can send me you AC link and I'll follow you, unless I already am??? Good luck and don't give up, just keep writing.
1 person likes this
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
9 Feb 10
First let me start with the bad news. In the old days, Associated Content used to pay $10 on average for an article. Nowadays, that figure has dropped considerably. My last article was $2.11. However, I have done "Call for Content" articles during the winter, which paid $3.50 or $4.00. I have also gotten paid as much as $8 recently for one article. So I guess the best answer is that the amount you make can range in price. I have seen AC offer as much as $25 for an article (not to me, however). It seems to be based primarily on how unique the topic is and how popular they think it might be. That is, if you have a big following (get a lot of page views) or they think the topic is something that can garner some attention, you are more likely to be paid higher than the average $2 amount. They also reject a lot of articles, particularly if there are too many already in the system on that topic. Good luck with your writing, and try and ride the wave of ups and downs in money offered. In the long run, your articles keep earning page view income as long as they are topical.
@oscar6 (1938)
• United States
17 Jun 11
On average I make around four dollars an article. You can make anywhere from three dollars up to twenty dollars per article. The amount of money you make really depends on the type of article you are writing. You have to make sure that your article is unique otherwise you will not get upfront payment for your article on there.