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Dreah Writes for a Living: The AC / Xomba experiment continues

posted March 19, 2007 - 6:35pm
Dreah Writes for a Living: The AC / Xomba experiment continues

Before I tell you the results of my Associated Content / Xomba experiment http://www.xomba.com/writing_for_a_living_the_experiment I will give a bit of background. I plan to run this experiement for a year to see which site will pay more if I put in an equal amount of work.

Since the two sites are so different, it is difficult to determine what an equal amount of work is. Some articles I wrote this week have been crossposted. Other articles have been unique. I did a good number of xomblurbs this week, and a few news items over there are well.

Now keep in mind that I have been on AC for over a year and have earned (just this week) a rank of 10, vs, being relatively new and inactive on Xomba until recently. While the numbers are drastically different, it is not yet fair to compare dollar for dollar. With that said:

On Associated Content this week, I made $132.05. This includes up front pay for articles and a monthly bonus (The first of its kind. This bonus program is in beta stage)

On Xomba, I made $1.54 in the last seven days.

I realize there are things I can do to raise my income on both sites, but as you can see, my pay between the two sites is not enough to allow me to spend too much time working on these sites. I have another two sites I work for to bring home the rest of the bacon.

Author: dreahwrites
-A +A


Comments

With all due respect to the

LadyPeninhand - Tue, 2007-20-3 7:07 am
With all due respect to the generous “experimenter” here, I can appreciate the fact that you are willing to make a year-long commitment, both to AC, and to Xomba in order to conduct this "experiment" for all of our benefit. A year is a really long time! So to announce to the public that you are going to do this for all our benefit and will continue reporting back to us to share your insight is commendable to say the least. I mean, I’m not sure I would be willing to do something like that. I just want to clarify a few things for myself here. After an absence of quite some time (if I remember right) your first article here on Xomba was a declaration that you are pleased to announce that AC is offering their writers a Performance Bonus. So, “in addition to being paid up front for your article, BASED ON A MYSTERIOUS AND COMPLICATED FORMULA, you also get a bonus of $1.50 per 1000 reads!!” That sounds more to me like “give the dog a bone” than “positive reinforcement”. “A $10 article could easily become a $50 article”. So all we have to do is sell it for $10, and then go out and peddle our a**es off to promote it too? And gee, let’s see…to earn $40.00 more, at the rate of $1.50 per 1000 reads, that’s about 27,000 reads. How long did you say they were going to offer this “positive reinforcement”? Until it isn’t positive for them anymore? Maybe if I hurry!? Then you go on to say that you would be offended if you “went to work for the New York Times and were asked to deliver their papers too”. Excuse me, but isn’t that what you are doing here is “delivering their papers for them?” Oh, that's right! It's not the same, because AC is an “entirely different type of media and while on the internet we must do what ‘internet people’ do”. Have you ever thought about selling used cars Dear? I think you are missing your calling!! Now just a week later, right here in this article, it seems to me that you start doing some serious back-peddling when Nick and Karbon start pointing out some facts to you. You even admit out loud to Nick that you fully expect that by the end of this experiment you will find that you “make as much or more off of Xomba”, blah, blah, yadda, yadda. With all the double-speak I've read between the few articles you've written since you came back, I'm sorry, but I wouldn’t trust you to report the “true results of your experiment” accurately to us anyway. Before I sign off let me ask this....not just you, but of all the writers here.....Why do you suppose "copyright" laws exist to begin with? Those laws would not be in existence today if someone, somewhere along the way, didn't realize the earning potential of their own written words, not just the day they are put on paper, but every day in the future? It took more than a few writers to fight for the right that we all have to be paid for our writing from now on!! Why would you want to give that up for $10? Too bad you aren't as loyal to Xomba, Dhreahwrites, as you seem to be to AC cause they could always use more good writers. But I for one think you should go peddle your papers somewhere else… Lady:P

Lady:P

'I sleep naked.'

Not angry

Nick - Xomba CEO - Mon, 2007-19-3 10:42 pm
I'm just making sure our users understand the difference. I've got no problem with your experiment, but it will take a long time to show for most people. I'm not ragging on you for using AC. They have some of the best writers on the net. They also make most of their money from adsense which should show as a testimonial to Google Adsense. (Digg makes money from Adsense as well) They have a huge site and it has been around for a long time. When we started Xomba we never looked at AC as a competitor. They are fundementally different. However, you know how I feel about owning your own content and earning half of what you make. Karbon makes a good point about selling your work. Technically, they could sell it to magazines with their name on it. Which if Xomba was to buy content and pay up front you would have to give up the rights because we would want it up forever without the option of you editing it. I'm still interested in your results though.

No one is arguing with you...

dreahwrites - Mon, 2007-19-3 9:09 pm
Just seeing for myself. For arguments sake, why not turn the tables. If Xomba is so sure that its writers will make so much, then why not pay them upfront,and then pay...oh... 35% afterwards. I and many other writers would leave AC so fast their heads would spin! Not complaining... or demanding..just asking! ~While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about~

~While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about~ follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/ahermitt

What do they do with your work AFTER they pay you? Do you know?

karbon - Mon, 2007-19-3 9:03 pm
I just went to the AC site and read their CONTRACT (you have to sign this before you can post anything to AC). Here is what one article EXACTLY says: "(d) License Grant. Upon any Rights Grant, Content Producer hereby irrevocably (i) grants to Company a worldwide, perpetual, fully-paid up, royalty-free, transferable right and license, with right to sublicense, to reproduce, publicly display, distribute, and perform, transmit, edit, modify, create derivatives works of, publish, sell, exploit, use, and dispose of such Work for any purpose and in all forms and all media whether now known or to become known in the future, the right to retain all revenue and income derived therefrom, and any and all other related rights of whatever kind or nature; and (ii) waives and agrees never to assert any and all Moral Rights Content Producer may have in or with respect to any such Work in connection with Company's use thereof, even after termination of this Agreement ..." That's as scary a contract article as I've ever read... This means, after they pay you whatever they choose to pay you upfront, they can do ANYTHING they want with YOUR creation now or anytime in the future, and they can GENERATE any REVENUES they want, for as long as they want, WITHOUT giving you a single cent! And the worst part is, you'll never ever know how much money they continue to make off your back that way, year in year out... When you sell them anything, you turn over your rights IRREVOCABLY. Even if you cancel your contract, they still have the right to sit on everything you posted on their web site and use them any way they please! That's why, with all due respect to dreahwrites, the comparison does not make any sense because how on earth are you going to compare all the money AC makes on the backend without your knowledge with the ZERO amount that Xomba makes in that fashion? With Xomba, what you see is what you get (at least until someone proves otherwise some day). With AC, what you don't see is what you don't get -- by default! :-)) So I agree with Nick that a comparison between AC and Xomba really does not make sense because, besides the amount you are making upfront, I'm sure you are being DENIED (with your very own permission at that!) an untold amount more at AC. But at the end of the day this is still a God blessed free country of course, and we can all do whatever we want to do despite all the evidence and reasoning. With due respect and best regards to all my wonderful, courageous, hard-working fellow writers.

Lighten up nick

dreahwrites - Mon, 2007-19-3 8:26 pm
I fully suspect that by the end of the year that I will be making at least as much on Xomba if not more than I make on AC.... like I said previously, and like you just said... It will take a year to get there. Hopefully by the end of say 3 or 4 months, Unless i am nagged to stop my experiement that the numbers will begin to show. Since you KNOW this, and I EXPECT this, why end the experiment? Meanwhile, while a long term investment is nice, I still need moolah today. ~While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about~

~While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about~ follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/ahermitt

Come on...

Nick - Xomba CEO - Mon, 2007-19-3 8:18 pm
How can you do an experiment where you have been on the site for a year? :) If you posted the same original quality on Xomba as you world on AC and then waited a year then you would make more here. Meaning an article posted here today and and an article sold to AC for 10 bucks after a year you would make more on Xomba. You article (considering it was quality) would make more on Xomba because you ALWAYS make money on it. I'll prove this... and end your experiment for you. Ask Associated Content to split their Adsense with you. They will say no. Furthermoore, they will laugh. Why? Because they make way more than 10-20, 50 bucks a year off stuff they buy. Hell, I bet they make 50 cents - $2 a day on articles(at least). So about 50 bucks a month(being really conservative). You get 10 bucks and a buck on every 1,000 views? What I am saying is that after a year of posting you'll still be making money from everything. More like a long term investment.

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