More Ways to Use Free Content
Continuation of Lesson 22 from You Can Make
Money Writing
Obviously there are some problems you'll face when using free
content in the form of other people's articles, and after all
that, you might think I would have just given up on using other
author's articles. It is sometimes tempting to do so, but I make
money from them. Here are two more ways which I do that.
Courses and Newsletters
I have a dozen newsletters and courses set up on email auto-responders.
People sign up for these and get regular mailing that are sent
out automatically. I like it this kind of automation. I only
have one true newsletter that I prepare each week: The Brainpower
Newsletter.
But even the ones that are fully automated once set up take
a lot of work to set up. My "Meditation Newsletter,"
for example, has over 40 mailings in the series. I don't actually
know enough about meditation to create content for 40 issues
of a newsletter. So I use some great articles by others.
I put these articles on the website (TheMeditationSite.com),
and I don't even link to them from other pages on the site. Nor
do I expect to get any search engine traffic to them. These pages
are just for subscribers, who are given access to one in each
mailing (most of my newsletters have tips and quotes in the actual
email too).
Let's look at how this whole strategy works...
A visitor comes to the website and instead of the typical
browse-and-leave action, they sign up for the newsletter. Now,
instead of a one-time visit, I have the opportunity to bring
them back to the site (or sell something directly in the newsletter)
over 40 times. In other words I increase the visitor value by
quite a bit.
When they subscribe, they get real value (I do my best, and
I fortunately get decent email testimonials from readers). Each
issue has its primary content. This is often another author's
article, which hosted on the site and introduced in the newsletter.
That involves putting a couple paragraphs in the newsletter,
followed by "Continues here..." and a link to the page.
I also have tips and quotes sections in each issue, and one or
two ads for affiliate products I promote.
Now, the pages on the site where readers are sent to are monetized
with Google AdSense and some affiliate promotions as well. This
allows me to make money from these articles even though they
get no search engine traffic and have no links to them on the
site itself. All this is possible because I saved a lot of time
and effort by using quality articles written by other authors.
The readers get quality content. Those "guest" authors
get traffic from that link in their resource box. I make money.
Everyone wins.
Affiliate Articles
Their is another type of free content you can use to boost
the revenue on your website. These are the articles that people
provide you for the purpose of promoting their affiliate products.
Not all affiliate programs have this kind of resource, but enough
do.
I have promoted a "How to Solve Your Sleep Problems"
program, for example. When I send traffic to the sales page and
a sale is made, I get a commission of $25. I can just mention
the program and have a link on some pages or in some newsletters,
and I do these things. But this vendor also has a small collection
of articles for me to use.
The best thing about these kinds of articles is that there
are no non-paying links going out. That's because you are allowed
to insert your affiliate code in the link to the sales page for
the product, so you can get paid. Also, if you add some content
to the page you have the article on, you might have a page which
is unique enough to get search engine traffic. You might add
a short review of the product, for example, if you have tried
it.
For an example, see my own affiliate information page for
my e-book "You Aren't Supposed to Know - A Book Of Secrets,"
at http://www.thesecretinformationsite.com/affiliates.html.
You'll notice that after I explain how to sign up, I have a link
to an article collection that affiliates can use.
The book finishes here... Article
Directory List
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.
|
