What clout level is needed to get legitimate offers?

At this point I am disgusted with AC, having joined about 2 weeks ago. I have been able, in the mean time, to start successfully writing at textbroker.com, and have been receiving, on average, ratings of 4 for my article quality. AC refuses to offer me anything higher than about $1.68 for articles, even articles that are 700 words plus, for a specific topic, such as "5 Best Bay Area Mountain Biking Spots". I'm looking into higher paying services like Demand Studios and Constant Content where I can write articles myself to receive reasonable pay, but I would like to take advantage of AC, at some point, to run outsourced articles through them. So far, from what I can tell, I have about 250 total page views, and a clout of 2. It seems they have really raised their expectations so I am wondering what I need to do to satisfy them at this point, do I need a clout level of 5 or 6 to even get a reasonable offer?

I have done a lot of reading on this site so I don't feel like I've missed any important details, anyways would be interested to hear from anyone in a similar situation.

Another question that I have is, does just getting more views, for some of your articles, increase the offers you receive overall? For example, I have started posting controversial articles for no upfront which seem to have started getting comments and interest from readers. I figure that these will get a good number of reviews, but my upfront articles, about bland topics, will probably not get many views... does the fact that any of my articles are getting a lot of views help my upfront offers?

AC looks at the total views on your account. The ppv only articles and the upfront articles are added together to get your clout level. In the $30 a day thread, I think.. I could be wrong.. they suggested getting your account to a clout level 5 to start seeing reasonable offers. Before clout 5 you're the new kid on the block so to speak.