I am pleased to announce, that AC announced that The Performance Bonus beta starts today. In addition to being paid up front for our articles, based on a mysterious and complicated formula, writers also are paid $1.50 per 1,000 views.

I imagine if I had as many posts on Xomba as I do articles on AC, I would probably be making the same, but I was writing there before here and the habit it hard to break.

What does this mean to the Associated Content writer? It means write well, and get people to read your writing, and you may actually make a living wage working for Associated Content. Write poorly and people will probably not visit your writing again, so you will not be paid a bonus. Write well, but do not promote your writing, and you will not get much of a bonus. No matter how you look at it, if you want a bonus, you will write well and promote it. Associated Content is rewarding desired behavior.

Do Associated Content writers feel used? I know that some have resented having to market their work. After all, we are writers, not marketing executives. However, if they decide to write for AC, they need to work to make AC successful. Frankly, if I were ready to work for New York Times, I would be offended if they asked me to deliver their papers, but Associated Content is an entirely different type of media. When on the internet, you must do what internet people do.

Are Associated Content writer happy? From looking at the message boards, it is apparent to me that there are some happy campers over there. I, for instance am very happy. After looking at my individual articles I realized that although I may have accepted $10.00 for an article that took me 1 hour to write, with bonus, I could add a couple of extra dollars a month to that same article. Therefore, my pay per hour increases greatly. A $10.00 article could be worth $50.00 easy and possibly even hundreds if marketed well.

Can Associated Content writers count on this program to continue? I will have to keep my fingers crossed. Back in December, AC started awarding bonuses based on a minimum of monthly views per article. This bonus program did not last long. Of course, that bonus program seemed unreachable to many, so eventually they stopped aiming for it. This bonus however, is easily achievable, so hopefully AC will say, "If the writers are happy, then we are happy". So far, as far as I can tell, the writers are happy.