Posts Tagged ‘Earn cash from writing’

7
Mar

Internet Marketing is NOT a “Get Rich Quick Scheme”

   Posted by: Dave    in Internet, Marketing, Writing

Get Rich Quick with Internet Marketing? – Don’t make me laugh

This week has been so busy.  To be honest about it, I was unprepared for the amount of work this new direction would entail.

Internet marketing has a bad reputation because so many people running the courses are scam artists teaching bad information or maybe nothing at all.  I have been lucky in that the people I am involved with seem genuine and the information supplied checks out, at least so far.  It has been refreshing to have it explained why it takes so much work to be successful.

So, as I am so happy with my new associates am I going to name them?  The short answer is “No”.  The reason why is that until a cheque is cashed and in my bank account it could well all be wrong and it would be incorrect of me to promote an unproven idea.  I hope you understand.

Developing the New Websites

My last post mentioned that I am now the proud owner of six new websites.  This actually isn’t quite factual.  What I should have said is “I now own six new domains”.  This difference doesn’t sound like much does it?  So what is the difference?

The difference is about 60,000 words!  Yes, you read that correctly.

What is more remarkable is that the majority of those words are used in marketing the sites, not in content on the actual pages.  Content on the six sites will be maybe 25-30% of that total.  Or at least this percentage will remain true during the time it takes for the sites to establish themselves.  While I am grateful for the new knowledge that I have gained about making money on the internet, I do wonder if just writing that novel would have been easier!

To put things in perspective, minimum manuscript length for science fiction novels tends to be about 85,000 words.  A short story, suitable for submission to a professional magazine like Fantasy and Science Fiction starts at around 5,000 words.  Writing articles of this length is starting to look very reasonable recently!

This last week has seen two of the sites come into existence.  It is far too early to say if they will bring any real income but they are at least up on the web and the initial phase is finished.

The Search for Financial Security

So why do all this work?  Well, two reasons.  Firstly, I hope that in the long term I can make a small residual income from the advertising on these websites.  Second, if this happens, then it will take the pressure off my personal financial situation following my hospitalisation and all that goes with it.

Financial security will enable me to write that darned elusive novel with a clean conscience.

That is the plan anyway…

Dave

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13
Feb

Writing for money

   Posted by: Dave    in Internet, Writing

Of late, I have been writing under the assumption that a professional writer writes for money.  Not exactly astounding is it?  Actually, yes it is.  It turns out many writers do not make money from writing and I have long been one of them.  I dream of becoming a professional writer, where my income from writing could replace any income from a “normal job”, so what have I been doing wrong?

Unfortunately, most of my previous writing has not been produced with an eye to making money.  In short, my writing was a hobby.  While there is nothing wrong with writing for pleasure, surely you can write mostly the same things and write for profit?

Well, I have now started out on the road to see if I can make money from writing articles for the web and still enjoy it.  It is early days but it has been fun so far.  I am once again the proud owner of an Adsense account and have also signed up for Kontera inline ads and a few other services that should help me “monetise” my writing.  And yes, “monetise” was in quotes as I view it as a contemptible phrase used by internet marketers, such as myself!

If you are feeling brave then my first attempt at a hubpage is now in existence at http://hubpages.com/hub/What-is-Chess and you might want to take a look at my personal profile in my Conflagrant persona also.  The plan is to take part in the 30 pages in 30 days challenge on hubpages.com and see if I can make a small amount of regular income as well.

Why am I writing in a persona?  Well, originally I opened the account under this name as I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to be publically associated with writing hubpages primarily for cash.  Then I got real, realised that I am not Stephen King and just got on with it.  At some point I will open another hubpage.com account and write under my real name, but for now Conflagrant can have his fun.

Dave Felton

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8
Feb

TANSTAAFL – There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch

   Posted by: Dave    in Writing

TANSTAFAAFL

“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” – attributed to Robert Heinlein in his 1966 book The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  It is a great book.  Buy it and read it if you haven’t already.

When I set out writing this blog one of the things that I fully intended to avoid was giving bad or unsound advice.  Therefore as a beginning writer I feel that I have no business writing “How to” articles for example.  Unfortunately I nearly broke my own code recently in a fit of enthusiasm.

Every day I trawl the internet for ideas for this blog; creative writing, science fiction, general education and such like.  As is typical for the internet some of what I come across is rubbish and occasionally some of it is gold.

Well, I recently came across what I thought was gold and was tempted to blog about it here.  Of course the idea seems like a good one and there is a huge urge to share, but I have absolutely zero idea if it actually works!

While I was writing a long and enthusiastic post Heinlein’s words were ringing in my ears along with other wisdom such as “If it looks too good to be true, then it probably IS too good to be true”.  Maybe the cynical old goat in me won in the end.  Accordingly, I will explore the truth or otherwise of the situation and only post when I have some facts.

So what was my great idea?  It is hardly a new one, but it is something that I hadn’t actually seriously considered before.  It relates to writing articles online for cash, for sites like:

http://hubpages.com/

At the moment I am writing maybe one blog post a day, one short story a month and a novel maybe later this year.  The blog is mostly a labour of love, although I might kid myself it will help me become better known.  The short stories, even if all were published they will net me maybe £2-300 each.  The novel and its mythical advance payment is a totally unknown item.  None of these things are going to reliably feed me.

The sensible side of me knows that if I am to earn a living as a writer (one of my long term goals) then it will likely be damn hard work, so when a website offers me hard work and a little cash I jumped at the idea – only later considering if it was a real offer and not just hype and a con job.  Even writing this now I am no wiser.  The only solution is to try it and see.  Maybe I can make some lunch money?

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