Quick Cash Strategies for Writing Success

November 19th, 2008 Comments Off

Sometimes, I need to find a way to make quick cash. For me, it’s all about focusing on just a few things, not having any deadlines, and watching my monthly income grow from month to month. I use several strategies to help bring in extra money, but the following represents some of my favorites.

Associated Content. Goal is to write 10 articles a day. I’m averaging about $5 per article. Since I write quickly, this is doable. I’ll make them unique, well-researched, and focused. The offers probably won’t start coming up until my trip is underway but I can easily log into the internet wherever I am. (I hope).

Constant Content. With this site, it’s really a numbers game. I have no idea if it will pan out. But the plan is to mine my articles and find some that I can resell on the site. I’ll only do this if I have time after my other work is done. I’ll go through and repost my articles that I have in places like goarticles.com and offer them for non-exclusive rights.

Private Label Rights. It’s about time I ran a Warrior Special Offer. I’ve been writing keyword articles in niche subjects for my clients for several years. I’ve stopped writing them for clients but the skills are still there, waiting to be used. So stay tuned for the debut of my WSO!

Ehow.com. My only steady gig right now is with eHow.com. I owe them a few articles each month, and I always make time in my schedule to promote my existing articles. With diligence and keyword research the Writer’s Compensation program has started to really pay off for me. Check out my articles. I’m the Herbal Medicine Expert

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Have You Signed Up For Twitter Yet?

November 18th, 2008 Comments Off

When I first signed up for twitter, I didn’t get it. Someone had posted an update – it seemed so mundane, why did I care? And besides, you’re so limited in the number of words you can put per update – what was the use?

I let my account sit for a while. But I had a change of heart during Ed Dale’s Thirty Day Challenge for 2007. Twitter was a big part of the method for the challenge. And, I’ve heard it in the wind somewhere (I get Ed Dale’s marketing emails) that it will be an even bigger part this year.

So what’s the big deal? Here’s what it’s good for:

* Develop relationships. Even the mundane has a purpose. You’re getting to know each other in a way that doesn’t disrupt your work schedule. Since the updates are so short, updating and replying to people only takes a minute or two.

* Promote your blog. When I post to my blog, I mention it so that my twitter friends can see. In return, when they post their website updates or blog posts, I click the link, read it, and maybe make a comment. The readers you get from twitter are highly personalized because they already feel they know you.

* Get work / Outsource. Not everyone in my friends list does what I do. There are programmers, writers who specialize in different things from me, internet marketers, editors, etc. Sometimes when people need to outsource, they’ll go right to their twitter friends and hire someone from there. So, you can either be the one to outsource, or you can grab the work when you see it!

* Ask questions. I’ve had a lot of questions lately – especially since starting this blog. I’ve gotten a lot of helpful answers right on twitter. You can ask anything! People will answer.

Covinced? Or do you have a twitter account already? Feel free to follow me, and I’ll follow you in return.

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Amy Bass Niche Blogger Review – Newly Updated April 2010

November 17th, 2008 6 Comments

I signed up for The Niche Blogger pretty much when I learn it existed. I’ve been following Amy Bass’s blog since she first started it. She paid off over $50,000 from her massive $72,900 debt in just over a year through a variety of methods. Right now, it appears that one of her main sources of income is through her niche blogs. So I decided to give it a try

Why I Signed Up for Niche Blogger

I already make a living online through writing for clients, publication, and through my other projects such as being the Herbal Medicine Expert at eHow.com. But I knew I needed some residual income. I’ve learned that I can’t rely on writing to make me consistent money. For example, I just moved from one coast in the US to the other – and for that time my income pretty much dried up.

What kind of insurance do I have to prevent my income from drying up? During the move – nothing. Now? I have the residual income that I’ve set up through the Niche Blogging System.

What I Love About Niche Blogger

I love how Amy really outlined exactly what to do through a series of easy to follow instructions and videos. As soon as I set up my first blog, I started making money. I realized after a time that my blog shows up on the first page of google for my targeted keywords. It’s currently somewhere in the middle of the page. It sometimes ends up in the top spot.

Each site utilizes several ways to make money. My blogs have ads from Ebay, Adsense, Kontera, Chitika, eBooks, and other affiliate programs. And this is all done in a way that makes the blog enjoyable to read. Too often I see niche sites that are obviously in it for the money and that’s it.

How Do I Feel About the Purchase?

I am not a beginner so I found the first week or so of lessons to be tedious and repetitious because I already know the basics on how to start a blog. However, I was warned via the sales letter that it is designed for COMPLETE beginners. I bought it anyway.

Let me tell you – I’m glad that I did. I just noticed today that the course also has intermediate techniques, maybe even advanced techniques as time goes on. I purchased the lifetime membership so I can be patient. :)

Update for April 2010

So it’s been a while since I first made the purchase. How do I feel about it? I still like it. But – I realized that making tons of niche blogs doesn’t necessarily thrill me unless it’s done with passion. If I had ten niche blogs whose topics I completely love – well that’s a good business. I’d rather expand those ten blogs instead of create more blogs.

But you know, that’s the beauty of the product. By itself, it’s an excellent tutorial on how to succeed with blogging. I encourage anyone who decides to try it to keep an open mind and don’t be afraid to adapt the system to your values.

I still recommend it for everyone – not just beginners. The Niche Blogger is a complete system that will help you build your affiliate income in no time. I feel confident that with the help of  this program, I will definitely reach my financial goals.

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It’s All About Being a Writer

November 16th, 2008 Comments Off

No matter what I do online to make money, I’m a writer first. Whether or not I’m writing an ebook to sell, writing for a client, or sitting Indian style on my front steps scribbling notes in my journal – I will forever be a writer.

When I run, I run to think about my writing. Same with martial arts. When I cook, I look at what I’m making with the eyes of a writer. I’m looking for ways to describe what I’m doing and derive ideas for stories, essays, poems…

I let myself forget that because I was getting swallowed up by the complexity of it all. I must have ten blogs set up on free sites, all with different subjects, all of which I felt bad if I ignored.

This really is a breath of fresh air. In order to get back on track with my writing career, I’m reading Turbo Charge Your Freelance Income to make sure I stay on track. I’m excited to be working through this book. My writing career has felt a little stale lately and I need to give it some new life.

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Thought I’d Give oDesk a Try – oDesk Review

November 13th, 2008 1 Comment

I’ve been hearing about oDesk for quite some time and have decided to give it a try. I know, I am taking a break from doing work for clients – but if a good offer came around I may be willing to reconsider. So, why did I choose oDesk.com? Simply put, they seem like a class act organization. They are getting a ton of good reviews and the writers that I know who have used them indicate that their experience has been quite positive.

What I Like About oDesk

They have multiple ways to protect both the freelance provider and the buyer. They require that you log in to their “oDesk client” when working on a project so that they can monitor how much work you do on a project. The system favors hourly projects, and this is a nice way to build trust between the client and the provider.

Another thing I like is that they require everyone to take a test concerning their policies before you can start applying for jobs. The test is open book so it’s more time consuming than it is difficult. You can also take multiple skill tests which show the buyer that you are proficient in various areas.

What I Don’t Like

Although the test taking on oDesk is a good, positive thing for the site, it is also harder to make time to take the tests. I plan to prove that I am proficient in whatever I can, just so I can show the buyer how qualified I am for the projects. However, finding the time to do that is a bit of a challenge.

My Overall Impressions

Other than that, I think oDesk.com is a great thing to happen for online work. I have been a freelance writer for the past six years, and I’ve been writing for clients for most of that time. I’ve used other freelance sites, but none that are as comprehensive in terms of what they offer as protection for the client and the provider.

It has made me excited to work with clients once again because I think the buyers that will be attracted to this site will offer high quality jobs.

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Creating my Affiliate Empire with the Super Affiliate Handbook

November 13th, 2008 Comments Off

To reach my goals, I am taking several different approaches. This includes building websites in large and small niches as well as doing things like Bum Marketing. To help me build my larger sites, I’ve chosen the Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardener to be my guide.

This is the second internet marketing resource I ever purchases and it remains one of my all time favorites. Plus, she has such a homey style of writing. She is living proof that making a great living online is possible. She also makes you believe that you can, too because she’ll help. And she stays true to her word.

What I Like About the Super Affiliate Handbook

It can be summed up in one word: comprehensive.

I read this eBook for the first time back when I was just starting out with affiliate marketing. Since then, I’ve read a ton of resources that haven’t even come close to that one in terms of the information it offers.

Gardener breaks things down in an easy to understand way and I really feel as if she told me everything. I don’t always feel like that when reading products about internet marketing.

I Like it a lot but….

The only drawback is that some of the information is a little outdated. For example, she tells us to use the “overture” tool for researching keywords. As far as I can tell, that tool is no longer available. But she does mention other keyword tools, such as Wordtracker, that are still available.

There aren’t many examples of this, though, and the business model still applies today. In fact, this is the same business model that she’s been using since the late 90’s and it’s worked out very well for her. She states in the eBook that she makes 50,000+ in earnings each month.

I Love Her Method!

I do love the idea behind her method – to build larger websites with a lot of content and a way to encourage a sense of community and repeat readers. I have several areas of expertise that I am passionate about and would love to share with others.Those are the niches that are perfect candidates to use the method outlined in the Super Affiliate Handbook.

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My First Year in Internet Marketing – Be True to Yourself

October 29th, 2008 1 Comment

It’s been over a year since I started out in internet marketing. I made some money – not bucket-fulls but enough to make me feel like I’m on my way. I’ve also learned a thing or two. Here’s the rundown of my biggest lessons learned.

Be true to yourself

In internet marketing, the common advice is to keep everything separate. Separate email accounts for separate niches. Well, I’m tired of that. In fact, it doesn’t make that much sense. As a writer, I personally believe you can convince anyone you are qualified to be an expert on something. Having a different pen name doesn’t change the fact that I am who I am.

Why separate out my writer self, my blogger self, and my affiliate marketing self? To me, they’re all the same. So what you’ll find is that this is a blog about my business. And if I feel like writing more one week and postponing my marketing tasks, so be it.

I am completely thrilled that I no longer feel so divided. It was actually quite liberating.

Don’t let fear rule your life

If you’re thinking of starting a blog about you don’t be afraid. Just get started and reserve that domain name (I use GoDaddy.com.) It took me a while to finally take that first action. In retrospect the hardest thing to do for me was to actually get started. Avoid that. Start NOW! :)

Get educated – don’t wait!

It wasn’t fear that held me back, not at first – it was lack of knowledge on how to set up websites. I had to be stubborn one day and force myself to sit and figure it out. Now I have the confidence that I can build a site from scratch whenever I want.

I’ve learned that inaction does not do anything to make you successful. Put one foot in front of the other. I spent the first several months feeling like I didn’t know what I was doing. At the risk of sounding obvious, there is no way I could have figured it out unless I actually started doing something.

And that, perhaps, was the biggest lesson of all. Just do something!

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Make $1 Million in Five Years?

October 24th, 2008 7 Comments

I just read an interesting post on the warrior forum called “This is a real plan to make $1,000,000″. At first I thought it was going to be a humor post. Instead, I was treated to an upfront and doable plan to make $1 million dollars in 4-5 years.

So naturally, it got my wheels turning. See, I’ve been a writer for six years. During that time I sweated and stressed through my deadlines and worked my butt off trying to find assignments so I can meet my monthly goals. After several years of writing content for my clients, I realized I needed to move on.

Internet marketing has been a perfect fit. I’ve been dabbling in internet marketing and affiliate marketing for the past year but have only recently taken it seriously. I purchased a product by Amy Bass called The Niche Blogger – Make Money Blogging and it has really resonated with me.

In it, she spends three months taking us through step by step on how to create a niche blogging empire. Each blog is to earn $150 per month. So for the heck of it, I calculated that in order to make roughly $1 million dollars, I need to have 600 blogs. It seems crazy, but I was able to calculate the number so why not give it a shot?

And then I read the post on Warrior that basically validated my line of thinking. So why not try this? Who wants to join me? Pick a business plan no matter if it’s internet marketing or writing or whatever you want and get working! :)

Oh ya, and I’ll be updating my progress as well…

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Update on My Progress and Goals – Starting October Right

October 1st, 2008 Comments Off

The months of July, August, and September were pretty unproductive. I knew it was going to be that way and unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of residual income streams build up so my earnings took a hit. I won’t say that’s okay, but I know I can finish strong for the last three months of the year.

I spent some time last night setting goals for what I want to accomplish. I have decided that for the month of October, I will make $3000. I have about $2000 worth of work lined up already, and October is still about three hours away at the moment!

So how do I plan to do it? Here’s a list:

  • Find projects that are ongoing from month to month (I have two gigs like this now and would like more)
  • Query magazines and other publications and also send them actual submissions where appropriate
  • Work on my internet marketing and blogging business more so I can have residual income
  • When I have a dire need, find clients and do work for them (but only as a last resort!)

And that’s my plan. All I need to do is round up $1000 more worth of work for October and I’ll be at my goal!

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Make Money With Your Website With Matched.co.uk

August 27th, 2008 Comments Off

They Are Closing. Read This.

I just learned about Matched.co.uk which is an ad program. You may notice that I have one of their ads running on this site. Even though it looks like a pay per click ad – it isn’t. The company actually pays you a set fee for displaying the ads. I think you get paid five British pounds per month per ad which works out to be around $10 USD.

You also get a bonus for signing up of five British pounds (10 USD). Note that the bonus amount won’t register in your account until you have an ad that has been on display for one month.

So far, I only have one ad running. I specified five of my blogs. I just put the ad up today so I haven’t been paid yet. However, I noticed from searching around online that they have a good reputation so I decided to give them a try. I’m really hopeful that this will bring in some nice ad revenue.

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