Why I Decided to Start Writing for eHow for Free

eHow currently won't let me participate in their Writer's Compensation Program because I'm outside the U.S. This means I can write but I won't get paid. But, I've decided that I'm going to write for them anyway. Why? Self-promotion, article marketing, and in the hopes that eventually they'll change their mind.


I've written for eHow in the past. A little over a year ago I wrote about 100 or more articles for their site and was paid $10 a piece to write them through a writing company that was contracted to provide content. Because of that, I had to learn about their preferred style. In those few months I did a combination of choosing articles in a queue and suggesting titles I wanted to write. If only I'd known then what I know now..

You see, I have quite a few HIGH TRAFFIC articles on eHow that don't have my name on them because I sold the copyright. I wrote a lot of great how-to articles for the site about subjects I know a lot about and subjects I know are in demand online.

When I submitted titles for approval I chose titles that I knew would bring eHow traffic (because I'm all about bringing value to my clients) and as a result I'm sure I'm earning them a pile of money from those articles. I write my own niche blogs and today I find that I'm regularly outranked by eHow for page one Google results with some of the eHow articles I ghostwrote. My point is, this site can get you great search engine results!

eHow Writer's Compensation Plan

eHow has a writer's compensation plan that I've talked a lot about in the past. In fact, I refer many of my readers to an eHow earning guide by Maria O'Brien (a.k.a. WriterGig) who spells out in a step-by-step format how she makes over $1k a month in residual income from eHow. I reviewed Maria's book a few months back and it is very well done. I was jealous when I reviewed it because I wanted to implement many of her techniques and blend them with what I know about the site and SEO. I know I could be making great passive income with them on a monthly basis!

I know many writers who have implemented her techniques who are now earning a few hundred a month and their monthly amounts climb continuously. That's the thing, once you get a lot of traffic to the article, it can bring you money indefinitely. eHow has monetized their site very well. I can only dream about how much money those 100 articles I wrote would've paid me by now rather than the $1,000 flat fee I earned. Sigh.

eHow, owned by Demand Media, currently only pays U.S. based writers in the WCP (writer's compensation program) so it probably sounds like it doesn't make sense for me to write for them. But I've decided that it does. Here's why:

-I get a byline. My name goes on the articles so this works well for writing samples and for building credibility in my niches

-I can put links to my own sites in the resource section of the articles. This brings traffic to my websites and that traffic could convert from a visitor to a buyer and also improves the SEO of those linked sites due to backlinks from a high ranked site

-I can put affiliate links directly in the resource section of the articles which could result in even more income through affiliate marketing. Due to the traffic ehow.com gets, this is a powerful tool for article marketing and I already do put articles on other non-paid sites for this purpose

-At some stage, eHow may change their mind (they told me they're looking into it as I've been hounding them just a little ) in which case I might start getting some decent passive income of my own. This could work well if I've got high ranking articles that suddenly get a switch turned on for earning!

In the last week I've posted just a few articles which are already getting me traffic to my websites so that tells me my efforts are definitely worthwhile.

Dear Ehow...
If you're reading, this little blog is getting a lot of traffic based on ehow.com search terms that come from writers interested in writing for you and I say wonderful things about you on a regular basis!

Doesn't that suggest that you should consider letting Canadians into your Writer Compensation Program? I also have some U.K. friends who I know would love to write for your WCP programme as well. Seriously, we can fill out an IRS W8-Ben form and you don't need to worry about the taxman.
Hugs,
Dana

How to Videos & Articles: eHow.com

The Bukisa Experiment

Yesterday I joined Bukisa. It's a site with a writer's compensation program that is a bit like eHow. This site is like a combination of an article directory and a revenue sharing article site because there don't seem to be any restrictions about inserting your own self-serving links. So, I'm going to use this site to:

-SEOize my other sites
-Do bum marketing
-See if I can generate some cash.

On day 1, I put in about a dozen articles on various subjects. These articles all already exist in some way/shape/form online already so it required just a few tweaks per article. After creating the articles I did one social thing per article (stumble, buzz, mixx, reddit, onlywire, etc). My overnight results were $0.21.

Doesn't sound like a lot but that's just one night and not only are the articles going to keep bringing money but they'll bring me valuable links to my online sites, too.

This month's Bukisa index is 4.20 which means I'll earn $4.20 monthly for 1000 page views. The site's index could change month by month. On December 9(ish) I plan to come back and report how much I've earned while making an effort to post at least 5 articles a week.

Another great thing about Bukisa is that you can earn 25% revenue for everyone you refer to the site. They have referrals 2 tiers down so while I'm not sure of the %, you have the ability to earn decent commissions through your network.

So far I love the look of the site and it's owned by the same folks that own ArticlesBase which is one of my favourite directories for articles because they've got great support and lightning fast approval times. Back in a month to report on my progress.

If you decide to join, feel free to friend me under username Dana.

Happy Writing!

SEO Approaches for Your Writing Services Site

If you're created your own freelance writing services site, you need to think about SEO for it. If you're doing SEO writing for your clients, you already know a lot about search engine optimisation, whether you realize it or not.

Have you got your own website yet?

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of having your own professional writing website. Today will help you learn how to use knowledge gained from your clients (and mine) to help you promote your own website.

I've recently read some reports and e-books from internet marketing gurus and realised that I already know an awful lot about SEO and internet marketing. I am continuing to make efforts to strive to put my knowledge to use to help clients and help myself. It's pretty cool when writing for someone is a really symbiotic relationship and that's why I've chosen internet marketing as one of my niches. It gets me earning money while learning how to earn more money. Very cool. Did I just say cool in two sentences (now three sentences) in a row? Being careful of repetition in your writing is often important but being careful to craft intentional repetitiveness is a huge part of SEO writing.

LSI Writing

If you can get your copy to use similar words or synonyms, you're doing LSI article writing. See how I just did that? I just linked my professional website to a term that I'm ranking for in the search engines already. I did so on a site that's related to writing which is even better. That is going to help me get more clients who want those types of services and will help increase my rankings for this site and my professional website. Last month a client found me on page three for a term related to that one and by doing more linking to the terms I'm already ranking for and related terms, he's going to maybe see me move to page two and I might rank for another related term which brings up my overall rankings in that category.

101 Ways To Tackle SEO

Some clients claim that article marketing, hub pages and squidoo lenses are the way to go. Others create mini websites pointing to their main site. Others create silos. Guest posting can also be a huge help, too. Because search engine marketing is an evolving chess game, I choose to dabble a little in all areas I've learned about. Working as a head content writer for several SEO companies has definitely taught me a lot about marketing myself as a writer. Marketing yourself with SEO will get you more exposure, more jobs and will save you time because instead of trolling for jobs, the clients will start to come to you.