More Ways to Make Money With Articles
Lesson 15 from You Can Make Money Writing
This lesson covers some more ways to make money with articles.
The primary strategy is to use them to generate traffic to your
websites. Submitting them to article directories isn't the only
way to do this, however. Here are some other ways.
Newsletters or "Ezines"
Online newsletters and ezines need content. Most publishers
can't do all the writing themselves, so they use articles from
the article directories. Notice that the best of them is named
"Ezine Articles?" To get newsletter publishers to use
your articles, you mostly need to follow the same rules as previously
outlined, but two in particular.
1. One Link
An article with more than one link won't be used. Too many
links in a mailing means too many non-paying ways for readers
to leave, and can trigger spam filters, keeping the newsletters
from being delivered as promised. That makes this rule far more
important for newsletter publishers than for those who might
use your articles on their websites.
2. Keep It Short
Space is a big concern with newsletters. As a result, shorter
articles are more likely to be used in them. Some will use the
article on a site, and introduce it in the newsletter, but for
those who put the whole article in there, keep it short. Under
800 words is my general rule, but I would try for closer to 600
words if I thought an article would be particularly suited to
newsletters of some sort.
You can also submit articles directly to some newsletters.
Search "newsletter" or "ezine" and the appropriate
topic to find suitable newsletters ("business newsletter"
for example, or "ezine+hunting"). Then visit the web
sites in the results to see if they take direct submissions for
their newsletter.
Also, make a note when you have an article used by a newsletter.
Then contact the publisher if you have related articles, to let
her know. She has apparently already decided that she likes your
writing, after all, and so she may be happy to use more of it.
Make Articles Into Pages
One way to make more money online, with articles or any other
content you create, is to squeeze as much value out of them as
you can. With articles, this means making them into new pages
on your website. The more new pages you have, the more potential
traffic you can get from search engines, and the longer visitors
are likely to browse your site.
However, keep in mind that search engines discount the importance
of pages with "duplicate" content - content which can
be found elsewhere on the internet. To avoid this, rewrite your
article when you use it as a page on your website, so it is different
from all the other copies that you submitted out there. How to
easily and properly rewrite an article will be covered in an
upcoming lesson.
Make Articles Into E-books
Publishers make money selling e-books, but they also make
money giving them away. The idea behind these "free distribution"
books is that you give the book away and also let it be distributed
freely by anyone else. You profit from the traffic it generates
to your website.
That traffic comes from links in the book, of course. It is
common to have more than a dozen links in a free e-book. Each
one is an opportunity for the reader to click through to one
of the author's websites, where a sale might be made, or the
visitor can make a paid click on one of the advertisements.
Another way these "free distribution rights" e-books
are used is to generate traffic to affiliate product sites, with
the authors affiliate code in the links of course. I'll cover
this a bit more in the lesson on writing and making money without
a website.
Not sure you are ready to write an e-book? It may be easier
than you think. The easiest way is to simply compile some of
your articles. You can also make a short book, and just refer
to it as a "special report."
PDF is the standard for most e-books now. Adobe PDF software
is expensive, and it is a nightmare to learn how to use, from
what I have been told (and I have trouble with the "easy"
software out there). I just use the Adobe PDF online service
instead. It converts many different file types into PDF documents
or "e-books." It will even convert a page from the
internet.
If they're still offering a trial, the first five conversions
are free, so you can try it out. If you get it right in one or
two tries, you could make a few e-books for free. I pay the monthly
charge. It's very reasonable, and you can cancel anytime if you
stop creating e-books. Here is the website address: https://createpdf.adobe.com
You'll have to play with the layout of the file to get the
book formatted the way you want, and this can take several attempts,
so you may only get one e-book out of those five free trials.
The paid service has some monthly limit, but I've never hit it,
and I have published and republished dozens of things in month
(sometimes you just have to make it into a PDF to see how it
will look, and then make adjustments - and then do this ten more
times). There may be other free PDF converters that you can find
online.
Note: I canceled my Adobe subscription and
I am using the free version of CutePDF, which can be downloaded
to your computer (use a search engine to locate the free download
sites). It works with most word processing programs to create
nice PDFs.
Also, Zamzar.com may still be doing free conversions of
almost any document into almost any other form, including PDF.
To give an e-book away and so generate traffic, you can promote
it with posts in forums, and on your own website, of course.
You will also want to mention it in the resource box in your
articles. ("Go now and get your free e-book on....")
To get others to distribute it for you too, put something
like the following on the first page:
Free Distribution Rights!
You may distribute this e-book, share it with others,
or even give it away as a bonus with your own products.
Restrictions:
You may not modify this e-book in any way.
You may not claim ownership.
Test the links in the book, so readers can definitely make
it to your website. Load the book up to your website (the file
name will end in .pdf), and then create a download page with
a link to it and instructions that will read something like this:
Right mouse click the link below. A
menu will open up. In Internet Explorer choose "Save Target
As..." ("Save Link As" in Netscape). Download
the file to your desktop. This will take anywhere from a few
seconds to several minutes, depending on your internet connection.
Selling it, of course, is another way to make money with an
E-book made from your articles. How to do that, however, is beyond
the scope of this course. Finally, don't miss Lesson 21. It's
on how to make money without a website - and without any investment
required. It includes a way to make money with articles that
requires just a $10 investment.
Important: Lesson 21 is the only one that is not included
in this free version of the book on the website. To get as a
PDF you need to subscribe to my Internet Income Newsletter. Fortunately
that costs nothing, and the form is to the right and on the homepage.
Continues with Lesson 16 here... How
to Get Ideas for Articles
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.
|
