Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Record eHow earning day: $7.23


I was stoked when I saw a $2 day a few days ago, but today I killed that with $7.23 in earnings.  I am ahead of my goal of 25 articles a week.  I have been writing more about business which I've seen is a huge jump in costs per click.  I got stuck a few times though and wen I do I tend to go back to traveling.  A friend and I are planning a trip to Singapore and Japan, and I'm trying to see if I could pay for the trip with eHow earnings only.  Too ambitious?

Date: May 26, 2009
Articles Written:  80
Total Earnings: $25.20
Vertical Leap: improving

Saturday, May 23, 2009

This video is Brilliant

This video was featured at the Cannes Film Festival, and I thought it would be nice to share with you.....


Friday, May 22, 2009

Earnings and Article update, May 22nd

Date: May 22nd, 2009
Articles written: 65
Total Earnings: $12.94
Days on eHow: 25


I reached payout!  I have been averaging about $1 a day and have had some $2 days.  Today the earnings update was only about .50 cents but I guess that's the difference between one or two clicks.  I had to study hard for my 4.0 this semester, which is unusual, so earlier this week I got behind but I have plenty of time to write this weekend to catch up.  Most of my articles lately have been about travel and making money, which seems to get plenty of views.  There is still no algorithm for the perfect article, but maybe that will change as I go on and see what makes more money.  


The eHow earnings formula for new writers

Someone sent me a message the other day about how to calculate the earnings potential of eHow so I thought I would share it.  So far I am ahead of the curve when it comes to the formula, but
The formula is:  Take your total articles that are less than 4 months old and divide that number by two.  Then, take your total articles that are over four months old and multiply that number by two.  Add the two numbers and that is your average earnings per month.  

In other words, young articles should be making .50 cents a month and old articles about $2 a month.  As a few months go by those articles will slowly mature to $1 a month and up.  So, does this stack up with you?  Have your earnings been consistent with this formula?  Now obviously, if you are good with search engine optimization and write about good subjects, this number will be higher, and for me so far I'm finding out that it is.  Some of my articles are going to be starting out at $3 a month or more.  I'll post my earnings update as soon as it happens today.

Go Lakers!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Writing eHow articles that pay well

Myself, and every other writer on Ehow tries to figure out why some articles make so much money and why others don't.  In your head you try to create an algorithm for how to write a perfect article every time.  What is the magical formula to optimize keywords perfectly, and get the reader super pumped on your article at the same time?  I have heard of people even starting spreadsheets and studying them all day long.  

As you write with ehow, you will find that some random articles make awesome money every day, and some you thought you were going to retire on have 5 views and $0.00 in earnings a month later.  There is no real way to write perfect articles every time, but if you follow some guidelines, you can optimize your earnings.  Here's my 2 cents on the subject:

*Use Wordtracker to see what people are searching for.  Wordtracker allows you to see what people are searching for and the volume.  It is like ad-sense but it uses more complete sentences. 

*Ad-sense.  I use this with every article.  You can use google's free tool to see the volume and cost per click of searches.  Google is going to be your best friend because this is where your traffic will come from.  Sprinkle in the higher keywords in your articles to draw higher paying ads on your page.  Also, look at the competition, use lower competition for your titles and higher competition for your keywords, because this is what google bot uses to put ads on your pages.

* Be aware of the higher searched categories.  These tend to be personal finance and health.  Right now the fads are getting in shape, eating healthy and saving your tail during the recession.  

*Don't overdo the keywords.  Google's bot has been developed for over ten years and is more sophisticated than I want to know and it will throw your butt to the curb if it thinks your writing just for SEO.  Also, ehow will throw your article out if they think the same.  Write good, naturally flowing informative articles with some nice keywords every other step or so.  

*Try the long tail, but try the middle as well.  People will tell you that their highest paying articles are random ones.  This is true, but I have also seen good results with insurance and foreclosure articles.  The competition is enormous but if people get to your article, the average cost per click is as high as $30!

*Don't waste you time telling people to rate and comment on your articles.  This is kinda spammy and in bad taste.  Let people rate your articles as they deserved to be rated.  If you get a bad rating, maybe your article sucked and you need to revise it or add more content.

*Stay involved in the forums to stay up on the news of the site and what people are saying, it pays to stay informed!  


Saturday, May 16, 2009

Welcome!



Welcome to the "Johnny's Ehow Experiment" section of the internet.  I am a starving college student who recently found out that he has no job and is running out of money.  After reading a blog about the Ehow writer's compensation program, and how much money people were making, I decided to give it a try.  This blog is here to document my progress as a writer on ehow and to see what the real earnings potential of the site is.  Is it possible to write for eHow full time?  Over the next couple of months we'll see....

HOW I GOT IN THIS SITUATION:

Over the course of my life I have done some lucrative things.  After a friend and I made a pretty decent living selling iPhones, we decided to skip town and head back to Europe.  It was a fantastic trip, visiting relatives in Sweden and such.  On my return, I found out that my screen printing business had vanished into another dimension and I had no way to make money.  I decided to finally get a normal job, but during a bad recession, "starving college student" isn't enough on a resume to get hired.  After reading about Ehow's writer compensation program, I decided to give it a try.         

GOALS:
The goal I have set is to write at least 25 articles a week.  I plan on doing 5 articles a day, 5 days a week, and on the weekends I can either get ahead or catch up if I had a day that was just too busy to write.  The articles have to be QUALITY, I can't just write mumbo jumbo to get my count up.  If you read the about me, 

TOTALS:
Articles written: 44
  Money made:  About $5   

I'll be updating every week with my totals, and hopefully blogging more than that about my findings and what not.  I would love for you to subscribe and follow along as I try to do the impossible, become a full time eHow writer!