Writing Articles for Money: An Easy Way to Get Started
Posted by on Monday, July 26, 2010
A lot of people who tried writing for money had the misconception that just because they began an online business venture, that they would see rewards instantly. The internet is a very powerfully business tool and there is the possibility that you can become an overnight success, but I wouldn’t count on it. Because of that many writers give up simply because a lack of patience. That isn’t always a bad because that just leaves more room for real writers like us to grow, but I don’t want you to give up before you reached your true earning potential.
There really isn’t a way to accurately predict when you will start making a steady income that you can be proud of writing for money. There are just too many variables: how much time you put in, the quality of your writing, your business strategy, how thick the competition is. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months before you even crack the $10 a month plateau. On the flip side it can take only a few weeks or months for you to break the $1,000 a month barrier. And I have to admit, it will be very discouraging after weeks of writing your heart out to make a few pennies for all your effort. I’ve been there and done that.
I believe that the percentage of writers giving up would be significantly lower if they had something to hang their hat on at the end of the month. If they had something to make them feel as if they didn’t waste their time slaving over articles, they would be more likely to stick it out through the tough beginning stages. The problem with most of those writers is that they bite off more than they can chew. They try to tackle something that would be a big money maker, however it would take months of hard work and they would be competing against more people who are more experience at writing for money.
At this stage, you probably aren’t ready to compete against most of those veteran writers and you probably don’t have the patience to wait months before you make any kind of steady income. So why not start off with something that will just get your feet wet. Why not start off with something smaller so you can gain that valuable experience, but still turn a pretty penny each month. It won’t make you into a millionaire (unless you devote the rest of your life to it), but it can potentially make you a couple hundreds of dollars a month if you know what you’re doing. If you want a smooth introduction into the business of writing articles for money then I have the perfect place for you to start: Associated Content.
What is Associated Content? Well, I’m glad you asked. The Wikipedia definition of Associated Content is “an online publisher and distributor of original content.” To put it into English, Associated Content is sort of like an online publishing company. You can submit your articles to them, and they will do their part distributing them through their networks, partners, and connections. Of course you will get paid for your efforts.
Associated Content gives you two ways to earn money through them. The first is an upfront payment. After you create an account with them with the only require being that you are at least 18 years old, you can submit a unique article that you have written. If the article meets certain requirements then you will qualify for the upfront payment.
Article Content does not allow just any article to qualify for the upfront payment. For your article to qualify it has to be focused on a topic that people are interested in at the moment. If you write about something that nobody is even thinking about, then don’t expect an upfront payment. Associated Content would also like articles to have at least 300 words. But reaching that minimum doesn’t guarantee that you will get the upfront payment. You can’t just fill your article with fluff and expect to be paid. Your article has to adequately cover the topic that you are writing on. Try to stay away from topics that have already been written on over and over again. Again that shouldn’t be a problem if you stick with current, relevant topics. The most important thing is that your article does not violate any copyright laws. Your article needs to be completely original, and if use quotes within the article make sure that you use proper citations.
An upfront payment quality article is one that general everyday people would be interested in, but will not lose its relevance quickly. It is well developed and all of the main points are supported. It does not require a lot of links to different websites for background information. It is your own unique creation and is not published anywhere else on the web.
The second method of payment is what makes Associated Content so attractive to me. Associated Content lets you earn money for the lifetime of the article based on the amount of traffic your article generates. Associated Content performance payment works in increments of a thousand. For each thousand unique viewer that your article receives, you will receive a base payment of $1.50. Now a thousand may seem like an astronomical number for all the beginners reading this article, but it really isn’t. If you write a good enough article and learn how to market it, which I will get into a little later on in this post, then your article will get much more traffic than a thousand views a month.
Upfront payment can range anywhere from a $2 to $15 dollars, but if you work hard enough and become a featured contributor you can make up to $100 in upfront payment alone. Based on the quality of your articles and the amount of traffic they receive, Associated Content gives you the opportunity to up you base payment to a maximum of $2 for every 1,000 visitor your article receives.
Associated Content is probably the easiest way for you to see results quickly. You don’t need to build a website. You don’t need any advanced knowledge of search engines. All you have to worry about is writing quality articles and getting viewers to read them.
Before you start writing an article, you should take the time out to research which topics are currently, relevant, and people will want to read. There several different ways you can find a good topic.
1.Find out what you’re interested in.
Chances are if you find it interesting, then other people will too. Do you have a hobby or sport that you really enjoy? Do you have something you’re really good at? Writing on something that you are generally interested in is a good idea because you will write with more enthusiasm and passion.
2.Find out what other people are interested in.
The easiest way to do this is by scrolling through social sites. What are people talking about on FaceBook or Twitter? I’d highly recommend that you use social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon. These sites can give you a snap shot of what people are find interesting and reading at the moment.
3.Visit Amazon or eBay.
If people are buying it, then they are interested. Look at what the hot new items are. Look at what the best sellers are.
4.Check out Google.
What kind of articles come up when you search your topic. That will give you a good idea of what you’re going up against, so make sure that you are able to compete with your competition. If the top ranking search results are from very reputable sources such as CNN, then I would pick different topic.
The important thing is that you set yourself up for success. If there are already millions of different articles on the topic you are writing on then it will be difficult for your article to get any traffic. Your only hope will be to write from a whole new perspective or somehow make your article stick out from the bunch. Picking a good topic is very key to your success, so don’t be afraid of taking sometime to figure out what you are going to write on. Beside It’d be better spending a few days to find a good topic and have article that will bring you income for the next several of years, than to start writing right away for an articles that will make you no money.
After you’ve pick your topic and written your article your next big hurtle is going to be getting traffic to your article. I am going to say this now, and this applies to every online article you write: paying for traffic is never a good idea. In all my experience and experience of people whom I trust, that is just a waste of time and money. Here are a few ways for you get traffic to your article:
1.Question and Answer Sites
Question and Answer sites are probably the quickest way to get traffic to your site. Sign up for some of the well-established Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers and Yedda, then look for questions that are relevant to the article that you wrote for Associated Content. When you answer the question, leave a link pointing back to your site. In my experience Q&A users are the most “link friendly” people on the web. They will click on your link even if your response completely answered their question. So make sure that you give good answers because that will help build your credibility. Spamming your link is never a good idea and might get your account banned.
2.Social Bookmarking Sites
Submitting your article to a social bookmarking website is pretty much hit or miss. Your article can go viral and be featured on the front page getting thousands of views within a few hours, or your article can be picked up a larger website and published on their site. Then there is also the possibility that your article can go unnoticed and only get a few views. I would make it a practice though of submitting your article to social bookmarking sites or social sites in general.
3.Google
There is no doubt that Google will give you the most amount of traffic. The problem is ranking high in Google search engine results page (SERPs) is not an essay thing if you don’t know what you are doing. The key to ranking on the first page of Google’s SERPs is backlinks. Backlinks are external links that point back to your article. It is one of the main ways Google determines the relevance of your site. Learning how Google and backlinks work is a whole other monster and since I would like to stay focused on the writing aspect, I will refer you to a great blog where I personally learned everything I know about Google and backlinks: makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com. I highly recommend you reading at least a few of the post there which span back a couple of years. Getting traffic from Google will be a huge boost to your earnings, so take the initiative and learn from a pro. One quick tip that I will give you though is to leave your link in as many places as you can.
You’re not going to make the big bucks off of just one article alone with Associated Content. The key is to build a network of articles that are all contributing into your monthly income. If you want to see your earning grow each month then I would recommend that you use the “two weeks plan.” It’s pretty simple. The first week should be spent researching a good topic, writing, polishing your article, and publishing it on Associated Content. The second week should be spent on marketing your article, getting backlinks, and building traffic. At that pace, you will be producing two articles a month and your revenue stream will continue to grow.
Once you get the hang of it, you can increase the pace at which you publish articles to something you find more comfortable and suiting. Don’t forget to take out time to market your articles. You may have 1,000,000 different articles, but if none of them are getting any views then you aren’t going to make any money.
Associated Content works on many levels for beginners. You will get your first taste of writing for money, and you will also earn your first paycheck. The great thing is that you can see instant results, which is a lot more encouraging then having to wait a couple of months before you start making any money. Writing for money will always be more enjoyable when it starts being profitable for you.
There really isn’t a way to accurately predict when you will start making a steady income that you can be proud of writing for money. There are just too many variables: how much time you put in, the quality of your writing, your business strategy, how thick the competition is. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months before you even crack the $10 a month plateau. On the flip side it can take only a few weeks or months for you to break the $1,000 a month barrier. And I have to admit, it will be very discouraging after weeks of writing your heart out to make a few pennies for all your effort. I’ve been there and done that.
I believe that the percentage of writers giving up would be significantly lower if they had something to hang their hat on at the end of the month. If they had something to make them feel as if they didn’t waste their time slaving over articles, they would be more likely to stick it out through the tough beginning stages. The problem with most of those writers is that they bite off more than they can chew. They try to tackle something that would be a big money maker, however it would take months of hard work and they would be competing against more people who are more experience at writing for money.
At this stage, you probably aren’t ready to compete against most of those veteran writers and you probably don’t have the patience to wait months before you make any kind of steady income. So why not start off with something that will just get your feet wet. Why not start off with something smaller so you can gain that valuable experience, but still turn a pretty penny each month. It won’t make you into a millionaire (unless you devote the rest of your life to it), but it can potentially make you a couple hundreds of dollars a month if you know what you’re doing. If you want a smooth introduction into the business of writing articles for money then I have the perfect place for you to start: Associated Content.
What is Associated Content? Well, I’m glad you asked. The Wikipedia definition of Associated Content is “an online publisher and distributor of original content.” To put it into English, Associated Content is sort of like an online publishing company. You can submit your articles to them, and they will do their part distributing them through their networks, partners, and connections. Of course you will get paid for your efforts.
Associated Content gives you two ways to earn money through them. The first is an upfront payment. After you create an account with them with the only require being that you are at least 18 years old, you can submit a unique article that you have written. If the article meets certain requirements then you will qualify for the upfront payment.
Article Content does not allow just any article to qualify for the upfront payment. For your article to qualify it has to be focused on a topic that people are interested in at the moment. If you write about something that nobody is even thinking about, then don’t expect an upfront payment. Associated Content would also like articles to have at least 300 words. But reaching that minimum doesn’t guarantee that you will get the upfront payment. You can’t just fill your article with fluff and expect to be paid. Your article has to adequately cover the topic that you are writing on. Try to stay away from topics that have already been written on over and over again. Again that shouldn’t be a problem if you stick with current, relevant topics. The most important thing is that your article does not violate any copyright laws. Your article needs to be completely original, and if use quotes within the article make sure that you use proper citations.
An upfront payment quality article is one that general everyday people would be interested in, but will not lose its relevance quickly. It is well developed and all of the main points are supported. It does not require a lot of links to different websites for background information. It is your own unique creation and is not published anywhere else on the web.
The second method of payment is what makes Associated Content so attractive to me. Associated Content lets you earn money for the lifetime of the article based on the amount of traffic your article generates. Associated Content performance payment works in increments of a thousand. For each thousand unique viewer that your article receives, you will receive a base payment of $1.50. Now a thousand may seem like an astronomical number for all the beginners reading this article, but it really isn’t. If you write a good enough article and learn how to market it, which I will get into a little later on in this post, then your article will get much more traffic than a thousand views a month.
Upfront payment can range anywhere from a $2 to $15 dollars, but if you work hard enough and become a featured contributor you can make up to $100 in upfront payment alone. Based on the quality of your articles and the amount of traffic they receive, Associated Content gives you the opportunity to up you base payment to a maximum of $2 for every 1,000 visitor your article receives.
Associated Content is probably the easiest way for you to see results quickly. You don’t need to build a website. You don’t need any advanced knowledge of search engines. All you have to worry about is writing quality articles and getting viewers to read them.
Before you start writing an article, you should take the time out to research which topics are currently, relevant, and people will want to read. There several different ways you can find a good topic.
1.Find out what you’re interested in.
Chances are if you find it interesting, then other people will too. Do you have a hobby or sport that you really enjoy? Do you have something you’re really good at? Writing on something that you are generally interested in is a good idea because you will write with more enthusiasm and passion.
2.Find out what other people are interested in.
The easiest way to do this is by scrolling through social sites. What are people talking about on FaceBook or Twitter? I’d highly recommend that you use social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon. These sites can give you a snap shot of what people are find interesting and reading at the moment.
3.Visit Amazon or eBay.
If people are buying it, then they are interested. Look at what the hot new items are. Look at what the best sellers are.
4.Check out Google.
What kind of articles come up when you search your topic. That will give you a good idea of what you’re going up against, so make sure that you are able to compete with your competition. If the top ranking search results are from very reputable sources such as CNN, then I would pick different topic.
The important thing is that you set yourself up for success. If there are already millions of different articles on the topic you are writing on then it will be difficult for your article to get any traffic. Your only hope will be to write from a whole new perspective or somehow make your article stick out from the bunch. Picking a good topic is very key to your success, so don’t be afraid of taking sometime to figure out what you are going to write on. Beside It’d be better spending a few days to find a good topic and have article that will bring you income for the next several of years, than to start writing right away for an articles that will make you no money.
After you’ve pick your topic and written your article your next big hurtle is going to be getting traffic to your article. I am going to say this now, and this applies to every online article you write: paying for traffic is never a good idea. In all my experience and experience of people whom I trust, that is just a waste of time and money. Here are a few ways for you get traffic to your article:
1.Question and Answer Sites
Question and Answer sites are probably the quickest way to get traffic to your site. Sign up for some of the well-established Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers and Yedda, then look for questions that are relevant to the article that you wrote for Associated Content. When you answer the question, leave a link pointing back to your site. In my experience Q&A users are the most “link friendly” people on the web. They will click on your link even if your response completely answered their question. So make sure that you give good answers because that will help build your credibility. Spamming your link is never a good idea and might get your account banned.
2.Social Bookmarking Sites
Submitting your article to a social bookmarking website is pretty much hit or miss. Your article can go viral and be featured on the front page getting thousands of views within a few hours, or your article can be picked up a larger website and published on their site. Then there is also the possibility that your article can go unnoticed and only get a few views. I would make it a practice though of submitting your article to social bookmarking sites or social sites in general.
3.Google
There is no doubt that Google will give you the most amount of traffic. The problem is ranking high in Google search engine results page (SERPs) is not an essay thing if you don’t know what you are doing. The key to ranking on the first page of Google’s SERPs is backlinks. Backlinks are external links that point back to your article. It is one of the main ways Google determines the relevance of your site. Learning how Google and backlinks work is a whole other monster and since I would like to stay focused on the writing aspect, I will refer you to a great blog where I personally learned everything I know about Google and backlinks: makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com. I highly recommend you reading at least a few of the post there which span back a couple of years. Getting traffic from Google will be a huge boost to your earnings, so take the initiative and learn from a pro. One quick tip that I will give you though is to leave your link in as many places as you can.
You’re not going to make the big bucks off of just one article alone with Associated Content. The key is to build a network of articles that are all contributing into your monthly income. If you want to see your earning grow each month then I would recommend that you use the “two weeks plan.” It’s pretty simple. The first week should be spent researching a good topic, writing, polishing your article, and publishing it on Associated Content. The second week should be spent on marketing your article, getting backlinks, and building traffic. At that pace, you will be producing two articles a month and your revenue stream will continue to grow.
Once you get the hang of it, you can increase the pace at which you publish articles to something you find more comfortable and suiting. Don’t forget to take out time to market your articles. You may have 1,000,000 different articles, but if none of them are getting any views then you aren’t going to make any money.
Associated Content works on many levels for beginners. You will get your first taste of writing for money, and you will also earn your first paycheck. The great thing is that you can see instant results, which is a lot more encouraging then having to wait a couple of months before you start making any money. Writing for money will always be more enjoyable when it starts being profitable for you.