The Grapevine: For Writers

There's been a lot of chatter about Constant Content and Associated Content. Are they legitimate companies? Are they worth the effort? Will I get paid?

Eager to learn more, I jumped into the arena and joined each one. What the heck, I figured. I have all these articles just sitting around my computer. Who knows if they're worth anything or not. But I haven't used them in a few years anyway.

So first I jumped onto Constant Content, and uploaded a few articles. I had forgotten that I had submitted a movie review a few years ago. I mean, how long ago did Star Trek: Nemeesis come out in the theatre?

I was shocked to see that I had actually sold this article, and had a $5 commission sitting in my account. But wait, you say, big deal, it's only $5. Maybe so, but it was just sitting on my computer, not going anywhere. It's not like people are fighting for that particular review. It's old news.

Anywho, so I reworked several of my articles and submitted them. As it turns out, Constant Content is a little picky about formatting and things like that, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that bad. So far, I have six test articles accepted by their editors. Let's see whether it works or not.

Eager to try for more, I buzzed over to Associated Content. I signed up quickly and submitted several articles for their review. Their replies were extremely quick, although I'm not sure whether I'm pleased with the results yet.

Here's the info on my submitted articles:

Article 1: They liked the article, but had too many similar ones. They asked me to submit for no pay, which I did.

Article 2: They said it was interesting and well written, but it wouldn't appear in search engines. They asked to submit for no pay, which I did.

Article 3: This article was immediately accepted for an immediate payment of $3.69. I thought that it was $3.69 per download, but I think that it's just a flat fee. But there is some kind of bonus.

My other articles: They said they have similar content and asked me to submit for no payment. I don't want to start a trend here, so I'm leaving them alone for now (and not submitting them).

In my case, the jury's still out on these two sites. I've heard a lot of people say that there's money to be made, but I'm still a little leary. I've made a lot more money off small freelance articles; even my fillers bring in more cash. But on the other hand, it's like a bank account that's slowly earning interest. Someone else is doing the reselling, and I can focus on more important activities.

I'll let you know how it works for me!