gainfully unemployed » internet writing

Online Content Takes Time to Generate Revenue

chris — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:47:11 +0000

If you write content online and are trying to generate revenue, one thing you should know is that it takes time. It can sometimes take a LONG time. For instance, I wrote an article and published it on Associated Content three years ago.

It started to generate a little bit of money for me every month, but I stopped keeping track of it. Last month, this article, which I published in 2006, earned me $28. That’s the beauty of online content–residual income.

If you continue to write search-engine- and human-friendly content that has genuine value, you will be able to make money online with your writing. One key is to be consistent with the subject matter which you write about. If you can build a couple of links between similar pieces of content, that will be very helpful to you in the long run.

The same thing that happened for me at AC also happened for me at Hubpages. I wrote an article and published it a few months ago. Nothing seemed to happen for a while, but then one day, it started getting quite a bit of traffic consistently.

I’ve started to write pretty frequently at Hubpages, which I like because you can earn revenue from Adsense ads and also ebay and Amazon affiliate links. If you haven’t heard of this site or haven’t signed up yet, read my article about how to make money on Hubpages. Hubpages is a site where writers can write articles or “hubs.” You can earn revenue from display advertising and affiliate programs with eBay and Amazon (unless, of course you live in California since Amazon doesn’t work with California affiliates anymore).

I guess the point of this post is to tell you not to give up if you have dreams of being a self-employed content writer online. There are ways to make a lot of money in content writing.

Need a Freelance Writer? Find One on Odesk

chris — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:07:30 +0000

If you’re looking to hire a freelance writer or writers, I highly recommend oDesk.com (and not only because this is an affiliate link).

I started using oDesk two months ago and have hired three different freelance writers through the site. One of them was from Ohio, another was from Serbia, and a third was from Indonesia.

I had one writer who was a waste of time, but two of them worked out brilliantly and I hire them intermittently for projects and will continue to do so.

oDesk made finding writers very easy to do since it is a site aimed at ease of use for the people who want to do the hiring, aka the “Buyers.”

You will start by putting up an assignment, where you explain what work you are looking for and how much you want to pay, and freelancers will “Bid” for the job. You can look at their qualifications, previous work, and ratings from other buyers in order to choose the best worker.

There are no additional costs to setting up an account. What you decide to pay your workers is what you pay (obviously after you come to agreement with the freelancer). The 10% fee that is oDesk’s share comes out of the total. So if you agree on a total price of $10 for two 500-word articles, you will only pay $10. The freelance writer will receive $9.

I have had no problems with oDesk and I recommend the site to at least one Internet entrepreneur a day. You can find freelance writers who specialize in blog content, or article directory articles, or web copy. And you can find very competitive prices and high quality work, since you will be able to review multiple bids from many providers.

Great Content is the Best SEO

chris — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:22:17 +0000

SEO is a very important factor in developing a successful blog or online property. You want the structure of your home to be solid, strong, and well-designed.

The same goes for your website.

When people say that SEO is unimportant or a waste of time, they’re wrong. Making your site search engine friendly and easily navigable and findable is incredibly important.

But…

It’s not the most important thing.

Your content is the most important thing.

It’s easy to find yourself rushing through a blog post or an article so you can get to the promotion and link building part much faster. Successful bloggers know that their job isn’t done after they finish a post. It’s only the beginning–especially with a new blog.

An informative, well-written post can be pretty lonely without anyone to read it. And the truth is, people have a lot of options. There’s plenty to read out there, so you have to find readers and traffic for your site. You have to promote your work.

The single best thing you can do for the SEO of your site, other than making sure the structure is sound and it’s highly searchable, is to find high quality, relevant links.

And the best way to find these kinds of links is by writing amazing content that people–yes, here it comes–want to link to!

It’s a much better use of your time to focus on creating amazing content than fishing around the web trying to find people to trade links with. If what you publish on your site is great, then links will be no problem. And they’ll all be “one-way” links, not reciprocal!

So, when it comes to the actual content of your site, it will pay off to make it as useful, as informative, as amazing, as scandalous, as eye-catching, and as entertaining as you can.

If I were to give you one piece of advice for your blog or website, I would tell you to not waste your time doing what internet marketers call “link-building.” Spend your time writing articles for your site instead of worrying about building links from crappy sites in order to “move up the rankings” in Google. Make your site amazing and the best kind of links will magically occur naturally!

Great Content is the Best SEO.

(image: Ivan Petrov)

6 Way to Make More Money with Your Website

chris — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:23:11 +0000

Make Money with Your Website

I’ve made a commitment to write at least a couple of posts a week over here at Gainfully Unemployed, your Online Business Inspiration blog. How about that for a tagline?

Anyways, I realize that it is Friday and I have yet to achieve my two post a week quota.

Earlier today, I read a great article at Dosh Dosh, a fantastic internet marketing blog. Maki goes into 6 highly detailed steps you can use to make more money online.

The focus is on using your pageview and search data to find the most popular pages on your site. From there, the next step is to optimize these pages in order to achieve the goal you are looking to achieve.

Do you want the viewer to sign up for a subscription to your feed or to your newsletter? Do you want a qualified lead for an affiliate program? Or are you simply looking for a quick ad click-through?

I found this to be a very helpful and useful article about how to make more money with your website. If you are getting some good sustained traffic at your site, the steps Maki explains may help you. If you aren’t there yet, read step 6 about increasing your search engine ranking. Good luck. ?

Read another article about how to make money online. ?I got a bunch of ‘em. ?This one is a general one. ?Another piece you may be interested in is one about how to make money with Hubpages.

Hire a Blog Writer, Take a Day Off

chris — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:31:40 +0000

For a writer, there is nothing like the instant gratification of being able to hit the “publish” button and see your work immediately “printed” for all to see and admire.

This feels really good.

Another thing that feels really good is when you begin to earn money from the work you publish online. This is especially exciting because not only are you able to write and have people read what you write, but you are able to turn a profit (even if it is just beer or coffee money).

The combination of these things–publishing and earning a little cash for your efforts–often makes the writer feel like he or she needs to write something everyday. It’s natural: you want to keep up your momentum, you become accustomed to writing daily, and furthermore, you like being able to drink Amstel Light instead of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

This is when the fun gets sucked out of online publishing and quality goes to that same sad place the Dodo now reside.

My advice to you burned-out-blogger is to hire someone to write a post for you a couple times a month. Take a day off from writing and experience the joy of reading someone else’s work on your own website.

You may even be able to entice a “guest poster” to write something in exchange for a link to their own site from the post. This is a good way to get really good content and creates value for both parties.

Write as often as you like and as much as you like, but don’t kill yourself in the process.

Take a day off and hire a writer. You’ll come back the next day refreshed and ready to wow your readers once again.

One good place to find good writers is Odesk. I started working with three freelancers two months ago and it has been a very positive experience for me. The beauty of Odesk is that there is no charge to get started as a “Buyer” and when you post a job, you will get a bunch of “bids” from Odesk providers from around the world.

You have a lot of information to judge candidates by and it is very easy to get projects started. I absolutely recommend Odesk to find and hire freelance writers. Read a longer review I wrote about hiring writers on Odesk.