The Groundhog and the Hen

I enjoyed Aesop's fables as a young girl. The message of each short story was somewhat subtle, yet evident, even to a child such as myself. Fables generally portray animals with human characteristics in order to communicate a message, often called the "moral of the story."

This fable attempts to articulate something that has been impressed upon me lately as I watch my babies grow. As much as my family needs my income and I enjoy my work, I must never lose sight of what is most important.

The Groundhog and the Hen

The Groundhog loved being a mom to her baby groundhogs. She spent time cuddling at night and frolicking with them during the day. Sometimes Groundhog wasted time that could have been better spent readying the burrow for winter, just playing with her young.

The Hen, conversely, was busy and responsible. Not a moment was wasted when there was work at hand. If her chicks chirped at her to come play, she told them she was busy finding beetles for them. She made sure they would have more than she did as a chick, and that the other chickens wouldn't look down on her family. Thus she didn't allow their childlike antics distract her from providing for her brood.

One day, Groundhog saw the hen busy working while her children played nearby. "Hen, don't you want to play with your chicks now-- they are so much fun while they are young!" she said with an encouraging smile.

"Groundhog, I for one don't know how you can sleep in your barren burrow at night knowing winter's a-coming and you could've spent more time building a better nest. The children will wait, and I must work to give them a better life."

The groundhog's babies grew up, as did the hen's. Groundhog's young moved into burrows nearby and frequently were seen chattering with their older mother during the day. They took time from their jobs to be with her, just because it was fun.

The hen's children, though, were busy with their new lives, some in faraway places and some nearby. They saw their mother occasionally, but there wasn't time to be wasted. After all, they had important responsibilities now and much to accomplish.

When it comes to children, time is the most precious investment.

eHow vs. Bukisa

Bukisa, a new online content website with its own revenue-sharing compensation program, has captured my interest in the past few days. I signed up ten days ago, following covewriter's lead. I have to say, I am impressed with the site's structure, layout and possibilities.

I really like their three-tier earnings structure, where users make money for their own content as well as a smaller portion of the page view revenue from writers they refer to the sight. This means two ways to earn income and eventually, two residual income streams: your articles and your network's articles. 

In my quest to build up a variety of residual and passive income streams through online writing, I've added Bukisa to the mix. I began writing for eHow's new Writers Compensation Program (WCP) as an experiment, and I'm happy to jump in with Bukisa in its early stages too. 

Several readers have asked me if it's okay to copy their eHow articles onto Bukisa. While it's allowed by both eHow and Bukisa as long as the material is owned by the author, I wouldn't reccomend doing it that way. Here's why.

Duplicate content, in general, is not well ranked by Google. It appears as having been copied, and Google likes original content. Secondly, since you can choose to allow syndication of your content on Bukisa, there is the possibility, at least, that the same article will be published multiple times online.

Some argue that eHow has sucha  high page rank that it's better just to write there, but I disagree. I am doing well with eHow, but diversifying and having a variety of sites -- both for income and increasing traffic and backlinks --  is important. 

So, for the successful eHow writer who is, what is Bukisa good for?

• Original content that doesn't fit on eHow (i.e. not how-to format) or has already been written about by another eHow author.
• Re-written articles from your other sites or content database profiles.
• Articles written specifically to drive traffic to your blog, websites or other content.
• Diversification.

After ten days, with five articles to my name, I've earned $4.85 on Bukisa. Half of that is from page views on my content and half is from my network's earnings. This is the first article promotion I've done as I've been focusing on eHow and a few other projects.

Ways that eHow is better than Bukisa:

• High page rank, established site, credible company (Demand Media).
• Strong user community.
• Amazing monthly traffic stats.
• History of prompt payments.
• Good to excellent earning potential.
• Revenue sharing is based on actual earnings.

Ways that Bukisa is better than eHow:

• Allows far more flexibility as far as article structure, layout and title format.
• Can link to resources and other sites or articles in body of article.
• Allows do-follow links, building back links to whatever you like.
• Earnings are based on page views, so popular topics pay well regardless of ad revenue generated.
• Tiered earnings structure allows more residual income streams.

I'll blog more about Bukisa vs. eHow in regards payment and other aspects as time goes on.  Long term, I have no idea yet which will win out, eHow or Bukisa. I suspect a combination will be ideal. In the mean time, check out ... 

eHow articles I've written about Bukisa:

• Use Bukisa to Earn Residual Income Online
• Use Bukisa

Bukisa articles I've written:

• Optimizing Revenue on Bukisa
• Make eHow Money
• About Marketing eBooks
• Free Budget Worksheets
• Affiliate Marketing Tips

Do you write for Bukisa? Let me know your thoughts! Want to sign up for Bukisa? Use this link to join my fun and growing network!

Passive Residual Income Monthly Report

Interested in my passive, residual income progress? Well, my monthly report is here ... but I must be honest, it is with some trepidation that I post this month's totals.

I have never written about my "regular" freelance writing money, as it's not my style to discuss personal income. However, I have shared my residual income and eHow earnings from the beginning, since this was just "extra" and with eHow's vague earnings detail, I thought of it as an encouragement and service for others.

But as my readers know, I have been slowly replacing my active income with residual income streams. While I am still doing some paid freelance writing and editing, I'll soon be focusing all my work time on building ongoing income sources.

For privacy reasons, I've decided that I will no longer give monthly totals. However, I will explain HOW to achieve significant residual income, talk about maximizing income streams in detail, and I may let you know income amounts for specific sources throughout the year. For example, one month I might talk about my eHow income and the next, about Bukisa residuals.

I think through this blog I have clearly demonstrated the value of residual income streams, the unlimited possibilities of online income and that it is achievable, even by busy, overworked stay at home moms like myself.

WriterGig's Residual Income Report October 2008

eHow $1,615.17

eJunkie $646.72

CJ $115.72

Lulu $111.79

Amazon $110.38

HostGator $50.00

Adsense $4.40

TOTAL $2654.18

It was my best month ever for online residuals, and exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. My only overhead was getting my computer fixed (tax deductible $150) and webhosting ($15). I already deducted the cost of affiliate payments and host fees from the other numbers.

Sales of my eHow eBook (which is a great guide for those trying to maximize eHow earnings, by the way) were good, and I expect them to be even higher in November with the revamped sales page.

P.S. If you know me in real life ... no, I'm not rich yet. My residuals covered property taxes and unexpected income loss this month. We're still working toward our debt-free goal. ;)

P.P.S. I'd love to hear about your residual income progress or new sites you're trying. Also, let me know if this was an encouraging post for you. Please share in the comments section, below.

Write for Bukisa - Share your Knowledge, Earn Money

I just found a content/ networking site that looks very promising. Writers and contributors earn money on their articles, videos and other content.

Check out: Bukisa - Share your Knowledge, Earn Money

As always, I will share my experiences with the site and let you know what I think.

You know I love residual income, and diversifying those income streams just makes sense. My first articles is on how to earn eHow money -- hey, write what you know, right?

Of course, I compare everything to eHow, so here's hoping the revenue is as good -- or better -- than at eHow. I'll report back when I find out.

New eHow eBook Site

I just completed a new landing page for my eHow ebook. I've realized from the beginning that my sales page needed a ton of attention, but it wasn't until reading more about the importance of a good sales page that I decided to quit writing eHow articles for a few days in order to get this done.

New eHow eBook Sales Page

It features cool graphics like this one (I know, you want to click it ... cool, huh?)

In additon to the new page, I've revamped the eHow ebook affiliate program. Affiliates now receive 50% of the sales revenue they generate and can link directly to the sales page, rather than just to the checkout page at eJunkie.

While eHow was the largest single contributor to my residual income for October, my eBook was a not-too-shabby second. If it did that well with a crappy sales page (yeah, it was bad) I am expecting great things for November.

Stay tuned for a post about writing a killer sales page ... it's on my list of things to do! What's on your to-do list these days?