A sample text widgetEtiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa. Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan. Morbi orci magna,tincidunt vitae molestie nec,molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,suscipit in posuere in,interdum non magna. | I have this awesome friend named Kerrie,who is a mom-of-many like me,and a freelance writer. She blogs at TheKerrieShow.com and everything she writes is hilarious and heartwarming. Gotta love her! Anyway,back in 2009 when I was focusing on Internet-based Income,Kerrie was focusing on getting published in regional parenting magazines,instead. Kerrie didn’t have Internet access at her house and I remember getting quick notes from her when she took her laptop (and truckload of kids) to her sister’s house or to McDonalds to use the Internet. I remember thanking God that I had internet at my house,I felt so sad that she had to limit her time online and wondered if maybe she’d make more money if she could work more. But Kerrie was a hundred times smarter than I was at the time,because she was writing just a few articles and reselling them to local parenting publications. She had discovered that there are hundreds of publications directed toward parents and that many of them are regional in nature,so that their markets exist in isolation of one another. Some do have local competition,and an important part of Kerrie’s business was keeping track of the overlaps and selling the same articles all over the country. Luckily for me,as I sit here trying to work without Internet access at home,Kerrie has compiled the results of all of her research into an eBook and spreadsheet (Yes,you know I love spreadsheets) that lists of the markets,plus their terms,any overlapping markets,the name and contact information of the editor,their payment schedule and other pertinent information. She also shares with us the tracking form she uses to make notes about which magazines she’s sent which article to. She’s not kidding when she says she makes the most selling reprints,she has articles that have been sold for $10-$50 ten times over. Genius,isn’t she! She shares with you her system for keeping track of everything and gives advice for how to sell the most articles in her eBook. She also gives advice for understanding lead times and other magazine publishing facts that can help your writing business. Anyway,I plan to sift through my archives for pieces that would be suited for parenting publications. She also has special-interest parenting publications,like homeschooling,special needs and even one especially for fathers. So,there’s that. Wish me luck.. if you’d like to play along,purchase a copy of Kerrie’s eBook and follow along with me. Subscribe to my site and let’s both resell our articles to multiple publications for many individual prices. Let’s do it,come on… Buy Kerrie’s eBook and spreadsheet today. I can’t even explain how often a frantic writer will reach out on the freelance writing forums,pleading for overflow assignments,with such catastrophes as “My power will be shut off tomorrow” or “If I wait until payday I will have a $50 fee” or “I need enough in my paypal to put gas in the car.” Let’s face it,sometimes you need cash NOW. I can’t help right this instant (unless you can go release mooney from your SocialSpark,SponsoredTweet or PayPerPost accounts. If you release under $50 from SocialSpark or PayPerPost,there is a $2 penalty but it’s sometimes worth it when you need instant cash.) OK,if none of the above solves your dilemma,then read onward to learn about how you can have today’s income deposited before you wake up in the morning. For more details,check out my free report “Work Today –Paid TODAY” It’s an Adobe .pdf file,hopefully I don’t need to explain how to access those,right? Enjoy! Hey guys,if you’ve been with me for a while then you’re already familiar with my income tracking spreadsheet. It’s really fun to use and easy to get started. Here are a few of the most popular features: - Enter your daily earnings ONCE
Automatically generated reports for - monthly profit and loss statements
- income per source
- income per month
- annual profit and loss statements
- daily average earnings per month
- pie chart of income sources
- bar graph of month-to-month progression
Business expenses categorized the same as IRS categories makes for EASY tax deductions - Up to 24 sources of income
- Profiles of 11 different resources for easy online income generation
But…the very best part is that you get to CHOOSE how much you’ll pay for it. Here in the midst of the holiday shopping season,I know that some of us,especially those of us with six children,need to make every dollar count. You get to choose your pricing plan. Choose $5,$10,$20 or $50. ALSO –When you purchase the spreadsheet,you’ll automatically get five AWESOME BONUS FREEBIES:1. Inside the Minds of Winners,by Charles Burke 2. The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles 3. Think and Grow Rich,by Napoleon Hill 4. Public Speaking Principles and Practice 5. Report- Write Today,Get Paid Today
One important thing I learned in this business is that if you want people to take you seriously,you need to take YOURSELF seriously. No more penciling in your expected pay on the family calendar. No more looking up your stats to see what you earned last month,no more regarding your time as hobby time. There are too many diversions online and offline to believe that you’re going to make a decent income without TRYING and when you have actual numbers to see your progress (or lack of it) it’s VERY EASY to get back on track. Let 2012 be the year that you turn this crazy Internet business into actual income. Looking at the numbers will help you learn where you need to focus your business. Go for it. You know you can do this. If wild-and-crazy Lisa can do this,so can you. If I can build my business and support our family of 8 for 2 years,so can YOU. You’ve got this…all you need is the damned spreadsheet. Seriously. It makes SUCH a difference. Here is a sneak peek of how it works: When you start off,all you need ot do is enter your income sources in one column  In the yellow column,replace the generic text with your income sources After your income sources have been entered into the yellow column,they automatically appear in the columns on every month of the spreadsheet. As your business expenses are entered,they automatically show up on your expense reports and in your profit and loss statements for the year and for each individual month. After that,all you need to do is wait patiently for January 1st,2012 so you can begin filling in each cell with your daily income from every resource.  Every day,enter the amount of money you're making from every income source The cells you can type into are green. Notice how the top row is populated with the same income-source names that were entered into the yellow column during the first step. It’s SO EASY and works like magic <3 After you begin entering some income,you can click back over to the cover tab and see that it automatically updates with the amount of money you’ve made on each website for the month. This is so handy when you want to compare sites by month,at-a-glance.  Income Tracker automatically calculates the money you've made on every website you're writing for OK,and that’s not even the coolest part yet. Click over to the “reports”tab and check out the awesome little charts it makes,to show you “just the numbers”in your profit and loss reports. You can also scroll down for a cute little pie chart that shows you where the bulk of your income is coming from and also a month-to-month column chart of your total earnings.  Income tracker spreadsheet automatically calculates your profit and loss  Income Tracker Spreadsheet for freelance writers keeps track of who pays you the most  Every month,a new bar appears to show you how your earnings stack up It’s SO EASY and I love it. I hope you do,too <3 And don’t forget…when you purchase the spreadsheet,you’ll automatically get five AWESOME BONUS FREEBIES:1. Inside the Minds of Winners,by Charles Burke 2. The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles 3. Think and Grow Rich,by Napoleon Hill 4. Public Speaking Principles and Practice 5. Report- Write Today,Get Paid Today
I’ve been using Blogsvertise.com since August of 2010 and I’ve completed 480 tasks since then. I currently have 17 websites approved and they’re one of my favorite sites for selling sponsored posts. Their system is easy to use. Assignments are delivered via email,but don’t just sit around waiting for one,especially when you’re new. Each day (on each of your sites) you’re allowed to pull a task from the “Grab bag”when the grab bag has assignments you’re eligible for. I use my iPhone to check for grab bag assignments several times a day and sit down almost every day to write them all. In addition to flat rate posts,they have affiliate link opportunities,but I don’t use those very often. From my experience,tasks range in value from $6-$25. They pay via PayPal for each post one month after approval. I’ve noticed that I don’t get payments over the weekend and every now and then it seems they’ll skip a day. Overall,they’re very easy to work with. So,I was looking for similar websites to write sponsored posts for and here’s what I found: SocialSpark.com I’ve actually been signed up with SocialSpark since they first opened and I’m consistently impressed with their professionalism and integrity. They’re very picky about the blogs they accept. The process for getting assignments here is a little more labor intensive than it is a Blogsvertise. Advertisers first send you a lead,which you can accept or decline. Once they get all the accepted leads back,they choose which blogs they’ll offer assignments to. Once you get an offer,you use their interface to write the post,which is then sent in for approval BEFORE they upload it to your blog. The process for getting your websites approved is more complicated. I currently have three sites approved for posting at SocialSpark. I make around $50 a month over there. I’m sure I’d make more if I added more of my websites to their directory but they’re not all eligible because their requirements are different. The payment there is a little different,they work on a point system and each point is worth a penny. A post that’s valued at 1642 points is worth $16.42. Points are released into your account 30 days after the post is approved and you can cash out when you reach 5000 points (or $50). Actually –you CAN cash out sooner,but there’s a $2 fee for cashing out before $50. They also pay via Paypal and the funds are deposited instantly when you request it. OK,I talked about this before,back in February of 2010 when I wrote about Making Money by Selling Photos Online. At that time,I didn’t have a badass camera,but now I do. Previous attempts to upload photos have resulted in rejection,so now I am trying it again today with photos taken with my new Canon EOS Rebel T2i ,which isn’t a top of the line camera,by far,but it does take decent pictures (way better than any point-and-shoot I’ve had). I got some great advice from a pro photographer,he said to know your camera like you know your body and to always have it with you. I don’t think he even owns a lens cap,he even snaps pictures while he’s driving. “One of those will come out,”he says as he’s snapping photos of a bridge (several hundred feet above the sea). So here I am,attempting to learn about my camera and snap ten million pictures,hoping to capture a few of the magic moments I get to witness all day long. Cross your fingers today that my uploads are accepted… I’m going to try sticking with iStockPhoto because I like their interface and the photography blogs I’m reading seem to be happy with their service and also with Fotolia because I like their mass-upload method. 
I just completed a brand new WordPress installation on a new niche site. Actually- I’ve been writing about homeschooling for a very long time and I have hundreds of articles about homeschooling on OTHER websites,but for some reason I didn’t have a homeschool niche site of my own. Lame,I know. Apparently 18,000 people a month search for “homeschool free”every month,so I’d like to officially create one incoming link to introduce Homeschooling for Free at homeschool-free.com Anyway- I noticed that there was an d banner at the top,to let me know that JetPack was some new “thing”and I went ahead and installed it to figure it out. According to the documentation,“Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that supercharges your self-hosted WordPress site with the awesome cloud power of WordPress.com.”Some of the features included in the JetPack are: - Simple,concise stats with no additional load on your server. Previously provided by WordPress.com Stats.
- The WP.me URL shortener.
- Hovercard popups for your commenters via Gravatar.
- Easily embedded media from popular sites like YouTube,Digg,and Vimeo.
- For the Math geeks,a simple way to include beautiful mathematical expressions on your site.
- A widget for displaying recent tweets. Previously provided by Wickett Twitter Widget
- Your readers can easily share your posts via email or their favorite social networks. Previously provided by the Sharedaddy WordPress plugin.
- Your writing will improve thanks to After the Deadline,an artificial intelligence based spell,style,and grammar checker. Previously provided by the After the Deadline WordPress plugin.
- and many more to come!
So it looks to me like JetPack is just a bundle of helpful plugins. I haven’t spent much time on WordPress.com,so I’m not sure if the “awesome cloud power”is as exciting as they make it out to be. I guess we’ll find out,won’t we. If you have any experiences with Jetpack (good or bad) please let me know in the comment section,thank you  Someone recently wrote in asking about the Demand Studios Blog Network and I was impressed because I hadn’t heard of it before. There are other networks out there,like BlogLines,Technorati,Media Caffeine,Networked Blogs on Facebook (and really,there are several more) but how do you choose? Is it smart to join all of them? What are the benefits and drawbacks of joining a blog network? What kind of information will they need and what should you expect in return? Making Money Through Blog NetworksA lot of bloggers avoid placing ads on their blog because they don’t want to look commercial. When you join a blog network,you can generally expect that there will be ads placed alongside your content. You likely will not get a choice about those ads. A blogger who was writing against pharmaceutical ADD treatment for children was very annoyed to see ads for ritalin and other meds alongside her article. Getting Traffic from Blog NetworksSome networks aren’t set up for monetization. Networked blogs on Facebook,for example,is designed to help you increase your traffic and show off your followers,making it easy for the lowest-tech readers to follow you and share your articles with the Facebook interface they’re familiar with. Getting New Visitors From a Blog NetworkSome networks are set up to promote their members like an online magazine,like Blogher and Media Caffeine. Your blog is fed through their site and they pick and choose which blogger’s articles will get their attention by sending hand-picked selections through their email list and showcasing them on a front page. Signing up for Blog NetworksWhen you sign up for a Blog Network,they will generally need your RSS feed address. If you don’t know what that is,they can generally auto-detect it from your site’s URL. They may also want you to set up a profile page. Don’t take this step lightly,use it as a tool for promoting your business,always add an interesting picture and avoid using dates or other content that isn’t evergreen. If the site will be paying you a percentage of the ad income generated,they may want your paypal address or your Google Adwords pub account number. Protect Your ContentOne legitimate concern about blog networks is that they essentially profit from having several bloggers adding their content to the network’s site. It’s true,they do. If you don’t like this,you might want to think twice about joining. For some bloggers,the value of joining a bigger network is worth the risk,though and there are still ways to protect yourself. #1- Set up your feed so that it contains excerpts,not entire posts. This may annoy some of your readers. Bloggers have decisions to make,too. #2- Make sure you’re using internal links to your other work. Most networks keep your internal links intact. Use this to your advantage by making sure readers have the option of getting back to your blog. #3- Always check your page on the network to see how a reader will see it. Are they able to see your profile picture/ If they click on it,will they be directed to your profile page or directly to your blog’s front page? #4- Watch your stats. Has the networked increased your traffic? Does the network have a positive effect on your traffic? Does the network give you access to their site stats? Do you have experience with blog networks?Have you found creative ways to handle the ups and downs of maintaining a relationship with a network? Have you made a lot of money or gained a lot of traffic with a blog network? I’d love to hear about it. SocialSpark SocialSpark is a company that pays you to blog on your own website. It’s best for niche bloggers who want to eek a little extra cash from their site,bloggers who are having trouble making money with keyword-based advertising models like adsense and all writers who enjoy the challenge of writing impromptu posts on a wide variety of topics. Social Spark was recently given a remodel:Here’s the rundown. Getting a Blog ApprovedWhen you first join,you need to submit your blog for approval. It can take a few days to get approved. Look closely at their requirements and make sure that you’re not wasting their time. You’ll need a chronological archive visible on the front page. You’ll need a disclaimer,a statement of disclosure or other legal statement,letting your readers know that you post sponsored content. If you’re running google ads on your site,it’s a good idea to make sure you have a privacy policy in place,too. Choosing a Minimum RateWhen you apply,you’ll be asked to choose a minimum rate. I have doubled mine,from the initially recommended 500 points to 1000 points,across all of my sites. Each point is worth a penny,and I don’t personally want to write even a measly blog post for $5. Especially when you need to reach 5000 points to cash out (without penalty) Choosing Categories and Describing your BlogThis is an important part of the process. Prospective advertisers won’t likely read your blog,but they will read your description and they will check out your keywords and your categories. They may want to advertise on sites that talk about “green living”or sites that talk about “parenting and preschool”or something like that. When you describe your site,think like an advertiser and try to use language that helps them classify you. Even if you think you are vague,try to write a focused description. instead of saying “I write on a variety of topics”Say “I write about health &fitness,family living,recipes,early childhood education and marriage.”If you don’t sound interesting,rewrite your description. Allowing Izea to Publish (for WordPress)The easy way is just to enter your username and password. My way isn’t the easy way,but it feels more secure to me: SocialSpark uses the same xmlblabla interface that your post-by-mobile-device uses. So if you’re using the WordPress app on your iPhone,then you’re already set up to allow SocialSpark to publish to your site. I STRONGLY recommend you go into your dashboard and create a user account just for SocialSpark. This way,you’re free to change your own password as often as you like,without resetting your password through Izea. For the email address,I just use Izea@whatevermydomainis.com because it gets forwarded to me anyway and because there’s really nothing that’s going to be sent there. Also- these posts only need to stay on your site for the 30 days it takes you to get paid. SO- I make a habit of deleting sponsored posts over 60 days old. Sometimes the actual “paid”can take a few extra days so I tend to just keep mine live for 2 months just to be safe. When do I start Writing?Now that your account is set up,all you do is wait. An advertiser will first make a proposition to you (called a “lead”) and you’ll be asked to accept or decline the lead. The only things I generally decline are pharmaceutical posts and baby formula posts. I used to decline disposable diaper posts,but I learned that I can discuss the benefits of cloth diapers even while I’m posting a link to a disposable diaper company. Anyway- what you accept or decline is your business. After you accept a lead,the advertiser goes through their pool of potential bloggers and chooses who they REALLY want to work with. Hopefully,it’s you. If it is,you will get an email from SocialSpark. the subject line will read “You have received a new SocialSpark offer from…” Creating the PostIn the email,you’ll be given a link to take you to your SocialSpark dashboard where you compose the post. in the main column,you’ll see the advertiser’s description. Read it thoroughly,a few times if necessary. Sometimes they’re very specific about what they want you to do. You’re always free to use your own writing style and your own opinions,but the advertisers still want to be sure your readers know about their specific offerings,too. On the left sidebar,you will see mandatory tracking links,codes for images and links to the advertiser’s site. It sounds complicated,but all you really do is drag &drop them into your post,wherever you want them. After you’ve written your post,you can change the color of the “this is a sponsored post”graphic if you want,or rewrite the disclaimer text if you want. I tend to not do that,but I can see where it might be a good idea to link to your privacy policy or advertising disclaimer. I’m done,now what?After you’ve submitted,you wait again. The advertiser can accept,reject or request a rewrite. I’ve never seen an advertiser reject. I’ve been asked for a rewrite when I failed to include a detail the advertiser specifically requested. If your post is approved,you’ll get an email of congratulations. Once the 30 day waiting period is over,you’ll get another email telling you that you’ve been paid. Which isn’t completely accurate,the points have been added to your account but you won’t get paid until you request a disbursement. You could request it before you reach 5000 points ($50),but it results in a $2 loss. You could choose to let it all sit there and add up,too. It might be a wise way to save for the holidays. They pay via PayPal. Surely you have an account,right? When I was actively writing for Suite101,I felt that creating backlinks was a waste of time. Like Felicia,I felt that SEO was enough,and my higher-than-average earnings and traffic was a testament. I wrote about the philosophy in the post How Much Time Should You Spend Promoting Your Articles Since then,Google has changed its algorithm several times and backlinks,especially from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter,are now more valuable than ever. Put simple,when google sees people sharing and tweeting your article,they think it must be high quality. In order to (painlessly) get my work into the social networks,I have implemented a few automatic (lazy) ways of creating backlinks. Add Your Blog Feed to FacebookI use the Networked Blogs application on Facebook to automatically bring in the RSS feed from my websites into facebook. Some readers choose to “follow”through networked Blogs,and I make it easy for them by adding the widget to the sidebar. Facebook Business PageI have a page for every single niche blog I own. The Rss feed for the site is filtered through each page. I try to add other content regularly,sharing the work of other writers and adding value for the people who read the site. I also tag (using the @ sign) well-followed pages and people in the niche in order to make my site’s page show up in their Newsfeed. this results in more traffic and more link-shares. Also in my sidebars,I use the Facebook social plugins to show pages on my site which have been shared and the avatars of my followers. Readers won’t know they can follow you on Facebook if you don’t show them. Make it Easy For Your ReadersLet them do the work,right! I use the Sociable plugin for WordPress on most of my sites. On some sites,I’m experimenting with using JUST a Facebook and Twitter icon. If you search for “free Facebook icons”or “free social networking icons”you’ll find graphic designers who are willing to give away graphic sets,in exchange for a backlink. I usually add their info to the “About”page,along with a thumbnail of the image they provided. There are so many cute ones available,you might spend hours browsing all of the collections. They’re really a great way to make your site look more customized. PLUS- it’s a highly visible way for readers to share your work and that is the goal. Auto-TweetingI use the Facebook to Twitter application at facebook.com/twitter and I have each of my sites set up to automatically tweet. Here’s the hitch- you can only use this application to send each page to one twitter account. What I’ve done is set up twitter accounts that cross several of my niches For example,@WAHomeschool tweets posts about kids activities,homeschooling,homeschool conventions,homeschooling high school,personal blog posts and the work of other writers in those niches relevant to families homeschooling in Washington. I have just a few twitter accounts and each of them has multiple websites feeding into them,some of which are mine. I share these accounts with other writers in my niches,so we can both benefit from shared efforts.
Not-so-Lazy Methods that Aren’t a Waste of TimeCrafty TrackbacksEvery now and then,I use a google search to find sites that publish dofollow trackbacks in my niche. Then,I find a post my readers would enjoy,and I link to it from my most recent (fabulous) entry. On the other person’s site,it shows up in the comment section. Comments (NEVER SPAM)When I’m researching for a new blog post,I leave a comment wherever I’ve researched. In my post,I try to reference the original post and then I leave them a comment,thanking them for their contribution to the discussion. I link the comment to the specific post instead of just my main URL. Message BoardsA lot of time,I write my posts in response to a discussion that’s going on in a message board. It’s a great way to get fresh topics and to serve the community-of-readers,by addressing their most pressing needs. Once I’ve written the post,I often post an excerpt of my response on the board (as a message) and add the URL of my post to the end,for people who want to read the rest. All of my successful niches are in topic areas I’m personally interested in,so I’m already researching and discussing these topics anyway. To me,even the not-so-lazy methods are rewarding beyond the value of the backlink. ReTweeting,Long termHootSuite has a method of creating future tweets and future Facebook posts by uploading a spreadsheet or CSV file. Even when I’m not creating content,I can be creating future backlinks to my work. I’ve done this with my seasonal articles mostly,setting the Christmas articles up to start being redistributed beginning each Thanksgiving,for the next several years. RePosting and ReWritingI have reposted my own content on other websites. I tend to rewrite it a little bit as I go,removing or rearranging paragraphs. Sites that get more traffic than my own,or have a higher pagerank are good candidates for this strategy. A link to my main site is in my bio line and I earn income from the ads on the other site. Within the article,there are links to other relevant articles on my sites. Or “How to steal ebooks.” I keep thinking I should write this from a different angle. I should reword this so that you can be sure your info-products are protected. But I think it’s valuable to see the technique I have used to hijack hundreds of ebooks over the years. Yes,it’s wrong. I’m not reselling them and half the time I don’t even read them. I’m in it for the thrill of the catch. OK- here’s how it usually works. Someone sends me a SPAM email about their awesome digital infoproduct that’s guaranteed to teach me a new system for making money online. Even if the content isn’t that compelling,I sometimes still try &see if I can hijack it. Just because. Here are the steps I take: Click on the Ad The first thing I do is click on the ad and visit the original vendor’s website. Once I’m there,I do a google site search for every file that’s indexed in their system,using site:nameofwebsite.com. or .pdf site:nameofsite.com That doesn’t work very often and when it does,frankly,I’m disappointed. Usually the results are thousands of copies of affiliate-branded free .pdf reports and a million blog articles from their site talking about the pdf file. 
The next step is to use Google’s Advanced Search feature to look for all .pdf files on that domain. I don’t often find it that way,but when I do,it’s a bummer. That was too easy.
The file is usually found on someone else’s server. And I NEVER EVER download from torrent sites,it’s just a personal pet peeve,viruses creep me out. In the image shown,the top red circle shows Name of Ebook in the “all of these words”but you may need to enter the exact name of the book in the field below (this exact wording or phrase). Another term you can use is the author’s name. But the most important thing about this screenshot is that you’re only searching for .pdf files. In the “file type”section,you select “.pdf files”and then click on the “Advanced search”button to reveal only the .pdf files that contain the words you’re searching for. I estimate that I have about an 80% success rate with this method. I actually have a little notepad file list of ebooks I have failed to find this way because when I publish MINE,those are the authors whose security tactics I will take seriously. Please use this information in an honest way. | |
