Make Articles Into Money
Continuation of Lesson 1 from You Can Make Money
Writing
Here are the basic steps necessary to make articles into money
online...
1. List Your Areas of Expertise and Your Interests and
Passions
Write down all the subjects or areas in life you are passionate
about, or knowledgeable about, or at least interested in enough
to do some research on. List it all - don't be so sure that you
can't make money with a given subject. I have a site on how to
increase your brainpower - not exactly a hottest topic, and the
revenue from that site alone would pay all our bills.
My experience as a carpet cleaner from years ago has been
turned into a site that makes hundreds of dollars per month even
when I ignore it. At one point I didn't even see it for months.
That one made $12,000 one year.
"Smart" marketers will say forget your passions
and sell what the market wants, not what you have an interest
in! Now, they say that for a good reason. People do make
the mistake of thinking their favorite little niche subject will
excite millions of others. The truth is that no matter how passionate
you are, you might not make money with a website on backgammon
or collecting butterflies.
But they're mostly wrong to steer you away from doing what
you love, because among all of your passions and interests and
hobbies, there will be t least one or two that are shared by
many others. Identify those and start there. Perhaps you can't
sell what nobody wants, but you can start with your own
areas of expertise and find the niche among them that can also
make money for you. I suggest this route for several really good
reasons:
* You'll have an easier time writing on a subject about which
you know something.
* You'll do a better job when it's a true interest or passion.
* You'll have something more unique to bring to the subject
- which means more value for visitors and readers. We tend to
repeat what everyone else says when we have no interest.
* You'll be more motivated to keep doing the work involved
if you're actually interested in more than just the money it
produces.
Yes, there are many failed sites out there that are based
on the owner's interests. But there are probably twice as many
failures based on people trying to write about subjects that
don't motivate them, and based on trying to promote products
they don't even use. It's hard to maintain enthusiasm for subject
that bores you, especially in the early stages, when you aren't
seeing much income. Find a real market by all means, but find
it in an area that interests you.
2. Choose a Subject
Look at your list of the things you think might interest you
or that you're downright passionate about, or that you just happen
to know something about. Find a subject or niche from that list
or related to something on that list, which also has enough others
interested in it. Make it one that can be properly monetized,
as in this example:
We'll assume that on your list you have: fishing, political
commentary and qigong meditation. Go to a keyword research tool
to figure the total "demand" for information on each
of these subjects. You need to find out how many people each
month or day are typing related search terms or "keywords"
into the search engines (the primary way they find things online).
I'll have more on how to figure out that "demand" in
Lesson 5, and I'll point you to the best free keyword research
tools.
You want a subject that has several related keywords which
are searched at least a few thousand times monthly. A website
on fishing would target "bass fishing," fly fishing,"
"how to catch trout," and possibly hundreds of other
keywords (search terms). Currently there are hundreds of thousands
of searches every month for fishing-related topics.
Although political commentary is a tougher market, you might
try for keywords like "political ideas," or "politics,"
as well as those related to specific issues, like "deficit
crisis." There are plenty of people visiting political blogs
and websites, but it's more difficult to determine what words
they use in the search engines to get there.
If the traffic is too light for the search term "qigong
meditation," the site could be on meditation in general,
for which there are many good keywords.
While important, traffic isn't the only issue. It also helps
to have a clear idea of how you will use the website to make
money. I'll have more on that later, but lets look at a couple
quick examples...
A fishing site could have tons of traffic, but what do you
do with that traffic? I just checked and there are a couple e-books
in ClickBank that pay a 50% commission when you refer a customer.
A fishing equipment supplier with an affiliate program is another
possibility.
Political commentary is tough again, because it isn't as clear
what you could promote or sell to visitors. Amazon.com books
are a possibility, but this is one of the lowest-paying affiliate
programs you'll ever find.
Now, qigong meditation may be a small niche market, but there
are many good meditation programs you can promote. Some of the
better ones make you a commission of $40 or more per sale (I
know - I make a couple hundred dollar monthly from one of them).
Qigong could be the best of the three, especially if the site
concept is expanded to meditation in general. Then you could
promote all sorts of high-paying self-improvement products that
pay a commission.
Summing Up:
Choose a subject that motivates you and has enough internet
traffic, and also has a few decent ways to make money from that
traffic (monetization). You have to be able to compete for that
traffic too, which I'll take a closer look at later in the book.
For now I'll just point out that niches like "internet marketing"
are well-served already, and you will probably not be able to
compete for traffic.
There are four more necessary steps to take to make money
with articles. The book continues here... Build
a Good Website
Note: This is part of the book, You Can Make Money
Writing. There are links to all the all the lessons/chapters
on the home page.
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