I’ve been writing at eHow since August of 2007. I started off as the Herbal Medicine Expert but I no longer have that role. Still, eHow remains one of my favorite sites to make money writing on the internet. When they first implemented the Writer’s Compensation program, I was a bit perplexed as to how such a thing could make me money. But, I did stick it out – and Oh Boy am I glad I did! Of all the revenue sharing sites out there, eHow appears to be the most lucrative. It has been for me at least.
Writer’s Compensation Program
If you sign up for the site but don’t also sign up for the writer’s compensation program, you won’t get paid. Right now, only people in the US can sign up. From what I can gather, it looks like they are looking to add UK writers to this mix but it hasn’t happened yet. So once you sign up for the site, sign up for the writer’s compensation program right away.
Keyword Research is King
The revenue share program is indirectly based on traffic and I’ve found that promoting my articles doesn’t even compare to getting the keyword research right in the first place. A high earning article manages to hit on the magic combination of a well-researched keyword that also has a high earnings potential AND you get on the first page (even better if it is the first result) on google. Sound like a lot? I’ve hit on this magic combination a few times, and the compensation earnings are pretty nice. Most articles fall somewhere in the middle of awesome and dud. And I’ve had a few duds that’s for sure.
Yes, you can promote.
Some people on the site promote their articles, some don’t. I went through a short phase of article promotion and I didn’t see much of a difference in my earnings. However, most people who understand SEO know that having backlinks can boost your chances of getting on the first page of google which is really nice. For me personally, I’ve found that a better strategy is to have more articles. I almost have 200 articles on there and the earnings have been pretty steady.
Using eHow for Backlinks
Even if you can’t sign up for the writer’s compensation program, you may want to consider using eHow for backlinks. If you decide to do this, remember this golden rule – include something that is helpful and enhances the content to your article. For example, if your article is about how to make swedish apple pie, you can list the link to a Squidoo lens you wrote about tasty apple desserts. The content needs to relate for this strategy to make sense. You can interlink to your other articles on eHow or use outside sources like your blog URL or squidoo lenses.
If you are signed up for the writer’s compensation program, doing this won’t necessarily affect your earnings. However, indirectly they might because the reader will leave your page via your link and not one of the ads.
Promoting Affiliate Programs
Some people swear that putting affiliate links in the links section of the article can help boost income. While this may be true, I never felt quite right doing it. So, I never have. But if you were to use this strategy, it seems to me that the best way to do it would be to create a Squidoo lens or a blog with the links on it and use the same strategy I described in the “backlinks” section of this post. I just don’t feel right about putting a blind affiliate link there.
Don’t Annoy People
One thing – if you go on the site, make sure you don’t annoy people. The site has grown into a community and a lot of people, most especially the forum members, know each other well. There are some activities that are frowned on:
- Friending people you don’t know and then jamming their inbox with messages about their latest articles, links to your websites, etc is a big eHow don’t. The forum includes a thread to share the latest articles of the day – put the articles in that thread and don’t mass message people.
- Signing up for the forum and then dropping links to your site without participating in the community is a big no-no. Like an internet socializing, it is frowned on to Spam. This is considered Spam.
- Ruining the community vibe by deliberately giving people a low rating out of spite, saying mean things on the forum, and spamming are all things you shouldn’t do.
Also, the eHow team goes through now and then and “sweeps” the articles and tends to delete things. Most people end up losing articles at some point so back up your work. I have the bad habit of not backing up my articles. Bad, I know. Don’t do what I do in this case. Following the writer’s guidelines will decrease the liklihood of having something deleted.
And that’s all I can think of. If you have any questions list them in the comments and I’ll go back through the thread and edit it or answer in the comments.
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Sense and more sense. Really appreciated this post – had no clue where to go with eHow ’til now!
Very helpful post! The affiliate linking could be very lucrative with the right topics.
Lewis
BTW – your permalinks for all your posts have changed along with you new theme. All your posts and pages now have .html after them, which means all old backlinks now go to broken pages. You can change the permalinks in your htaccess file or the permalinks under Settings in your wp-admin
Lewis´s last blog ..RIP Squidoo Groups
Oh gosh Lewis, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I’m thrilled that you thought it was because of the new theme!
It was actually my own slippage. I thought it would be great if I added the .html. He he I changed it back. I like my links to work!!!
I’m glad you found the article helpful. And thanks for giving me the idea!
Extremely Helpful Thank you.
Do you care sharing with the rest of us how much do you make on an average month, so we could compare our eranings with your and see how we are doing.
Thank you so much