Associated upstart

Founder calls Web site 'Swiss-cheese encyclopedia'

Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, February 6, 2006

Everyone is an expert in something.

That's the thinking behind Associated Content, a Cherry Creek media content company that solicits vacation photos, musings on the best neighborhood bars and even thesis papers to create an Internet site that's a mash-up of myspace.com and Wikipedia.

"Somewhere between blogs and traditional media, there's a huge block of potential content out there" that hasn't been tapped, said Mike Perlis, managing partner at venture capital firm SoftBank Group, which invested $5.4 million in Associated earlier this month.

Associated's Web site greets visitors with a brief bio and photo of a featured writer, which rotates several times a day, including their most recent submissions. The page also highlights a brief list of content or contributors according to criteria such as "most e-mailed" or "most buddies." Membership is free, and you don't have to be a content provider to become a registered user.

Luke Beatty founded Associated about 18 months ago after working as a director of corporate development at Wand Inc., a Denver developer of online directory technologies. Beatty decided that with all of the focus on Internet search engines, there wasn't much attention being paid to creating content that would interest the general public.

"Search is really about content when it comes down to it," he said.

Associated's 162,000 indexed pages range from "Things to Do in Denver When You're Broke" and "How to Spot a Home Meth Lab and What to Do About It" to the site's most-popular article: "Little Giant Versus Gorilla Ladders," a comparison of household ladders sold on TV infomercials and at Home Depot.

The content, which can be in the form of articles, audio clips, photos or any other media that transmits on the Internet, is submitted by individuals who may be experts in a given field or simply just interested in a topic. Associated isn't trying to build a comprehensive database - Beatty describes it as a "Swiss- cheese encyclopedia" - and instead focuses on popular topics where advertisers will get eyeballs.

Associated ultimately accepts 85 percent of submissions of the approximate 3,000 works it receives each month, though it kicks back about half for polishing. The pieces aren't edited other than to remove "excessive" self-promotion and profanity.

The majority of contributors aren't paid, but people who frequently send material and have a following of readers are compensated based on a complicated formula of advertiser interest, uniqueness of the topic and what level of rights the writer agrees to cede to Associated.

Dr. David Leader, a Massachusetts dentist, sends Associated the dental columns he writes for the community newspaper as well as pieces about outside interests such as "Buying a 50cc Scooter in Massachusetts."

"For me, it's almost a hobby - my collection of articles," he said.

That hobby has earned him a couple of patient referrals and a few unsolicited job interviews, but mostly he does it as a creative outlet.

Leader, who earned about $350 for all of his submissions last year, says he has "no way of anticipating what I'll get paid."

An article that Leader describes as a "snoozefest" - a guide to dental insurance - earned $15, while the comparatively scintillating topics of how to break a thumbsucking habit and the dangers of tongue piercing took in only $5.

Associated's Beatty says he considers practically every other Web site out there, whether it's a newspaper or a social networking site such as myspace.com, to be potential competition.

The key to Associated Content's success will be if it can create a sense of trust and community, akin to the camaraderie that eBay users feel, he said.

Along with its investment, SoftBank added two partners to Associated's board. They join a team that includes two Silicon Valley veterans: Interactive Advertising Bureau founder Rich LeFurgy and Angel Investors founder Ron Conway.

Beatty's Connecticut College roommate, Google vice president for advertising Tim Armstrong, also serves as nonexecutive chairman on the board of directors.

The 12-employee company won't disclose its revenue, Beatty said. It hasn't spent any money on advertising aside from the red, white and black "AC" stickers with the word "SUBMIT" stamped across the bottom that the company sends to all contributors.

Instead, Associated hopes to build its community through word of mouth as content providers refer their friends to the site.

Associated "really appreciates the fact that anyone can be published," Perlis said, adding that people relate to user-provided content in a different way than objective traditional media. "People love to talk to the guy sitting next to them."

davisj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2514