Dear Mr. Beatty,
Thank you for taking your written word to cyberspace and sharing the big news about Associated Content. I was excited to read in The Official Associated Content Blog that February 1, 2010 marked the fifth year that content was available on the AC site. Further, I was delighted to read that you felt that Associated Content had not just merely survived the past five years, but that as a company the growth surpassed even your wildest expectations
Five year anniversaries are always worth celebrating as they signify big accomplishments. This holds true in all forms of life; whether they are in the spiritual, personal or work related realm of our lives. In these troubled times, with additional stress affecting most people in some capacity, it was refreshing to read that Associated Content has flourished.
I appreciated you rehashing your dream that blew the initial breath of life into Associated Content five years ago. I am sure it is no secret to you. You took a risk when you quit your job and set the Associated Content web wheels in motion: Your lofty vision as you described it was: “we could organically grow the largest collection of quality content and contributors on the web.” I am equally thankful that you were able to convince Leonardo De La Rocha, AC Co-Founder to also quit his job and take the take the plunge with you. It sounds as though he really helped grease the web wheel.
You acknowledged that you have slowly assembled a team that has grown to manage several hundred thousand Contributors and a vast library of content that is filled with millions of articles, videos, slide shows and audio clips. In my own personal experiences with AC, I could not agree more. AC Community Managers, Darnell Witt and Brenna Boyce are first class ambassadors of the company and their teams that work behind the scenes are doing a top notch job in navigating the multitude of issues that are occur on a daily basis. In addition, it is comforting to know that Craig Abruzzo, VP of Business Affairs and General Counsel is standing guard and providing answers to the legal questions that Contributors hold.
It is because of Associated Content that people from all walks of life have an opportunity to act on a dream that in many ways resembles your own dream of five years ago. Associated Content gives each of its Contributors a tremendous amount of freedom and latitude to utilize its publishing platform in order to create a wide variety of audio, video and written content. Contributors can decide for themselves what kind of rights they are willing to assign Associated Content. Accordingly, this allows them to earn money for page views and for the potential to earn an upfront payment as well.
It was of interest to learn of the first two pieces of content published on Associated Content, Managing Diabetes and Glazed and Confused. It was also important to see the names of several of the pioneer Contributors that are still active in their contributions to AC. These included Jeff Gedgaud, Emma S and A Hermitt. Your acknowledgment of both the winner of the first PMA Producer of the Year Award, Timothy Sexton and the most recent winner of PMA Contributor of the Year Award, Crystal Ray was an important recognition..
I am confident that those All Star Contributors and many other first rate people and contributors with who I am proud to associate, will propel Associated Content to new heights and towards the goals that you identified for 2015. In closing I offer my personal words of appreciation to you for making Associated Content available to folks like me. May you continue to successfully guide The People’s Media Company through the fertile frontier of the internet.
Luke Beatty, Co-Founder and President of Associated Content
Originally published on Associated Content / Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN) on February 2, 2010
© Copyright, Han Van Meegerin – All Rights Reserved
Han Van Meegerin
