Nov 15, 2010 11:36 GMT  ·  By

Yahoo is getting ready to bring its acquisition of 'content farm' Associated Content to fruition with the Yahoo Contributor Network. Essentially, it's the Associated Content platform retooled for Yahoo's vast online empire.

Yahoo says the network will bring the contributions of more than 400,000 writers, photographers and videographers to Yahoo websites.

“The launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network is a great example of how Yahoo! is executing against its content strategy. In less than six months since the acquisition of Associated Content, we’ve completely retooled the platform in order to bring the people’s voice to Yahoo!,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!.

“Bringing this authentic perspective to Yahoo!’s most popular sites will deepen our engagement with the millions of people who visit us every day and provide new opportunities for creative contributors who participate in the Yahoo! experience.”

The company plans to included content from contributors to most of its online properties including the best known ones, Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance and the Yahoo homepage. Much of the content will be headed to the Associated Content website, as well.

Yahoo Contributor Network will work very much like Associated Content. Users that want to make some money on the side or just have their works promoted on the heavily trafficked Yahoo properties will be able to send their contributions.

The company is positioning this as a way for regular users to contribute, but what the move really does is get a lot more content in the Yahoo network.

Companies like Associated Content and the bigger Demand Media rely on a huge number of contributors adding content, be it articles or videos, which is then monetized with advertising. For this to work, the contributors aren't paid very much and emphasis is put on volume.

Of course, SEO is crucial as well. Yahoo editors will assign topics based on what has the potential to get the most page views, or, put another way, to appeal more to visitors.

Yahoo's latest strategy is an emphasis on content. While it has been taking steps in re-inventing itself, it hasn't shown too many results thus far. AOL, another internet giant which has seen better days, is also betting on content.