This week I've been playing with Associate Content a lot.  I've got to get back to eZine, Constant Content, AmTurk, and several others...lol The point of that is of course that the more you write, and the more places you use to share your work, the more likely you will be successful at freelance writing.

I'm becoming impressed with A.C. in ways I didn't expect. I had a major issue the other day when I discovered that another contributor had posted content of mine. The piece is something I wrote on amTurk, but it doesn't look like the contributor is the one who purchased the rights to it. Technically, it's not "stealing" my work, or plagiarism, if the person who bought the content was given full rights and sold them to someone else... but I'm not really sure what happened. What is certain is that on Associated content you are only supposed to post work you really wrote. Having the copyright to something does not give you the right to post something there that someone else wrote with your name on it. On one level it might not be plagiarism- but it is actually fraud, which is a felony. That person is now gaining "clout" because of writing that they did not originate. They can make money from the page views, and if the writing is good they could get and fraudulently accept job offers based on skills that aren't theirs.

This is making me edgy about using AmTurk, because to do well with it you have to accept lots of hits from many people who may have intentions and motivations that aren't disclosed. However, I did successfully make over a hundred dollars with amTurk in the last couple of weeks. It's also not something I just want to give up on yet.

What impressed me about Associate Content i that when I posted about it in the forum in a general way, I got a lot of helpful and encouraging responses from other writer's that use the service to publish and share their writing. There are many different ways to make money writing online, but this route also includes a nice community of other writers- which could be very useful. If you're trying freelance writing and haven't experimented with writing online with Associated Content, I encourage you to give this one a whirl. Click on the link below to sign up, and check out my articles when you have time! :-)

Sidework on The Internet: Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a service provided by amazon to hook up people who need a lot of small online tasks to be completed, with people who would like to make a few bucks on the side. The little side jobs include things like: "classify this picture", "tell us what you think about this website'', "comment on this blog", "write an article about ...." .

Some jobs require simple tests to show the employer's that you have the skills to complete the activity they want. There are jobs that apply to writers, people who are computer literate, those who can code, and folks who do data entry- among other things.

The jobs and they pay amounts vary based on the employers. Some people who use Amazon Turk to get things done offer very low amounts of money for what they want, others are quite reasonable. Some offers may be on the scammish side, a big red flag for me is surveys that pay a high reward and lead you to sites which require that you give a lot of personal information and complete sponsor offers. I avoid those.

I have however been doing a lot of little articles through Mechanical Turk. I look at it as more of a writing exercise than as a way to make real money, although much to my surprise I've already racked up over a hundred dollars in amazon gift credit. My goal with it is to earn enough to get a nice new professional level laptop. Many "real" writers discourage this, as it can be kind of exploitative to sell your written work for between $1.00 and $5.00 for most articles. However, if you want an exercises that will prove you can write 300 words about anything, it may be good for you.

Read the directions carefully for each hit before accepting. Be aware that if you are writing articles, some companies want the full rights to the short article, so you can't publish it elsewhere. Others don't care if you also circulate what you write in other ways, particularly if you'll link back to their business. )

It can also be useful, as you interact with the employers on occasion and may be able to work yourself into better side jobs and short freelance writing gigs this way. It's working for me that way, mostly because it's leading me to other useful websites and services I didn't know about.

https://www.mturk.com/mturk/

( Exmples of this kind of writing can be seen on a private blog of mine, send me a message if you'd like to see. sassynolagal@yahoo.com )