How I Increased My Freelance Writing Income by DIGGing

I read fellow AC Content Producer, Deborah Dera's article, You've Gotta DIGG to Be DUGG! and came away with a sense of clarity about using social bookmarking sites to promote my online writing.

In the feedback section of this article, I came across an alternate point of view by AC Producer Heather James. Her article is entitled, Go Digg Yourself a Grave.

As a side point, I love AC (AssociatedContent.com) just for this reason - you can access various points of view on one topic almost instantaneously.

After reading both articles, I agree with Ms. Dera wholeheartedly, for the following reasons:

Volume: Quite frankly, if you want to increase what you make from freelance writing, volume counts. Proof? AC recently implemented a Performance Bonus for their writers.

How does this work? In essence, writers are paid for page views - over and beyond what they are first paid for an article.

AC Performance Bonus: How Much Is It?

FYI, AC currently pays $1.50 for every 1,000 page views your content receives. My recent bonus was $21.14. While it certainly won't make me rich, it's money I didn't have to do any extra work for, which is the beauty of the publishing industry.

2. Money: Ms. James seems to enjoy writing for the sake of writing. She exults in the aforementioned article, "Personally, I just write. Lately, I've even been doing it with no monetary compensation whatsoever just so I can get it out there quicker."

And this is fine - as long as it suits her purposes.

However, there are those of us who do this for a living, so how much each piece is producing is critical for us. Hence, the more page views, the more money. So, sites like DIGG.com help us to achieve financial goals.

I could care less about the feedback, uprating, downrating, etc., which Ms. James talks about in her article. Just "show me the money," please.

3. Marketing: Another point Ms. James covers in her article is self-promotion, eg, writers digging their own content. She doesn't think this is a good idea, writing: