The Little Article that Could

Everyone knows that success is measured in the long term. The childrens fable of the Hare and Tortoise and their famous race has emphasized this for ages. Sure some articles may make a big splash and wow the reader with Current Headline information or the latest in Hollywood Gossip. For a week, maybe two at the most people will flock to these pages creating high flying PPV hits for the writer.

So with all this popularity how is it that the writers climb toward the magical "10" seems slow in comparison to others. Why does this writer have to continually write new material just to keep traffic to his articles high enough to generate a PPV monthly Bonus's within an acceptable range?

The answer is in a single word, "Evergreen" material. Sure the headlines are what catch your eye when you open the morning newspaper. But in short order the printed pages become fish wrappers so to speak. Off to the recycling center to be reconstituted into new newsprint and the cycle begins again.

When I started writing for Associated Content competing with the Daily Chronicle was the farthest thing from my mind. I made the decision right from the start to stay with informative articles that to some degree would be looked at as research information that would be useful to some portion of society.

Not rocket science like technical manuals, just interesting bits of history or how to advise on different projects. Maybe some comparisons that would highlight positives and negatives of different food products.

Now about a year and a half later I'm reaping the rewards of my choices in subject matter. Many of my old articles from my beginning days of writing are getting hit on now in ever increasing numbers. You see as time goes on, and your articles are read by more people, your placement on the result page of a Google search on the subject will climb higher and higher. Before you know it when someone searches for specific information you may find your article is ranked at the top and likely will be read by every person making a search on that material.

When your article raises in ranking to be listed on the first page of search results you stand at least a 50% better chance of having your article read. Most researchers will look at a minimum of 3-4 different pages when they are looking for information. Once you raise that far in the rankings your pretty much guaranteed that your article will be read by everyone doing a search.

Now you tell me what article is going to be the more profitable. The Hollywood gossip piece that gets a quick 5,000 hits in its first month then peters out, or examples like the following:

Duncan Hines Moist Red Velvet Cake Mix: A Review
16,302 total hits in 10 months $3.20 up front payment and $32.60 in PPV bonus's.

How to Succeed in Hot Shot Trucking
15,478 total hits in 13 months $4.00 up front payment and $30.96 in PPV bonus's.

History of Glensheen Mansion, Chester Congdon, and the Murder of Elizabeth Congdon
18,718 total hits in 18 months $4.57 up front payment and $37.44 in PPV bonus's

With these types of articles you don't need to be an expert in anything. Your day to day life experiences will provide much of your writing material. Local history, and quick internet research can provide the rest. Simply looking at what your doing today can provide article ideas that will remain timeless and continue to provide PPV income over the long term.

As your writing career progresses you may find the amount of time you have to generate new material to post on Associated Content becomes less and less. Other commitments have placed me in that position. Does this mean you become inactive and loose a valuable income source? Not hardly. Now you can continue to collect on work already accomplished.

I continue to input at least a half dozen articles a month to my profile of material. As my number of "Evergreen" articles continues to grow, and by the way become more and more popular, my monthly income from my collection of work climbs even higher.

Now, with considerably less effort on my part, I look forward to my PayPal Account receiving a nice boost every month. With no limit in longevity this is an income that is practically recession proof. One that doesn't dry up and blow away. All the results of the Little Article That Could.