Besides making money by writing articles for eHow, there is also another way to make some extra money on the site. Affiliate links are allowed on eHow as long as the article doesn't appear to be written just to sell whatever is in the link. Of course, the article may certainly be written for that reason, but it shouldn't appear so. In other words- focus on more than just the item that is being sold or have an affiliate link that is generically linked to the article topic.
If you aren't familiar with affiliate links, here's an article that describes how affiliate marketing works. An easy way to start in affiliate marketing is to sign up with Amazon and choose books that pertain to the article topic and to put an affiliate link in the Resources section of the eHow article. For affiliates who want to earn a larger commission percentage, there are ebooks and other digital products that usually pay more on each sale. However, with Amazon links, customers click on the link to see the product, but anything they buy on Amazon will earn you a commission.
I have links to books on several of my eHow articles, links to CDs on articles elsewhere and a product "carousel" on another one of my blogs that has links to books. Last month, someone went through one of my links somewhere and ended up shopping in other sections of the site. This has happened many times before, and I've earned commissions for people's snack foods, toys, household items, etc. But last month, someone bought a $1,000 TV and a Blu-Ray disc player, earning me commission on all of it. That's the power of Amazon affiliate links.
Unless you really push affiliate links, the income you can make from them is usually far from steady. For me, it's been hit or miss each month. I try to link only to things that I think are genuinely helpful to those who are interested in the topic. At the top right of this blog is a link to an ebook that I think is very helpful for making more money on eHow, and it has a great reputation from eHow writers.
Some months a few bucks in affiliate sales commissions come in. Some months, it's $25-50. So, for me, it isn't much, but it's also not much trouble to put the links there. Like eHow articles, once they're in place, they will keep earning for you for as long as they're there, and you don't have to do anything else to keep earning from them.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Will Your eHow Articles Be Deleted?
If you've spent any time working with eHow articles or reading about writing for the site, you might have heard about the mass deletions that occur from time to time. Every once in a while, and it's not announced beforehand, eHow will check articles for quality and for adherence to the rules. Then, thousands of articles are deleted for various reasons. It used to be that the site didn't tell eHow writers why the articles were deleted- they didn't even tell you which articles were deleted. I have two that were deleted during that time, and to this day I don't know which ones they were.
Because of the mass protest by eHow writers for this practice, that has now changed. If an article is deleted, you will be told the title or titles that are being removed and a fairly generic reason is now given for each deletion. From my experience, I believe that most eHow writers have had some articles deleted. In some cases, I don't know what the reason was. I believe that at least one of them was deleted because it detailed how to write for a competing site. A few others that have been deleted since then may not have precisely fit into the "actionable steps" idea behind eHow articles, though I think that's subjective.
To stand the best chance of getting though the purges unscathed, it's important to follow the writer's guidelines as closely as possible. In some cases, that still won't protect an article from being purged, but it gives you a better chance of avoiding deletion.
In addition, ALWAYS keep a backup of every article in a Word or OpenOffice file. I have one long eHow Word file that I copy and paste all of my eHow articles into. When you write directly for eHow, you keep the rights to your work. That means that you are free to publish your articles elsewhere if you choose. If an article is still on eHow, it's not a good idea from an SEO standpoint to publish it elsewhere at the smae time. But, if eHow removes the article, you can publish it elsewhere so that you still profit from the article. Here are the best places to republish your deleted eHow articles:
Bukisa: This site offers between $3 and $4 per 1,000 page views, and they accept eHow articles even if they are still on eHow. Some people publish their articles on both sites at the same time.
HubPages: This site allows you to create as many "hubs" as you like, and each can be a different article. The site brings you revenue through a share of the Google AdSense revenue as well as with Amazon affiliate links and other ad revenue.
Xomba: This site can be used either as a social bookmarking site or as a content site. To submit an article, choose the Xombyte option and copy and paste your purged article into the space. I provide more details about writing for Xomba here. The site offers a share of the AdSense revenue.
Because of the mass protest by eHow writers for this practice, that has now changed. If an article is deleted, you will be told the title or titles that are being removed and a fairly generic reason is now given for each deletion. From my experience, I believe that most eHow writers have had some articles deleted. In some cases, I don't know what the reason was. I believe that at least one of them was deleted because it detailed how to write for a competing site. A few others that have been deleted since then may not have precisely fit into the "actionable steps" idea behind eHow articles, though I think that's subjective.
To stand the best chance of getting though the purges unscathed, it's important to follow the writer's guidelines as closely as possible. In some cases, that still won't protect an article from being purged, but it gives you a better chance of avoiding deletion.
In addition, ALWAYS keep a backup of every article in a Word or OpenOffice file. I have one long eHow Word file that I copy and paste all of my eHow articles into. When you write directly for eHow, you keep the rights to your work. That means that you are free to publish your articles elsewhere if you choose. If an article is still on eHow, it's not a good idea from an SEO standpoint to publish it elsewhere at the smae time. But, if eHow removes the article, you can publish it elsewhere so that you still profit from the article. Here are the best places to republish your deleted eHow articles:
Bukisa: This site offers between $3 and $4 per 1,000 page views, and they accept eHow articles even if they are still on eHow. Some people publish their articles on both sites at the same time.
HubPages: This site allows you to create as many "hubs" as you like, and each can be a different article. The site brings you revenue through a share of the Google AdSense revenue as well as with Amazon affiliate links and other ad revenue.
Xomba: This site can be used either as a social bookmarking site or as a content site. To submit an article, choose the Xombyte option and copy and paste your purged article into the space. I provide more details about writing for Xomba here. The site offers a share of the AdSense revenue.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Seasonal Variations in eHow Earnings
It looks like the very final numbers for the last day of Augut aren't quite in yet, but my earnings from eHow are down from July's numbers. I estimate that I probably made about $15 less in August than in July. Did I do something wrong? Not at all. I wrote three articles for the site in August, I bookmarked all of them with Xomba and Digg and I search engine optimized each with the AdWords tool. August is just a notoriously slow month online.
After running online businesses of one type or another for eight years, I can say that it is the very slowest month of the year for any type of online earnings. It's hot, everyone wants to soak up the last of the summer sun before schools starts again and many people are away on vacation. Even if you aren't impressed with your August numbers, you can expect your eHow income, as well as any other online residual income, to go up in September. That's true even if you don't add anything to eHow in September.
With Web traffic, you can generally expect the coldest months to be the best. People are inside all day and they would rather go online to shop and get information than to brave the cold weather. Like clockwork, every year I find that traffic is best from December through February.
So, if you looked at August's numbers and wonder what in the world you've gotten yourself into with eHow, don't worry. September is here, kids are back in school and people are starting to settle indoors once again.
After running online businesses of one type or another for eight years, I can say that it is the very slowest month of the year for any type of online earnings. It's hot, everyone wants to soak up the last of the summer sun before schools starts again and many people are away on vacation. Even if you aren't impressed with your August numbers, you can expect your eHow income, as well as any other online residual income, to go up in September. That's true even if you don't add anything to eHow in September.
With Web traffic, you can generally expect the coldest months to be the best. People are inside all day and they would rather go online to shop and get information than to brave the cold weather. Like clockwork, every year I find that traffic is best from December through February.
So, if you looked at August's numbers and wonder what in the world you've gotten yourself into with eHow, don't worry. September is here, kids are back in school and people are starting to settle indoors once again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
