eHow Ebook Author Interview: Anthony Delgado

What follows in an interview with Anthony Delgado, author of Need Extra Cash? Write Articles That Pay. Anthony is a husband (his wife also writes for eHow), father of two, and is currently in school, studying to become a minister. Of particular interest to me was that eHow now provides 45% of Anthony's family's income, helping him to juggle all these roles.

Thanks to Anthony for participating in this interview.

1. What led you to begin writing for eHow?

I started writing for eHow in October of 2007. The month prior, my wife signed up and she was just having a lot of fun with it. I started writing just for fun. I wrote exclusively about whatever I was doing or whatever I thought was interesting. Needless to say, earnings were pretty meager. I didn’t start taking the writing seriously until August 2008 when I decided to put my SEO knowledge to the test and see what it would do for my earnings.

2. How many articles have you written?

Currently, I have 450 published articles.

3. Do you have a background as a writer?

No, not really. I have an aptitude for it, but never actually wrote for anything other than school. Since eHow, I have had several blogs, written for many other sites and now am an editor for the Marketing Department at Handmadenews.org.

I do have a background with the internet. I’ve been building web pages practically since the beginning of the internet. I also have some experience with networking. I think this knowledge is what makes me successful on eHow, not my ability to write.

4. What can you tell us about your eHow earnings?

At this moment, I am making about 45% of my family’s income off of my eHow earnings. This is a slight drop from a couple of months ago, but I have not written a whole lot in the last few months. Even still, the money keeps coming in consistently.

5. What are your goals concerning eHow?

I’m not planning on doing a whole lot with eHow for the time being. I discussed this with Rich about a week ago. Someone had told him that I was leaving the site; that’s far from the truth. I’m available for anyone to message me through eHow, just I always have been, to answer questions and help. I receive several messages a day from people who have questions or want me to analyze a specific article. It’s a joy for me to help. For time purposes though, I need to avoid browsing the groups and forums, so I have backed off of that. I am also focusing on other ventures, but do plan to return and write more on eHow in the future.

6. What motivated you to write an ebook?

Originally, I did not intend to sell the book or even publish it in book form. It was going to go up on a website for free with some Adsense code, so I could make money that way. It took me well over four months of testing, research and a lot of trial and error to get the information to where it needed to be. I wanted to make sure that anyone who used the info would be successful. By the time I had completed the ebook, my earnings had tripled simply because of the handful of test articles I wrote on eHow. They went from about $90 in August 2008 to $270 in November. In that period, I only wrote 55 articles. That’s an average of $3.25/article/month and most of those began earning more once they had matured (30-90 days). December earnings were enough that I decided to quit my “day job” and go back to school like I had always wanted.

If I could jump $180 in earnings in three months, anyone can. Since then, I have literally written hundreds more articles and my earnings have increased exponentially. Like I said above, eHow now accounts for 45% of my family’s income.

Back to the motivation side, I really just want to see others succeed like I have. The price for the book is minimal in comparison to the reward. I also developed a free keyword tool which I think everyone should take a look at. It will make a huge difference in the amount of traffic you get to your articles.

7. Tell us a little about your ebook and what it covers.

The big thing my ebook offers is a video walk through that I made for all of us visual learners. It really helps to make the things I am talking about more cohesive and understandable. “Need Extra Cash” is not just an eHow book. I have many bloggers using my book successfully. Others have also found success on AC, Suite101 and Bukisa by using it. There are two primary elements. It includes the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) concepts as well as ad targeting methods. Neither of these are an exact science, so it is more of a guide, so that you can find what works in your niche, rather than a specific, step 1, 2, 3. I actually teach about SEO a bit, rather than just give the methods, so that customers can adapt to use it on other sites. I also included a handful of other resources, such as page layouts for maximizing ad revenue, for those that have blogs or their own sites.

8. What else would you want us to know about eHow and your experiences there?

A quick note on time: eHow has allowed me to do something that no one is really doing in this economy. Because of my success with eHow, I quit my job in December of 2008 and wrote a mass of eHow (45%) articles and Bukisa (5%) articles. This made up about half my monthly budget. At the end of December I started school. I’m attending about ¾ time, working towards my Bachelors in Theology and Ministry. In the meantime, I only have to work 20-25 hours to feed my family because of the supplemental income I get from eHow. eHow is an awesome opportunity for anyone who needs to make a radical change in their life like I did, or just get a little extra.

I sincerely wish everyone on eHow the best success and am here to answer any questions.