CornerScribe

Archive for the ‘Promotion’ Category

You’re interested in selling some writing, maybe even starting to “freelance,” but where do you go to SELL your work? Here are some of the most popular sites and the pros and cons of using each.

Constant Content

After registering, you’ll submit your work for approval. You can submit content that matches up to a previous request, or you can write whatever you like. After the content is approved, it’s up for sale.

Pros: You can write about what you want and charge what you want. Writers can typically get more from Constant Content than from other sites.

Cons: Your writing skills need to be a bit more polished than other sites might require; otherwise, your content is likely to be rejected. Your content may not sell for quite some time, or ever. In my experience, most of the content sold here will sell for full rights, meaning that the writer gets no byline or credit for the piece. Writers will need to accumulate $50 in earnings before being paid.

Associated Content

Associated Content is similar to Constant Content. Associated Content has different payment categories, some of which pay up-front and others don’t.

Pros: You can get paid something for just about anything you’ve written. Even if they offer no up-front payment, you’ll get paid a small amount for each article based on its page views, so your articles can continue to earn for months or even more. Even better, Associated Content will begin paying you about a week after your first article is bought. Beginning writers will find their work more readily accepted here. Because writers can claim their works publicly, Associated Content also makes a much better portfolio than Constant Content does.

Cons: The pay is pretty low, sometimes only $3-7 per article. Priority is given to content that is unique to the site.

Helium

Helium allows you to post whatever content you want, like Associated Content. However, Helium is unique in that members rate articles, and those ratings determine which articles move to the top of their categories and get the most page views.

Pros: You get paid something for your work, but it may be a small amount since Helium pays a percentage of the advertising revenue the article earns. Helium also has a marketplace where buyers can ask for particular articles, but in my experience there are usually few options there.

Cons: The pay is low. You’ll need to accumulate $25 or more before you get paid.

Suite 101

I can’t speak to the pros and cons of this site since I’m not a member. Unlike the other sites listed here, Suite 101 requires writers to apply to write for them. From that point, they sound a lot like Helium; they pay a percentage of the ad revenue your articles earn.

Xomba is another site that works very much like Helium or Suite 101.  The revenue model for many of these is the same, you earn a share of adsense revenue.

You may be asking, why would I use any of these sites that share their ad revenue when I can write for myself and get all the ad revenue? That’s a good question, and I think it depends on what your ultimate goal is. Writing for your own site will build your blog or website and, over time, increase its traffic. However, you’re likely to earn very little if anything in ad revenue for some time. Sites like Helium can provide you with better initial traffic, and higher earnings. If you’re allowed to put links back to your own site, you can also drive some traffic as well (check the TOS first).

This is what I do. If the content would work well on one of my blogs, that’s where I put it. If it’s an article that I’m interested in writing but that doesn’t fit with my blogs, then I sell it.

Note that I’ve deliberately eliminated sites that pay you to write advertisements and reviews on your own site. Those are a bit of a different animal. I also didn’t include article directories that don’t pay but that drive traffic back to your site. I also didn’t include freelancing sites like elance or guru.  All those are for a future post.

My best advice is to experiment with different sites. Join, write an article or two and see what happens. You may find some easier to work with than others. I tend to post most of my work to Constant Content. If an article doesn’t sell after several weeks, then I might consider placing it on Associated Content or even Helium. In short, try for the biggest payout first, and only later settle for one of the lower paying options.

Social media sites can be a great way to promote your blog. However, choose one that fits in with your site’s content and tone. For example, Digg is a great site, but it would be a bad fit for most of my content.

I tend to use StumbleUpon and Twitter primarily. I try not to bombard by followers/friends with links and posts, but many of them are nice enough to Stumble my posts when I do.

The one thing I recommend about using any social media site is to spend time really socializing and contributing before trying to get something back. Many of the people who frequent these sites are very attuned to what they consider “spamming,” and it’s all too easy to seem like you’re in it just for yourself. Remember, these sites are intended for everyone’s use and enjoyment, not as a marketing tool.

If you’re interested in following me, here are some of my social media identities.

Twitter: cornerscribe

StumbleUpon:  cornerscribe

Ravelry: jkay

Please feel free to leave your identities below, and I’ll reciprocate.

I recently bought a small StumbleUpon campaign for one of the posts here at Corner Scribe. I did it without much research or planning; I just picked a post I thought was good and bought $10 of StumbleUpon traffic.

The results… I’m not really sure.

I got about a 4 percent thumbs up rating, which was lower than I’d hoped for. However, since it’s my only campaign, I don’t have anything to compare it to either.

I didn’t promote the campaign other than buy the visits. From time to time I’ll promote my content on twitter, stumbleupon, entrecard, etc. and drive more traffic and stumbles that way. I deliberately chose to not do that in this case because I wanted to see how the post fared all on its own.

I didn’t include images, although I know now that Stumble users tend to prefer posts with them. Next time, I’ll try that.

Next time, I’ll also experiment with putting the same article in multiple categories; I know that that can have a big effect on how well a campaign goes.

If you’re interested in running a StumbleUpon campaign, you’ll pay $5 per 100 visits. Yes, that’s a bit high, but the potential is there for your content to get thumbs-upped and really take off. Here are a couple links you might find helpful.

Problogger gives some advice on advertising using StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon Alerter is a great little tool that lets you track certain posts and see how many times they’ve been voted up, and by whom. By the way, if you have trouble getting it to run under Windows Vista, right click the shortcut, choose properties, and set it to run as Administrator. That did the trick for me.

It looks as if Entrecard has moved the Stumble exchanges into another forum. Since I haven’t seen anything to explain, I’m assuming the moderators are going to enforce the “must be Entrecard related” dictate on the promotions forum.

Will I be participating? I’m not sure, but I probably will from time to time. Will I promote posts that I feel are of low quality? No. When I run across a submission that I don’t feel that I can thumbs up, I usually try to find something else on the site I feel okay about stumbling.

I’m curious, how does everyone else handle this?

Updated to add:

Million Dollar Challenge has an interesting post about a stumble exchange there. Read through the comments to get a clearer view of how it works, and the potential problems of stumbling sites that aren’t “worth” stumbling. I never thought about one point that was made; if someone stumbles one of my posts that’s a bad one, then it makes visitors less likely to come back and view the good posts that I have.

Networking

Originally uploaded by paal

If you’re on Entrecard and have participated in the Stumble Exchanges, you’ve no doubt noticed that those have been shut down in the forums. You’re probably also wondering what you’ll do to promote your site now. Along those lines, I have a couple of suggestions. (more…)

Steve Pavlina usually has great articles, but this one is especially good. He points out a problem many bloggers, including me, struggle with.

If you want to make money, then treat your blog like a business, not like a blog.

Some of his points really hit home. I’ve spent most of my time developing content for my blogs and not nearly enough time marketing and promoting. Yep, my traffic numbers show it too. One of my goals this year is to boost traffic, so his article on making money from blogging couldn’t have come at a better time.

Here are some interesting points from the article (but head over and read the whole thing yourself anyway).

• He spends only about 20 percent of his time writing content
• He’s worked on multiple income streams; not all his income comes from ads and affiliates on the blog
• Writing for money is nothing to be ashamed of, and you should avoid those who try to make you feel that it is

Go over, read the article, and make a plan for some things you can do right now to promote your business (blog). Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Write a note to thank your recent commenters
• Participate in online forums
• Send an email to a blogger you read, introducing your site
• Participate in a social networking site that is appropriate to your niche
• Write an article that’s out of your comfort zone; often those are the ones that draw traffic
• Try something unconventional!

List any other ideas you have in the comments below.

I’ve been talking about getting more serious about traffic and RSS subscribers as part of this year’s blogging goals. Here’s how I did in January, and more importantly, how I did it.

In December I had only about 4300 page views. Not very spectacular, is it? In January, that was 10,500. I’m very pleased with that.

I also increased my RSS subscribers from low 20’s to about 30. Right now, it’s 31. RSS subscriptions are very tough to get (and keep), so I’m happy with that as well.

How did I do it?

I did a few things differently to promote the site. I’m not sure which had the greatest effect, but overall things are working well.

• I joined Entrecard. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I was concerned about the quality of traffic. I’m seeing not only more visits, but more subscribers and more commenters. I think it has turned out to be a good choice.
• I participated in a writing contest at Daily Blog Tips. Writing contests are a great traffic builder, especially when the site is as popular as his.
• I ran a contest to increase RSS subscribers. Also, I repeatedly reminded people of the contest and asked them to subscribe.
• I participated in the forums over at Entrecard. Specifically, I participated in stumble exchanges. StumbleUpon is a consistent source of traffic for me anyway, so it makes sense to drive more to the site if possible.

I plan on keeping up the same tactics for this month, minus the contest. I may run some sort of Entrecard contest later this month, but I haven’t decided what it might be.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’m participating in Project Wonderful.  I’m ready to begin buying ads there instead of only selling them, and I’m hoping that will boost my traffic as well. If you’re running ads and have a good deal, leave me a comment. I’m shopping for some ad space.

I don’t expect to see another doubling of page views (though it would be nice!). I do want to see a significant increase, maybe to 15000 or better. If anyone has any tips I that have worked well for you, leave them in the comments.

I have to say that so far, I’m pleasantly surprised by Entrecard. You can check out my earlier posts about them here and here.

I’m still seeing a good traffic boost from Entrecard. Visitors are also commenting more, which is terrific. Of course, the extra page views will be a good thing for Project Wonderful as well, so the two should work well together.

As a thank you to all those visiting, here’s a list of my top ten card droppers. Keep coming back, and don’t forget to subscribe to my feed!

1. Yimto Affiliate Marketing Blog
2. Shop Dog Diaries
3. Computer Tech News
4. Vigorous Writing
5. My Weight Loss for Life
6. Turnip of Power
7. My Internet Marketing Adventures
8. Bebo Author
9. About Every Little Thing
10. My Sense and Sensibility

You’ve probably notice the Project Wonderful ad box in my sidebar. Project Wonderful allows you to auction off ad space on your site to the highest bidder, or bid or ad space. It uses an ebay style auction system that allows you to set maximum bids, so you don’t have to stay tied to the computer.

What I like so far

1. You have the option to approve (or reject) all advertisers. Although I’m set to not run anything NSFW (not safe for work), that didn’t stop something I considered very NSFW showing up as a bid.
2. You can automatically approve ads from sites you’ve already approved. That’s a big time saver.
3. You can control the placement and number of ads.
4. It gives small sites or those just getting in to advertising a way to sell some ads.

What I don’t like

1.  So far, the prices have been very low. I’m hoping that as the site builds a track record, the price will go up. As it is, it’s hardly worth the trouble.
2. In order to sell ads, I almost have to accept a lot that don’t have a lot of relevance to the site.
3. Project Wonderful uses their own code to estimate page views, which is much less than what my stats software calculates.
4. You can’t make some alterations to the ad block once bidding has started. So, things like placement and the number of ads can’t be easily changed.

I’ve been running it only a couple of days, so I’m still open. These are just my initial reactions, and I’ll keep you up to date as the month progresses.

John Cow has an article on why he’s dropping out of Entrecard. In short, he argues that people are gaming the system by spending lots of time dropping cards on sights, encouraging people to drop on them, and sites are seeing their Entrecard prices artificially inflated.

First, I realize that the traffic from Entrecard is likely to be of pretty low quality. I might expect to get one reader from a few hundred who visit this way. I do think, however, that Entrecard can still be a good way to attract traffic.

• I think that those gaming the system are probably looking for a quick boost in traffic and/or quick money. Over time, they’ll get tired of it and move on to the latest big thing.
• Problogger’s article on Entrecard probably is doing a lot to drive users to Entrecard. I expect many of these users will stick around a little while and then dwindle away.
• If you’re buying ads on Entrecard, then check the quality of the site before you put out a lot of credits for a 24 hours spot. At least check the page rank and the Alexa rank before going ahead.
• Don’t trade recommendations, and don’t respond to people who ask that you do so. It’s against Entrecard’s policy, and the value of a recommendation system lies in honest recommendations, not traded ones.
• Don’t spend hours dropping cards on every site available. Yes, you’ll earn credits, but you could be doing something much more beneficial to your blogging (and money-making) than that.

I’m still taking a wait and see approach to Entrecard. My traffic is up from it, but I have no idea yet how that will translate to readers and RSS subscribers. I’ll keep you up to date.