My Big Little Experiment Writing at eHOW

I was so inspired by an interview I read at WritingForYourWealth.com about an eHow contributor, that I just had to try something crazy. For those of you who don’t know what eHow is, it’s a website where you can contribute “How To” articles and get paid for the money made through advertising on your particular articles.

You can honestly write about anything, so it’s a good website for people who may not know enough about one subject, or are just itching to start writing without going through the process of starting a blog and all of that technical stuff.

My big little experiment is this:

I will write an average of 5 “how-to” articles every day for an entire year.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking – that’s freaking crazy! But really, it’s not. I can think of a lot of things to write about, and the articles are not really supposed to be too long – just informative. After a year, that’s about 1,825 articles. I can do it. Now that I’m unemployed working from home, it won’t be that hard to average 5 a day – I think.

I’m curious as to how long before I start to see money in my name through eHow, as well as how much I could be making. If you read the interview from writingforyourwealth, you can see that there is money to be made. The best part is, it is entirely passive income. Again, it’s the idea that you’re putting in the work now, to earn more money down the road later for little or no work at all.

I joined two days ago and have already written 10 articles. It’s actually quite fun. Plus, the community of people at eHow are honestly really friendly. I’ve met quite a few friends already, and everyone provides good feedback and constructive criticisms on your articles.

So that’s what I’m going to do. I will report on SmartPassiveIncome once a month to let you know how I’m doing with my big little experiment.

Here are just some of the articles I’ve written already, from a variety of topics:

I put that last one in there for you. Check it out, see what it looks like, and leave me a comment if you’d like.

Again, as you can see I’m writing about things I know about (except having rock hard abs, haha!) and this is actually really fun for me. I like how keyword research and google rankings actually have a great deal to do with how much money your article could potentially earn. I think I have an edge because I know a little bit about those things already.

Have you ever thought of writing on eHow? It’s free to join, so why not give it a shot and join me in my big little experiment.

Posted on : November 5th, 2008

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18 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)

Reply Lindsay on November 5th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

Doh, and here I was imagining you with rock hard abs, Pat.

I’ll be interested to hear about your results. Personally, I avoid putting too much energy into sites run by other people. I guess the pessimist in me always asks the question–what happens if the company is bought out or something?

That said, I think it can be a good way to get your name out there, make some money, and maybe drive some traffic to your own sites. I made a few lenses with Squidoo and have gotten some visitors from there. And obviously eHow is working well for Maria.

Anyway, good luck!

Lindsay´s last blog post..Writer Making $1,000+ a Month from eHow Shares Advice

Reply Write for eHow on November 6th, 2008 at 7:02 am

Wow! That’s a great goal. And you definitely have an edge because of your knowledge of SEO. I’ll be watching closely to see how it goes. Good luck!

Julie

Write for eHow´s last blog post..eHow Author Shares Residual Income Writing Success

Reply Sarah H. on November 6th, 2008 at 9:25 am

What a great goal! I wish you success with this experiment. I’m off to check out eHow and your new articles.

Sarah H.´s last blog post..I’ll Be Homemade for Christmas – An Introduction

Reply Pat on November 6th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

Hi everyone! Thanks for the comments. It’s been two days, and I finally saw my first set of earnings. I made a whopping $0.38 cents!

I’m actually pretty impressed. To see earnings this quickly was a surprise to me. Just think, if I get only $0.38 cents a day, that’s almost an extra $200.00 a year. I’m bound to make more, especially because I’m writing new articles every day. Sweet!

I’ll keep you updated =)

Reply Maria on November 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

Pat, I will be following your experiment and hope it is hugely successful. Reading your interview about your ebook success was very inspirational to me, and I am happy I could encourage you as well. Best of luck and I really think your job loss opens you up to so much potential! Best of luck.

Reply WriterGig on November 7th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Hey, those are great earnings for brand new articles, seriously!

Reply jen brister on November 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Hey Pat, thanks for the comment! Those non how to articles are ones that I wrote through Demand Studios. I am paid an upfront amount for those, but no residuals. I’m not sure if there’s a way yet to change the title format for articles posted directly through ehow. Right now, I’m working on writing through ehow and other sites that let me earn residuals…I think that’s how I’m going to be able to quit my full time job next year!

Reply Janet Ford on November 11th, 2008 at 9:05 am

That is a great goal. You can do it. I’ll be cheering you on. I once gave myself a personal challenge of how many ehow articles I could write (and submit to social bookmarking sites such as stumble upon and digg) in a 24 hour period while still ‘going on with life’ such as caring for and training our dogs in our show kennel, caring for husband and teenagers, cleaning house and cooking – even mowing 1+acre of lawn! I wrote 29 articles that day!

Reply Felicia on November 15th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Way to go Pat! You can do it.

I’m going to keep checking to see how you do. I did a small challenge when I first started about a month and a half ago. I wanted to write 100 articles in my first 30 days. I was able to do it and have been earning money steadily since then.

I’m taking a little break, but I’ll be back on it too. You are an inspiration!

Keep up the good work. You can do it!

Felicia´s last blog post..My eHow Experiment

Reply Lisa Russell on November 17th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

Funny, I write three a day, I started Nov 1st. I thought it was interesting that your writing process didn’t involve keyword research. What’s up with that? I can’t wait to go see the calculation. If you can accurately project passive income with all the relative variables, I think you’re amazing. I’m an excel spreadsheet fanatic, and I have tracked my income growth based upon the percentage of articles in my body of work, but I really haven’t seen a pattern (except that it does increase each month.)

Reply House Cleaning on November 28th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Nice and usefull post, thanks, this is one for my bookmarks!

Reply a trendy name » Experimenting with eHow on March 9th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

[...] yourself upside down? Sure, why not. As long as you can explain it, it can be an eHow article. Pat mentions about writing 5 articles per day for a year totaling 1,825 articles. I prefer something [...]

Reply RachelB on April 4th, 2009 at 9:16 am

I enjoy reading about your about your eHow Writing Experiment. You are very motivated and it inspires me to keep writing. I have been enjoying writing for eHow for the past three months. My income is going up steadily, and the community is filled with interesting people. I bought WriterGig’s ebook, and that has helped. Some days I feel more inspired to write than others, but that is to be expected. Overall, I would say that it has been a very positive experience. Thanks again for writing about your eHow experiences!

Reply Mike on June 22nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm

Love your blog and all your great advice.

Would you happen to know if there is a similar site to e-How where non-US residents can earn income from writing How-To articles?

Keep up the great work
Mike

Reply My eHow Experiment - Day 4 Update and Initial Findings | The Smart Passive Income Blog on August 9th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

[...] it’s only day 4 of my Big Little Experiment Writing at eHow, and I have to say it’s been quite an experience already. I know I said I was going to update [...]

Reply My Monthly Report - November 2008 | The Smart Passive Income Blog on August 9th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
[...] Began writing articles for eHow.com [...]

Reply The Math Behind My eHow Experiment - 40k+ a year? | The Smart Passive Income Blog on September 27th, 2009 at 12:57 am

[...] My eHow Experiment – 40k+ a year? I spent time last night writing an article on eHow about my big little experiment, why I was doing it and how I will be able to easily write 5 articles a day. I was a little [...]

Reply Jeff Hopeck on January 29th, 2010 at 12:33 pm

Pat-
What keyword strategy are you using for your articles? I’ve learned that if you use VERY competitive keywords with 9,000-15,000 searches/month, you can get an ehow article on page 1. Provided you build about 20 links into it.

I really like your blog design. Stay in touch!