Are you into making money through writing how-to articles? Then, probably you’ve already heard or you’re already a member of either or both of these websites that allow writers to earn from submitting articles – eHow.com and Associated Content . Not yet? Read on.
While checking out some new blogging jobs over at the Problogger job board, one ad caught my attention because of my obsession with bulleted lists and how-to types of writeups. It’s an ad from eHow.com inviting writers to join its Writer Compensation Program. It immediately reminded me of Associated Content, which also pays writers to submit their written work.
Although similar in agenda, the two have considerable differences:
Sign Up Stage
Signing up for both of these programs is quite easy and won’t take you more than a few minutes. But if you’re not from the US, the social security number requirement from eHow might pose as a setback. I don’t know how to deal with the SSN requirement so I stopped there. Associated Content doesn’t have any requirement
But from just reading the FAQ’s of both sites, I’ve learned the following information on how you can make money from submitting articles:
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There are certain topics (niche market) that you should write a lot about to earn a decent amount of money. Both sites update their members about the most requested topics.
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The more articles you write and traffic that your articles receive, the more chances of earning more.
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Using SEO techniques can work wonders in getting your articles more pageviews.
eHow’s Writer Compensation Program looks easier to earn from though because according to the FAQ’s, your article will go live immediately after submitting it while Associated Content makes a writer wait for a few days for the article’s approval.
Show Me the Money
As to how you get paid and the basis of payment, here’s the deal:
eHOw
The payment gets processed via PayPal and is done before the end of the following month.
Q. What is my payment based on?
A. You get paid per article. Your article’s earning potential can be based on a combination of several elements, including the amount of times it’s been viewed and its category. The more useful your articles are to the reader, the more money you could make.
Associated Content
The payment is processed via PayPal, too. However, usually payments are sent every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (except for holidays).
The amount of money you make at Associated Content is unlimited. All of the content you publish can earn you money via performance payments, which pays you $1.50 for every thousand page views your content receives. Some Content Producers earn hundreds of dollars per month in performance payments alone. In addition, sometimes we might make an upfront payment offer for your text or video content (offers range from $3 – 20).
Conclusion
Associated Content’s upfront payment for articles is clearly what killed eHow. However, eHow may not be far from cooking up something similar.
I started submitting articles to Associated Content a few weeks ago. And so far, my two articles earned me a whopping 8 cents! I’m not complaining because I haven’t yet exhausted the means to make the most out of these programs. But if I can find more time to compose useful articles on most-requested topics, I’m thinking that participating in programs like these can be great sources
Have you signed up for these programs yet? If so, what do you think of them? Got any tips to share?
You have been incredibly helpful. Thank you. I’m looking at AC now.
Wow, Karrie, you’re incredibly wrong.
Quote: “Pepita, ehow is a site where they (not Google Adsense) base your earnings on how many friends you have, recommendations that you have, how many people you talk to, on how many you have recommend and how many articles you have”
Ehow earnings have NOTHING to do with how many friends or recommendations you have, and especially NOT how many articles you have. That is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.
Quote ” I was a smart ass and looked it up…ehow is only budgeted to give out $600.00 this year (’09) in ad revenue.”
Are you kidding? I’ve made over $120 with 36 articles within the last 3 months. So does that mean they only have $480 left in their budget? Yeah, I guess so, thats why hundreds, if not thousands, of people are writing there receiving their monthly payments whether it”s a measly $10 or $100′s. Gee, I think that would add up to much more than $480.
Looks like you were more of a dumb ass than a smart ass to even think that. Ehow’s budget isn’t $600 for the year. If you make more than $600, you are legally required to pay taxes on that.
Look, if eHow were legitimate, then whoever wrote the “How to Make Money with e-How” would know such English language basics as pronoun/antecedent agreement and punctuation. But look at this:
“When you write articles it should be 400-600 words long.” What? Shouldn’t the antecedent “articles” be paired with the pronoun “they”? And shouldn’t a comma follow “articles”?
They can’t write, but they’re telling me how to make money writing for e-How? “Your articles should be 400-600 words,” is a better way to say it.
Obviously this is not a legitimate business.
So you can’t really make a living writing for the Internet. $8 per article? Man, even local newspapers pay more, like $25 per article. AC and e-How are cons, admit it. Look at the poor language skills of the contributors. Nothing but a bunch of losers with not enough writing chops to write for legitimate publications.
Funny how some people don’t understand the point…. NOT every one can write for the freaking NEWSPAPER. But anyone can write for ehow…. THAT is why they are doing it. And they are making money. sheesh.
I guess if these companies are “cons”, they are conning everyday people into making a little money for taking some time to write about something they know. Those mean horrible companies.
Helium and Triond pays me the most. I have 53 articles (15 are Creative Writing like Poetry, Drama, and etc.) written for Helium and and I have made $75.00 so far. As for Triond, just one of my articles (over 5500 page views) made only a little over $10.00. Helium is my favorite so far, until I find another site that pays more.
You cannot participate in the eHow Writer’s Compensation programme unless you are a US resident. You are not eligible for upfront payments from AC unless you are a US resident. Triond, Bukisa and Helium are alternatives for those not in US and of them Helium is my best earner so far followed by Triond and with Bukisa sadly trailing way behind.
I am new at this game anyway so my earnings wouldn’t buy me a cup of coffee but there are other reasons to participate than pure hard cash.
I had joined eHow but they constantly have “article sweeps” recently that made many writers got frustrated. Unlike AC when your article get accepted and it’s live, it will no longer get deleted. I recently tried writing for Infobarrel. Through research, I had read that many writers get the chance to earn more at Infobarrel and all you need is a Google Adsense account.
I was able to earn a little bit more by increasing readership views by joining Infopirate and SheToldMe since these are bookmarking sites that also pays you through Google Adsense. The registration for both sites was easy and free and I was able to track down readership views through my Bukisa and Triond accounts. These two bookmarking sites really helped increase my online income a little bit more.
I have been writing on AC for a few months. Haven’t been able to write as many articles as I wish due to limited time, but am enjoying it. I’m going to start publishing more and will check out eHow. Thanks!
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/561288/ana_blanco.html
Wow. From what I’ve gathered here, it’s best to have and work towards a particular goal other than money. It sounds like at this point in the game, the money generating rules include jumping through hoops, and those hoops constantly change. I can see that the hints above may lead to greater earned income, but that if personal goals aren’t met, the money earned may leave one feeling empty or used. I appreciate the honesty and feelings of everyone. Thank you.
I have just begun to write for AC, we’ll see how that goes : ).
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/626309/antoinette_todd.html
I have been writing for eHow since June of this year and I have been making a pretty good amount of money. At first I was a little skeptical and didn’t log on for a few weeks. But when I came back to see that my article had made me over $5.00 I was shocked! Thanks for the information on associated content. I have yet to try associated content but after reading this I might just give it a try. But I would recommend anyone to give eHow a try also. Also if you have time stop by and check out my blog: http://www.barbiegirl91.blogspot.com/ I feature the best sites & work at home jobs to make money online. I make over $3,000 per month online & my blog shows others how to too. I also have a huge list of scam sites people should be aware of.
Thanks!
Danielle
Whoever said they make 50 cents to $1.00 per word for internet articles is a big liar. $400 per 400 word piece? It would take years for an internet marketer to get his money back. $20 to $70 is more realistic for internet pieces
Here are the facts. EHOW is one of the buggyest sites you will ever write on. The publisher wizard they use is constantly breaking down, eating up half you articles steps, or freezing your articles in limbo so you can’t get at them and no one can read them.
Communication sucks. Day in and day out writers are asking the same questions and getting no answers. And when eHOW does respond, it is usually a warning threatening action against you and your account. No PR skills what so ever.
But as others have already stated on here, the UK site, eHOWs secret brain child, has split the community of writers right in half and has everyone going at one anothers necks. Secret, yes, their secret UK site. They secretly mirrored all U.S. writers articles onto both sites, without any of the writers permission to do so. they then made money off those articles, thousands upon thousands of articles, and told no one. When someone stumbled upon their secret site, it all came to a head.
EHOW insisted their UK site had caused no one any harm, and for a lenghty time, refused to answer any of the writers questions. Many writers took down their articles, many left the site. Others threatened to leave, and finally ehow agreed to remove all articles of U.S. writers from the UK site. In the meantime, many U.S. writers found their once thriving articles had stopped earning. That’s right, eHOW, by mirroring the usa site over to the UK site, had messed up the url’s, so many LOST A LOT of money during this time. Ehow then insisted all U.S. writers articles were no longer on the UK site, and that the profiles would be removed.
As it turned out, many articles were removed, but many more were not. Not only that, but all newly written articles here in the USA were still being cloned in the UK site. So where are we today? Well, the articles are finally removed, but ehOW still refuses to compensate U.S. writers for all the actually money they lost while their articles stopped earning. EHOW instead came up with what they called a generous compensation, not for money lost from all this, but for what they deemed the value of each writers articles were during the months the entire UK thing unfolded.
Say what? So many writers generous compensation came to under $10, many more recieved under $!. But how could that possibly be? We are talking about writers who had hundreda of articles and who lost hundreds of dollars? Easy to explain, the valus of the U.S. writers articles were not worth spit during that time, because eHOW killed their article links when they mirrored the two sites together. They continue to refuse to compensate U.S. writers for all that lost income, even though eHOE profitted from those articles. Remember, U.S. writers were paid nothing for their articles while they were on the UK site, but eHOW had ads on those articles and pocketed all the earnings.
The latest news is that outraged writers are demanding that their UK profiles, placed their from the U.S site without the writers permission, be removed. EHOW has said NO. U.S. writers are also demanding the right to edit those profiles, which contain their personal informat. Again, eHOW today has said NO. I would strongly recommend that no one sign up at that site.
And yes, I realize many will question what I have said here, so I will let you judge the evidence for yourselves. Go to eHOW right now, click onto community, and then forums. Now click onto the EHOW SITE NEWS forum, and then onto the UPDATE ON EHOW UK SITE AND U.S. MEMBER ARTICLES. It is all right there within hundreds of posts, and you do not have to be a member of the site to go in and read the remarks left by members. The further you read, the uglier it gets. Many of the most vocal and outspoken posts have been deleted by eHOW, but there is still plenty there to read. http://www.ehow.com/forums.aspx?plckForumPage=Foru
I have written for both AC and eHow and eHow is much better. I published 20 articles to eHow in July and 20 articles to AC in September. I’ve made a consistent $20 per month on eHow or $1 per article per month without adding any articles. I’ve only made $0.18 on AC and I didn’t get any upfront payment. I’m going to write 1,000 articles on eHow and it should get me $1,000 per month. I see a huge potential with eHow. I may write more for AC but so far, I’m not seeing the earnings I was looking for.
Let’s talk a bit about those famous eHOW sweeps, shall we. Ever wonder what is really behind the madness? Yes, some are articles that are out of eHOW’s guidelines. Yes, some are poorly written. But many of these that get deleted are top earning articles. That’s correct, they are top earning articles, that have been in place for several years in many cases, only to overnight no longer fall within eHOW’s guidelines. How to hell can that be? What is really going on here?
Glad you asked. There is gold in your deleted articles, pure gold – for eHOW. I know, how can there be gold for eHOW in deleted articles. First let’s look at just what your high earning articles have accomplished. They have matured and rank high on the search engines. They have developed a following, in as far as online articles can develop a following. They have built up comments and views. And then eHOW comes riding in on its white horse and deletes em. All that hard work and effort is gone, right?
Don’t bet the family farm on it. EHOW wins on several fronts, and here is the secret to their dirty little game of deleting high earning articles. First, even though your articles get deleted, they are not totally gone, something very important remains behind and in eHOWs control – your URL’s. And therein is the gold, because eHOW takes your articles URL’s and redirects them to pages full of links to DS (DEMAND STUDIOS) so all your hard work and effort are now going to serve eHOW’s cause, promoting their DS articles.
These redirects are eHOW’s free bread and butter. The DS articles are already paid for, so all traffic they redirected to those articles is extra money in eHOWs pocket. An added bonus, they are now making money off the DS article ads and not paying for your articles any longer. It’s win win all the way around. Another bonus, all your deleted articles comments. EHOW uses the strength of those comments to help drive the DS articles even higher in the search engines rankings.
This is why eHOW is never clear as to why your articles get deleted. In many cases, there is no reason they can clearly state and point to. Oh yeah, we deleted your top earning articles so we can make a pile of money off of them – nope, don’t expect them to answer truthfully on this one. But now you know, redirects of deleted articles spells gold for eHOW.
http://ehowscams.webs.com/ feel free to follow my blog “EHOW SCAMS AND DIRTY TRICKS – where we expose the darker side of ehow.
And eHow collapsed.
Hey everyone,
interesting stuff going on here. Been in the Internet Marketing business for a couple months now and was looking on building some highly weighted links using ehow. well, just got back from the site and based on THEPREACHERS post on what ehow did turns out it was completely legal..
Just Read the Agreement form on the site and it was said that by accepting the terms and conditions that you give them the right to literally edit,copy (mirror), change, use ,and distribute any content posted on ehow. pretty much you get paid for what up there on the US version..
It’s got me a bit skeptical on putting content for my blog http://www.MichelleIM.com up there ,but they are a top authority site so it may be unavoidable.
Can anyone explain these “assignments” they talked about giving you once you sign up. What are they
Again great source of info!
Ashawndra Michelle
Learn how to make money online
Easy Cash Webinar
Hi, I know a lot of us at ehow have been frustrated about the loss of the writers compensation program so I wanted to share a website that was impressive and also offers a similar writers compensation program.
It’s called http://www.listmyfive.com you basically create any “top five” list that you can think of and get ad revenue share for the lists you create. They to pay with pay-pal and set-up and publishing is simple. This is the best thing I found sense the dismantle of ehow’s WCP.
with listmyfive I’ve seen about the same revenue potential as ehow, so I thought I would share that site with fellow frustrated ehow writers… hope this helps.
Hi, I was writing for ehow until they stopped the Writers Compensation Prgram. And I know a lot of members at ehow have been frustrated about the loss of the writers compensation program so I wanted to share a website that was impressive and also offers a similar writers compensation program.
It’s called http://www.listmyfive.com you basically create any “top five” list that you can think of and get ad revenue share for the lists you create. They to pay with pay-pal and set-up and publishing is simple. This is the best thing I found sense the dismantle of ehow’s WCP.
With listmyfive I’ve seen about the same revenue potential as ehow, so I thought I would share that site with fellow frustrated ehow writers and other freelance writers looking for a good site to join… hope this helps.
-JT
im very interested on your posting. i like writing and still don’t know how to make money from it. but are they accept the member from indonesia?
please help me..
There are some contributors for Associated Content that make 5-10 grand a year just from that alone. They’ve been with the site for 4-5 years and built up one to two thousand articles but that just means writing a few articles per day. As for me I’ve went from 30 in November to 50 dollars for December, so if you’re patient you can start to have a nice passive income quickly. I wrote about how I did it here: http://hubpages.com/hub/how-to-make-money-on-associated-content-a-guide-to-increase-your-earnings
The good thing about Associated Content is you just need readers and not ad clickers like some other sites. Good luck to any one wanting to start there!
great article on ehow and associated content
This article is outdated. eHow WCP no longer exists.
[...] eHow.com and Associated Content can be pretty lucrative if you’ve got some time and ability. This site lays out the differences between the two in depth. Skill needed (1-10) – 7 Time involvement [...]
Working as a freelance writer is a lucrative job. If you love writing, then why not get paid as well while doing what you love the most. It will not seem like working if you enjoy what you do. It pays a lot to be a writer specially if you can write decent articles
hey,.i am using ehow frm april,and earning a nice amount