This is my first post on the forum. I don't consider myself a "black hatter" -- (maybe more of a gray hatter now that I've tried a few things on this forum!) In fact, I never heard of the term before I stumbled on this site (via the AC forums, of all places).
I've been with AC for the last 7 months and have made okay money. I've been reading this forum for a few weeks, and I've tried a few things I learned from here (for example, rewriting old magazine articles that aren't online or writing a "personal experience" when in reality, I made it all up). And yes, it's working
However, I want to step it up...my upfronts suck. My highest was $4.50 and my lowest was received today at only $1.25...and I'm a clout 9 so I must be doing something right in terms of PV's, but they're not upping the ante with the upfronts. I've also never recieved a partner call

Perhaps I keep missing them. I never really checked out the assignment desk prior to few weeks ago!
I rewrite the articles myself but it takes a long time, to the point where they really are 100% original and I pull from sources online too...so they're not really rewrites. I'm still new to the SEO thing so I'm still learning. I guess I'm just looking to find ways to rewrite faster, generate more ideas for articles, learn SEO better, get better upfronts, and other AC strategies.
I'm going back and forth with purchasing the e-book. It seems as though it's geared toward people outside the USA (which I am not) or for those who want to hire freelancers (I'm just not sure if I'll ever have enough courage to go down that route). Is this book for someone like me?
Also I have a random AC question about the assignment desk. Why is it that AC says it doesn't like recipe articles because they don't generate pageviews, yet 75% of the assignment desk currently is asking for recipes (no upfront, but still...) WTF? Why do they post that crap if it doesn't get PVs?
Also, news articles...I had one accepted that I rewrote...then 3 declined. How do they expect us to come find an ORIGINAL news story? Anything NEWSWORTHY is already going to have some type of article about it on the internet, otherwise how would we know about it in the first place?
Thanks!
-Happy
