Archive for January, 2009
Setting up your first website
In Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) you discover how to set up websites and monetize them quickly. As a writer, you’ve got endless opportunities for making money online, once you know how to set up websites.
I’m often asked by subscribers: “What kind of site should I set up first?”
I always advise them to set up their “name” site first. Your name site is the site which has your own name as the domain. For example, my name site is angelabooth.com.
Once you’ve set up your name site, you can set up other sites to make money.
Many of my sites, especially many writing-niche sites (like this site), tend to have lots of content. I also have lots of review sites, in many niches.
Here’s what “Choosing A Topic For A Website” says about review sites:
Review Sites – Review sites are great because all you have to do is review different products and/or services. You can review anything and still make money. You could review cell phones, credit cards, insurance companies, digital cameras, baby products, home and/or garden products, office supplies, books, movies, bedding, clothes, food, or virtually anything else that someone would have an opinion on.
Review sites have many benefits:
* They’re small — usually from three to six pages;
* Because they’re small, they’re fast to set up (think minutes, rather than days)
* They can be highly profitable.
So, get started — set up your first site, and then set up another one. Every site you create is another way for you to boost your income. Enjoy the process: I love creating sites, and once you get into the swing of it, you will too.
Freelance Writing Job Bidding Dynamo… or Dunce?
Although the outsourcing sites are great for finding freelance writing jobs fast, many freelance writers avoid them. If you’re spooked by having to compete and make bids the information in this article will help you.
Here are some tips to turn you into a bidding dynamo.
Read the rest of this entry »
Serious about developing your own home business?
If you’d love to start your own home business now’s the time. In these straightened economic times no one is 100% sure whether his job will be there next week. The solution is simple — create your own job. You can’t get fired, and if you put a little effort into it you can double and triple what you make in any standard job.
I developed Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) training so that anyone who enjoys writing can create his own home business based on writing in the shortest time possible.
If you love to write, you can stay at home writing — no more long commutes — and watch your business grow month by one.
One of the big benefits of Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) training is the fact that you get ongoing coaching and support. I’m not aware of any other online course where you can have any question answered, usually within hours. and can ASK if you need a hand.
One of the comments people make when they hear about the training is that it seems too good to be true. This is very amusing; I’m sure that if you’re already a subscriber you’re chuckling right now. There are unlimited ways you can make money online by writing, BUT you need to be shown how. It’s the how that is important. Once you know how, you can parlay that your knowledge in any way you wish.
You have questions about SYWON training? Feel free to ask.
As one subscriber said, “Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) is the best thing I have found anywhere. I am up to lesson 9 and really underway. If I had found this earlier, I would have saved myself a lot of money, time and frustration.”
I’m proud of all SYWON subscribers and I’d love a chance to be proud of you too, when you set up your own home business, and start living the life that you choose.
Ebook Strategies: How to Sell More Ebooks
Want to make more money selling your ebook? You can double your profits from your ebook just by selling more copies — this is commonsense. What if you could sell ten copies a day instead of ten a week or a month?
1. Get the Word out: Find Additional Ways to Promote the Product
The key to selling more copies is to get your ebook in front of more potential customers. The more people who know that your ebook is available, the better your chances of selling additional copies.
Many ebook publishers do this by joining affiliate programs. What no one ever tells you however is that most affiliate networks sell a lot of a few very popular products. The majority of the book sellers don’t make any money at all from joining an affiliate network.
Therefore spend time and energy looking for additional ways in which you can promote your product yourself. Consider both free and paid methods.
2. Invest in the Ebook: Buy Advertising
If you want to sell more, you have to advertise more. Think of large companies which spend millions of dollars every year in advertising. They wouldn’t spend this money if it wasn’t utterly necessary. So if you’ve avoiding spending money on advertising now is the time to create a Pay Per Click campaign.
3. Boost Sales With a “Free” Version
This is an old tactic but when it’s used correctly it’s an extremely good one.
You boost to sales when you offer a free version of your ebook as a short report. This gets people onto your email list. If they won’t buy your ebook the first time they hear about it, maybe they’ll buy it in the future. Once they’re on your email list of course, you’ve got the opportunity to sell additional products.
4. Offer a Hard Copy Version
Many people still prefer to read away from the computer screen. There are many companies which will turn your ebook into a print book.
5. Turn Your Ebook Into a Course
Almost any ebook can be turned into a course. If you don’t want to do this yourself you can outsource production of your course. You may find that many people who buy your ebook, also buy your course.
Write It Once And Sell It Forever
Get A Constant Flow Of Cash By Writing And Selling Ebooks… It’s Much, Much Easier Than You Think
Ebooks are BIG online. Most ebooks contain from five to 100 pages, and sell anywhere from $10 to $100 dollars, and over, depending on the information. Clever writers are realizing that there’s gold in ebooks, and that they’re well-placed to mine that gold…
Discover how you can self-publish online, and make a great income, writing and selling ebooks with “Write and Sell an eBook: Every Writer’s Quick-Action Guide To Writing Ebooks”..
Make Money Writing: How to Double Your Income This Year
Your writing business can be more profitable that you imagine. Want to double your income from your writing this year? It’s more than possible for you, if you set that as your goal. In fact, just by setting the goal, you’ve gone a long way toward achieving it.
Here’s what you need: the desire to achieve your goal, backed up determination, then you need a daily FOCUS on that goal. If you have these three attributes, not only will you double your income, but you’ll be amazed at how quickly it happens.
There’s no limit to your income from your writing on the Web. Some bloggers are making $30,000 a month from their businesses — if it’s possible for them, it’s possible for you, too.
Dissolve Your Disabling Beliefs by Writing Them Down
To clear the way for your accomplishment, take a few minutes to dissolve any disabling beliefs which may be standing in your way. The challenge with deep-rooted beliefs is that they become unconscious. They affect our behavior because we don’t know we hold them.
Open a new computer file, or get a notepad and pen. Set a timer (a kitchen timer will do) for five minutes. Complete this sentence: “I can’t double my writing income this year because____________”
Write, without pausing or thinking, until you hear the timer.
Excellent. Now you’ve made your disabling beliefs conscious. You know what they are, and because they’re conscious, you can refute them, so that they can no longer affect your behavior. Rip up the paper, or delete the computer file.
Think About Your Goal Morning and Evening
Did you set any New Year’s resolutions this year? If you did nothing other than set a resolution, it faded from your mind by the end of January. Here’s how to prevent that happening with your new goal.
Every morning, before you get out of bed, think about what doubling your income would do for you and the people you love. Do the same thing before you fall asleep each night.
Just think about having achieved your goal in a relaxed manner. This builds your desire. The more you day dream about your achievement, the more you’ll build you determination, and that determination will develop into a complete focus on your goal.
You’ll have a new outlook on life, and because you’re thinking and behaving appropriately, you’ll have the outcome you want.
You can make money writing, and can achieve any income goal you care to set. Discover how to make money writing with Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) — you get all the tools you need for an outstanding writing career.
Ebooks: Provide solutions, and sell more
Selling ebooks is a popular way of making money online, because many people go online in order to find solutions to their problems.
When you provide your Web site visitors solutions with your ebooks, you’ll sell more. But how do you know what solutions to provide?
You start by thinking about problems. There are an endless number of problems people have – they’re overweight, they’re over their credit card limit, they want a job or a better job, and on and on.
Your problem-solving ebooks can provide solutions in an endless variety of areas. Often, ideas for ebooks will come from your own experiences.
Write and sell ebooks based on your own experiences
For example, let’s say that you’re thinking about buying a digital camera so you can take photos at a relative’s wedding. A good digital camera is expensive, and it occurs to you that people who buy digital cameras may be looking for solutions to making money with their camera.
So you research whether “making money with your digital camera” is a real problem people have. This would fit under the general category of “make money from home”. Many people do have the problem of not having enough money, so that ebook has potential.
Think solutions, not ebook niches (topics)
In Internet marketing, “niches” has become a popular term. You can easily waste time looking for fresh niches in which you can write and sell ebooks. However, unless your ebooks solve problems, they won’t sell.
Where to find problems people have
There are many places you can find out what problems people have for which they’ll buy an ebook solution.
Try:
* Bookstores – the Health and Self Help sections are crammed with books which provide solutions to problems;
* Magazines – many magazines provide solutions to their readers’ problems. Don’t forget to scan the advertisements. Millions are spent on researching people’s needs for products and services;
* Asking your friends and relatives about their problems.
When you start to think about the solutions you can provide people, you’ll sell more ebooks. Start today. Everyone has problems – you can provide solutions with your ebooks.
Writing: How to Make Quick Money and Quit Your Day Job
Do you want money sent to your PayPal account every day? Many new writers hunt for “writing jobs” online when they want to make money writing, but this is a mistake. If you want success, you must do what others don’t do.
Here are three easy steps to make quick money from your writing and quit your day job within a few weeks — a writer I know used this method and had so many writing jobs lined up that he quit his job after three days.
1. Get Your First Testimonial for Your Writing
The people who hire you to write want to know that you CAN write. You’d be amazed at the number of “writers” who take people’s money and run. Therefore, your very first step must be to get at least one testimonial for your writing.
This testimonial should include some way to contact the person who’s given you the testimonial: a Web address, an email address, or a phone number. In other words, this testimonial must be genuine.
There are various ways to get your first testimonial. One way that works is to create a listing for your writing service on eBay, with a BIN (Buy It Now) option. If you’re familiar with eBay, and have good feedback, you can leverage this to sell your writing services.
Another way that works to get your first testimonial is to advertise on Craigslist, although this takes more time, because you need to create several unique ads.
Here’s a third way that works. This method is fast and simple, and I’ve no idea why more new writers don’t use it. Just contact a professional writer who has a blog, and offer to write a guest post. You’ll be writing for free, in exchange for a testimonial. If you’re a reasonable writer, it shouldn’t take you longer that an hour to write the guest post, and you have your testimonial.
2. Leverage Your Testimonial in Your Signature File on Forums
Now you have a testimonial, you can leverage it. Here’s how: visit forums where people who buy writing hang out. These are forums for webmasters and Internet marketers. (Avoid writers’ forums; they can’t hire you.) Join a couple of busy forums and start interacting with others.
Your signature (the blurb at the bottom of your forum posts) must contain a snippet from your testimonial.
Like so:
Betsy Anne Newwriter, Article Writer and Blogger
A comment on my writing: “Betsy Anne’s fast and reliable: a pleasure to work with” — hire me today to help you to build your business with my writing skills.
Be professional and courteous in all your interactions on a forum: don’t spam, just become a part of the forum, and people will hire you.
3. Offer Something More: Become an Expert
Now you’re getting writing jobs, it’s time to specialize. As a specialist, you can charge more, and you’ll be hired by clients who have larger businesses with writers on retainer.
So there you have it: three steps to make quick money writing and quit your day job. Have fun, and enjoy writing: you’ll agree it’s the best “job” you’ve ever had.
Discover real world testimonials from Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) subscribers, who are making money writing and loving it.
Make Money Writing: Write for Fun, and for Profit Without Burnout
Are you heading for writing burnout? When you make money writing, there’s a big danger that your creative well will run dry, resulting in writer’s block. Let’s look at how you can develop your creativity so you never run out of things to write about, develop high productivity, and increase your income.
“Have fun” seems simplistic. After all, you have clients who depend on you, and projects you must complete — you have a mortgage to pay. What’s fun got to do with it?
Fun has a great deal to do with it. Think about a time when you were intensely creative. For most of us, that time of high creativity ended when we were around eight years old. Would you like that childlike glee with your writing back again? Little kids are never blocked and rarely stressed. They love to play, and that’s the secret.
Here are three tips which will help you to look on your for-pay writing as fun.
1. Write for Yourself First, then for Others
In 30 years of writing, I’ve learned that my inner kid can turn off my creativity like a tap when it gets bored. The kid doesn’t care about deadlines and money, the kid just wants to have fun.
Think about when you first started writing: try to recapture that excitement. Feel it. Now complete this sentence (write it down): “To really have FUN with my writing, I’d like to write__________ and ____________ and ___________”. Keep writing. You may be surprised at what you’d love to write, just for fun.
Your “fun” writing primes the pump for all your other writing. It’s your warm glow within. When that warm glow dies, all your writing dies. So keep that warm glow alive.
2. Develop a No-Stress Writing Schedule: Get Help when You Need It
Your primary goal as a writer who’s writing for profit should be to keep your writing schedule as stress-free as possible. If there things you could pay others to do, pay them.
For example, a virtual assistant could help you with your email, and the many other housekeeping chores of your writing business. She or he could also do basic research for you, freeing up time for you to write. If you hate marketing, you can also out-source some of those tasks.
If you’re just starting out as a “for pay” writer, you may only be making $60 an hour. However, you can get a virtual assistant for $30 an hour. If you take the plunge and delegate stress-inducing tasks, you’ll be amazed at how much more you get done… and that your income goes up.
3. Shush! Stay Silent on Gestating Projects
Have many projects have you talked away? Think about it.
Gestating projects, those projects which are so new they’re just a glimmer in your eye, are delicate. You can ruin them completely if you talk about them with anyone, even your nearest and dearest. Keep all projects strictly under wraps until you’ve completed at least a first draft, or if it’s a Web site, until you have the site online.
I hope these three tips help you. They come from experience. To build your career and making money writing, remember to have fun: it’s vital. Here’s how to become prolific and write more.
Write more – become a pro writer
Yes, you can write more and become an expert writer - even if you’re a world-class procrastinator.
Did you know that when you write more, your writing improves? Many of my writing students experience this. They find that when they write more, writing is easier for them – they’re not dominated by their inner editor.
My new writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” is based on lessons I developed for my private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and make more money writing.
If you’re struggling with your writing, the class will help. The techniques you’ll learn in class with help you write fiction, nonfiction, and copy for business.
Discover how you can write more, improve your writing, and sell more of your writing to higher-paying markets.
Here’s the secret to great creativity and eliminating writer’s block for good: have fun with your writing.
Web sites: if you can write, you can create Web sites
A site I set up on Weebly in about ten minutes
Runners Yoga, a site I set up on Weebly in about ten minutes for the first page.
One of the most common questions I’m asked by new Web writers before they join Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) is: “Do I really have to create my own Web sites?”
Here’s the short answer: no, you don’t. You can always hire it done. Just go to getafreelancer.com or another out-sourcing forum, and someone will do it for you for less than $50.
However, you just might want to do it yourself, because there are many free services online that let you create a website in minutes.
For example:
* Squidoo.com
* Blogger.com
* Weebly.com
Weebly has become my own personal favorite: I’ve just paid for a Pro account so I can have more sites (you get two sites in the free version.)
(Basically, I intend to use Weebly to set up sites fast. Weebly sites are incredibly easy and fast to set up. Once I get them making some money, I’ll sell them.)
If you’re just starting to make money writing online, free Weebly is all you need for the first few months — you can set up your online portfolio, can create a blog and in general just get yourself set to really make great money writing.
Discover how to set up your own sites, and make money writing with SYWON.
Web writing: fail your way to success
No one likes to talk about failure. Writers are especially failure-shy. I understand. I’ve been there. In the 1980s, when I started to write for magazines, I’d burst into tears whenever I completed an article query and stuck it in an envelope.
I wish I’d learned sooner that your failures don’t count. What counts is your successes. Any successful writing career is built on your failures: you fail your way to success.
I love this comment in Court’s article "5 Places You Can Look For New Keywords":
Before we get started I should probably make something very clear – I have had tons of sites that didn’t work out very well. I have always been willing to fall on my face. The honest truth guys is that you have to be willing to fail a few dozen times. You’ll find some winners, gain some experience, and you’ll also find some losers. The losers still have value because they can make some money and they can still be used to build some links. In that light, there is no such thing as a ‘loser’.
The article resonates with me because it’s happened to me too — I’ve started way too many writing blogs, for example. BUT… all my writing blogs are still online, and they get traffic and make money. Failures? Not really, not unless I’m suffering from a bad case of the "shoulds" and am being really hard on myself.
If you’re scared of failing, relax. It’s a writer’s disease. Sooner or later, you’ll be eager to fail, because you realize the more times you "fail" the more times you succeed.
The only real way to fail is to let the idea of failure paralyze you.
Here’s how I got over being scared of rejections and failing in any project: I made up my mind that I would only write what was FUN for me. If I was having fun, and the writing was its own reward, I could become cavalier about failures. So what? It’s the end result that counts, not how you get there.
Fail on!
SYWON
