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:

• 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.

• The more articles you write and traffic that your articles receive, the more chances of earning more.

• 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).

How much money can I make?

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?

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Associated Content vs eHow Writer Compensation Program