Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Wrapping Up 2008 With Associated Content

As the year draws to a close, we here at Associated Content would like to take a minute to review the highlights of 2008. It's been a year of tremendous growth and change for us and we are primed to make 2009 even better.

The AC Blog was revived.
Our CPs produced stellar coverage of the Presidential election and the political frenzy that stretched from early '08 through November.
We expanded into other social networks like Twitter, Ning, Facebook and Linkedin. Look for more developments in 2009.
AC launched a really cool Facebook Portal.
We hit an all-time high of 8.2 million uniques in October.
We topped 200,000 registered Content Producers.
Associated Content paid out $1 million to our CPs this year.
We previewed a redesign in early December that goes live today!

This has been an exciting year, but also one of great turmoil in the U.S. and world financial systems. Traditional media organizations are struggling, and layoff numbers are still rising, but Associated Content is still providing an opportunity for anyone to earn money when they publish with us. We're confident that we have a chance to thrive as more and more people discover what they can do with us.

We're especially grateful for you, our Content Producers. We're glad that you're here, showcasing your talents on our site, and we're working hard to make it the best place for you to publish and spend your time.

Cheers to a whole new year together!

5 comments:

Lyn Lomasi said...

It has definitely been a great year on AC and I feel privileged to continue to share my work with AC.

Thanks back to AC for giving everyday people a place to share their thoughts and make money doing so.

AC has helped me stay at home with my kids, yet still pay some bills. I'm very grateful for that and look forward to AC's continued success, not only for me, but because AC is a great company. :-)

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm new on the site; I live in Europe, is that AC pay member outside US ?

Thanks for your answer ;)

Anonymous said...

It will be a great 2009 at AC, thanks for the information. AC is a beneficial writing site, and has offered much for Content Producers, including myself.

Jena Isle said...

I'm happy with how AC has grown but I'm wondering if AC would also change their method of upfront payments(just like what other writing sites did) to accommodate other writers from other countries.

This is one reason why many great writers from other countries refuse to sign up with AC. If you visit blogs, you'll get to read people tell others that it's better to write for this and that site because of upfront payments given to even non-US citizens.

I hope that you'd be able to consider and add this option to non-US residents, as there would no longer be problems with payments with paypal. It would also erase one wrong notion about AC, that it is practices discrimination to non-US writers.

Thank you for any positive action regarding the matter.

AC_Laura said...

Jena,
We aren't actively discriminating against foreign writers, and we have many people from countries other than the U.S. writing for us in spite of their not being able to receive upfront payments. The reason we don't pay them up front is because of taxes.

In order to legally pay every non-U.S. citizen upfront payments, AC would have to figure out the tax laws of every country that they reside in and that is not something we have the bandwith to handle right now.

Will you spread the word that we're not doing this for any reason other than to keep payments on the right side of the law in every country? Thanks!

Laura