Monthly payments for writing-content members have decreased by as much as 90% since early 2011. In May, Yahoo.com purchased the Internet publishing company associatedcontent.com, with millions of yearly published pieces of content, and called it the "Yahoo Contributor Network." Since that title did not work out for some reason, they renamed it "Yahoo Voices" as of December 1st. This report is based on actual inside membership facts which can be proved in a court of law.
Each month in 2011, the founder and owner/president of associatedcontent.com and its employees sent emails to many thousands of dedicated members saying things would get better, although these hard-working members were losing an enormous amount of money each month in PPVs (performance pay views, or website hits). You will not find any Internet information about these "secret" changes at Yahoo.com, Yahoo Contributor Network or Yahoo Voices during 2011. Most members of the new Yahoo Voices website (formerly associatedcontent.com) are afraid of Yahoo, because many members have been reduced from $1200.00 a month to $120.00 or less (a 90% decrease in PPV payments), and they run the risk of losing recognition for their original articles, or having the content they created over the years removed, if they complain.
Community forum comments of associatedcontent.com and Yahoo Contributor Network were also deleted during 2011. This subject is taboo on the new Yahoo Voices forum and is deleted immediately upon submission, with possible suspension of the member account and all its article content. You also will not find any articles on the Internet about this subject, because Yahoo.com and Yahoo Voices employees have followed instructions to ensure no one knows about it.
Here are some of the unpublished changes for the new Yahoo Voices website (formerly Associated Content), effective December 1st. All articles and content, future and past, will be published on only one page instead of several pages, and audio content will gradually be removed. Content members and writers will therefore get paid for only one PPV per piece, meaning less revenue for members who have submitted hundreds of pieces over the years. This is a poor idea considering that some articles have over 1200 words, so readers will have to scroll down almost four feet or more to read the entire article. Will the new website provide almost four feet of scroll-down advertisement on the right side, or leave that section blank? I personally do not like to scroll over one foot when researching the Internet.
Regarding the new 2011 submission guidelines: members will no longer have the right to self-publish their content. They must submit it to editors and may wait as long as two weeks to be published. Certain past articles must be re-edited or they will be removed. That means over 100,000 pieces of material would have to be edited each week, and the company does not have the resources for this.
To make matters worse for long-time members, the new website seems to be rewarding and featuring members with only an educational background in writing or technical fields, such as universities and colleges, no matter how much content others have published over the years. Some of these featured members have written only about 10 to 15 pieces in the past year.
If you complain on the Yahoo Voices community forum about PPVs, you will most likely be suspended and removed. Employees avoid this subject.
Recently in December, Yahoo Voices / Yahoo Contributor Network / Associatedcontent.com announced it is removing over 75,000 pieces of content from its website. One reason is this: after a member had three pieces published, they were authorized to publish just about anything they wanted, and associatedcontent.com did not monitor any later material from that member. Associated Content always paid by PPV, or website hits. Thousands of members used a trick to get more PPVs: they submitted the same content over and over with a different title and subtitle. I personally have seen articles published as many as ten times on the entertainment page using the same content with different titles. Apparently no one complained because they were making fast money. As a professional Internet writer, I thought this was lazy on the part of those members, and someday it would catch up with them, which Google finally did. Unfortunately, these members brought this situation upon themselves, but it also hurts legitimate members.
The owner seems to think all of these changes are great in 2011. Could this be a scam regarding the 400,000 members of associatedcontent.com over its seven years of service? Did the employees know that revenue would decrease as much as 90% for hard-working members once Yahoo.com purchased the company in May? At the same time Yahoo.com was buying associatedcontent.com, Google, Yahoo's greatest competitor, was changing to a new algorithm that eliminated certain article searches. Did the employees know the truth about what would become of the company and its members after the takeover? The owner knew this situation was getting out of hand, and sold his company to Yahoo.com while remaining president for some strange reason.
Most members will not be allowed to file a class action lawsuit against Yahoo.com, because associatedcontent.com strongly encouraged members over the years to submit "exclusive" content to make more money from PPVs, and gave Associated Content complete control over the content members submitted. Yahoo.com can do anything it wants with this submitted and published content. The owner knew this would happen.
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