At the end of the day, people do like getting paid upfront, which is why AC maintains its interest, despite low payments and high rejections. You could just start a process where you write with AC in mind, but also with multiple profit uses in mind. Just don't think of AC as your main or long term source of moolah.
If you can successfully JV with a US person or set up a US account with airtight proxy, write 18-20 articles on the same niche and submit them to AC first, knowing that these days only 5-6 may get approved for upfront pay. Then sell the rest as PLR, use for a minisite or blog, or submit to other paid directories.
You could do the same JV/BH US account set up with textbroker, for example, select to write the easier (1 or 2) level articles that pay only $2-2.50 to bang out anyway, but submit them to AC first. If AC takes them, you make money upfront fast, or money on the other site for the ones AC rejects. Or you could dispense with paid directories altogether and just freelance, working with people directly on freelance sites or the FL sections of IM sites.