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:
- How to Do the Small Things That Make Her Smile, Laugh, and Love You Even More
- How to Get Rock Hard Abs Using Ankle Weights
- How to Ask Your Parents to Move Back Home
- How to Properly Hold a Trumpet
- How to Blog Surf to Increase Traffic to Your Website or Blog
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.
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{ 18 comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below) }
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
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
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
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 =)
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.
Hey, those are great earnings for brand new articles, seriously!
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!
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!
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
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.)
Nice and usefull post, thanks, this is one for my bookmarks!
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!
Hi
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
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!
How do taxes work on ehow.com?
I’m wondering whether to write to your own site would be more profitable at long term than writing to someone else’s site.
What you thing?
nice article dude
thanx for the info
Interesting idea. Good luck to you! You should do a follow up at the end of year and let us know how it goes.