Outsourcing Article Writing: Lessons Learned

Is outsourcing the solution to maximizing your productivity and success as an online entrepreneur? If  you have more work than you can manage yourself, and the budget to hire others to do it for you, it might make sense to outsource some aspects of you life or home business in order to focus your own efforts on the most important areas. The key is to discover which aspects you should hire out and which are best done by yourself.

As I mentioned in my post about focusing on one website vs. many, I have more website ideas than time to properly write and manage them all. One approach I've tried is to hire freelance writers and employ article writing services to create original content for me to use on my blog ... to mixed results.

Specifically, I've turned to Textbroker andContent Kingdom, as well as individual private freelance writers, to write articles for which I'd already created keyword-specific titles. These articles were for a variety of my websites (but not this blog, of course).

Mixed Results from Article Services
The article writing services I used were hit-or-miss. I got some great articles from Content Kingdom, and then some really disappointing fluff pieces. Textbroker was largely disappointing at first, even while paying for higher-end pieces. I got a few good articles from them after adding more details to my article request descriptions, but it was still clear to me in most cases that very little research, if any, was done by the author.

There were even some cases of complete inaccuracies I was able to spot at first glance because I am very familiar with the topics of all the blogs and sites I've started -- I do live by the adage to "write what you know." Perhaps precisely because I chose my niches based on a combination of passion and potential profitability, it would take a lot to satisfy my expectations for content on these topics.

For some of the articles, I spent more time editing, tweaking and adding more information that I would have just writing the article from scratch myself. Spending the extra time and money became a drain, not a boost.

Ultimately, unless I find a freelance writer who has real life experience in my best niches, I've learned that for my top sites I am much better off writing my own content. This is most especially true for sites that have a strong author voice, as both my top sites do.


Outsourcing Other Tasks
Some web writers swear by their virtual assistants, who do all sorts of tasks for them, from paying their bills to performing basic research to setting up new website and adding content as directed.

While I don't think I'm anywhere near needing or being able to justify my own personal assistant,. there are some non-writing business-related tasks that would be best done by someone else.

I'd really like to hire a web designer or graphic artist to help me with several website re-designs and create logos and headers for my sites. I am not capable as a graphic artist and would love to find the right person at the right price (If you have a recommendation, please leave me a comment!)

Should I Outsource my House Cleaning?

My mom, who raised a large family and home-schooled most of her children all the way through high school, has wisely pointed out (practically insisted) that I should hire a housecleaner once a week to do my deep cleaning and other household tasks.

I actually tried this last spring. I found a cleaning service that was "green," and did not use harmful chemicals in the cleaning process, important to me with kids in the house. (Oddly, though, the woman was a smoker and would take smoke breaks. When she came back inside she smelled smoky and it really bothered me. I was pregnant and extra sensitive to smells at the time).

It felt uncomfortable to me to have strangers in the home, and to have another woman cleaning my house while I was not. I was stressed out ahead of time trying to get the house ready for her to clean (can't mop floors with kids toys all over them). Some items were left undone, but I still paid the regular price that was supposed to include everything. Maybe I have issues and need to "let go" a bit, but the additional stress led me to cancel her services after two visits.

This is one area I am going to revisit for potential outsourcing. I first have to get past any feelings of failure if I'm not cleaning my own house to the standard I like it. 

What Should You Outsource?

Your own needs and talents are unique and what might make sense for you to outsource can vary widely based on your home business and family situation.

Tips on Outsourcing:

• Don't force yourself to hire out the tasks you actually enjoy doing.
• Find competent assistants or service providers, even if you have to pay a little more.
• Make a budget and re-evaluate it every couple weeks. If the payof isn't there, reconsider your options. 
• Have a clear idea of how much time or money you will save, or how much you'll be able to increase revenue based on your outsourcing. Make sure it is worth it to you either financially or for your sanity (moms of many, I'm looking at you!).

Have you outsourced or hired others to help you with your business? What were the results? 

WriterGig's Residual Income (sans eHow)

My Residual Writing Income
With the official closure of eHow's Writers Compensation Program (WCP) on May 5, 2011, my monthly residual income took a dramatic shift downward. As much as I have been working to diversify my online income sources over the past year, I was still very dependent on eHow for the bulk of my monthly earnings (I made over $3,000 from my articles there in March 2011).

I have worked on my websites almost every week, sometimes daily, but having met my original income goals, and busy with little children, I didn't have quite the drive and intensity that I did when I first began my residual income adventure.

One of the silver linings to the end of the WCP is that it has re-inspired me to build my residual income platform through my online properties, with quality content monetized by ads and affiliate links.

The Numbers
April 2011 Online Residual Income Report

• Google Adsense:                                                   $647.96
• Clickbank affiliate commissions:                             $241.42
• Amazon Associates affiliate commissions:               $239.42
• Other (NB $59.88 ; RA $21.82; WA $66.50)      $148.20         
• Demand Studios residuals                                      $117.22
• Commission Junction affiliate commissions:                  $40.27

Total                                                                             $1,434.49

Future Writing Income Goals
Obviously, my writing residuals are much less today than they have been in years, especially compared to this past March and November and December of last year (those were my three $5,000+ passive income months). But even with no eHow and very low cj.com numbers (my best selling product was out of stock from the vendor all month) I still broke $1,000 and came close to $1,500. If this is my basis going forward, I think I am in good shape -- not starting from zero, at least. I'm going to work to build back up to a $5,000 month by the end of the year.

Will I make it? I hope so. I have a plan, which involves quadrupling the amount of quality content I have online currently in order to see the same percentage increase in my earnings by late 2011 or early 2012. Stay tuned in here to see if I make it.

What about your goals? How will you build your residual income, or freelance writing income, or work-at-home-mom business, going forward?

Note: Due to a Blogger glitch, most of the comments on this post disappeared. I've re-posted them below. 

Book Review: How to Write & Sell Simple Information for Fun, Profit

I've just finished reading How to Write & Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit: Your Guide to Writing and Publishing Books, E-Books, Articles, Special Reports, Audio Programs, DVDs, and Other How-To Content by Robert Bly. The book not only earns its long title through a plethora of detailed information on each topic covered; it over-delivers on the reader's expectations.

The author knows his stuff, which is clear from reading the book and from the fact that he makes over $600,000 a year through his writing and has earned six figures as a freelance writer consistently for several decades. He's weathered the transition from print-based freelance writing to online content and multimedia (audio CD's, DVD material, software and more).

He gives an excellent overview about becoming an accomplished how-to writer and an expert in your chosen niche. It's important to specialize and become well-known in one niche or a small handful of related ones, he says, given the nature of today's information-hungry climate and the social nature of the internet. Rather than spread yourself over many different subjects, it's better (and arguably more profitable) to learn one area very well and to share information in that specific topic.

Chapters most relevant to my interests were those on writing and selling books, ebooks and articles. My plans for future residual income generation include Kindle self-publishing as well as a traditional hard copy book. Bly's advice in this book has been invaluable, and I'm keeping his book on my shelf to reference as I go.

The only topic he didn't address that I think would have been within the scope of his book is publishing how-to information on your own website and earning money from ads and other monetization methods, while giving the information away for free. I imagine this isn't something he focuses on, but he does have a section on membership sites as a method of earning money from how-to writing.

Have you read any books pertaining to freelance/ web writing or internet marketing lately? I'd love to get your recommendations -- please share what you think in the comments section, below. 

Demand Studios: My Experience

I joined the Demand Studios (DS) community as a writer in March of 2008 and in six months wrote over 180 pieces of content for eHow.com and Livestrong.com using the DS writing tool. (note: in an earlier post I said it was 130 but my DS account shows 187) I did this while building up my residual income, and stopped writing for the flat upfront fee when I reached my residual income goal.

My experience with Demand Studios was very good -- I chose their titles from the list of available assignments, wrote efficiently and was paid promptly. I made more money per hour than I had as a full-time editorial assistant/ reporter for a weekly newspaper in Washington, DC only a few years previous. I never experienced the overly picky or crazy Content Editor (CE) rewrites many DS writers detail. Only 2 or 3 of my early articles ever came back for edits and were subsequently approved.

Last spring, April-May of 2009, I wrote 15 Demand Studios revenue-sharing articles to compare the DS rev-sharing model to the eHow Writers Compensation Program (WCP) with which I had already experienced a great deal of success. I found there was no real advantage at the time, and felt the eHow platform was more lucrative for me and gave me more freedom as a writer. Over the past year, the articles have earned over $10 each on average, and of course are continuing to earn.

As I noted in my previous post, the reason those rev-sharing articles didn't earn as well as my eHow.com WCP articles, in my opinion, is that I didn't pick the titles -- DS did -- and their pagerank (PR) was not as high as those posted under my well-ranked WriterGig profile in the WCP. Further, I did absolutely no promotion or linking to the DS rev-sharing articles. I simply wrote them and left them and saw a PayPal deposit every month for the residual income. At the time, the revenue-sharing was capped at five years from the time of publication. Thankfully, DS has now lifted this cap and the articles will earn into perpetuity as they do with eHow's WCP.

Now that the eHow WCP has been closed to further publishing, I'm revisiting Demand Studios as one of the many facets of my residual income business. There are many things to like about publishing articles on eHow.com, most notably the high page rank and monstrous traffic to the site. The main difference now is that the writing platform has changed from the eHow tool to the Demand Studios tool, and that the rights to the articles written through DS now belong to the company and not to the writer.

There is no reason to cut yourself off from the excellent earning potential that is eHow. If you are worried about the ownership of the content, save your favorite niche writing or material you want to use in your own publications for yourself. But with the ease of rewriting content and the gazillions of niches available, there are scores of titles you can write for eHow through Demand Studios to which the copyright is a moot point because you have no need for or interest in publishing the material in a book or website not owned by yourself.

Demand Studios made a business decision--  to merge eHow writers with Demand Studios -- that will benefit the company as a whole and its writers, too, in many aspects (less spam and a higher quality standard). Now the business decision of where to write and how to earn money online is yours -- just as it has always been.

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?

Diversify Income Streams to Survive a Recession

As many who have recently been laid off or lost their job can attest, depending on a single source of income can be quite risky, especially if the job is in a non-essential sector or one likely to suffer during a recession. Some sectors are more recession-proof than others, for certain, and those will fare far better. But there is ultimately less security when one depends on a single company or other entity for income, rather than drawing income from a variety of means.

I am not necessarily advocating that every 9-to-5 worker open an entrepreneurial side business, but increasing one's diversification of income can certainly improve your ability to weather the tough economic times we are suddenly hearing so much about--and for many of us, actually experiencing in our own families, jobs and investments.

For the work at home mom (WAHM) or other freelancer, entrepreneur or online adventurer, this can mean a variety of things.

• Writers may diversify by increasing the number and variety of writing clients, actively seeking new clients to replace those with less work. Never rely solely on just one or two big clients.
  
• Residual income builders should add multiple income streams to their sites and content articles, such as affiliate programs, ad words, paid advertisements, information products, referral links and e-newsletters.
• Webmasters should diversify their niche site topics. Even as advertising in some sectors plummets, it rises in others. Anticipate these changes and consider niche topics likely to be in demand despite -- or because of -- a poor economy.
• eBay Sellers should also diversify what they sell to anticipate sluggish consumer spending. People still have some money; find out what they are spending it on and make some money doing it. Check out the knowledgeable eBay Coach for advice.
  

Whatever your area of expertise, and no matter what you do for income as a work at home mom (or dad, or anyone else) increase your sources of income during the coming year. Anticipate, rather than react, to what's going on in the economy and how that will affect what you do. Did you know there were many who made money during the Great Depression?

How do you plan to increase your income, despite a poor economic outlook for 2009?

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!

This WAHM is headed to California!

I'm going to California!

One of the companies I write for invited me and about a dozen others to join them in sunny California for a couple days in October. The company is paying for airfare and accommodations, and we'll be spending time learning more about the company and website and new things to come, as well as providing them feedback from a user standpoint.

Of course, there's always a dilemma involved when you're a work at home mom. I love the writing work I do, and am thrilled to be able to produce an income while staying at home with my kids. But when it comes down to it, I'm a mom before I'm a writer, these days.

As thrilled as I was to receive the invitation, and all the while realizing what an honor it is, I still had a hard time deciding about making the trip. Since I'm on the East Coast, the travel time will be lengthy and my kids will certainly miss me (and I them).

Having decided to make the trip, I am really looking forward to the experience and and will certainly post updates here on my blog as time goes on.

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!

WRG Hiring Freelance Business Writers

Writers' Research Group is hiring freelance business writers. If you're just breaking in to the writing world, this could be a great start. If you're a WAHM (work at home mom) with business/ career experience, this might be a good niche.

Writers Research Group: Great for New Freelance Writers

I no longer write for Writers' Research Group, and yet I recommend them to newbies trying to land their first online writing gigs. In general, I think the drawbacks of writing for any content company outweigh the benefits for established freelance writers. However, writing for a content company can be a godsend for a new freelancer and a great way to learn the ropes of online writing.

Writers' Research Group is essentially a middle man, contracting with new and established websites for writing and editing services, which they then outsource to freelance writers. The writers are not employees, but independent contractors. Writer's Research Group has its own small staff, including the company founders, and hires freelance editors as well as the writers.

Because of the overhead involved, writers make less per article writing through the contracting company than if they wrote directly for the websites. For example, if Writer's Research Group is paid $25 per article, they may pay their contracted writers $10 apiece. And yet, there are no employee benefits, such as health care or 401ks, because writers are essentially sub-contractors.

Another aspect to consider is the non-compete clause in Writers' Research Group's contract. If you write for them, you can't write for any of their clients within a one-year period after you end your contract.

Since there is an initial difficulty in establishing a good client base, new freelance writers might consider working for WRG. It's a great way to gain experience and learn the ropes of online writing. And you're virtually guaranteed steady work (even more than you can handle) when they are writing for a large contract.

However, if you have experience as a writer, I'd recommend looking elsewhere or consider writing directly for the websites. Case in point: I make $30 per article that I write for a new health-related site; Writers' Research Group writers are paid $10 each article. An article I would have sold to Writers' Research Group for $11 has earned over $150 on eHow. I've flown the coop, and I'm not looking back.

"How to Budget Money" Is a Hit

High schoolers should learn how to make a budget, and personal finance classes should be mandatory in college. In a perfect world. But the reality is, many adults come out of school financially illiterate.

So what do people turn to when their finances are a mess and they don't know how to get them cleared up? Internet searches, of course. Oh, I'm sure some check out books from the library--I fell into that category--but many start with Google.

It's interesting to see what people are searching for on Google, and how those trends change with the times. On eHow of late, personal finance topics are big. A simple how-to on budgeting, How to Make a Budget, has already received hundreds of hits, even though it hasn't been ranked by Google for its main keywords.

In fact, my other recent articles on money topics, such as How to Avoid Paying Private Mortgage Insurance, How to Get Out of Debt Fast and How to Make Money in a Recession are also popular. As you see, they're timely topics.

If you're concerned about your writing career surviving tough financial times and a possible recession, look for a niche that will explode, and get writing now. The finance and money topics will be done to death, so be creative. What aspects of life will change in an economic downturn? What specific areas will people try to save money in? Niche and grow rich.