eHow Dolly Visits Virginia

If you haven't heard of eHow Dolly, you're missing out. She hails from Hawaii, the creation of eHow writer veryirie, and is making a cross-country journey across the United States, with stops up and down the East Coast, a zig-zg through the midwest, and a final stop at the eHow headquarters in Santa Monica, CA before returning home to HI.

Shirley started this eHow forum discussion about Dolly's trip, and there's even a Squidoo Lens on Dolly. Now all she needs is a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account and she'd truly be set!

While visiting me in Virginia, Dolly got a taste of a "week in the life of a work at home mom." It may not have been her most exciting leg of the journey, but we all had fun!

eHow Dolly enjoyed sightseeing in the Shenandoah Valley, including an adventure to see the swollen river over its banks and covering the road in several locations, necessitating its closure for part of her visit. She also got to check out the Discovery Museum in Winchester, VA, but things were too crazy for me to get pictures (my girlfriend and I brought our combined total of 7 kids under 7 to the museum!)

But here are some pictures I did snap while Dolly visited us:

Dolly sits on the deck watching the melting ice dripping in the woods in the aftermath of an ice storm:


She wanted to pet the kids' rabbit:


Dolly helped me feed the chickens:



She brainstormed eHow article ideas with me:

... and endured a hug from Patrick, 2,
... before heading on her way to eHow member suzyhomeeconomy in NC. She picked up a postcard and souvenir spoon from VA and is carrying a chocolate bar to her next hostess, as well as the lottery game sent by David Sarokin.

Safe travels, Dolly!

Is Writing eHow Articles Still Worth It?

There's been some grumbling lately among eHow users who wonder if it's still worth it to write on eHow; their concerns running the gauntlet from low views and earnings to questioning eHow's commitment to the Writers Compensation Program to anger about member articles being posted on the eHow UK site.

eHow community forum posts, members' blog posts, and comment sections on related blogs have all been witness to the complaints and dissatisfaction expressed by a number of eHow member-contributors.

I've been asked my opinion on these topics a number of times, and the most ironic is when the person complaining about low earnings either has very few eHow articles or no concept of keywords and basic search engine optimization (SEO). If you aren't writing, or if you aren't writing about topics people are searching for information on, don't expect to make money. It doesn't make sense to me to not give a site a chance and still complain about low earnings, or to not invest the time to find out how internet writing works in regards keywords and web searches, and think you'll make real money online.

Some eHow complainers have an agenda: one in particular has come to the forums to bash eHow while promoting another revenue-sharing content site, one which I have reviewed on this site and find vastly inferior to eHow in regards current earnings potential (although worthwhile in its own place). Sure, if another site is better, by all means, use it and share the information with others. But in this case, the highest earners trail eHow top earners by a mile.

Whether truly confused about their lack of earnings or intending to stir up discontent, the grumblers have asked me what I think.

So here's my answer:

Absolutely, writing eHow articles is still very much worth the time invested. My recent articles are all earning excellently and while you're wasting time complaining, I'm researching profitable niche topics for my next eHow article.

eHow has been very profitable for me, just excellent for building residual income, and it can be for you, too. Make the time to write articles, do the research to learn how to write for the web if your earnings aren't what you want them to be, and don't waste time griping.

What's preventing you from earning $1,000+ a month on eHow?