Three Ways to Make More Money with Your Existing eHow Articles

So the dust is starting to settle and the information is being sorted out around eHow's change to using the Demand Studios platform for all it's content. eHow writers are learning whether or not they have been pre-approved for Demand Studios or whether they need to apply at DS to be able to continue writing how-to articles for eHow. They're also making the decision about whether they want to continue writing for eHow at all.

Regardless of where you are in your decision-making process, the fact remains that you probably have a bunch of eHow articles that you've already written still live on the eHow site. And according the eHow, you will continue to earn from those articles with the same algorithm you already have.

So what can you do to beef up earnings on the articles that are already on the eHow site?

1. You can backlink to your existing eHow articles. There are a variety of ways to do that but two places where you can backlink to all of your eHow articles and earn money in the process are Xomba and She Told Me. I've already written about my Xomba experiment in backlinking to my eHow articles. Recently I joined She Told Me and I'm starting to experiment at that site as well.

2. Another thing you can do is to re-write your highest earning eHow articles for other sites. If you've written an article for eHow, chances are it's on a subject you either a) already knew a lot about or b) did the research necessary to write on it. In fact, you probably have groups of articles on eHow written around various subjects. You may find it surprising how easy it is to re-write articles on that topic for another site.

At first I was reluctant to do this because the 'how-to' format was something of a security blanket for me. Staring at a blank page was a little intimidating after writing 200+ eHow articles. If you find yourself in the same boat, remember that you can still write in how-to format for other sites. In addition you can create other 'security blanket formats' that might help you get the writing ball moving forward. This article is an example of that. '____ Ways to _______' can be a format where you fill in the blanks depending on the article you're writing.

You'll find publishing articles at sites like Xomba and Info Barrel a real pleasure and re-writing articles you've already written can be a real shortcut to getting content up fast. You can also write different articles on similar topics for revenue share at Demand Studios.

3. Finally you can improve the SEO of the eHow articles you already have up. If you look at your earliest eHow articles, you will probably discover that you've learned a thing or two about SEO since you started writing. Make some changes in the keywords, etc. and see if you earnings on those articles don't improve.

So this can all be summed up in three tips:

1. Drive traffic to your existing eHow articles.
2. Examine your successful eHow articles and write similar articles on the same topic at other sites.
3. Improve the SEO of your existing eHow articles.

An Additional Note About Putting More Time Into eHow

I know some are less than trusting about eHow's claims that our WCP articles will stay up and continue to earn. I feel about this the way I felt when I wrote about what I thought was the future of the WCP over a month ago: the WCP articles may not last forever but they're there for now and I might as well maximize my ability to earn money from them. Especially since they are already written and aged. I don't need a guarantee that they will be there forever because there is nothing in the online business world (or offline business world for that matter) that will be unchanging. My strategy is to:

• Make my best guess about what is worth putting my time into. 
• Give it my all. 
• Adapt and move forward when someone moves my cheese.

Write for eHow Recommends

In my quest to make money on eHow I have investigated lots of different ebooks, blogging systems, software. Below are my recommendations for those I have tried and liked and can heartily recommend.

eHow Ebook

How to Earn Passive Income at eHow.com: Residual Income for Web Content Writers by WriterGig
This was the very first eHow ebook I invested in and it was an excellent choice. Besides giving all the nuts and bolts regarding email, the author describes her experience of moving from a writer for flat payments to a residual income writer and paints an exciting picture of what is possible.

Other Revenue Sharing Content Sites

HubPages and Info Barrel both offer a wonderful user experience with wonderful features and great communication. Both are also in favor with Google so articles get indexed quickly (at least that is the case at the time I'm writing this). These sites can be used as a means of earning income or as a way of driving traffic to your eHow articles or other blogs/websites. Links from these sites are especially valuable since the are 'do-follow'*.

*You do need a certain author/hub score at HubPages for your links to be do-follow but it's not hard to attain.

System for Creating Your Own Money-Making Blogs

The Niche Blogger is a system that Amy Bass used to pay off thousands of dollars in debt. She's created twelve months of content to explain to others how to make money online with the same system.

Keyword Software

I'm loving using Micro Niche Finder to do my keyword research. Every piece of information I could possibly need is so readily available in one place. Here's my complete Micro Niche Finder review.

Bukisa Payout

This was a fun email to find in my inbox:

You are scheduled to receive a payment from Bukisa.Unfortunately you have no PayPal account set in your account. Please login and go to your account settings to add the information. Please let us know once this has been done so we may send you your earnings.

I haven't done much with Bukisa. In addition to eHow, I feel like HubPages and Info Barrel are better opportunities at the moment, but all of these sources of residual income do tend to add up!

The eHow Sweep and Moving Beyond eHow

It's always a good idea to diversify the sources of your online income. That's especially true when writing for a site that you don't control.

This week eHow has completed a second 'sweep' of articles, deleting articles for a number of reasons, including not in how-to format, spam, or common sense. The spam reason is of particular interest to me as it seems what eHow considers spam is not how it is generally understood online. Essentially, any article that mentions a particular product, store, or website is a candidate for being removed as spam. That's a good thing to know going forward.

I lost a number of articles in this sweep. Many were written very early on in my eHow 'career'. I understood the reasons for their removal, although I didn't always agree. That's neither here nor there...it's eHow's sandbox so they make the rules.

This experience does reinforce, however, the need to diversify the sites on which I write. There are many sites that pay writers to share content with them like eHow does. So the question becomes, which sites besides eHow are the best to write on? I'll be focusing my efforts on two sites in particular: HubPages and Info Barrel.

I've done a little dabbling at both Hubpages and Info Barrel and I've also done my research. I like these two sites for the following reason:

• Both seem to be in favor with Google (at least for the moment) so that articles and hubs are indexed quickly. Sometimes in a matter of hours.
• With each site you can write in a variety of formats, not just in 'how-to' form. Although how-to articles can also be placed there.
• In the case of HubPages, building hubs is just plain fun. They are like mini websites that are fast and easy to build.
• Affiliate marketing is easier with both of these sites.
• Both sites offer 'do follow' links, meaning you can link to other articles, blogs, and sites that you want to promote and the links will help with search engine rankings. In fact, some people write at these sites only for the value of these links.

My experience with HubPages has been nothing but positive. The community there is great and the site seems really well run. I have less experience with Info Barrel but my experience there has been positive as well.

So how do you make money at HubPages and Info Barrel?

For both sites you will need your own Google Adsense account and you will be paid directly from Google. HubPages shares Adsense revenue in a 60% author/40% Hubpages split. Info Barrel shares in a 75% (author)/25% Info Barrel split. Both sites offer explanations on how to sign up for an Adsense account on their sites.

At HubPages, you can also earn money from Kontera, Amazon, and eBay. Amazon and eBay are great, easy ways to get your feet wet with affiliate marketing if you're not familiar with that method of monetizing your writing.

Finally, at both sites you can earn money by referring other writers. All of the HubPages and Info Barrel links in this post have my referral code in them so if you're so inclined, I would love to have you join me on those sites by clicking through one of my links.

Each of these sites has their own Terms of Service so make sure you understand their rules before you start writing. The good news is that the TOS are a little more spelled out at HubPages and Info Barrel than they are at eHow. At least in my opinion. I like to play by the rules so I really want to know what those rules are.

Finally, each site has its own culture and community. Spend some time there and get a feel for how things work.

I think it's important to invest yourself in a site for which you're writing. You tend to get out of it what you put in it. So while I feel it's important to be diversified, I think it's counterproductive to be hopping all over the internet placing things here and there. So even before the eHow sweep I was trying to determine which sites would be best for me to branch out to and I made the decision to add HubPages and Info Barrel to the mix.

And for the record, I'm not leaving eHow. I still think the site has great income potential and it provides a nice stream of residual income for me. And eliminating poor quality articles from the site is a good thing overall. I just hope they continue to refine and communicate their terms of service so that writers don't become demoralized.

And just two more quick tips:

1. Remember to save your work no matter where you write. That way you can make the best of things if a site you've chosen to write on makes changes as they inevitably will.
2. If you're inclined, plan to create some sites that you 'own'. The learning curve is a little steeper but the rewards are that much greater.

Why have multiple accounts at eHow?

My friend, Kate, posted some excellent information on the eHow forums about why someone would want to have multiple eHow accounts. She graciously agreed to let me share it with all of you. The question posed was why would someone want to have multiple eHow accounts? Kate's answer:

I do it for several reasons.

1. If you have a particular expertise, you might find it reflects better on your credibility to keep 'How to Build a Computer' out of a library containing 'How to Make Super Duper Pancakes Like Grandma'.

2. Some of us have been targets for forum retribution... our articles have been given poor ratings or flagged for violations, we believe, as a result of forum conflicts. I don't use my other IDs to post in the forum and the articles for those IDs have never been attacked.

3. When applying for other writing jobs, I may want to use my eHow ID in a resume. Not all the articles I have written are suitable for all my clients.

4. A niche ID can be used to promote a niche blog.

The reasons vary from person to person, I am sure.

Excellent info! I only have one eHow account and I used my real name because of reason #3 in Kate's list above. Now, however, I am less interested in applying for other writing jobs and am more interested in working for myself. As I start to branch out with my online writing, I plan to create different online personas for different subjects I write about. I was first exposed to the idea in Potpiegirl's One Week Marketing.

My reasons are twofold:

1. It protects any keyword research I might do.

2. It is a kind of online branding. Once you begin to develop a lot of online content, it makes you a little less of an authority if someone clicks on your profile and sees articles written about everything from hot tubs to paying down debt to making the perfect chocolate cake.

At the moment, I'm a little more concerned with the branding aspect than the keyword aspect but I think they are both good arguments for creating multiple accounts where allowed.

Thanks again to Kate (Limowreck at eHow) for letting me share her list!

eHow as a Test Market

If you're like a lot of writers, you might be thinking about moving beyond eHow and creating your own site or blog. Or maybe you have some sites or blogs and are thinking about adding more. If that's the case, eHow can be a great test market for any niches you might be considering. Particulary if you're planning to monetize that site with Adsense.

Then again, you might not have any niches in mind. Often times the hardest part for someone looking to create a niche site or niche blog is coming up with an idea. In that case, I encourage you to look at your library of eHow articles for inspiration.

A while back I was examining my top earning eHow articles and I noticed a couple of articles written about a certain topic that were performing really well. Taking the hint, I wrote a couple more articles around that topic and, sure enough, they performed better than average too. It wasn't long before I began considering building a niche blog around this topic.

This week I took that plunge. And while I know a little bit about blogging and a very little bit about earning money online, I decided to follow the advice of Amy Bass, who has a niche blogger program that spells out exactly how to earn money with niche blogging.

I considered using another popular program, which I actually bought and read, but I never could quite get my head around the method. I'm sure it's a fine program and that it works well for others, but once I explored Amy's system it all sort of clicked for me.

Amy's system is laid out month by month and - get this - it's in blog form. How smart is that for someone who is looking to make money blogging? The cost is $19.99/month and you can cancel at any time. For each month that you stay a member, you get access to that month's blog posts.

I am ending month one and coming up on month two. So far, the $19.99 I've paid for month one has been worth it for just this one piece of information: The Niche Blogger explains EXACTLY how to evaluate a niche to see if it's worth pursuing. That, combined with eHow as a test market, allowed me to move right away on one of the niches I was considering.

Of course month one provided lots of other information, but even if I only took away that niche evaluation piece, it would have been worth it to me.

The point of this blog post, however, is this: evaluate the writing you've already done at eHow and see how you can make it work for you. If you've got an article that's performing well, write something else on that topic. If that article does well, write a couple of more and see how they do. Then, if you seem to be onto something, evaluate whether it would be worth pursuing as it's own site.

You can use Amy's method to do that, or evaluate using something else, but if a topic is doing well at eHow, it's might very well do well somewhere else.

Bukisa Changes Minimum Payout Level

If you're using Bukisa to promote your eHow articles (or considering it), you might be interested to learn that they have added two new minimum payout levels of $10 and $25.

Prior to now, you had to earn $50 to receive a payout, which was frustrating for a lot of people. Now you have a choice of six payout levels: $10, $25, $50, $100, $200, and $500. When I logged in today, my minmum payout had defaulted to $10, which was great.

If you've not heard ot Bukisa, it's another online writing site that pays you for content. You can also earn on the content of your referrals, which is great for creating a passive income stream.

Bukisa is new, and the earnings don't yet compare to eHow, but it's a great way to build links to your content and earn a little something at the same time. And now that the minimum payout has been reduced to $10, you won't have to wait so long to see a payment.

eHow Article Template vs. Word

I’ll admit it. I love writing my eHow articles directly into the eHow template. I know I should write them in Word and transfer them over, but it’s so much easier to just open up the template and start writing away.

Even so, I’ve committing to change that practice. I’m even going back to the 140+ articles I’ve written to date and copying and saving them as Word documents. Ten a day, every day, until it’s done.

Why go to all that work?

Well, the obvious reason to create eHow articles in Word is so that if the system goes all buggy while you’re typing you won’t lose all your work. That doesn’t happen often, but it happens often enough and it’s incredibly frustrating when it does.

But there is another reason – a more exciting one – to create your articles in Word or another word processing software. It all has to do with the fact that at eHow, you own your content. You’re not selling your content to eHow, you’re sharing it with them for a piece of the revenue pie.

Why does that matter?

Well, since you own the content you can place your eHow articles other places on the web and reap additional earnings from them. Whether it’s another revenue sharing site like Bukisa or Squidoo, or a site or blog that you’ve created yourself, owning the content means you can make those articles do double (or triple) duty.

Now before you go all crazy with the copy and paste, you should know that it’s best not to place your articles elsewhere word for word. The word is that Google doesn’t like duplicate content and you’re not as likely to rank as well if you’re placing the exact same content somewhere else. But with your articles in Word, it’s easy enough to re-write paragraphs and make some word substitutions so as not to have duplicate content.

That requires a little bit of work but it’s certainly easier than coming up with a new article idea and creating an article from scratch.

And even if you’re not interested in creating content somewhere else, having all your articles in Word helps you hedge your bets a bit regarding creating content for a site you don’t control (eHow). So if eHow were ever to go *poof* (as unlikely as that might be) you could take your content and place it somewhere else on the web.

And for those of us who worry about putting our writing up on someone else’s site, that should help us sleep a little better at night.

Bukisa: Another Place to Earn Money Online

Because of my great experience with eHow, I was eager to try another site that pays users go generate content: Bukisa.

Bukisa pays based on the number of unique views an article, video, or image generates. It also pays users for referring others who generate content as well.

Because Bukisa is so new, I am eager to jump in and see what kind of income I can generate. If you're interested, I hope you'll join me at Bukisa.