Article Writing: Distributing Content for Maximum Earnings

Ever heard the phrase "don't put all your eggs in one basket"? If you write articles on the web, this is sound advice. Spreading your talent around - without spreading yourself too thin, of course - can help maximize your earnings. Let's take a look at why.

There are a lot of different places to earn money for your writing online. Each site has slightly different submission criteria, and each also has a slightly different way of paying you. Going into the details of each content site online could probably fill an e-book, so we won't go into that here. The submission and payment guidelines are among the first things you should research when thinking about writing for any site, however.

Most online writing sites award you earnings based on one of two factors: views or ad revenue. Associated Content is an example of a site that pays you based on how many views your articles get. On the other hand, eHow is a site that generates your earnings based on a share of ad revenue. Views are self-explanatory; if someone looks at your article, it "counts" towards your earnings - the base rate here at AC is currently $1.50 per 1,000 views.

Ad revenue is a little more complex. Sites feature ads that are relevant to the topic on the page. If your article is about Caribbean vacations, the ads on your article's page might be for travel agencies or cruise lines. When readers click on those ads, it earns money for the site. Some of that money then trickles down to you through whatever formula that particular site uses.

There are sometimes other incentives involved (such as Upfront Payments here on AC), but the basic means of payment usually falls into one of those two categories. Understanding the difference in these payment structures is the key to pushing your earnings to the next level.

Submit your articles where they'll earn you the most money. It's that simple. Don't let loyalty to a particular site or a fear of branching out keep you from making as much money as you can. Time is money - and you invest your time writing articles, so do what you need to do to get the best possible return on your investment. This might seem a little slippery, but I promise it's easy to do. Figuring out where to submit a particular article boils down to one thing: marketability.

As I mentioned about sites like eHow, you're given a portion of any ad revenues earned on your articles. For that reason, you want your articles on eHow to be consumer-driven. Businesses pay good money for advertising, offering a certain amount of money per click on one of their ads. Let's look at that Caribbean vacations article as an example again, with ads on the page for cruise lines. Assuming the average cost of a Caribbean cruise is $1000, you can bet advertisers will be willing to pay well for that ad space. One click from your interested reader could equal big money for them - so they need to pay a premium to earn that ad space. Let's say that each click on the cruise line's ad trickles down to $2 for you under eHow's ad revenue program. This can make you some excellent money.

Here at Associated Content, your good keywords might still drive cruise line ads to the article, but you'll earn nothing for interested readers clicking on the ads. Your article won't be completely useless here - you might be offered a higher Upfront Payment based on how much AC thinks it can earn from ad revenues. Over at eHow however, that article could potentially earn you years worth of $2 clicks.

Articles for readers interested in purchasing a product or service are best placed on sites where you have a stake in ad revenues. That's only a small percentage of what you might like to write about, however. If your article is about information that probably won't fuel a purchase, it's better off where you'll be paid by the view. "How to Tie Your Shoes" is a prime example of an article that should be posted on AC instead. It's "evergreen" content - meaning it's something people will want to learn about indefinitely. All people need to do for you to get paid is read your article - no clicks required. If the same article were listed at eHow, ads for sneakers and shoelaces might appear. Your reader probably has all the shoes they need already, so they'd have no reason to click on those ads (even though they'd be completely relevant to the article's content). Even if a million people looked at that article to learn how to tie their shoes, you wouldn't earn a dime.

Between the vacation article and the shoe-tying article, is one "better" than the other? Probably not - you wrote them both, it'd be fair to assume they took you an equal amount of time and research. But positioning them on the wrong website can make all the difference in how much money they earn you. Over time, you'll start to get an idea of where to post each article to maximize its earnings potential. I'd suggest researching a number of article writing sites to see where your content would fit in best, and settling on a few to disperse your articles on. You don't have to participate in 10 different sites - and really, who has time for that? - but spreading your information around could bring you a boost in earnings.

Good luck in your writing efforts!