Best Way to Make Money as an Online Writer

Online writers are always asking me what I think is the best way to make money writing online. I have to go with blogging. Of course, if the question was about the fastest way to make money writing online, my answer would be completely different. However, there are many reasons I feel blogging is best the best way for online writers to make money with their online articles:

• Content Control - As a blogger, the online writer has complete control over the content of their blog. Online writers chose their topic and write. There are no editors to fuss with. No substandard online articles mixed with your online work.

• No Profit Sharing - As a blogger, you do not have to share your ad revenue with a writing website. Of course, the ad company you chose will take their cut, but a large portion of what you earn isn't given to another writing site.

• Total Responsibility - As a blogger, you are the only person responsible for the success or the failure of your blog. You can't blame others for rating your online articles poorly. You can't say that the website isn't promoting themselves properly. As an online writer, when you blog, it is up to you and no one else.

• Monetizing Options - As a blogger, you decide how you want to monetize your blog. You are not locked into the ad program that a writing site chooses for you. You look search for the ad and affiliate programs that work best for you and your online articles. You place the ads where you want them.

Blogging isn't the fastest way to make money as an online writer, but I feel it is the best way - when you are looking toward the future. When considering the long term, it is hard to beat the income you can earn with your online articles when you publish them on your blog.

Using Links to Our Advantage

As writers, we want the world to read our work. The wonderful creation of the internet has made that possible. Any writer with access to the internet can publish their articles. Getting the world to read our online articles is the issue. We need to ranked high on search engines. Getting on the first page of search engines, such as Google and Bing, isn't easy. However, it is possible to use links to help you get the first page ranking.

To clarify, a link is when you add the URL of another website to you work. This can be done in the body of your online article. By using "hyperlinks" that many online writing sites and blogs, you can copy/paste the URL of another website. An example of this would be the following: You will additional tips about using links here. Other times, you may have to type out the URL for the site you are linking.

These are just a few tips to help get your online articles to the world by using links to your advantage:

• Relevant Links - Make sure all of your links are relevant to the online article you are linking it to. If you wrote an online article about weight loss, you wouldn't link it to website about pets. You would link that online article to other websites and online articles about diets, healthy foods, exercise and such.

• Similar Links - Remember to link your articles to similar links. I am currently working on a humorous series for List My Five about rednecks. I am linking all of those "redneck lists" together, even though each list is on a different topic. This gives the reader to opportunity to read more about rednecks. And, to sweeten the process, the reader will be reading MY redneck online articles.

• Highly Ranked Websites Links - Do your best to link your online articles to highly ranked websites. You want to link to places that are on the first page of the major search engines. By doing this, you will help increase your own page ranking with those search engines.

• Traffic Boosting Links - Link your online articles to your own work as often as possible. This is extremely helpful. Not only are you boosting your page ranking to all of your online articles that are linked together, it can also help you create a fan base. Readers will see your style of writing in each of the linked online articles and, hopefully, fall in love with your work. They may start searching for other online articles you have written and read those as well.

One word of caution about using links: Be careful when linking your online work to other sites that have ads on them. You want to get as many ad clicks as possible without sending your readers somewhere else to click on the ads there. I do everything I can to avoid doing this. With only a few exceptions - writers I know personally and whose online work I really enjoy and writers who promote my online work. As a writer, I am just as competitive, if not more so, than other writers. Despite this, I know why I am now able to support my family with only ad/traffic revenue - help from others writers along the way. I return that favor as often as possible!

Using links correctly in your online writing will result in an increase in your page ranking. This is what all online writers want. As I've said before and will continue to say, "You can have the best online articles ever, but it means nothing if they are not read." You must do everything possible to increase your readership. Adding links will do this for you. It is quick, easy and painless. All you have to do is add the links and reap the rewards.

Keyword Density - Find the Right Mix for Your Online Writing

I received an interesting email last night. It was simple, concise and to the point: "How much is too much?" I emails back, asking how much of what is too much. My answered arrived just moments later. Again, it was short and sweet, "Keywords." Ahh, I understand now. How many keywords are too many?

Excellent question. Not  enough keywords in your online articles and your don't get indexed properly by search engines and you won't get the ads your shooting for. Too many keywords in your online articles and the search engines consider your work to be "spam" and won't index them at all. There has to be some sort of middle ground, but where is it?

With all of my searching, I have yet to find the magic number - the perfect ratio that will send your online work to the first page of all the search engines and get the ads you want. When I first started learning about keywords, I thought "less is more." I was such a "real world/non-online writer" at the time. "Less is more" is the standard when writing "out there."

Boy, was I wrong. I wasn't getting indexed and I wasn't getting the ads I wanted - errr, needed. Seeing my error, just like a driver trying to avoid a car accident, I over-compensated. My online work was so "keyword heavy" it read awkwardly. No ads and no first page on the search engines. Like the over-compensating driver, I avoided one accident and created another one.

I wasn't pleased. My online work was scripted and cold. I wasn't making money. I was going no where fast. So, I did my research. I read everything I could about keyword density. That made everything as clear as mud. There were as many keyword ratios as there were experts giving advice about keywords. I read everything from one percent to 12 percent. Some said it didn't matter; others said keyword density was all that mattered.

I have since learned that a good ratio is somewhere between three and six percent. Although nothing in online writing is chiseled in stone, that is a good ratio to strive for. Personally, I like to keep my keywords between five and six percent, leaning to closer to six percent. My work is getting the ads I want and, more importantly, my email inbox always has Google Alerts in it - telling me Google has picked up another one of my online articles.

There is no magic number. Because of this, I've learned to "play with keywords" in my online writing. If I'm not getting indexed on search engines or I'm not getting the ads I need, I will add keywords when my ratio is under 5.5 percent. When my keyword ratio is over 5.5 percent, I edit out the keywords. I keep playing around with it until my online article has been indexed and I'm getting the ads I was striving for.

Dying to know an easy way to figure out your keyword density? That will be in a later post. I've found some great tools for that and I'm using them to see which one I like the best.

Quantity vs. Quality

It seems obvious that for an online writer to be successful, they would need to publish  often. It stands to reason that the more online articles available to readers, the more page views the writer should be able to have. That can cause lots of problems. When writing a large quantity of online articles, it is quite common for the quality of those articles to begin to slip. Just another fine line we online writers must walk. We have to get our work out there and still maintain the highest level of quality possible. Online writers can't just "throw everything against the wall" to see what sticks. We must carefully plan our work.

I'm a "quality girl." I will always believe that one well-written online article will do better than 10 poorly written articles. Unfortunately, the numbers do not support my theory. Many writers do not care if their name is associated with poor writing. They are making money off those substandard online articles and not much else matters to them. My name is my brand (that is another topic all together; for more information click here) and I don't want my readers to see me as a poor online writer.

Truth be told, most readers do not notice the "little mistakes" that online writers make. Because of the informal style of most online writing, the rules of grammar can be bent some. (I think that actually physically hurt me to admit.) Of course, the "screaming mistakes" do get noticed. What is the difference in little mistakes and screaming mistakes? Not a clue; they all scream to me.

Will mistakes, of any kind, drive your readers away? Depends on the specific reader. Some do not mind. Others will be reading something else as soon as they spot the first mistake. It also depends on the type of online writing you are doing. When you are coming across as an expert in a specific area, mistakes will not help you appear to be an expert. If your are writing a "fun read," mistakes may not matter that much. (I felt another pain.)

So, which do you worry the most about - quantity or quality? Both. You must produce the highest quantity of articles that are of the highest quality. The fewer mistakes the better. Of course, all the information must be accurate. For me, it isn't worth the chance. I'd rather write few online articles than to have a reader refuse to read my work because of my mistakes.

Writing Teasers for Promotion

Although I am (almost) famous for being "The Queen of Useless Information," I've been told that I may soon become "The Teaser Queen" as well. That is due to the fact that I writer "teasers" to promote my online articles. I have found that my teasers increase my page views and, in turn, helps to increase my ad revenue.

Writing teasers is relatively easy when you keep your goal in mind. The goal of writing teasers is and should always be to get readers to read your online articles. The goal of teasers should never be to trick readers into clicking on your work. Once that happens a few times, readers tune out your teasers and the online work you are trying to promote will be ignored. These are a few tips to writing successful teasers that will draw in readers to your online articles:

• Know Your Online Article - Fully understand your online article. Keep in mind the keywords that you used. Know the purpose of your online article. Was that particular online article's purpose to inform readers of something? Was it suppose to entertain them with your wit? Was the online articles purpose to cause your reader to take some sort of action? Use the keywords and your online article's purpose to write a successful teaser.

• Understand Your Target Audience - Think about who you wrote your online article for. If you wrote it for anybody and everybody, what type of person do you think would be most likely to read your online article? I'm not just talking about demographics, but also the "emotional side" to your reader. Write a teaser for that person that will make them want to write more.

• Use Humor When Appropriate - Almost everyone likes a good laugh now and again. Teasers can be humorous, if your online article is not serious. Make sure that your funny teasers do not mislead your readers into thinking they will be reading one thing and it turns out to be something completely different.

These are a few of the most successful teasers I have used.  I'm not going to tell you what online article they will lead you to. I'm going to "tease" you into clicking on the links. Use these ideas to write your own teasers.

• I sleep in chains. I even have a list of favorite chains to use.

• It isn't my fault if you start humming.

• Get them off the dog and have some fun.

• Read past the first paragraph before you judge me.

• There is a hyperbole in my lap.

Now that you have a few ideas, start writing some teasers to promote your online work. Remember to always be honest and never mislead your readers. As you begin to write and use teasers to promote your online articles, you will see an increase in your traffic and revenue.

Keyword of the Day - Rugs USA

The keyword of the day for January 7th is Rugs USA.

As of the publication date, the CPC for Rugs USA is $1,278.96. Nice little chunk of change for online writers to play with! The competition is fairly high, but Rugs USA can be used in all sorts of creative ways to bring in ads.
 
Never heard of Rugs USA? Neither had I until I started researching "flooring covering" for an online article I was writing about home decorating. Neither "floor covering" or "home decorating" had a high CPC, but, thankfully, I found out about Rugs USA. It is a website that has all sorts of rugs available. I was pleased to learn that the prices at Rugs USA were very competitive and the site was easy to use.
 
How can you incorporate Rugs USA into an online article? Try a home decorating article like I did. I am even considering doing an online article that compares different online stores whose websites are easy to use. Yes, I was that impressed with the Rugs USA website. I even wrote something about donations to give to animal shelters and rescues and incorporated Rugs USA into that. The possibilities are only limited by imagination and how much effort you want to put into adding Rugs USA into your online article.