Alas, another content site has fallen by the wayside. Zujava, which was a favorite of mine, is closing its site on July 1, 2015. I have to admit, I never made much money there, but I liked the format and the site.
I'm dividing up my content between InfoBarrel, HubPages, and Wizzley, depending on where I think it will do well. I will miss the camaraderie of the site and all the people (although I am sure I will find them again elsewhere), but I will be happy of the extra money. I just didn't get enough traffic to my articles there to actually earn anything.
Considering that I still have old eHow articles that I haven't yet republished, I really need to get to work, but first I have to finish the project on my own website. I also have to start moving other articles that aren't doing well, and update my article on 50 Ways to Make a Dollar a Day.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Monday, February 16, 2015
Now That Squidoo is Gone . . .
Perhaps your content has already found a home at HubPages. Perhaps you're looking to move it somewhere else. Or perhaps you don't know what to do.
There were all types of content at Squidoo, which was part of the problem. So let me try to help you figure out what to do with the content that just won't go elsewhere.
Naturally, long articles with fewer than one Amazon link per fifty words will do fine at HubPages. If you like HubPages (I do), there's no problem there.
If you have no outgoing links, you might consider Seekyt. They are nice folks, and have a nice platform and nice revenue share (70%).
If you have Amazon sales as part of your outgoing links, try Infobarrel. They allow one Amazon element (not link) for each two hundred words of text. However, your grammar, spelling, and writing will really have to be up to snuff as they are (rightfully so) extremely picky about content. Your content can't be a pure sales page, as was popular on Squidoo; it will have to be real content. For former sales pages, consider reorganizing your content, such as a how-to article with a list of supplies, or a comparison/contrast review of products. You can also have (within reason) links to other, related InfoBarrel articles, and two links off-site (links to sites such as Wikipedia do not count as part of your two-link limit). Remember, just because you wrote an InfoBarrel article doesn't make your articles related. For more information, check out the Newbies Guide (yes, written by yours truly, but approved by the community at large, and the owners of the site).
If you love widgets, such as the Amazon mp3 widget, consider your own blog. You can also add Apple or iTunes widgets if you have a PHG account. For example, a music article with a review of an album, and then the widgets for sampling the mp3s on Amazon, and buying them on iTunes, would be perfect for a self-hosted blog on WordPress.
For a combination of Zazzle, Allposters, and Amazon, Wizzley appears to be the go-to site. Unfortunately, Wizzley doesn't appear to allow videos, except for YouTube.
So good luck finding homes for all those articles (to be honest, there are still some old eHow articles I am trying to find new homes for)!
There were all types of content at Squidoo, which was part of the problem. So let me try to help you figure out what to do with the content that just won't go elsewhere.
Naturally, long articles with fewer than one Amazon link per fifty words will do fine at HubPages. If you like HubPages (I do), there's no problem there.
If you have no outgoing links, you might consider Seekyt. They are nice folks, and have a nice platform and nice revenue share (70%).
If you have Amazon sales as part of your outgoing links, try Infobarrel. They allow one Amazon element (not link) for each two hundred words of text. However, your grammar, spelling, and writing will really have to be up to snuff as they are (rightfully so) extremely picky about content. Your content can't be a pure sales page, as was popular on Squidoo; it will have to be real content. For former sales pages, consider reorganizing your content, such as a how-to article with a list of supplies, or a comparison/contrast review of products. You can also have (within reason) links to other, related InfoBarrel articles, and two links off-site (links to sites such as Wikipedia do not count as part of your two-link limit). Remember, just because you wrote an InfoBarrel article doesn't make your articles related. For more information, check out the Newbies Guide (yes, written by yours truly, but approved by the community at large, and the owners of the site).
If you love widgets, such as the Amazon mp3 widget, consider your own blog. You can also add Apple or iTunes widgets if you have a PHG account. For example, a music article with a review of an album, and then the widgets for sampling the mp3s on Amazon, and buying them on iTunes, would be perfect for a self-hosted blog on WordPress.
For a combination of Zazzle, Allposters, and Amazon, Wizzley appears to be the go-to site. Unfortunately, Wizzley doesn't appear to allow videos, except for YouTube.
So good luck finding homes for all those articles (to be honest, there are still some old eHow articles I am trying to find new homes for)!
Monday, February 9, 2015
Update to HubPages
HubPages has recently updated their policy to allow one product per 100 words (the old limit was 50). While typically it's never a problem for me to write more, there are some times when it's just not possible to say 100 words about each of the supplies needed for a complex crafting project, or a recipe with exotic ingredients, but which is generally of the "dump everything in together and bake it for three hours" variety.
So what to do with all those hubs? Since HubPages allows two links to the same domain, or unlimited links to HubPages, the answer is to divide up those products. I have a chance to make even more sales this way. For example, I have a hub on using a formula to make cheesecake, rather than a recipe, so that you can have unlimited varieties of cheesecake without having a different recipe for each flavor. Now I can have a hub on uncommon ingredients to put into cheesecake, and highlight more spices and flavorings. Under each item I put why you might want to consider using it in cheesecake.
Another idea is to use the Listmania! feature on Amazon, which now allows up to forty products per list. Instead of linking to individual products on Amazon, you can link to the list, and your affiliate sales will still count. With my work yesterday I am up to fifteen lists, and more will be coming.
Of course, you can also set up a blog in minutes, and put a link to your blog, and an Amazon widget there, with your products in it. (I started this on my website in December, and I currently have created more than 450 Amazon widgets posted.)
No matter which method you choose, HubPages is still a valuable resource for earning passive income, and well worth the effort. Don't be upset by the changes; we simply must adapt, find more avenues to sell, and keep going!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
And Yet Another Free Tool!
I have a big project in the works for the website for my day job (more on that later), and I wanted to schedule a bunch of posts, more than Buffer can handle. And that's when I discovered IFTTT!
IFTTT is a simple, free website that does very complex things. You have two channels, and a trigger on one channel performs an action on another channel. I've already written an article about the possibilities for article and website promotion, but you can also use it to promote your ebooks, art, POD stores, and anything else that you might think of!
So instead of spending all that time promoting yourself, you can literally set it and forget it. Head over to IFTTT and start exploring all the possibilities, and see what you can come up with! As for me, I took a recipe that was on page about 15,000 in popularity. It's now in the top 200 pages, simply because of all the time I added it to promote things on my own web site.
IFTTT is a simple, free website that does very complex things. You have two channels, and a trigger on one channel performs an action on another channel. I've already written an article about the possibilities for article and website promotion, but you can also use it to promote your ebooks, art, POD stores, and anything else that you might think of!
|
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Social Media
I just discovered a new tool for helping you get to fame and fortune . . . well, fame, anyway.
Tired of having to post (and remember) to click the button every time you want to share something, and what happens when you're sick, on vacation, otherwise occupied, or just plain forget?
Now there's a new free social media tool to the rescue—Buffer. Available both on a web page and as a browser extension, Buffer allows you to schedule posts to a single facebook page, twitter account, and google+ account simply and easily. You set the schedule for when the posts go out, and every time you run across something you want to share while you're on the web, simply add it to your queue with a few clicks.
See something that is more important than what you already have scheduled? No worries, just rearrange the queue. Easy, fast, and takes all the work out of scheduling posts for your content (you'll still have to find what you want to post, though).
I'm all for making my life easier with good, free tools, and Buffer manages to do that. Sign up today!
Tired of having to post (and remember) to click the button every time you want to share something, and what happens when you're sick, on vacation, otherwise occupied, or just plain forget?
|
Now there's a new free social media tool to the rescue—Buffer. Available both on a web page and as a browser extension, Buffer allows you to schedule posts to a single facebook page, twitter account, and google+ account simply and easily. You set the schedule for when the posts go out, and every time you run across something you want to share while you're on the web, simply add it to your queue with a few clicks.
See something that is more important than what you already have scheduled? No worries, just rearrange the queue. Easy, fast, and takes all the work out of scheduling posts for your content (you'll still have to find what you want to post, though).
I'm all for making my life easier with good, free tools, and Buffer manages to do that. Sign up today!
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Increase Your Productivity!
Here's what I notice about successful entrepreneurs: they maximize their productive time. It's incredibly difficult for some people to do, but for those who can, it's definitely worth the effort because of the increase in productive activities over unproductive ones.
The first step in increasing your production is to look at your daily behavior and figure out whether it is productive or unproductive. Here are some great examples, some taken from the world of online writing:
Productive Activities:
Researching a site's rules and Terms of Service
Researching topic information
Keyword research
Writing articles
Doing A/B tests on earnings, after a suitable aging process (six months to one year) for articles, and a sufficient sample size
Researching affiliate opportunities
Cleaning house (unless it's already spotless)
Making dinner
Tidying your workspace (if mess is a problem)
Non-Productive activities:
Micromanaging earnings from day one
Obsessing about earnings updates
Worrying about publication approval
Wondering if anyone is reading your forum posts
Checking email
Blowing off steam in a forum because someone said something that offended you
Ranting in a forum about unfairness
Deleting your work (unless it's to move it from an unproductive site to a more likely productive one)
May or may not be productive:
Staring out of the window
Reading/watching news
Now that you've identified your non-productive behaviors, every time you are tempted to do one of them, do one of your productive activities instead!
The first step in increasing your production is to look at your daily behavior and figure out whether it is productive or unproductive. Here are some great examples, some taken from the world of online writing:
Productive Activities:
Researching a site's rules and Terms of Service
Researching topic information
Keyword research
Writing articles
Doing A/B tests on earnings, after a suitable aging process (six months to one year) for articles, and a sufficient sample size
Researching affiliate opportunities
Cleaning house (unless it's already spotless)
Making dinner
Tidying your workspace (if mess is a problem)
|
Micromanaging earnings from day one
Obsessing about earnings updates
Worrying about publication approval
Wondering if anyone is reading your forum posts
Checking email
Blowing off steam in a forum because someone said something that offended you
Ranting in a forum about unfairness
Deleting your work (unless it's to move it from an unproductive site to a more likely productive one)
May or may not be productive:
Staring out of the window
Reading/watching news
Now that you've identified your non-productive behaviors, every time you are tempted to do one of them, do one of your productive activities instead!
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Intellectual Property Theft
As my readers know, I've been writing content for the internet since 2007. In that time, I, like every other writer who publishes on the internet, have had my content copied without my permission hundreds of times.
This falls under theft of intellectual property, and as all content writers know, the process is to find the copies, file a Notice of Infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, follow up, and so on. This routine is tedious at best, and overwhelming at worst.
While automated filing of these notices is illegal, I have been experimenting with various methods of automatically finding the copies, as well as eliminating steps to make the filing easier. My results have been published on InfoBarrel, and I am experimenting with even more automation to make the filing of DMCA Takedown Notices easier (without paying for it!). Try it out, and if you have more ideas for automation, be sure to leave a comment and let me know!
This falls under theft of intellectual property, and as all content writers know, the process is to find the copies, file a Notice of Infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, follow up, and so on. This routine is tedious at best, and overwhelming at worst.
|
While automated filing of these notices is illegal, I have been experimenting with various methods of automatically finding the copies, as well as eliminating steps to make the filing easier. My results have been published on InfoBarrel, and I am experimenting with even more automation to make the filing of DMCA Takedown Notices easier (without paying for it!). Try it out, and if you have more ideas for automation, be sure to leave a comment and let me know!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)