End of an Era: Goodbye to the eHow WCP

"Rich people focus on opportunities,

Poor people focus on obstacles." 

-T. Harv Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

 For many writers, the official end of eHow's Writers Compensation program (WCP) comes as a big disappointment, if not a total shock. Since the program closed to new articles a year ago, in April 2010, many predicted the eventual cessation of payments. 

Why End the WCP?

Demand Media, which went public in January, has been working to streamline their eHow.com property, minimize duplicate content, and since last spring has put all new articles through a competent editorial process. There are still many articles on the site, including content that pre-dates Demand's acquisition of eHow and some inferior WCP articles, that detract from rather than boost eHow's reputation. By stopping WCP payments and allowing users to remove their content, eHow is both cleaning up its site and perhaps making a business decision as to the profitability of various content.

Buyout Offers
As of May 5, 2011, the WCP is over and done with and no further earnings will accrue. However, Demand Media has made personalized offers to buy writer's content in order to keep it on eHow.com.

Writers still own their intellectual property -- the articles written and published on eHow -- but can no longer receive residual payments via the eHow platform. Thus, many will choose to accept Demand Media's buyout offer for their articles and leave them on the site, transferring ownership to Demand.

Some will decline the offer and instead delete their articles from eHow and move them to other content sites, personal blogs and self-run niche sites. Others have decided to leave their articles on eHow, hoping to profit at least for a little while longer from the secondary streams of income generated by their content: links to their related niche sites and the affiliate links allowed by the original WCP.

My mom accepted her offer of about $220 for three articles, sister #1 took $330+ for her dozen articles, and sister #2 declined $34 for 10 articles. I think they all made good decisions. In the end, much of their articles' value was that they were published on eHow.com. 

Regardless of whether they keep their articles on the site or not, writers who counted on the money they earned from eHow each month will need to find ways to replace that income as quickly as possible. Several writer/work at home mom (WAHM) friends have asked me what I'm going to do.

 My Plans
First, I am going to look at this not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity. The quote I shared at the beginning of this post is from a book my husband's sales team was required to read and discuss over the past few months. There are many excellent "wealth files" in it, and I thought this one was particularly fitting for those who write online to build residual income.

A positive outlook is important in order to move forward and to create success in other endeavors. I think of all that I learned from  my eHow.com articles, including valuable insight about profitable niches, and know that I can take this experience, knowledge gained through the surprising success of my "eHow experiment," and use it to build an even higher monthly residual income.

Practically speaking, I'll be concentrating my efforts on the following areas:

• My pets-theme niche site
• My home/family-theme niche site
• My three recipe-theme niche sites 
• Affiliate marketing

To build my residual income on these properties, I'll be

• Writing quality, original, helpful articles
• Locating and affiliate-linking to excellent products and resources
• Backlinking and using social media to increase traffic and SERP ranking of my content

(2/2/2016: For those looking back and wondering... yes, I took eHow's buyout offer. It was fair. It was significant. It was a win-win. And looking back, five years later, I know for certain what a great decision that was.)

That's my plan in a nutshell. What's yours?

Rev-Share Sites Still Viable for Residual Income

While eHow.com's Writers' Compensation Program was the best revenue-share opportunity I've experienced for residual income, it's no longer an option as far as adding new articles directly through the site. Still, there are other places to go for a similar model: you write content and get paid according to the ad revenue your articles generate.

Demand Studios, Bukisa, HubPages, Squidoo, and Infobarrel are all sources of residual income for me -- several more eggs in the proverbial basket, if you will. In addition to their income, articles I've written on these sites provide backlinks, site or blog traffic and/or brand recognition in several niches.

Out of this handful of revenue-sharing content sites, some do better than others for page ranks and traffic and thus earnings.

Here's how they stacked up in March 2011:

Demand Media Studios revenue-share: $114.58 with 21 eHow articles

Bukisa: $29.39 with 17 articles

HubPages: $29.59 with 6 articles

InfoBarrel: $3.81 with 6 articles

Total ...... $177.37 with 50 articles, for an average of $3.55/per article.

With many hundred articles on the right sites, you can still make a viable residual income through revenue-sharing programs. A thousand articles with that average would give you $3,547 per month. You can actually do much better than that; some of these articles were written when I was just starting out and didn't know much about what niches perform well. By specializing in one or two areas which you know well and whose audience you understand, you will see a higher level of success than the random collection of articles here represents.

While I am currently working almost exclusively on my niche websites, I do still recommend some rev-share writing for those new to online writing and marketing. Writing content articles is a great way to experiment with several or dozens of niche topics. You can figure out what you enjoy researching and writing about, what you want to specialize in and what topics are most profitable. For me, eHow was very well-paid market research and has certainly contributed to the successes I'm seeing in creating my own niche sites and blogs.

That being said, don't wait too long to branch out to your own properties. Once you've identified a good niche topic, done keyword research and learned the basics of site creation and promotion, start a site of your own and monetize it with ads and affiliate links. Revenue-sharing sites are great, but having your own online properties is even better. For web hosting, site design and other recommended resources, see my Tools and Training page.

What revenue-sharing content sites have you earned well with? Do you still write for them?

Crazy High eHow Earnings

Residual income from my eHow articles hit an all-time high in November 2010, with a combined total of over $3,000 from my WriterGig account, Demand Studios residuals, and another very small eHow.com profile. My WriterGig profile alone brought in an eye-popping $2,870.42 USD in November and is already over $2,600 so far in December. These earnings come from just 390 articles, written between Oct. 2007 and April 2010.

This fairly impressive increase in revenue (some 7 months after eHow stopped allowing writers to contribute new articles) resulted, in my estimation, from a few particularly popular seasonal articles in conjunction with a back-linking campaign I started in September. [I wrote articles for Ezine Articles and several other article directory sites, and linked to particular eHow how-tos in my author bio at the end of these article submissions.]

These two high months bring my 2010 eHow earnings  to over $20,000 -- not bad for what amounts to almost entirely passive income from articles that have long since paid me for my time invested. Isn't that incredible? I sincerely wish I had written hundreds more eHow articles when I still had the chance, before the Writers Compensation program was closed to new articles.

While eHow is not the opportunity for making money online that it once was, since nobody new can join and no new articles can be submitted (except through a Demand Studios account), it is still possible to increase your eHow earnings as I have done and as David Sarokin has in the past few months as well (his recent $2k+ eHow month inspired me to shoot for one myself).

Have you seen an increase in eHow earnings recently? Will you give backlinking a try to improve your earnings at eHow and elsewhere?

August Earnings from eHow, Adsense & Affiliate Sales (and Bukisa)

I know how much people enjoy seeing earnings reports from writers and internet marketers -- it can be both encouraging and reassuring that making money online is really possible. When I was first starting out it was a real boost to my confidence to read updates from bloggers making $500 and $1,000 or even $10,000 a month. It was very inspirational to me. So ... here are some of my earnings from August 2010:

eHow                $1,825.05

Google Adsense   $332.77

cj.com                 $224.92

Amazon             $168.25

WA                   $110.00

 
Clickbank             $60.06

Bukisa                  $53.27

 Total reported here:             $2,774

(I also have miscellaneous earnings from single-company affiliate programs, my ebook, and a few other sources.)

August was a very good, although not record-breaking, month for eHow earnings. (The number here is just for my earnings under the WriterGig profile; I also have residuals from Demand Studios eHow articles and from another eHow profile not included here.) After checking the month's earnings, I found myself wishing I'd written just a few hundred more eHow articles than I did over the nearly 3 years the eHow Writers' Compensation Program (WCP) existed. Yes, I'm building up my own sites and blogs ... but these articles and pages take much longer than eHow articles did to start earning. You really can't beat eHow's great pagerank and traffic. But I digress.

Google Adsense was also strong, my second-highest month by a few dollars. This is encouraging as my main Adsense earner actually does best in the spring, so a strong August is very promising. My other niche sites are starting to show up with Adsense impressions and I'm looking forward to seeing these numbers grow as I add content and build backlinks.

My cj.com sales were more than $200, and the bulk of that is for a specific product I started marketing three years ago simply by adding a link under one of my eHow articles. I have four eHow articles that link to this product; those few links from 2007 have brought in over $2,000 in sales commissions. That is about as passive as income gets.

Clickbank is on the rise for me, which is a direct result of putting into practice the methods taught at the new affiliate marketing membership site I joined back in June (I'll blog more about this in an update post soon). It's great to see these sales, especially since they amount to $20 per sale. So three sales for the CB product I promote yields $60 ... I had to sell 123 products on Amazon in August to get the $168 listed here. But I'm not complaining about those Amazon earnings ... most of them are from years-old links as well and are a great boost to my monthly earnings total.

Was August a good month for your online earnings? Have you added any new residual income/ passive income streams this summer?

Revenue-Sharing Articles at Demand Studios

With the recent changes to eHow, many eHow writers question the profitability of the revenue-sharing model at Demand Studios (DS). Since I've been a member of eHow and a Demand Studios writer for more than two and a half years, I've had time to experience both platforms and communities.

Last spring, April-May 2009, I wrote and published 15 revenue-sharing how-to articles through my Demand Studios account. This was intended partially as an experiment to see which was more profitable, and in response to a DS incentive in which the articles received both an up-front payment as well as long-term revenue-sharing.

To date, not including the up-front bonuses, the articles have earned a combined total of $172.84, over a time period of almost 12 months. This works out to $11.52 per article so far (of course, they are still earning money). As you can see, this represents a fairly long ROI (return on investment) for eschewing the up-front payment of $15 and opting for the revenue-sharing model. Still, these articles have a higher earnings potential than the articles written for a flat, one-time fee.

My eHow articles written as WriterGig for the WCP have earned much more per article, even when accounting for the longer time period that most have been online. However, there are several factors that contribute to this discrepancy:

• I wrote my eHow-WCP titles, but had to choose DS-generated titles for their rev-sharing articles at the time.
• My WriterGig profile page on eHow has a higher pagerank (PR) than my DS profile on eHow; also, the DS profile does not include a page with links to all of my DS articles.
• I've worked to backlink my eHow articles to improve their pagerank and traffic. 

I'm confident that, with enough effort and following the same method I used to maximize eHow earnings, I could build up another profitable article library through DS for long-term residual income (I'm thrilled that they've dropped the 5-year cap on revenue sharing).  We've been assured through the eHow forums that the DS revenue-sharing formula is as good as or better than the one currently in place on eHow.

I recommend that current eHow writers merge to Demand Studios, or apply if you were not automatically approved, to give yourself the ability to publish through that platform if you so choose. This will not affect any WCP articles you have already written, but will allow you the opportunity to build a library of articles on DS that earns well in its own right.

Have you tried the DS rev-sharing model? What's been your experience so far?

Thoughts on eHow UK Compensation

I'll be honest. I haven't closely followed the eHow UK debacle over the past few months. I'm just now getting caught up on other eHow members' thoughts and research on the topic, conveyed through blogs and forum posts and discussions.

For those who haven't followed or participated in the discussions, here's the 30-second version as I understand it. In about August of 2009, eHow created a "sister site," ehow.co.uk, which basically mirrored the US-version except for a unique front page -- the featured articles differ from those on the regular site.

However, Demand Media used US-member-submitted eHow articles on the eHow UK site. According to the TOS, they do have the rights to do so.  But writers were unhappy that they basically copied everyone's content and published it on another site without discussion or permission from the writers first. Personally, I don't think this was done with malicious forethought; I don't think they really gave it much thought at all. But either way, some members felt it was not right.

In the face of uproar from its members, eHow administration decided to redirect visitors on the UK site to the original US-based articles, but eventually just pulled the plug and removed all US-member content from the UK side (some articles remain and flaws are being worked out).

Because of the persistence of eHow member-writers who asked whether articles re-posted to the UK site would receive reimbursement through the WCP, and who felt their overall revenue from eHow suffered due to their articles on the UK site appearing higher in searches than their US articles, eHow announced that it would give "generous compensation" to all WCP participants whose articles has been temporarily published on the UK site without permission.

This compensation arrived with the February payment of January earnings. For those who wondered, and in the interest of full disclosure, I received $140.

Personally, I feel that this compensation is more than fair -- simply because I never noticed any decline in my eHow earnings and any traffic that was taken from my US articles was likely minuscule, in my opinion. For one thing, the UK site has a fraction the traffic that the US one does. This is a comparison of traffic for the two sites from January 2010; traffic in the late months of 2009 was even more disparate:

I also did Google searches in December of my top-earning eHow articles and didn't see any UK-based results, just the ones on the US site. So I'm not really sure how much compensation, if any, the UK site took from my articles.

I do know that there is chatter among Google Adsense users that advertising revenue across the web is down, likely because of economic factors worldwide.

Is eHow committed to its WCP, or Writers Compensation Program? I believe they are, or it would not still be inexistence. When it first launched, in 2007, it was their big focus, and things have changed since then. Perhaps there is not as much enthusiasm within Demand Media as they had previously for the WCP writers. In 2008, eHow held a member event, weHow, in Santa Monica CA, to which I was invited and attended.The whole focus was on the WCP and participation on the eHow.com website. They even gave recognition to the top eHow earner in attendance, so earnings were being promoted and encouraged.

In 2009, the event was focused instead on the new "I did It" feature that pays no compensation to those who submit I did It stories. So the focus has shifted a bit, perhaps to encourage people to join eHow for the user experience and not just the earnings potential.

Demand Studios writers, who provide content for eHow.com, seem to receive more attention, benefits and support than the "users" in the WCP. This is simply a statement of fact; it doesn't bother me. When you consider that DS writers are paid a flat $15 fee for most article, while I've had dozens of articles earn $100 or more, including several thousand-dollar eHow articles, they can keep their better forum and monthly grant contests and I'll keep my revenue sharing.

But even if eHow in general doesn't particularly love us WCP writers anymore (who can blame them?), the sheer quantity of user-submitted content, and the fact that we retain rights to our work, indicates to me that they would have a very hard time just nixing the program altogether. And I contend that they don't want to end it. For all we know, the eHow UK beta site may have included a long-term plan for extending the WCP and eventually increasing compensation based on UK revenue on WCP articles. I truly don't think anyone at Demand wanted to "steal" from the eHow writers.

And I believe that eHow remains one of the very best sites for building residual income today.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

What Makes a $1,000+ eHow Article?

At some point last month, another eHow article moved into the $1,000+ slot among my top earners. Now that I have four articles that have each earned over $1k, maybe I can shed some light on what it takes to make that much from one simple how-to article.

But first of all, can I just say, how cool is that?! When I first started writing eHow articles almost two and a half years ago, I had only an inkling of the potential for good earnings and certainly didn't expect to see articles do that well. Neither did anyone else -- except maybe a few folks at Demand Media.

Now, about those articles. What goes into a thousand-dollar eHow article? And more importantly, how can we all write more of them?

Some things are fairly consistent with top earning articles. The main traits these four have in common are good SEO, uniqueness and worthwhile content. Three have all those aspects; one admittedly possesses just the first two. Three are personal finance or career-related topics, the other is a home and garden article. Here's what I've learned about their similarities:

• SEO, Search Engine Optimization: Researching good keywords and properly placing them in your article is the best strategy for earning with online content, especially on eHow. I use free tools such as Wordtracker and Google Adwords to help with this aspect. When you link to your article from other sites, use the main keywords as anchor text.
  
• Uniqueness: Are the keywords you want to use already the main topic of another eHow article? Or are they so competitive that a Google search returns pages of quality, relative results all with good SEO-titles? If either or both these are in the affirmative, you'll do better looking for another aspect of that niche and switching to different keywords. To earn well, your keywords need to be unique on eHow and in a somewhat unsaturated niche online.
  
• Content: Make sure the introduction and body of your eHow article provide the information your reader is searching for. Your article should be in-depth enough to provide a good reader experience and convey the knowledge you're sharing. Fluff pieces won't make it to the top (with rare exception).
  
• A little luck: One of my articles, the one that's garnered $1,900+ so far, is based on keywords that showed very few searches at the time of the writing. However, I wrote the article on a bit of a hunch and it played out. There were no other eHow articles using those keywords when I wrote it, and when the topic became popular it was one of the top results in the search engines.
  

Each of my top four articles is about two years old -- they were written at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008. While time is important to see full earnings potential, high earners will often show their value early on. One of these articles earned $400 in a single month only six months after it was published.

For more on maximizing earnings, check out my ebook: How to Earn Passive Income on eHow

Do you have some high earners on eHow? Share your tips with other readers in the comments section.

eHow Anniversary: 2 Years, 2.3 Million Views

Today marks the second anniversary of the date I first created an eHow profile, WriterGig, and clicked publish on my first eHow article. What an adventure it's been! What started out as a casual experiment introduced me to the very real concept of residual income and led to a complete shift in my business model and life as a work at home mom.

My post Work from Home Writing eHow Articles was the first time I blogged about writing for eHow, about a month and a half after I started on the site. I had already seen the earnings potential and encouraged my fellow writers and work at home moms to give eHow a try. Needless to say, I'm glad I gave it a go.

Eight of the articles I wrote in late 2007 have earned over $100 each; several of those have more than $500 apiece accumulated thus far ... and continue to earn. Compare that to most of the writing freelancers do on a daily basis for one-time pay that's not always very good -- this is why I do virtually no conventional freelancing at this point: I've transitioned to writing primarily for "myself" and retaining rights, and the resulting revenue, to my work.

I have tried several revenue-sharing content sites and while each has its own merits, eHow remains my top site for residual earnings on a per-article basis. Its age, page rank, site layout and article/ ad format create a combination that is favorable to writers and allows me to spend more time writing and less time on promotion. The fact that I have received 2,369,954 page views to date is a testimony to eHow's ranking as a site (and of course, keyword research and basic search engine optimization on my part).

Last year, I attended weHow, the 2008 eHow User Event held in Santa Monica, CA and had a wonderful time, as well as received the Top Earner community award -- it was a thrill! This year, I won a place on the trip through the Passionate Project People contest for my "I Did This Project" on making window cornice boards. I was really excited about the trip this year, which was held in San Francisco this past week, but was unfortunately unable to attend due to the timing.

As part of my eHow adventure, in 2008 I wrote my eHow eBook, How to Earn Passive Income on eHow.com, in response to the many inquires I received from other writers and work at home moms who wanted to know how to succeed on eHow. It remains a strong seller to this day, further increasing my eHow-related income while giving others valuable information.

How has your experience been with eHow so far? If you're not on the site, why not? Would love to hear your thoughts!

The eHow Article Sweeps

The eHow article sweeps, thus named by eHow staff, refer to eHow's periodic "cleansing" of its article library -- at least, the section of its library written by eHow member-writers. Articles composed by Demand Studios freelance writers or previously bought from Writers Research Group are not included in these "sweeps."

As part of its article moderation program, article reviewers view members' articles at random, choosing "Accept" or "Reject" for each one. If the reviewer rejects an article, he selects a reason for rejection from a list of possibilities, which include "Advertising/Spam," "Clone," "Common Sense," "Blog/Opinion" and similar other reasons.

Articles that have been rejected by two separate article reviewers are slated for culling, or removal, from the site. If an article is approved by one and denied by another, it goes to another reviewer for a tiebreaker.

Once an article is removed, its original URL, or web address, is redirected by eHow to a related article or topic page.

Objectively, article moderation seems like an excellent idea. A website filled with spam, cloned articles, useless fluff or mediocre content will do nobody any good, and will ultimately fail. I am a big supporter of improving eHow's content, in all sections of its library (ie including articles from Demand Studios and Writers Research group and its older material).

The main problem I have is the way in which these sweeps have occurred, where decent articles are removed based on two people's subjective, often hasty, opinions and writers are not given a chance to improve or edit their work before it is deleted.

One of my friends, both on eHow and in real life, had an article removed in the last sweep that had already earned her over $1,400 in under a year. Her article URL (#1 in Google search results for her keywords) was redirected to a similar article by a Demand Studios writer. The demoralizing effect of losing this article has turned her off completely from writing for eHow.

In my mind, eHow remains an excellent place to publish content and earn money for your efforts. As the community grows, all kinds of content is added daily, and there has to be some way to ensure that quality standards are upheld. If eHow will listen to its writers and improve the system, everyone will be better off.

For writers who have experienced article loss on eHow, especially those who feel they lost quality articles and don't understand why, you have my my sympathy. Definitely take the time to review eHow's new Writers Guidelines and try to discern why your articles were removed.

I also suggest that writers take their rejected articles elsewhere, but first clean them up, correct mistakes, and make sure the content is truly worthwhile.

There are several very good revenue-sharing content-based sites that I use and recommend, namely:

• InfoBarrel
• Bukisa
• HubPages

While eHow is still my top moneymaker, I believe that, in time, these sites may rival eHow for earnings on a per-article basis as their Google pagerank improves and submitted articles appear higher in search engine results.

I have a handful of articles on each site and will add more each month. I am working on my own niche sites as well, and InfoBarrel, HubPages and Bukisa are great for building backlinks to your blogs and other content in a way that eHow is not. On all three sites, you can include links within the text of an article.

With online writing and marketing, diversity is key to success. Write for several sites, not just one. Think of the eHow article sweeps -- if your content was affected -- as a reminder that it's good business sense to earn money from as many sources as possible.

Top eHow article hits $1,000 in Revenue

Thank goodness I stepped out on a limb just over a year ago and decided to experiment by writing directly for eHow. At the time, I was suggesting how-to titles for a content company contracted by Demand Media to provide articles for the eHow.com site. For each topic they approved and I wrote, I was paid a flat fee: $11.

Of course, for a stay at home mom who could crank out 2-3 an hour at times, the hours rate wasn't bad -- and it was better than what I was earning grading high school English papers at night. So I certainly wasn't complaining. But ... what if I could retain the rights to my work and possibly earn more submitting directly to eHow? I decided to give it a shot after eHow's Rich stopped by the WAHM writer's forum trying to recruit eHow members.

My first article has earned hundreds of dollars. One of the articles I wrote a month in to my experiment has now crossed the $1,000 mark. Wow. (Click image to enlarge. Some details removed.)

Is that not awesome? Here's hoping a few of the others cross that mark in 2009. And if you still needed convincing, residual income is the best business model for writers, in my opinion. In 2009, I'll be doing all of my writing for residual income streams. It took me a full year to transition from writing for pay, per article, to writing only "for myself" in residual income models.

I'm not just turning my back on $11 articles, or the $30 articles I was writing for another site. I charged $150 each for blog post articles in 2008 for a software company, and could have continued to write for them ... but my heart wasn't there. I only have so many hours to write, and I want to spend them building up long-term income sources that will continue to earn money for my family months and even years down the road.

Of course, since my income is a secondary income for our family, and I had to replace a part-time income and not a full-time one, it took less time, perhaps, than it would have otherwise. However, if you have more hours to devote to building up residuals, perhaps you can get there even more quickly.

In the coming year, it's my goal to build up a full-time residual income ... working very part-time, of course, and using the foundation I already have in place.

What are your writing income goals for 2009?

Maximize eHow Earnings with Affiliate Links

Do you earn income from affiliate products you recommend in your eHow articles? If not ... it's time to start. I encourage you, if you have a library of eHow articles, to take some time to add affiliate links or links to your other sites and blogs, under the Resources section of your articles. Don't waste time on social promotion, Digging and Stumbling articles that really aren't going to appeal to those social communities. Instead -- maximize your earnings potential by adding another residual income revenue stream to your content.

For this post, I'm going to assume you've joined the affiliate programs and can navigate them enough to generate the code for the products. Here's how to add affiliate links to your eHow articles for several of the affiliate programs I use.

Amazon.com

To build affiliate links to Amazon products, choose the "text only" option, to simplify the HTML code you'll see. While the program generates HTML code, you are just after the link -- you can NOT copy and paste the entire HTML code into your eHow article or Resources section.

Here's what it looks like when you're getting the affiliate code for Amazon products (click to enlarge):
Select the URL that begins http:// and is located between the quote marks. Do not inlcue the quotes, but make sure you have highlighted every character in between. Copy this web address to your clipboard by keying CTRL + C or by right-clicking your highlight link and then selecting "Copy" or "Copy to clipboard" in the menu that appears.

You now have the affiliate code for the product you wanted to recommend -- and if someone buys it form your link, you'll get credit -- and money. Scroll down to "Putting it All Together," below, to see how to add this link to your eHow articles.

CJ.com

Commission Junction is a great affiliate network, and I'm averaging around $100 a month from affiliate sales through CJ, even with a very low number of links online. I'll be adding more CJ links to my articles and sites in the coming months.

After choosing the product or site you wish to promote, choose "Get HTML" for the link you want. You'll see the following dialog box:

Select the affiliate link between the quotes. You'll use this in your eHow article ... scroll down to "Putting it All Together" to see how.

eJunkie

My ebook is hosted with eJunkie, and there are scores of information products on the site that offer affiliate programs. (If you're not an eHow ebook affiliate, you should be! You can earn $12.50 per sale by promoting my ebook in eHow-related articles, money-themed how-to's and even your blog. )And then you'll have the code:


Select only the link between the quotes, which in this case I have underlined in blue.

Putting it All Together: Adding the affiliate links to eHow articles

After generating your HTML code, selecting the appropriate link, and copying it to your clipboard, you're ready to add the link to your eHow article. Open the article for editing, and scroll down to the last few sections of the Write Article tool.

Screen shot of the eHow Write Article tool, to illustrate (click to enlarge):

Paste the affiliate link in the "link" section and then write or copy and paste a descriptive phrase about the product or site. Keep it short and simple. Hit publish. Now view your article, and click the link to make sure you added it correctly.

From the outside, your affiliate link simply looks like a helpful resource (which it is):



There you have it. Easy-peasy, right?

Don't expect huge overnight earnings ... the Resources section is so far down that most readers never see it. But some, intrigued by the information in your articles and wanting to know more, keep scrolling and see your resources. Some click, some don't. Some buy the products you recommend. Most don't.

But just like the adsense clicks, day in and day out, it adds up over time. A few minutes to build a link can translate into many dollars over time. My best-performing link has earned me hundreds of dollars over the past few months. This is passive income at its best -- enjoy it.

Top Earning eHow Articles

Inspired by a post on the eHow Community Chatter forum, I've decided to share a screen shot of my highest earning article amounts.

I remember when I first posted about my eHow article earnings on a writer's forum. My initial article had earned less than a dime, but I wanted to share the info with other writers. Months later, in another post about writing for residual income, another poster scoffed about "WriterGig's six-cent eHow articles."

Now, just over a year later, I am please to say that that article has earned me over $100. I guess I had the last laugh after all. But I hope other writers, especially other moms and dads struggling to make ends meet during tough economic times, will take note and be inspired about the potential from online writing, on eHow and elsewhere.

Following is a screenshot of my highest-earning eHow articles. You can click the image to enlarge it.

(image copyright 2008 WriterGig)

I don't share the titles because some were quite original and I'd rather people find their own niches rather than try to duplicate mine. There is plenty of room on eHow and plenty of titles not yet written, so I encourage everyone to find their own groove, so to speak.

Learn how to Increase Residual Income on eHow.com to build your own passive income online. After one year of writing eHow articles with the site's Writers Compensation Program (WCP), I am consistently earning over $1,000 a month in residuals ... and I am planning to double and triple that in the coming year. You can too ... buy my eHow ebook and learn how, today!

What's the most you ever made from a single online article, on eHow or elswhere? Do you prefer to write for up front payment or long-term residual income?

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.

eHow Earnings Just Shy of $900 for September

My eHow earnings jumped considerably this month, even with little new writing and minimal article promotion (it's been a busy month for this WAHM!). At $892.78, it was my best month of passive income to date.

With 202 published articles, I have just 11 more than I did in August when my earnings were $617 for the month. My article on How to Survive Total Economic Collapse (Google it--it's on the first page of the search results) earned $10 a day during the past week due to the economic turmoil. It was also listed on eHow's front page under "Top 10 eHows," along with my article on How to Earn Extra Money. I am sure that boost helped, in addition to increased searches on these topics.

The following screen shot shows my eHow residuals to date, by month. Click on the photo to see it magnified (and legible!)

I include my earnings information in great detail, as well as my strategy for success, in my eHow eBook. In addition to the residual income from eHow, I also earned several hundred dollars in other sources tied to my eHow articles. Tips on this topic are also included in my book.

I've set up an eHow eBook Affiliate Program and my affiliates have found great success promoting the book on their own blogs and sites, and earning money through these sales. In fact, eBayCoach Suzanne Wells won my September 2008 affiliate contest and a bonus for bringing in the most sales.

Do you write for eHow? How did September treat you? I'd love to have your comments!

My eHow Payment for August: $600+

My eHow payment for August 2008 will be $617.35 USD, the highest eHow earnings I've ever received. I currently have 191 published eHow articles (and 7 pending approval). However, 12 articles were published the last week of August and have not yet earned anything. Thus, with 179 earning articles in August, they averaged $3.45 each this month. That number should keep going up as recent articles from June, July and August are indexed by Google and begin to receive more views.

There is some debate as to whether eHow earnings can be considered truly "passive," or whether promotion and continued work is necessary to create and maintain earnings. My experience shows that, because of eHow's superb search engine rankings, its daily traffic and the social aspects of the site itself, little or no promotion is necessary to yield high earnings assuming basic keyword optimization, search engine optimization and quality content.

I am planning a test of this residual income stream, this December and possibly beyond. I'll take the entire month of December "off" eHow to focus on my other writing, and see how it goes. I predict my articles won't even miss me.

Until then, I'll be researching keywords and writing more articles.

Knol for Writers

I've begun a Google Knol adventure. Gogole's new site, knol.com, has been touted as a rival to Wikipedia as well as article directories such as About.com and Associated Content. Since the site just launched to the public this summer, it really is brand new.

My first knol is about eHow Earnings and links to both an eHow article on passive income and my eHow eBook sales page. It's monetized both by the presence of these links, which lead to sources of income for me, as well as the Adsense ads displayed next to my knol.

I don't expect the knol to earn much, since knol is a new site and according to Google not receiving favortism by their search engines. I imagine eHow will be superior for earnings for some time, as the how-to site has been in existence since 1999 and is highly ranked by search engines. Knol will take time to build up the kind of traffic eHow gets on a daily basis.

Earnings aside, Knol looks like a great place to author content, articles, essays and reviews, and build a presence as a niche authority or a freelance writer.

I wrote a concise guide to Google Knol and earning money with the site; I plan to expand it as I learn more through my writing results with Knol.

Residual Income for July 2008

July was my biggest month so far for eHow earnings, and affiliate sales were good as well. One reader asked me by email if my only writing income is from these sources--the answer is no. I have several freelance writing clients and several editing gigs that keep me busy in addition to writing "for myself" as much as I am able. I don't share my regular writing income because it's just not my style, but I do like to show others how certain residual income streams are producing. I hope it's encouraging and helpful. Here's my newest tally.

July 2008 Residual Income

eHow earnings $500.56
SBI affiliate sales $74
eBook $71.52
Amazon $25.78
Google Adsense $3.20

Total $675.06

These are all true residuals. The links for Amazon books and other affiliate earnings were put up months or even a year ago in one case. I don't have time to promote my eHow articles, so those are also quite passive.

If you aren't focusing on building your residual income streams on the side, I highly recommend that you start today, even if you just write one eHow article. Start simple, and keep it up. Try setting aside 30 minutes or one hour of each day to your own writing that will continue to produce income long after you've left the computer.

Passive Income Report for May and June 2008

I took a minute to total my passive income for the past couple months, and thought I'd share the results here. I really want to encourage you to build up a passive income stream (several streams!) because the reality of earning money for articles you wrote months ago or links you posted last year can really change how you view your work and your approach to earning money.

May 2008

Residuals from my eHow.com articles: $427.13

Affiliate sales:
SBI $74.83
Amazon.com $19.35

Total May passive income: $521.31

June 2008

Residuals from my eHow.com articles: $397.20
Sales of my eHow eBook (after fees): $126.40
Affiliate sales:
Implix affiliate sales $67.90
Amazon.com $22.43

Total June passive income: $613.93

My bank of eHow articles is my biggest passive income generator, followed in June by eBooks and then affiliate sales. I have not marketed my eBook at all, except for posting a link on this site and in my WAHM profile. After I build the sales page and a little campaign around the eBook, I expect to sell quite a few downloads.

The non-Amazon affiliate sales are always a pleasant surprise. Amazon always averages about $20 a month, which is not much but it's a little extra that just comes in without effort. Implix has several software programs, but I've only linked to and sold the eBook Gold program so far.

I wrote my first eHow article less than a year ago, and in January 2008 made my New Year's resolution to build my passive income streams in 2008. In less than eight months, I
consistently earn over $500 a month just in passive income, which is in addition to my paid articles and writing done for clients.

My next goal is to reach $1,000 a month in passive income. As a work at home mom, my time is very limited. The more I can build my passive income streams, the higher my overall income potential. I can't create more hours to work, but I can maximize my earnings by focusing on work that keeps earning money long after I've put down my pen for the day.

I wish you the best success in your own passive income endeavors... get started today!

My eHow Earnings eBook is Done!

I finished and published my first eBook!

How to Earn Passive Income at eHow.com: Residual Income for Web Content Writers

is now available at Lulu.com.

Five people have already purchased the book, and I hope they have found it helpful. I wish I'd had the information in there a year ago when I first began my online writing career. Writing for eHow.com has been a huge motivator for me to work toward building passive income streams.

For me, passive income is pure gold ... I keep earning money long after I've completed the work. This is great as a work at home mom, because it allows me to spend more time with the kids when they need me.

Work from Home Writing eHow Articles

Here's a good side job for work at home writers: eHow. While the upfront pay is nonexistent (payments are made in the month following earnings, and only once $10 or more is due), there is the potential for long-term passive income. Through the Writer's Compensation Program at eHow, writers can earn revenue indefinitely for their articles, according to eHow.

While the specific criteria for earning payment is ambiguous, the more page hits and ad revenue an eHow article generates, the more money the author makes. Writers can track how much each article is earning through their "My Earnings" section of the website.

I wrote my first eHow article (well, the first one under my account) just over a month ago. To date, How to Conceive Twins has earned over $12.

So here's another eHow for you: How to Create Passive Income Writing eHow Articles. Enjoy!