Goodbye Associated Content and Bukisa, Hello Blogger!

(All figures in this post are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.)
Not everyone who can write well can make a living on Associated Content and Bukisa.
That's been the message of my seven months' experience writing online and attempting in vain to earn something approaching my local minimum wage (CAD$9.50/hour, US$8.72/hour at the time of writing) doing so.
Our story begins in late November 2008, when I discovered that a site called Associated Content was offering to host people's writing, help them promote it, and pay them based on the number of page views their work received (a CPM, or "PPM" in AC-speak). I was intrigued; I had a bunch of old school assignments that I wasn't doing anything with, and I'd often been praised for the quality of my prose. The sign-up bonus offer of $10, for providing five exclusive articles that got published, sealed the deal.
During that time, I posted a total of 11 articles about everything I could think of. The subject matter ranged from stock investment theory to web entertainment reviews to vegetarianism, and more. I also posted 10 Halloween-costume photos (which I had previously tried and failed to sell to my university's yearbook), which AC published as a slide show.
So far, I've earned the sign-up bonus and $2.11 more.
Later on, I discovered Bukisa. Bukisa wasn't offering any sign-up bonuses, contests or other gimmicks. Their method of counting page views was far more stringent, since each article was one page, rather than multiple pages that earned PVs separately; they also didn't count readers who used ad blockers. But they were offering more than twice the CPM (a fluctuating figure which they call the "Bukisa Index"). Plus, they offered a system for rewarding referrals; if you signed up using a link next to my articles, Bukisa would pay me 25% of what they were paying you for your articles, in addition to what they were paying me for my own articles.
My earnings from Bukisa to date have been $1.60 -- $1.03 "content" (my own articles) and $0.57 "network" (referrals).
I've calculated that if all articles continue to earn money at the rate they've done so far since their publication, on both Associated Content and Bukisa, and my network earnings continue at the rate they've had to date, I'll earn a grand total of US$8.13 per year. That's less than two and a half cents per day, less than what I pick up off the ground.
If my "clout" on AC (a score based mainly on cumulative total page views) increased to 10, raising my PPM from $1.50 to $2.00, this would increase to $9.50 per year; however, at the current rate of page views, that won't happen until December 10, 2335. Indeed, at the current rate it will be September 5 2010 by the time I get to clout 5; while the PPM at clout 5 is the same as at clout 4, rumour has it the work of clout 5 writers is given more publicity.
If any of you readers are AC/Bukisa apologists, you're probably thinking this poor performance is just the result of inexperience. To test that hypothesis, I calculated what would happen if all 12 of my published items were performing as well as my best one has been, so that what's currently my best was instead my average. If that were the case, my income would be $34.97 per year, which would increase to $40.42 once I hit clout 10 on November 24, 2090.
I simply cannot make a noticeable dent in my educational expenses by writing for AC and Bukisa. These sites obviously don't know how to properly promote and monetize articles on the subjects I can write about. Successful content tends to be about living with kids (I don't have any), cooking (not something a full-time university student can generally be an expert on), travel (which wouldn't be high on my list of things to do even if I had the money), cars (another thing I don't need and can't afford) and health (I'm not a doctor).
Another problem is that on AC and Bukisa, I can't control what the ads are for. (More on that later.)
So I'm pleased to announce the relaunch of my long-dormant blog, now called Life User. In my next few posts, I'll copy over articles from AC and Bukisa for which I still have the right to do so. (Some of my AC articles cannot be copied here because AC has exclusive rights to them.) Posts after that will be exclusive to Life User.
On this blog, I'll make my own attempts at monetization. I'll run only ads that have passed Google's quality control, and I will further filter the ads myself using the Competitive Ad Filter as necessary. You'll get a less cluttered view of the content, and I'll hopefully get more money.

Goodbye Associated Content and Bukisa, Hello Blogger!