Articles Wanted About the World's Best Products, Brands and Services

Description: ARTICLES ABOUT THE WORLDS BEST PRODUCTS, BRANDS &
SERVICES...

Subjects:
CARS
YACHT [Motorized & Sailing]
PRIVATE PLANE
JEWELERY
WATCHES
FASHION FOR MEN
FASHION FOR LADIES
HOME DECOR [Tableware, Furniture, Bath & Kitchen Appliances]
TECHNOLOGY [Mobile, TV, Hi-Fi, Speakers]
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
MUSIC [Award By CD]
BOOKS [Fiction & Non-fiction]
BOARDING SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY
COMMERCIAL AIRLINES
JET - SHARE PROGRAMS
TRAINS
CRUISE LINERS
CITIES & RESORTS
HOTELS
HOTELS: BOUTIQUE HOTELS
HOTELS: SMALL HOTELS
SPA
RESTAURANTS
DELICACIES
WINE & SPIRITS
CIGARS
GOLF & TENNIS
SPORTING GOODS [Hunting Guns, skis, Golf Clubs]


Other notes: Avoid using the words 'its the most" or similar superlatives! [I guess this means using more appropriate superlatives. Just searching the keywords 'luxury' plus your chosen topic will highlight the most popular descriptions. You could also stick to 'the best' and 'the top' as being dull but popular searches.]

Amount of Articles: 50
Price per Article: $10-20
Length of Article: 500-800 words

Lots of topics to choose from. For full details and to submit articles just click here.


-=0=-

To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Make Money Writing at eHow UK and Europe

Up until now, eHow was not only based in the USA but only accepted paid writers who were either American citizens or residents. Finally, eHow is dipping its toes into foreign lands and has established eHow UK. For the moment they are still not paying British writers but that must surely change soon, so I'm posting this as a heads-up to those Brits who would like to make some money on eHow.

Amazingly, the 'Join Now' link still doesn't work so you'll have to sign up at eHow.com and wait for the announcement. Sure, we can all write for eHow for free but what's the point in that?

Demand Media, owners of eHow, are also planning to expand across the big European countries but it is obviously easier to port existing English-langauge content from eHow.com to eHow.co.uk making an instant new website without (too many) translation issues.

Steven Kydd claims that thousands of people across Europe have already applied to write content so you may consider going directly to the Demand Media website and sending in a speculative application.

Is Article Writing Dead?

We've had junk food for years, now welcome to junk content.

And, just as junk food is not only the local market stall selling cheap sausages sizzling in recycled oil but is also a profitable global enterprise, so junk content is moving away from the scrapers and automated writing tools and going legit - or at least global.

AOL, that dinosaur that survived when the meteor hit, is churning itself into the disposable portal it was always doomed to be. You've no doubt read it in many places that the best way to write profitably is to launch lots of niche websites with minimal yet SEO-targetted content. Be smart and diligent enough and the numbers will start to stack up. The more worthless the content the higher the likelihood of someone clicking an advert just to find a quick exit to something potentially more interesting. This is now the AOL business model.

In "The End of Hand Crafted Content", TechCrunch writer bemoans this race to the bottom but vows to move on and stay competitive. For every bit of software, or cheap human, that spews out a mangled version of an original article and then rams it in front of an ignorant public, there are systems to track and list the origins of a story thereby rewarding once again the original producers.

The bottom line is money. The old media barons such as Murdoch were surprisingly late to the party as they couldn't figure out how to make any money on the net. They still can't figure it out but are desperate because the new media is eating away at their very existence. Murdoch's threat is to hide behind some payment system. I find it laughable that he should think this a good idea and he should take a long hard look at AOL to see his future. Maybe he should buy AOL and they can sink together.

But the sad truth is that shit sells - and free shit on the net is even better. There was some delusion a few years back that the internet would be different. Back then it was largely filled with techies, scientists, geeks and academics. They are still there but the noise to signal ratio is getting larger... and larger. But in the end we all create our very own individual internet. If a particular portal is spewing out crap we will find another one, assuming one will still exist.

For the writer, one has to decide whether you want to run a junk food franchise or your own gourmet restaurant. In physical space, both models co-exist. In cyberspace, where the food is free and paid for by fluctuating advertising the specialists will flounder, unless they stick together. Arianna Huffington is less pessimistic and insists that the likes of the Huffington Post can prosper in this free for all. But a close look at her final comments shows she can see the same kind of constellation taking place. The single solitary writer has to go where they feel most comfortable and where they will find an audience.

Many writers (or at least American writers) are making some money on eHow. This site shows what the bottom looks like when it is calculated by an algorithm. eHow is owned by Demand Media and they have developed a strict model of article titles they commission based on search and advertising bucks. You won't find anything on life, the universe and everything, but rather life, my family and that stain on the carpet. These are life's minutiae; things that some people obviously need to know, otherwise the article would never get written. But the pay is low and the quality I've seen is truly dreadful. You can read the full article at Wired and you can even copy the same model - just try to write better articles!

Original content is supposed to be king, but in the English language the word 'original' can have many meanings. AOL's writing factory is original in the sense that nobody else could put together those same words in that same order and think it worth publishing. eHow is a step up in that they hope their articles at least appear to be useful, or useful enough to be a stepping stone to an advert. When I take a step back and look at my favourite feeds I find that the writers are either paid a wage or are in another paid employment and write part-time. If originality is valued then it has to be paid for. How that is going to happen in the current online business model I just haven't figured it out yet.

The Ultimate List of Revenue Sharing Writing and Bookmarking Websites

Tired of seeing the same out of date lists getting copied around the net? Then here is the ultimate guide to bookmarking and article writing websites that are currently online, functioning and still paying. There are many sites that come and go or change focus that I will update this every few months.

If you find your favourite revenue sharing website missing then just leave a comment and let me know and I'll add it to the next edition. The current list has general websites that are either article directories or bookmarking sites and that pay their members out of advertising revenue. I have included revenue sharing bookmarking websites as they are useful for writers to promote their articles – and you get paid twice for no extra work.

The list below is more or less in decreasing order of traffic, at least according to Alexa. However, traffic and earnings are two totally different metrics and you'll just have to experiment to find those websites that earn you the most money. This seems to have more to do with the quality of your articles, the membership profile and the advertising value of your areas of interest than it does to raw traffic data. It also has to do with the ad placements in each website as well as the SEO and marketing done by each social media website.

Quick Guide

'Unique' means original articles not published elsewhere. 'Copyrighted' means original articles that you have authored but which may already be published on other websites. In this case it is a good idea to try and register the same, or very similar, usernames across multiple sites as this is the simplest way to see who the original author is. Most of these sites accept 'Articles' or 'Bookmarks' or both. Most websites accept 'Worldwide' members although I have noted those that have extra conditions. I have listed the current percentage 'Adshare' for the user as well as which sites calculate an 'Internal Revenue' and thus pay the user directly. Most have some 'Referral' commission and I have noted those that do not.

The List

eHow
[Articles (Unique) – USA only – Internal Revenue – No Referrals]
eHow is probably the most popular site on this list in terms of traffic. If you like writing 'How to' articles then this is place for you. Except, don't bother unless you live in the USA as they do not pay writers from other countries, although you can still submit articles if you think it will help your marketing efforts. For writers who have joined their Writer Compensation Program, revenue is calculated internally based on article popularity with payment via Paypal once $10 income is reached.

Hubpages
[Articles (Unique/Copyrighted) – Worldwide – 60% Adshare – 10% Referral Adshare]
Hubpages has been around a while and you can earn from Adsense, Amazon, eBay and Kontera. You can also add Hubpages to your Google Analytics, which is a huge bonus in finding out which articles (or hubs in Hubpages jargon) are earning the most. Unique articles preferred but you may post previously published articles although they now get penalty points although still earn money. One nice tool is that you can add your Hubpages affiliate code to any article rather than just a signup page.

Triond
[Articles (Unique) – Worldwide – 50% Adshare – No Referral]
Triond is different to the other sites in that rather than having different categories on the one website they have created lots of separate websites for each broad area of interest. Your articles are screened but don't worry, from what I've seen the standards are not high. Your earnings are calculated internally based on a secret formula and related to how many pageviews your articles get. Unique articles only. Monthly payments using Paypal with a minimum payout of just $0.50.

Squidoo
[Articles/Bookmarks (Unique/Copyrighted) – Worldwide – 50% Internal Adshare - $5 Referral]
Squidoo is the kind of site you either love or hate. You really do need a network of friends to get your lenses (Squidoo-speak for articles) seen and read. As lenses can be complex documents the only way to get noticed is to create at least one mega-lens and keep updating it. Earnings come from a variety of sources, including Google Adsense, Amazon, eBay and others, and are calculated by Squidoo. They pay authors by Paypal and you can set your minimum payout as low as $1. Your $5 referral commission is paid once a new member earns at least $15.

Associated Content
[Articles (Unique/Copyrighted) – USA/Worldwide - $1.50 CPM – No Referrals]
Associated Content pays per article view rather than sharing Adsense impressions, currently set at $1.50 per 1,000 pageviews. If you are a citizen of the USA you can also submit original articles for an upfront payment, which is far more lucrative. If you live anywhere else in the world then you're stuck with the miserly $1.50, but just copy your existing content and it's free money for little work. Also, although Associated Content publishes referral codes there is no indication anywhere that this actually earns anything for the referrer.

Helium
[Articles (Unique) – Worldwide (?) - Internal Revenue – 5% Referrals]
Helium is one of those websites you either love or hate. It has a somewhat complicated income structure based on the community's perceived quality of articles and their popularity. This means you may initially not be earning anything until you jump into their minimum one-star rating. Once accepted, they will pay you through Paypal once a minimum of $25 has been accumulated. They should accept writers from any country but, like all companies using Paypal, there are some countries they cannot accept writers from – I put a question mark because I have seen a few people complain that their payment request was not honoured because of their country of origin, but only after they'd accumulated earnings. To avoid wasting your time it is best to ask admin first. But Helium is more than just an article directory. They can pay an up-front fee for some articles, and have a marketplace in which writers can get paid contracts as well as numerous writing competitions.

Suite101
[Articles (Unique) – Worldwide – 50% Internal Adshare – No Referrals]
Suite101 is often ignored from lists such as this – I suspect just because they don't have any affiliate earnings. Suite101 is an article directory with strict guidelines for authors on layout and keyword use, with each article being reviewed by an editor. Earnings are based upon a 50% share but are calculated by Suite101, who issue payment by Paypal with a minimum payout of just $10. They have many categories and it is still possible to become a Featured Writer. The writer agreement does let you republish your articles elsewhere after one year.

Xomba
[Articles/Bookmarks (Unique/Copyrighted) – Worldwide – 50% Adshare – 10% Referral Adshare]
Xomba is a social media website that accepts both full articles and bookmarks – these are respectively known as Xombytes and Xomblurbs. Adsense share is 50% to the author, plus a 10% recurring share for referrals. Perhaps the only website to have maintained a good mix of original articles plus bookmarks to interesting off-site content. Has just undergone a major website redesign, with lots more features to keep viewers reading.

Bukisa
[Articles (Unique/Copyrighted) – Worldwide – Revenue per Pageview – 3-Tier Referrals]
Bukisa is a social media article directory accepting both unique content as well as copyrighted content that you may have already published elsewhere. Has an interesting payment structure and referral system. Bukisa revenue changes according to their Bukisa Index, which is the amount they pay per unique visitor – this is currently $3.45. This is different to pageviews hence the value is much higher than AC's $1.50 CPM. They also have a 3-tiered referral system where you earn 25% of the earnings of your direct referrants plus a quarter of what your first tier earns from the next two tiers down. OK, a little complex but they explain it fully in their FAQ and this could be the most lucrative part of joining Bukisa. Minimum payment is $10 via Paypal.

InfoBarrel
[Articles (Unique Only) – Worldwide – 75% Adshare – 2% Referral Adshare]
Infobarrel is a social media website where you can create articles, videos, pictures or sound clips. Unique articles are preferred and all articles are read first by editors who then either approve or deny publication. Like Triond, this is really just to stop complete junk rather than a sign of high quality writing. Writers get 75% of ad impressions from Adsense, with 2% of impressions from referrals.

Infopirate
[Bookmarks/Blogs (Unique/Copyrighted) – Worldwide – 80% Adshare – 10% Referral Adshare]
Infopirate has morphed into a revenue sharing bookmarking website. There is the facility to post full articles or blog posts but this currently seems under-used and members concentrate on posting bookmarks. Adsense share is 80% to the member, which is one of highest payments around, with an additional on-going 10% for all referrals.

Flixya
[Articles (Any!) – Worldwide – 100% Adshare – No Referrals]
Flixya is better known as a social media website where users can share videos and images. It does, however, have a section devoted to sharing the written word: articles. You get 100% of Adsense impressions, with Flixya claiming they make enough from other advertising on their site on non-member pages. However, their article section is filled with copy and pastes from article directories with no control over copyright issues. If you can get your articles noticed then this could be a good site, just don't expect any meaningful feedback beyond 'be my friend' messages.

Tagfoot
[Bookmarks – Worldwide – 50% Adshare – 25% Referral Adshare]
Tagfoot is a fairly new social bookmarking site, and still officially in beta, but has an active community and the bookmarklet works like a dream. There is a little bit of a hurdle to overcome before your Adsense code can be activated – it just means proving you're an honest and valuable member and that your bookmarks don't suck. A well-designed site with lots of features that is begging for more traffic.

She Told Me
[Bookmarks – Worldwide – 100% Ad views (50% AdShare) – 33% Referral Adshare]
She Told Me is a very new bookmarking website. Their Adsense revenue sharing percentages need, however, a little explanation. Most websites will split the user's and admin's advert codes into the same ad units using a simple random number generator and depending on the published revenue share. At SheToldMe the code is simpler: your ad unit is shown on all your content pages - hence they claim 100% Adsense revenue share – but your advert is shown on only one ad unit out of two (essentially a 50% split). If you refer a new member then your ad unit is ahown on all of their pages too but as a third advert (hence I quote a 33% referral share). SheToldMe has lots of room to grow which means good potential for such referral earnings.

Qondio
[Articles (Unique) – Worldwide – 100% Revenue – No Referrals]
Qassia has just recently been renamed Qondio and is undergoing somewhat of a transformation. Articles, known as 'intel' (for intelligence), are first screened and voted on by 12 other members after which they are published or rejected. This quality control has its merit but means your articles are not earning anything during this period and then can get buried if the average vote is mediocre. They do have an innovative advertising solution using uniQlicks advertising manager so that writers can mix together different revenue streams on one page. There may be more changes to come so worth taking a look.

MyLot
[Articles/Discussions – Worldwide – Pay per Activity – 25% Referral]
MyLot is different to all the other websites so far listed in that it is essentially a discussion forum and members are paid per activity. This may seem far removed from traditional article writing but if you like writing controversial op-ed pieces then this may be a subsidiary income stream whilst showcasing your original writing. The actual formula that generates income is now kept secret, which has the small benefit that MyLot won't go broke, but don't expect more than about a dollar a day without active referrals. Minimum payout is $10 via Paypal.

MyPage5
[Articles/Comments – Worldwide – Pay per Activity - $1 Referral Commission]
MyPage5 is a new social networking website that allows users to blog and share videos etc. It is in some ways similar to MyLot in that it pays users per activity, such as adding an article or comment. MyPage5 does currently publish the income per activity so users can easily calculate earnings. In the past, such business models fail because of abuse and lack of advertising income. However, about a dollar a day is a nice little earner for people in many countries so worth a look. The referral commission is a one-off $1 per new member so long as they start being active.

PickJack
[Quizzes – Worldwide – Internal Revenue – Referral Commission]
This is another of those websites that may seem out of place here, but then again writers seem to earn money from a huge range of different activities. At Pickjack you earn money by writing interesting multiple-choice questions. You are paid by how popular the questions are and there is a referral commission, but both formulas are kept an in-house secret. The one thing that makes this site a little time-consuming is having to answer 20 questions before you can submit one of yours but they've speeded this up by batching them as 'Take 10'. One useful thing from a marketing point is that every question has to link to an authoritative source for the correct answer, so if you've written an informative article just think up a good question and link to your own article rather than to Wikipedia.


And finally...

I will update this in a few months, but in the meantime feel free to comment on any websites I have missed out. The above list does, however, have certain criteria to it. The website must pay the writer, usually a share of the advertising, either indirectly through using the writer's own affiliate code such as Adsense, or directly by calculating the revenue in-house and issuing periodic payments, usually via Paypal or cheque. This list is for the benefit of writers so that any site that shares videos or images, or bookmarks of any other media, are not included. The website must also be immediately usable as soon as a new user signs up. Having some editorial overview or moderated content is fine but I have not included sites that go through an application process much like seeking new employment. I would like to include more blogging networks but most of them have a screening process and you should already have a personal blog to show the quality of your writing. There seem to be sites that claim to be blogging networks but are actually just blog hosts, at which point, without the benefits of shared traffic and cross-promotions, they are no better at showcasing one's writing than using Blogger. All the above social media sites are general in content. I would be happy to include niche revenue sharing social media websites if they exist.

Good luck with the writing!

How to Write Something Unpopular

Now, everyone wants to be popular. We want admiration, we want comments, we want fame and fortune. So online writers try to write popular pieces. Unfortunately, trying too hard just doesn't work. Today I came across an article "Five Things You Should Avoid Writing About". It was worthless rubbish, but it was popular rubbish. However, it was popular precisely because it was unpopular with a large number of commenters. It's a really difficult trick to pull off consciously. The writer thought he was obviously being sensible but people who've been writing online for far longer just thought it laughably juvenile. Writing something offensive is not the idea - that will just lead to flames and possibly deletion. But to write something so banal that people feel the urge to respond and tell you how you've wasted a few minutes of their lives is pure genius.

Try it and see if you can pull it off.

Selling on Ebay Articles Wanted

Title:Ebay selling
Description:Just looking for 400-600 word articles about selling on ebay
Amount of articles:3
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:400-600

As three articles are needed by the publisher it may be prudent to ask what the focus should be. As Ebay continues to be popular, if your articles are not purchased by this particular publisher you can leave them on Constant Content priced to sell to other website and blog owners.

=0=

To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Article Wanted About Adam Lambert

Title:Adam Lambert
Description:I would like a short post on why Lambert has so many fans
around the world. It must be positive.
Amount of articles:1
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:300


To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Articles Wanted on Affiliate Marketing

Title:Affiliate Marketing Blog Post
Description:I am looking for folks with knowledge of affiliate marketing
to write blog posts on the subject. I am looking for exclusive rights to
this content under the unique content category. Again I want to be able
to have some go to writers I can rely on consistently.
Amount of articles:ongoing
Price per article:$40-50
Length of article:500-800
Subjects:The subject again is affiliate marketing and I'm looking for
quality content. I want to be able to review the article in full before
purchase.
Date requested:2009-05-18

Please note, this job is available at Constant Content; to see full details just click on the links and sign up. This is published here for the benefit of readers of On Writing Online and to show that there are freelance opportunities beyond revenue sharing websites, but please do not email me about this as the work is offered by a third party. Thanks.

Make Extra Money Using Monetized Short URLs in Articles and Twitter

You've all heard of Tinyurl: the short URL service that turns long unwieldy URLs into short ones you can easily post on forums, chatrooms or micro-blogging sites like Twitter. Well, that's nice but now I've found two services that have monetized the short URL market - adf.ly and Linkbee.

How They Work

Linkbee and adf.ly work in very similar ways. Just as you would with Tinyurl, just input your long URL and the services will abbreviate them for you. The diference is that when someone clicks on your link there is an advert before they are taken to the actual website. You are paid for every click-through. As both systems are fairly new the rates tend to vary, but even so, it is an extra bit of income for your contextual links.

The adf.ly service just has interstitial adverts, which are monetized landing pages before automatically going to the actual link, with the user able to click directly to the target website if the advert is of no interest. Linkbee has both interstitial adverts and the option of displaying a banner above the website, which is within a frame. Indeed, Linkbee also has an option not to show any adverts at all so you can also use it just as you would Tinyurl, or any other URL shortening service. The other neat thing about Linkbee is that you can also pick your own link URL (so long as it is still available).

Short URLs in Twitter

If you're using the micro-blogging service Twitter then you'll know that any URL you may enter is automatically abbreviated. Now you can use your own abbreviated URL and make a bit of money out of your tweets. I've tried it and, so long as you keep your URL short then Twitter doesn't abbreviate it a second time. This is also useful in terms of branding your links, which is impossible to do with automatic URL shortening.

Short URLs as Marketing

Tinyurl has been around for a long time and although you can select your own short URL using, for example, your website name, the chances are that anything really good and meaningful has been taken a long time ago. However, both Linkbee and adf.ly are fairly new and there are many good keywords that are still available. So, even if you're not interested in monetizing your links you can still use these services to capture and keep those marketing keywords that are important to you. Once you have created a short URL nobody else can use it (otherwise complete confusion would reign) and you can also change the target URL whenever you want too.

Make Money from Short URLs

However, the main benefit from these services is that you get paid for people clicking your links. Remember that people are more likely to click contextual links than they are text adverts (unless they are really interested in the advert). The actual payouts vary a lot and you will need to check their current rates but are generally about one to two dollars per thousand clicks. This does not, at the moment, seem very high, but remember that this is now an additional revenue stream to any adverts you already have. Both Linkbee and adf.ly will pay via Paypal and have similar minimum payouts of about $15-$20. This means you will need quite a few thousand clicks before first payment but, as already stated, treat this as a nice little bonus. If you publish a lot of bookmarks then this will be a good source of traffic, although do read the TOS of each site as some will allow only the original URL to be posted.

Overall, this seems to me a welcome step forward. Will users be irritated with the adverts? Well, they are not pop-ups or pop-unders so they are really no more intrusive than many corporate websites that have adverts crawling across the screen with a well-camouflaged 'close' button. The links still go to where they are supposed to go, so you're not redirecting users to an altogether different website. It is best to experiment and see if you get any feedback. With Linkbee there is the option to have no adverts at all and it is simple to change this status to any existing URLs you may already have created.

One last thing is that both Linkbee and adf.ly have referral programmes so you can make a bit of extra money by getting your friends to join or promoting your affiliate link. In closing, I think these will be great for Twitter and contextual links.

Writing for Adsense Revenue: Miracles do Happen!

There has been a lot of recent chat on Xomba about writing online and how to earn a decent amount from Adsense advertising. This shows, firstly, that there are a lot of new members, and secondly, that the advice from older members should be more accurate as they themselves gain in experience. There are, however, a few points that I don't feel have been aired enough.

Do you feel lucky?

There are times when one article will earn hundreds of dollars in just one day. There have even been articles that have made thousands! These are rare, but they do happen. Luck plays a big role in this. But like many other things in life, you need to work at being lucky. I wrote a similar thing about getting a book in print - luck plays a huge part but so does working to generate your own luck. Some things you cannot control and some things you can - concentrate your efforts on those things you can control and prepare to be lucky. This isn't to denigrate those writers who've earned big, but I'm sure they were both very happy and very surprised when an article went viral. They couldn't predict what would happen but they saw the opportunity and worked towards being successful.

Most lotteries like to advertise the obvious fact that if you don't play you can't win. the other obvious fact that they don't advertise is that most people lose. Writing online is similar in that if you don't write you won't earn, that your jackpot is also largely out of your hands, but the difference is that you can actually win something every day.

One of the things that attracted me to Xomba was that I made some money on the very first day - if memory doesn't delude me was 27 cents! - but was more than I was seeing on some other sites. I also found Xomba by accident as a link from a Google search. So, I figured, these people have done their SEO and they know how to place adverts, and they have a layout that encourages interaction and further reading. Not many other writing websites have all of those elements together.

Mix and Max

I must say, I haven't hit a jackpot as yet, however, I have recently had some success with one article generating a few hundred dollars over a couple of week. Firstly, to show what I mean about luck, the same piece was posted in three places - only one of them grew, the other two went to sleep. Why? I think because the audiences are different. We can't control what happens to our writing - who posts a link where - but we can work at analysing what works where. The other thing is that this article isn't even an article: it's a simple bookmark! Again, work at what works and prune the rest.

Writing original content takes time and skill. Whatever you're interested in, try to mix your output in order to maximize it. I've written in my On Writing Online blog that the joys of revenue sharing bookmarking sites is that you can be making money before you've even finished writing your article, just by bookmarking your sources. Don't worry, the chances of anybody following the same trail and duplicating your original article are minuscule. If you can write one or two good articles a day and bookmark maybe half a dozen sites then that's probably a decent day's work.

Drop those dead donkeys

Use your Adsense account data and Google Analytics to see what is working and what isn't. Different writing websites will develop their own communities and styles and what is popular on one site may not be on another. There are only about a dozen revenue sharing writing websites at the moment so worth trying 2 or 3 at the start and maybe drop one that isn't working and try one new one on the list. Use the revenue sharing bookmarking sites to promote your own articles as well as your other bookmarks. Use some of the popular social bookmarking websites to promote your own writing - mix in some of your other bookmarks so you don't get flagged for spamming (you often won't know it, but you will be!).

On the subject of pruning what doesn't work, if you decide to stop writing for a website don't delete your account. Those articles will still be listed and could still be earning. There is one website where I stopped submitting work as it didn't seem worth the time. I'd login once a month just to see if anything was moving and to my surprise found that my earnings were slowly increasing to the point where it was worth putting some effort into it again. Some long tails are longer than others.

Waiting for Lady Luck may not seem much of a strategy but as you can see, I'm not advocating sitting back and waiting for the finger of fate to stab you in the ribs! All your work is slowly but surely loading the dice in your favour. The point I'm trying to make is that the social web is a complex system and that trying to push it doesn't always work - sure, if you already have an army of followers it's easier but if you're reading this then I'd guess you're not at that stage. A better analogy is to scatter your seeds across the social web and, miraculously, some of them will grow and you will reap the harvest. I don't think there are any magic beans waiting to be found.

Wag that long tail

Most sites will also tell you that this is a long-tailed game: the more you write the greater the probability of having some articles do very well while others provide a steady income. What nobody tells you is how long the tail is! I suspect some people just get tired of seeing a few cents here and there and get disheartened. I had to stop writing last December because of travel and having to sort out certain things. I was expecting income from articles already published to trail off, and it did. But what was more worrying was that as I started writing again it just wasn't picking up. Was I doing something wrong?

Well, looking back and looking at the trend the income was actually growing again and steadily. (There was also the issue of advertising revenues across the net falling so this didn't help.) I was just looking at it too closely and on a daily basis there can be huge variations. Download your Adsense data into a spreadsheet and calculate something like a 50-day average; that will give you a good idea of progress. Going from an average of $2 a day to $3 a day doesn't sound like a recipe for giving up the day job as yet, but that's a 50% increase. Another 50% increase did actually take it to $4.50 per day, on average, for the following month, and that means getting paid every month.

So how long has that taken? Well, I'd say if you can hit that within 6 months then you're doing well - perhaps other writers have done better, only they can say. It also depends how much time you're willing to spend not just on the writing but also marketing and analysis. If you hit on a jackpot then these numbers will get blown away and you can start thinking about how to turn this into a decent income - or splashing it all on some object of desire!

Being lucky takes work. Be prepared for it.



Key points

Success = Work + Luck

Write about what you enjoy

Mix your output - articles plus bookmarks

Analyse what works where

Prune what isn't working

Spread yourself on the social web

Look at your long-term income growth

Enjoy the challenge!

The Statusphere for Writers and Journalists

When Walt Mossberg was asked, "are newspapers worth saving?" the WSJ journalist replied,"It’s the wrong question to ask. The real question we should ask is if whether or not we can save good journalism.” He continued, “Think about it. Of the hundreds, thousands, of newspapers around the country, there are really only a few that matter. Good journalism and journalists, on the other hand, are worth saving.”

Seems like yet another traditional profession is going through a tech-tonic shift caused by the internet. When distribution costs are minimal and income streams at the mercy of advertising revenues, what does the future hold for journalists? To be fair, there have always been freelance journalists and perhaps their numbers will just increase. What the successful ones are embracing - and what their publishers should also be concentrating upon - is the growth in social media.

This all sounds like more hype for social networking, blogging and community building, but these movements are not going to go away any time soon. As publishers experiment with social media tools they are at the same time locked into their traditional way of thinking as they also test out micro-charging systems and other payment methods. After all, consumers are there to consume, not to just interact then flutter away to the next social buzz.

But journalists and their publishers are now up against bloggers and blogging networks that have had to survive and thrive under the new rules. Marketing people love to talk about brands, but in the case of written content I'd rather call it a voice. Columnists who have personality, insights and engage with their public across the social media networks are creating their own voice. If they were to move to a different site I'd bet many users would follow them. The dedication is to another human voice, not to the corporate brand they may be flying under.

However, all of this means extra work for the writer who wants to succeed. Your personal voice, or brand, has to be created through your own energies and dedication. As in so many other areas, the freedom to freelance comes with an obligation to do all those other tasks that were the responsibility of the publishers, such as marketing, advertising and distribution.

The Statusphere is another of these ugly hybrid words designed to conjure up this new world of fast-moving social interactions. In contrast to the blogosphere, the statusphere is the sum of interactions and contacts that can form across multiple social media websites. However, in all the hype it is easy to forget that this statusphere has no memory - the interactions are ephemeral and what remains are the connections formed. For this reason alone I very much doubt the death of blogs or websites as repositories of histories.

However, one thing that the statusphere is changing is the direction of information flow. Once it was quite simply from publishers to readers, with a trickle of feedback. Now, any article that has the good fortune to spread virally has also spread out of control of the original author. This is good for voice recognition but has already become unwieldy keeping track of one's own influence as so much discussion can happen off-site, or off-blog. It is common to see discussion on a social bookmarking site being far more active than at the site of the original article. People read what they read where they read it and comment where they are - there is no protocol to go back and comment on the source.

Keeping track of all this is surely the task of automated scripts - that do not yet exist and are sorely needed. If all of this gives you a sense of statusfear then just concentrate on your most successful social arenas and let the rest of the network take the strain and bring to you those well-deserved new readers. As this blog is for general writers rather than specifically for journalists, how does all this affect you?

If you are earning from freelance contract work, then perhaps very little. If, however, you are writing for third party websites such as revenue sharing networks then you already have some help in distribution and marketing. But to really spread your own voice you will need to manage this statusphere in the best way you can. The bookmarking and interactions are all your responsibility. The bookmarking is rarely done automatically, although some have added semi-automatic scripts to speed up the process for you. Experiment with spreading your wings and just clip those websites that are not pulling in new readers. At the same time don't forget to engage with those that do show genuine interest or the network will flow elsewhere. Decide where "home" is, set the wheels in motion and let the network do the work.

Freelance Writing Jobs at Textbroker

Textbroker is a mediator between writers and content clients. Anybody living in America can register as an author at Textbroker. There are only few exceptions to this which can be looked up in our Terms of Service.

After a short application text you will receive your first quality classification. You can then directly view and accept client orders (OpenOrders). Often there are more than hundreds of orders to choose from.
Also, there is the possibility of you specifically being requested by a client. This order type is called a "DirectOrder". DirectOrders are usually assigned when a client is pleased with an author's previous work, or if an author stands out because of his excellent profile.

Payment is made by Paypal once a minimum of $10 is earnt and a payout request is made. As they use Paypal rather than sending cheques it seems odd they insist on US residency, but there you go!

For everybody else in the world the site has one useful page which is how much money they pay writers. Their sliding scale goes from $3.50 up to $25 for a 500 word article.

This is a similar service to Elance, but if you're just starting out and find Elance complicated then Textbroker can help build your portfolio of work before launching towards more lucrative contracts.

Network Blogging Survival Tips

I find the obsession with “top 10” lists slightly puerile; there may only be six or seven really worthwhile points dragged out into a neat decad. Anyway, you can read the full “10 Network Blogging Survival Tips” at Problogger. Here I have tried to distil the essentials.

= Don't be put off by the seemingly low base rate. The remuneration package is likely similar to a sales job with basic plus bonuses. The better you perform, the more you will earn.

= Don't blog on a topic you don't care about! This is self-evident – you will get bored and fed-up and it will show in your writing. This is not the same as starting to blog on something you know nothing about. If you're interested in the topic then being a newbie can be positive as you will have a refreshing view on the subject.

= Be a team player. You're working for a network, and by definition a network has more than one person. As in many industries, you may be competing with other bloggers for eyeball counts and subscribers but the whole network sinks or swims together. Do your share of the rowing, whether it be participating on forums, training sessions or special events.

= Hit that quota! If you're having fun, your blog is growing and there are no real life issues then this shouldn't be too hard to do. But if you have multiple blogs, or something happens that means you are physically unable to be online, then be prepared. Make friends, invite guest bloggers, share your success and you will be able to call on cover if you need it. Expect the unexpected.

Erm... that's it, I think!

Good luck.

Articles Wanted on Dating Websites, Advice and Tips

Title:Urgent Article Request
Description:We urgently require 500 word + articles using the following
keyword phrases: -

fresh new dating sites
dating profile tricks
how to be a sugardaddy
rich women looking for men
newest dating sites
internet dating vs modern dating
newest dating site
dating tips
dating advice
rich men in america
professional matchmakers
new dating sites
dating your friends ex
meet rich sugar daddies
dating advice for women
best online dating sites
latest dating site
online dating tips
dating tips for men
latest dating sites
dating ideas
best dating sites
wealthy women dating
rich men dating sites
dating professional women
online dating advice
top dating sites
internet dating sites
dating older men
meet friends online
meet rich men
dating older women
dating younger men
new online dating sites
single dating sites
dating agencies professionals
singles dating websites
best dating websites
best dating site
dating sites in uk
dating site wealthy man
new dating site
online dating websites
wealthy dating sites
dating web sites
matchmakers
how to meet women
best online dating site
best online dating
dating single women
uk dating websites
matchmaking sites
date a millionaire
uk online dating agency
best dating website
singles and dating sites
how to find a sugar daddy
dating sites online
singles dating sites
internet dating tips
dating single
match making sites
match making services
on line dating websites
top online dating sites
sugar daddy dating sites
Amount of articles:As shown
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:500 words

To see full details and to submit articles click here.

Articles Wanted on Pregnancy and Baby Development Calendars

Two articles needed, as described below.

Title:Pregnancy Calendar
Description:I am looking for content for a weekly pregnancy calendar (from
conception to week 42). For each week there should be around 100-200 words
on how the baby is growing and another 100-200 words on what the mother
may be feeling and/or how her body is changing and/or how her life is
changing.
Amount of articles:1
Price per article:$250+
Length of article:9,000 - 15,000
Subjects:Pregnancy, foetus development

Title:Baby Development Calendar
Description:I am looking for content for a weekly/monthly baby development
calendar (from newborn to age 3).
- From newborn to age 1: weekly entries (so 52 entries)
- From age 1 to 3: monthly entries (so 24 in total)
Each entry should have about 100 words on the stage of development of the
baby.
Amount of articles:1
Price per article:$250+
Length of article:7500
Subjects:Baby development

Both articles have been requested by the same publisher. To see full details then login to Constant Content.

Paid to Blog at Today.com

Today.com provides tools for both new and experienced bloggers. For those new to blogging, we offer free blog hosting. We invite you to create a blog right now. For those with an established blog looking to generate more traffic, we offer free submission to our blog directory.

Today.com also claims to pay its bloggers but, without logging in, I can't find any indication of how much. Also note that applications only accepted from certain countries.

Freelance Home Writers Website

I was actually just browsing the About.com section on freelance writing and found this article about Freelance Home Writers. The general advice is... don't bother! More importantly, don't waste your money.

The FAQ on Freelance Home Writers has lots of vague statements but, surprisingly, nothing about how much the service costs. The service claims to provide members with regular job opportunities for freelance writers. That seems fine in itself but when you sign up you suddenly realise there is $2.95 "free" trial for one month. If you then back away and read their terms of service you realise that you will also be committing yourself to a recurring monthly membership fee of $47. When one can check Craigslist for free, and even signing up to Elance is free, $47 is a lot to pay for a service that doesn't even have direct contact with the jobs being advertised.

You can, of course, cancel the credit card direct debit but there have been online grumblings that this proves to be easier said than done. Avoid the grief, avoid Freelance Home Writers.

I also post writing job opportunities as I find them. The best thing to do is bookmark all the sites that post job openings for writers and, if possible, add them to your RSS reader so you can quickly see if there is anything interesting.

Freelance Writing Jobs Network Blog

There's more to freelance writing than just words. You need to know the business of freelance writing to have a satisfying, successful career. You've come to the right place.

At Freelance Writing Business Tips, you'll learn customer service tips, business tricks and financial advice to take your freelance writing career to new heights.

Freelance Writing Jobs began in May 2005 as a way to help other writers, especially Work at Home Moms, find decent paying jobs. More than three years later its succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. We’ve expanded from being a little writing leads blog run by a “mommy blogger” to the number one online community for freelance writers.

OK, apart from the hype it's a pretty good site! Especially useful in making that step from earning pocket money as a part-time writer to going for it as a full-time freelance career.

Go to Freelance Writing Jobs.

Men with Pens - Helping Writers and Freelancers

Smokin' Business Tips

To Help Writer, Freelancers and Entrepreneurs
Make a Decent Living Online

We build sites, create designs and write copy that draw customers to your blog or business – because that's how it should be. Our years of experience, creative finesse, expert skills and killer business sense make sure we fit your needs just right.

As the sales pitch says, these guys are writers and web designers and want your business! There is, however, a lot of useful information for freelance writers. Not so much on the "where can I make money" theme, but rather in helping you get your mind around certain issues about being a freelancer. Very much in the work smarter camp rather than the work harder routine. Enjoy the site!

Go to Men with Pens.

Despite Recession, Social Media Marketing to Rise. Good News for Writers?

During a recession corporate budgets are tightened, workers laid off and those grateful for a job are supposed to increase productivity. It is therefore somewhat of a surprise to see that social media advertising is due to increase, at least according to a new survey released by Forrester Research.

The reasoning behind this increase is that social media advertising is comparatively cheap compared to other forms of marketing. With social networking, blogging and user-generated content as the most popular marketing channels it would seem that there should be an increase in the amount of work for writers, and especially writer-bloggers. However, just below these top three are mobile marketing, online video, widgets and podcasting, meaning that a lot of the image-centred advertising skills will also be in demand.

I think this should encourage those freelance writers who need to make a living to look at writing and blogging contracts rather than just writing on revenue sharing websites. One small warning is whether the assumption that social media is cheap is due to its effectiveness or that social media experts are working for peanuts. I don't think those who badge themselves as professionals come cheaply but with content producers living around the world some sites seem to expect we can live on crumbs. This is where being already active within social media platforms is a distinct advantage.