Why Are You Writing?

A large part of how you monetize will depend upon why you’re writing in the first place. Sometimes the reason you’re writing online in the first place doesn’t go well with being too direct about trying to make sales, at least not on every page of your site.

This is especially true if you’re writing something for another website or a print publication where it’s more about building your reputation and/or backlinks to your website. Odds are that you shouldn’t be putting in a lot of direct monetization, and it may not be allowed at all. You may simply be able to refer people back to your own website instead, and attract what income you may from there.

On the opposite extreme, you could be writing on your own website to inform people about a particular product or service you hope they’ll purchase. In that case, you want to be very direct indeed, with obvious links to click in order to make a purchase. You should still aim to be informative about what you’re offering, so that people can make a good decision and feel comfortable with what you’re offering.

There are many levels in between, and you have to decide how best to monetize them. Fortunately, you have a lot of options for monetizing an online business.

Monetizing With Banner Ads

A very simple way to monetize a website is with banner ads. You can go the low effort way and put up blocks of AdSense, pick banners to show on every page of your website, or pick each banner carefully by the topic of the page you’re placing it on. How you cope depends on your particular goals and the effort you’re willing to put into it all.

The problem is that banner ads are easily blocked. There’s plenty of software out there to handle it. Anyone who is blocking such ads won’t see the ones on your site, and so you won’t earn from them.

Monetizing With In-Text Links

Placing text link ads within your content is another good way to monetize your website. There are services which will do this for you; you just add a bit of Javascript to your site to make it work. This is easily blocked by those who don’t care to load Javascript when they visit websites, as many know that’s a common way to serve ads.

You can also place ads manually, selecting the text you’ll link yourself. This can look much better, and because it works the same as other links, is less easily blocked. You have to put in the effort to find the right products to link to, but done right, that’s the good part.

Linking within text is the obvious choice if you’re discussing a product or service, whether it’s your own or an affiliate product. Once again, it’s about making it easy for the visitor to decide to buy.

Making Appropriate Disclosures

When you monetize your content, you must be certain you’re making appropriate disclosures. If it’s your own product, it’s pretty obvious that you’re going to benefit from any purchases, so your main concerns will be with keeping your claims accurate, respecting people’s privacy, having a terms of service and so forth.

If you’re selling affiliate products, you should be clearly noting that you get paid to recommend products. Make this one really obvious. If you’re recommending products honestly, being clear about faults as well as benefits, saying you earn something when people buy from your link shouldn’t hurt your chances to earn. It’s when it seems as though all you care about is what you earn that it hurts.

Keep Testing

You may not hit upon the right kind of monetization right away. What other people are trumpeting as the greatest way ever to earn money online may not work so well for you. Keep trying out the different options and you may find one that works pretty nicely for you.

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But without great keywords, in the title and the article itself, who’s going to find any of your articles?

Which Way to Go?

Article titles can get a bit of debate going. Some like to write them first. Others write them last. Some focus more on keywords, others on making it interesting.

I like to have a title ready, but changing it isn’t unheard of. I don’t think I’m one of the great title writers around, although I come up with a few I enjoy. A good title helps to set the tone of an article for me. I may change midway because the dratted thing no longer fits, but I like having a working title.

The important thing is to craft your titles in the way that plays to your own strengths. If you write best with a general idea, and then pull a title from that, go for it. If you need that title to guide your article writing, work that way.

There’s nothing wrong with either way. The only wrong way is the one that inhibits your ability to write in the first place.

What About Search Engines?

It’s certainly true that search engines care more about keywords than about an interesting title. Keywords are a part of what will bring search engine rankings on the keywords you’re after.

Keywords shouldn’t be your entire title in all cases, however. You should do your best to use your keywords, not only in the title of your article, but in the title attribute in the meta tags, and used appropriately throughout the article.

Your title will often be used by people linking to the page on your site. This helps your article position when your article is linked to with your keywords. Not everyone will use your title or keywords, but you want it easy for them to use your keywords when linking by using a good title.

What About People?

When people click on links to visit your pages, a good title draws them in. Humans do like keywords, so long as they’re used naturally and are relevant. If the title is clever or funny or otherwise interesting to a human reader, that helps to draw their attention.

A plain title can work, especially when people are looking for something specific. There’s rarely a need to get silly about that Canon PowerShot SD780IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera review page title. Relevance matters quite a bit when people are searching for something specific.

In the above example, you can still make the title interesting. It could imply problems with the camera. It could rave about the camera. When you’re being that specific however, the keywords in the title need that relevance to buyers, not people casually looking for information.

People looking more for information, on the other hand, will probably enjoy a title that stands out and promises a good read. A dry, keyword filled title shows that the article is probably about what they’re looking for, but doesn’t promise to be written in an interesting manner. Keywords used in an interesting way can be a big help in getting readers to your informational articles.

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This is more true in some areas than others. If you use a lot of acronyms, you’re probably going to confuse people who don’t know what you’re talking about. Mentioning SEO or PPC may be obvious to an online marketer, but just try mentioning those to friends who don’t do so much online. Even the word “blog” is unfamiliar to many people.

While the people reading your website are at least tech savvy enough to find you, that doesn’t mean they’re advanced in any other ways.

I started a website design company as my first online effort as I was getting bored with medical transcription. My very first client taught me how difficult terminology can be. She was a dog breeder, and decidedly not into technology. But she knew she needed a website.

She was adamant. Her website must be compatible with “trains.” One of her friends had told her all about them, and it was vital that the site be compatible with “trains.”

She couldn’t believe I didn’t know what she was talking about. Didn’t I know my own business?

After a bit of back and forth, it hit me. She meant search engines.

Once I said that, she agreed that this was what she was after. She’d used the word “trains” to help her remember “search engine.” She just forgot the mnemonic.

You can see that in many people. They don’t go to a favorite search engine. They visit Google, Yahoo or Bing. They probably don’t even think of these sites as search engines. They’re more the brand name than the function.

It Happens in All Industries

It doesn’t matter which industry you’re talking about. There’s what outsiders know, what beginners know, what amateurs know and what professionals and experts know. These are all very different levels of knowledge.

Your site should be friendly to all the levels of knowledge you intend to serve. Have sections that are friendly to those who just don’t know so much about your topic.

Tutorials are one way to introduce information to various groups. Have the most basic information in tutorials that are clearly just the basics. Bring in more advanced information in more advanced tutorials.

You may want to have an email course set up to help beginners get comfortable. This encourages them to come back to your site to learn more information. You can offer more advanced courses as well, but be careful of having too many subscription links all over the place. You might confuse everyone that way.

Talk to Your Friends

If you aren’t sure if your site is friendly to people with different levels of knowledge on the topic, talk to your friends. Have them review it.

Try to have people with different levels of knowledge take a look. The one who says, “Oh, but I don’t know the first thing about (topic), I couldn’t possibly help,” is the exact person you want reviewing your site if you want to be useful to people without any basic knowledge.

Have them go over your site not only for content, but for ease of use. If you had much at all to do with the design of your site, you probably know too much about it to really be able to know where things don’t make sense. Watching other people use your site is very educational.

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Having confidence in what you write goes a long way toward making your site credible. If you don’t sound as though you know more than the person reading on your site, why should they buy from you?

I’ve struggled with this often myself. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s that I’m not used to being assertive about it. In person I’m very quiet and not remotely assertive. I was the quiet kid in high school who always knew the answer when called upon, but never volunteered to answer. It’s a hard habit to change in my writing.

You Do Know More Than Most

If you’ve done your research on your niche or really dealt with the topic in your own life, you probably do know more about it than many of your readers. There’s a reason people look for information online. They aren’t looking for things they already know. They’re looking for things they want to know.

If you have a large informational site, you’re probably getting visitors with all kinds of backgrounds. Some are completely new to the topic and want to learn everything. Others know quite a bit, but are looking to learn more.

Write for all levels. Some topics will be of more general interest to your readers, while the basics won’t interest the more experienced readers. But leaving the beginners out means they’ll leave your site and find someone who can help them figure things out.

By the same token, the more knowledgeable readers will need content that meets their needs.

Be Honest About What You Know

Some people say fake it until you make it. I don’t like that theory.

I’d rather keep learning about the things I don’t know yet, and then teach them to others. It’s challenging, but then I’m less likely to be called out for being completely wrong.

I don’t mean don’t take risks. Just do your research and have some facts on your side, especially if you’re getting into things where there may be disagreement. Not everything is black and white, and a little controversy isn’t a bad thing at all. Sometimes even a lot of controversy is a good thing… handled professionally, of course.

You can’t be expected to know everything. Sometimes a good strategy is to ask your readers what they think. Many people love to share their knowledge but have no intention of running their own sites. Or they do, and have the perfect link for you.

It’s rather like how the sensei for my kids’ karate class puts it. He says “can’t” is a four letter word. “I’ll try” is much better.

By the same token, you don’t have to say “I don’t know.” You can say “Let me find out” instead.

Enjoy Yourself

It’s fun being the person who knows stuff, whatever kind of stuff it is you know. Have fun with it. Show your personality.  Don’t be a know-it-all, be a solid resource.

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A favorite way of mine to get ideas is to read what others have written. But there’s something you have to be careful of. You do not want to plagiarize anyone. But there are a few simple ways you can avoid this problem.

Discuss Their Article and Link to Them

If you really like what someone else has written, there’s nothing stopping you in most cases from linking to the article, crediting a few key points and adding in your own thoughts. It’s a great way to share quality information.

You may get some attention from the original author when they note the link to their site. This makes for not only great inspirations, but a pretty good networking tool. It can also be good for search engines to note that you link out, sharing good information, rather than hiding away on your own site. I read that some time ago on Daily Blog Tips, and I agree with how they explain it.

Disagree with Their Article

Disagreeing with what someone else wrote can be fun. If you’re going to link to their article and explain why you disagree, you might just get some conversation going. Or a bit of anger, whatever. It depends on how you write your own article and on the personality of the person you’re disagreeing with.

You’ll note however, that I said if. Linking isn’t something I always do.

There’s good reason for that. Sometimes what I’m disagreeing with is when I feel someone is promoting a scam or something mighty close to one. If I feel the article is promoting something I don’t care to link to, I won’t.

In that case, my own article is likely more general. It doesn’t need to go from point to point countering everything.

It may also not even appear to be disagreeing with anything in particular. When I’ve read something I’ve disagreed with, sometimes the resultant article is strictly about my point of view.

Sadly, some people will write anything for a chance to earn money. While you may not agree with what they’re saying, you can take it as inspiration to discuss your perspective.

An example of this would be the scads of  “Google Money” and similar splogs that were all over the place in 2009. I disagreed plenty with them, but I wasn’t about to link to any. Much better to link to the resources that explained why they should be avoided.

Read Only the Titles

You can get a lot of ideas just from the titles of other articles. Read the title and create one of your own.

When I do this, sometimes it won’t even be on the same topic as the title I read. The other title just gets me thinking on a topic of my own. It might be the type of the title, it might be just one word that makes me sit up and say “hey, that’s an idea!”

Read the Articles and Note Individual Ideas

This is one you have to be very careful with, as it can reach into plagiarism if you aren’t careful. It can pay to take just one or two concepts from an article and note them for a future article.

Generally speaking, if I get an idea from someone else’s article I’m either going to write it up immediately with crediting links, or I’m going to take just one concept and develop things in my own direction in a few days.

I don’t like to write the second kind of article there immediately. My mind is likely too full of ideas from the other author’s article, and I don’t want to accidentally imitate them. Giving it a couple days and reading other things gives me time to develop it into something unique.

If you really want to make the idea your own, take things a step farther and don’t use it directly. Instead, brainstorm on related ideas. You can write it out on paper, type them into your word processor, use Google’s Wonder Wheel or even use a keyword tool to see what comes out.

Read Forums

Reading on forums is a great way to find out what questions people are asking about your niche. If someone is asking the question on a forum, you have a good chance that someone else is asking it on the search engines.

You’ll notice that a lot of these ideas I use are for generating ideas to write about another day. Many times when I can’t think of a topic to write about, even with a topic I’ll struggle more than usual with the writing. Taking a day to generate ideas rather than articles means that the days I’m more into writing are more productive because the ideas are all there.

You can do many of these tips with articles you’ve previously written for your own site too. You can disagree with something you previously wrote because you’ve learned something new. You can go into more detail on topics you’ve written before. You can take a new angle on an old topic.

Just do your best to keep from rehashing the same information over and over again on your site.

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Write 5 Articles or Blog Posts Per Day

This is actually down from in the past when I could easily manage 7 in a day. But with a baby I have less writing time, and this goal reflects that.

At that, it’s a really challenging goal to reach right now. A lot of days I don’t manage it because time can be just so tight. That and the baby loves to pull up on my desk and pound the keyboard. Not a good thing when I’m trying to write. How I long for an office door some days!

Writing 5 a day means that I can get all the blog posts for one week, Monday through Friday, done in a single day. If I like, that means the rest of the week any articles written for that site can be for article submission.

Since I write for more than one site, it does not mean that I could write four times as much content for distribution as I do for my site. If I could do that, I’d probably just slightly up the blog posting frequency for a better balance.

10 Blog Comments Per Day

This one challenges me much of the time, but it is a bit easier to schedule. I can read through blog posts with my little Busy Bee on my lap, keyboard pushed in on its shelf under the desk, and figure out which posts I want to comment on later.

It’s nice to have something to do where I can spread the effort out a little. It doesn’t work all the time, and I think commenting earlier is better than later for actual views of my comments, but it helps.

10 Forum Posts Per Day

I’ve been slacking off on this one way too long.

Forums can be a huge time suck, but appropriate forums that allow signatures can bring in respectable traffic if you keep your posts interesting. It’s not so much about advertising as it is building a reputation as a helpful participant in the forum.

Other Link Building Activities

The trouble with blog comments and forum posts is that they can be no follow on many sites. That’s not that bad a thing if you focus on eyeballs rather than search engines, but you want a range of links coming in to your site.

Social bookmarking sites can be useful, and they go well beyond delicious. Seek them out and add your links as appropriate to the particular site. But pay attention to the rules so your links aren’t just dropped as spam.

I’ve quit doing link exchanges long since. They’re rarely worth the trouble. I had a small link exchange directory on this site for a time and the real link to random spam ratio was terrible and I finally deleted the whole mess rather than having to go in and delete spam submissions.

Finding the Time???

The worst of it all is finding the time for all of this. If you have the budget, I strongly suggest figuring out what you can put out to a virtual assistant. Link building can be a good choice for example… tedious, time consuming and really doesn’t need your personal touch. Let someone else have that headache.

Anything that you need to do on your own, figure out when your most productive hours are and use them! Turn off Twitter, Facebook and anything else that might distract you. Let TiVo get your favorite shows if you’d miss them.

If the kids are awake and the weather’s nice, send them outside. If it’s not nice, have them dress appropriately and send them out for a bit anyhow! Well, not into a blizzard or anything, but if warmer clothes are all that’s needed, they can play outside for a time.

These plans are of course only approximate, and will change regularly. But having a general outline has always worked better than a solid schedule for me.

What works for you?

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Qualifications/Training Needed?

Writing jobs don’t always have a lot of qualifications listed, but other times you need specific training or the ability to research unfamiliar topics well enough to write clearly about them.

There are a few kinds of writing. Copywriters, for example, write ad copy. If you’re good at this it can be one of the best paid types of writing job. It involves a lot of testing and practice to learn what works best and what works for particular markets. Little changes can do a lot.

Article writing is very popular now that a lot of websites need it for promoting their sites. However it pays far less on average. The more you get paid as an article writer, the better your research on a given topic will be expected to be.

Any paid writer needs to have excellent grammar and spelling skills. Don’t trust to spell check alone, as it is notorious for missing the use of an incorrect but properly spelled word. If you’re too lazy to proofread, working as a writer is probably not for you.

Job Duties

Write whatever it is you’ve been asked to work on. What you write depends on the kinds of work you choose to look for.

Equipment Needed

You probably have everything you need. A computer with Microsoft Word or Office and an internet connection is about it.

Where to Search for Jobs

Writing job listings at Home with the Kids
Blogging job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
Elance
Guru

Related Scams

The main scams to look out for are paid job boards that really don’t offer any jobs, as well as any job posting that offers an exceptional amount of pay for the amount of work done.

Poetry contests and similar are also very common scams for writers, as are writing contests.

Recommended Reading

88 Money-Making Writing Jobs
The Definitive Guide to Making Money Online With Your Writing
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
6 Figure Freelancer

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Just think of all the people who would love to hear from you in a letter. Grandparents. Friends who have moved away or you’ve moved away from. Pen pals.

You can of course just send emails, but there is something about a handwritten letter that’s a little extra special. If your handwriting is as poor as mine is, you’ll have to take extra care to keep it legible. That’s the problem with typing everything.

For children still mastering their writing skills, this is a great and fun way to practice. They can even write to friends who are in the area. Kids get such a kick out of getting mail, and you can build up a habit between your kids and their friends.

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Now, if things are bad enough you may need to look at getting a job outside the home, say, after your spouse comes home. Not fun, but when the need arises it’s one of the sacrifices you make.

You can also do your best to cut the bills. Do you really need cable television, a regular phone and a cell phone? Make cuts in your luxury bills as necessary.

A garage sale is a quick way to make money. Of course, it only works once in a while. But it brings in some money and gets rid of clutter.

There aren’t many ways to earn money quickly from home. Most work at home jobs are really hard to get into. There’s just a lot of competition. Similarly, home businesses can take time to get off the ground, and generally cost money to get started.

However, there are a couple things you can do to earn money fairly quickly. Some of this depends on how quickly you need money. If you need it in a week, there’s not much you can do. But if you need it within 2-3 months you have some time to get things going and get the money coming in.

If you can write, Associated Content pays $3-20 per article through Paypal. You can read on their site on how they decide what to pay you. Your submissions for pay are reviewed within five days. You can also bid for jobs on sites such as eLance.

Another option for writers, or rather bloggers, is to join PayPerPost. I’m doing this one a bit myself. It’s fun at times but a lot of work. There must be a regular post between each paid post, so you have to post quite a bit in order to accept a lot of paid posts. Your blog must be at least 90 days old, have at least 20 posts and no more than a 1 month interval without posting. Pay depends on which opportunity you choose. Not all posts insist upon positive reviews, so you can maintain your integrity and give your honest opinion in most assignments. If you don’t like the opportunity and they insist on a positive review, you just skip it.

In some areas mystery shopping can do well. It depends on how many companies are needing mystery shoppers in your area as well as how many other mystery shoppers are in your area. One challenge with mystery shopping is that many companies pay you at the end of the month after you do the shop… that is to say potentially close to two months after you do the work.

If you can take the financial risk…. not terribly likely if you need to earn money fast, but still worth mentioning, you can try pay per click advertising. Go to Google AdWords (see link on left beneath navigation), Yahoo or other pay per click search engines to advertise a product. Clickbank has a bunch of electronic products and pays every two weeks if you earn enough in that pay period. This is good in that you can quickly figure out if you’re making or losing money.

However, many people lose money doing pay per click advertising, so it is a risk you may not be up for taking. This one takes a lot of research… finding the right product, right keywords, tweaking your ad text to maximize returns… it is not all that easy. But for those who are good at it, it can be quite profitable.

Selling on eBay" alt="" /> can also be quite profitable. You can sell things on eBay rather than do a garage sale or get more stuff to sell from thrift shops and such. Be careful how you set your initial prices. Too high scares off potential bidders, but too low risks that you will lose money.

You can offer services in your area. Housecleaning, gardening, running errands… it’s a kind of business, but one that you can ask for payment as soon as you do the job, rather than waiting weeks for payment. You can talk to family, friends, neighbors or post flyers to find work.

Babysitting is another service you can provide. You can do the work involved in setting up a standard daycare, which usually involves licensing and regular inspections, or you can think of a way to just watch kids when the parents need someone on an emergency basis or just to run errands for a few hours.

Earning money quickly from home isn’t impossible, but it can be difficult. If money is often tight for you, have emergency plans and try to come up with ways to make things a little less tight for your family.

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