Aug 27
Bobwriting for money Make money with ebooks, making money writing online, publishing on ipad, publishing on kindle, writing for ipad, writing for kindle
If you are interested in writing for a living or self-publishing you’ve got to be excited by the tremendous opportunities offered by writing for iPad or publishing on Kindle… or whichever way you want to put it.
If you create a pdf ebook, which most self-publishers would consider a must, both gadgets can handle it – but depending on your formatting the solution isn’t exactly elegant. It’s much better to format your ebook for the standard that the iPad or Kindle will accept.
The trouble is, not all formats are the same.. then there’s the Sony Reader and who knows what other new ebook reading device on the horizon. Most of us trying to make a living from writing want to spend our time writing, not wrestling with technology!
Programs do exist that will do the conversions to and from various formats for you. Calibre produces software that works on Mac or Windows, and what’s more it’s free. It offers a great deal of functionality…
But to be honest, I found it kind of complicated. Maybe it’s just me – I’ll admit I’m not the most technologically aware person on the planet. I tinkered with it for a while and had some success… but then you have to test what you produce which means owning an iPad and a Kindle and whatever else there is out there. The Kindle has come down in price an enormous amount and is now very affordable and excellent value, the iPad is still expensive but frankly is my favorite toy. I can justify them as business expenses but I don’t want to have to be buying every other gadget that comes along…
So if you want to write for ipad or be publishing on Kindle, what’s the solution?
I don’t know yet – but I know what it might be.
Last week I discovered Fastpencil. At first I thought they were like Lulu.com, who I have used for print-on-demand publishing (and am very happy with). They offer similar services if you want actual printed books, although the pricing structure is different.
That’s not why they might be the answer to the cross-platform publishing dilemma though. What Fastpencil will do is handle publishing for Kindle, iPad, etc for you. What’s more, they can get your publication listed at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Ingram Network. There’s a fee, of course, but it’s not expensive and if you want to sell professionally on the iPad or Kindle you might well consider it worth it.
They also have interesting writer software – which is free – and which you use online rather than on your computer. If you’re fed up with bloated word processors for your writing this is well worth investigating. If you want to collaborate on publishing projects you’ll find it particularly useful.
As I say, I only discovered them last week so I haven’t had the chance to check them out thoroughly or actually publish anything yet. It certainly looks like a site worth further investigation though. Details here.
Do you have info on writing for iPad or publishing on Kindle that would be useful for other writers or self-publishers? If so, please get in touch. If you offer a service, I am equally interested in hearing from you.
Aug 26
Bobwriting for money making money writing online, money writing online, sell writing online, selling writing online, writing for money online
This writing for money blog has suffered from two things. Lack of time spent on it and lack of focus.
The first – the lack of time spent on it – is easy to excuse… I’ve been too busy making money writing online! Other projects, which bring in lots of lovely cash, have made me money. This site has been kind of a sideline. I want to share what I know, I want to help you find out how to make a living from writing on the internet, but I have to make a living myself, right? You understand that.
The second problem has been focus. There are so many ways to make money writing online it’s difficult to narrow it down. Several times I’ve just added posts because an idea has occurred to me. Like with Premium Press. If you want to see how I put that into effect, have a look here: EnglishSpeakingFrance.com. You might think that hasn’t got a lot to do with “writing” for a living but I promote it with article marketing – which is certainly a form of writing – so in the past I would have said that qualified.
But it’s not really what most people would see as writing – so I’m not going to feature that kind of stuff anymore.
Here’s what’s going to happen.
I’m going to be giving the blog a bit more time. Not every day sort of time, but I’m stepping back from a few things that pretty much look after themselves to do more of what I feel like doing. That’s one of the major benefits of this business, once you’ve put in the work to establish things.
I’m also going to be more focused. I’m a commercial / information writer so that will always be the subject I talk about most but I’ll get into the book creation side of things and the novel writing thing too, where I have experience or knowledge that’s worth sharing.
I’ll also delve into the “putting together websites” thing a bit as well – because you will certainly need to have some idea of how to do it effectively for some methods of making money writing.
How does that sound?
What I would also like to do is help resolve specific issues. If you have a question, or you’ve come up against a stumbling block, why not drop me a line and I’ll see if I can help.
Jul 26
BobMake Money Writing Blogs, writing for money affiliate marketing, make money online, making money writing online, Wordpress, writing for money online
I recently came across a set of Wordpress themes that are something more than just themes – and they got me thinking. With a bit of creativity I reckon they offer an almost unlimited opportunity to use your writing skills to make money online. Maybe not huge amounts of money in one go… but lots of chunks that are easy to set up and can be left pretty much on autopilot.
The result – down the road a bit – would be a substantial income that needed little more than maintenance time. An hour or two a week – maybe less.
For the basics you need to choose one of the themes from PremiumPress. I say one of the themes because there are a number of alternatives here – and that’s what makes this so attractive.
What I’ve written here is an outline of a few ideas. You’ll soon get the hang of it, then you can implement your own versions.
Let’s start of with ShopperPress. A Wordpress theme that’s actually a shopping cart. Aah you say, but you’ve got nothing to sell…
On the contrary, you can sell anything you like. You can sell any of the range of Amazon products for a start.
Here’s the idea. Pick a range of products at Amazon (or anywhere else that has an affiliate program with a good range of products), set up a store using ShopperPress with your affiliate links all over it. Use ShopperPress’ built in article function to write articles that draw real customers and appeal to the search engines. Support it with article marketing.
Doesn’t matter if it’s in a competitive field – in fact you need it to be reasonably competitive. You’re not going to make $10,000 a month but you should be able to pick up decent income.
Then you create another store – because once you’ve paid for ShopperPress you can use it as many times as you like. Try targeting smaller areas or specialist niches. You can set up a many as you like, and it’s going to cost you no more than a domain name and a bit of hosting each time. Pizza money.
Another approach – DirectoryPress
Here’s another theme from PremiumPress. This one sets up directories. How do you make money from this? Two potential revenue streams really, you can charge people to be in the directory (I provide a free listing and then offer an upgrade) and then most people would try selling ad space.
I don’t. I show ads, but I use ads from affiliate programs I belong to. That way I don’t have to try to sell ad space or manage it.
What kind of directory? There must be directories in almost any subject you can think of and there is always room for another. Where do you get the info from? Existing directories, yellow pages, magazine ads… Like with the stores above, it doesn’t need to be the best directory in the world ever, it just needs to pick up some traffic. You don’t even have to sell any listings… this is aimed at picking up affiliate revenue really with listing upgrades a bonus.
How profitable? As above, little bits add up to a big whole. Easy to do as well. Once set up all you have to do is add three or four listings a day when you’ve got a spare minute or two. Within a few weeks you’ve got hundreds of listings – each a little bit of search engine bait. Start new directories as and when you can.
I’m not going to bang on and on about this. The other themes available are a classified ads theme (run your own classifieds in any niche you like), and, currently in development, a price comparison theme and a membership site theme. If you can’t see the potential here you probably ought to be looking at a different way of making money 
Have a look at PremiumPress, browse the pages and I’m sure you’ll come up with a fistful of ideas. Use your writing skills with article marketing to drive traffic and you’ve got the potential for dozens of sites each bringing in handy lumps of cash. Once set up, these can run for years with next to no input.
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Apr 22
Bobwriting for money affiliate marketing definition, make money writing, online writing opportunities
It’s been a while between posts – did you miss me? Though not! Let’s get back to work with an affiliate marketing definition. If you’re going to make money writing online it will help you to know what we’re talking about here.
So this is very basic. If you already know all about it, great, I’ll have more for you another time. I’m sure you’ll appreciate I want to help folks at all levels.
So what is affiliate marketing? And why do we make such a fuss about the potential for ordinary people to make extra-ordinary amounts of money?
The principle of affiliate marketing isn’t really new. It isn’t really an internet thing at all. Affiliate marketing is a new name for something that has been going on for at least a couple of hundred years – selling stuff on commission.
There have always been two kinds of sales people. Those that work for a company and get a salary, and those that have a bit more ingenuity, a bit more drive, a bit more independence of spirit. This second lot sell things on commission. The more they sell, the more money they make.
Some people buy at wholesale and then make what they can, some work as agents and don’t pay anything up front but make a percentage of every sale.
That, in a nutshell, is a definition of affiliate marketing. Except there are one or two slight differences with the internet.
- As an affiliate, you promote the products or services of another company or companies. Your commission can be anything from 5% to 75%, occasionally even more.
- Your job is to attract people to your website or blog, then provide a specially coded link to the company’s website. That code tracks you as the referrer.
- Some of the people who visit your site will visit the site of the company you are working as an affiliate for.
- When some of those people buy something, you get a cut.
It is an ideal business arrangement. The company with the product or service for sale has no need to employ salespeople – with all the associated overheads of holiday pay, sick pay, pension provision, tax, etc. They don’t pay any commission until a sale is made.
You never need to buy, or stock, the products you promote. It costs nothing to join an affiliate program. Your only costs are those associated with setting up a blog or website – which are peanuts really. By comparison with setting up a traditional business the investment is laughable. Pizza money.
Your earnings potential – if you are prepared to work at it – is virtually limitless. There are six and seven figure earners who do nothing more than affiliate marketing. Not one or two either, dozens.
As a way of making money from writing online there is probably nothing that will make you more cash – unless you write like Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling!
It’s a simple concept – but it isn’t easy. If it was, everyone would be millionaires and clearly they ain’t! It takes work and persistence. There are a few tricks of the trade that can make things easier and we’ll look at them in future posts.
If you want to get started straight away, working with one of the few guys I reckon is an absolute solid-gold expert on affiliate marketing, then have a look at Chris Rempel’s Affiliate Genie. Chris is a straight-forward kind of guy, tells it like it is.
He’ll want to take a few bucks off you for the teaching and software he provides. It would be money well spent, but if you do nothing else have a look at the free video he’s got first. He’ll explain the core principles of what he sees as successful affiliate marketing. He knows what he’s talking about.
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Jan 29
Bobwriting for money making money writing online, online writing opportunities, writing for money
Here’s a chance for you to get started writing for money with no experience and no outlay – you don’t even need a blog or website, just access to a computer and the internet.
There’s a website called Constant-Content and it’s where independent authors – or freelance writers if you prefer – can submit work for sale. Some are seasoned pros, some are just getting started. 
That’s actually not important because all that matters is the writing. It’s like a market where people who need articles or blog posts can view work by multiple authors and buy what they need.
All you have to do is submit articles, wait until someone takes up the option on them, then get paid for your writing!
It really is that simple, it’s free to join and money goes straight into your Paypal account. Constant-Content take 35% – which is a fair chunk – but you can price with that in mind and you can still make very good money. What you can charge is considerably higher than sites like e-lance because all articles go through an approval process and buyers are prepared to pay for quality written content.
There is an interesting multiple-pricing scheme too. If a buyer just wants to use your article just once, they pay for “Usage”. If they want to use it multiple times they pay “Unique”. There’s a third option, “Full Rights”, which gives them the option to do more or less anything they like to it. Each option is, of course, a little more expensive than the previous one – in other words you get paid more for the same piece of work!
So basically you can just submit short pieces of writing – 500 to 1,000 words is the norm – and wait until the money rolls in or…
…or you could be much more pro-active. If you have a particular specialty then writing for money in an area you know will be easier for you. However, if you just enjoy writing – and you don’t mind doing a bit of research – you could browse the site and pick those areas which appear most lucrative. Spread your writing around and you’ll find that some markets will pay higher than others. Test and adapt.
Don’t be misled by the fact that a lot of articles show zero downloads – which would suggest that nobody is buying. Articles which are bought “Unique” or “Full Rights” are removed from the site, so you won’t ever see the higher paying articles – the money is already in some writer’s pocket!
There’s an additional writing opportunity here – and one that could prove even more financially rewarding. It’s called “Public Requests”.
Some people searching for writing either can’t find what they’re looking for or want specific, custom-written articles. They submit a “Public Request” (you just need to check your inbox at the site to see these). These can be on virtually any subject you can think of. For instance, yesterday’s were hair care, digital fine art printing, cycling and telecom trends – a pretty broad spectrum!
If you can write for these you stand to get a higher rate than normal, and you’ll frequently find that people are looking to enter into long-term relationships with writers. One of yesterday’s requests wanted 10 articles of 800 words and was prepared to pay $50 to $100 for each. If you could knock out those articles in a couple of days that’s between $500 and $1000 – which is not bad money for a bit of freelance writing!
No it’s not “easy money” and not everyone pays that high (although some do pay more). You need to look at it as an opportunity. Especially if you’re just starting out. It’s also something you can do here and there, on and off. You might want your writing for money to be in a different area but if you can pick up a couple of hundred dollars here and there for submitting a few articles while you are in between jobs it would seem foolish not to!
Full details for Constant-Content Here.
Jan 20
Bobwriting for money making money writing online, online writing opportunities, writing for money
Last post I wrote was about the opportunities to make money writing blogs, or rather the idea that the blog was a great tool for making money from your writing. I said next time we would get into specifics, and I soon will. Before that though I wanted to take a little side-step and have a quick look at “free” versus “investment”.
Lot’s of people want everything free and in essence there’s nothing wrong with that. If I can find free tools for making money writing then I’ll try and take advantage of them. If I find a free report on how to make money writing I’m almost certainly going to get myself a download and read what that person has to say.
You’ll probably have to sign up to a “newsletter” to get your free report. The report author wants to stay in touch with you and will probably offer you chances to buy stuff at some point in the future. That’s fair enough in my book, that’s what this writing business is about. Whether you take up any offer is your choice.
You can learn some valuable lessons from free writing information. You can also fall into a couple of traps.
The first trap is that of learning and learning and learning about making money from writing… but never actually doing anything. It’s called the paralysis of analysis. You never quite learn enough to be absolutely sure something is going to work so you learn a bit more.
Newsflash for you. I don’t know all there is about making money from writing, nor does anyone else. We never will.
There’s some stuff that works, some stuff that doesn’t, but there’s never an absolute, stone cold killer solution. At some point, as soon as possible in fact, you’ve got to stop learning and start doing. You don’t have to stop learning at that point, that would be a bit dumb, but who says you can’t earn while you learn?
Not everything we do will always work. Other times you’ll have an idea and it will just fly around like a mad thing grabbing handfuls of cash!
But nothing happens if all you do is read the next bunch of free stuff you find… and the next… and the next.
The other thing about focusing on free is that you don’t invest in products or services that can really make a difference to your income. Here’s an example.
I recommend blogs as a means of getting your message across. They’re easier to put together than a traditional website and will normally get you in the search engines quicker too. You can get free blogs all over the place. Just go to blogger.com.
But you look cheap. It’s not your domain name, it’s part of blogger or blogspot or whoever. For under $10 a year you can have your own domain name, that is your own dotcom (I use Namecheap) and for $6 or $7 a month you can have your own hosting (I use Hostgator) so it’s not like you’re betting the farm. If you use free blogs people wonder how much confidence you have in what you’re saying. Frankly, any pros who come across you will think you are a bit of an amateur.
What about products?
Most of what you’ll be offered that relates to writing for money will be downloadable – either ebooks or courses. Maybe there will be some DVDs or videos, that’s not really important.
Almost everything offered online has a money-back guarantee so that you have a degree of trust in the author. So why wouldn’t you try a $20 or $40 ebook? If it’s crap, demand a refund.
But what of that $20 ebook says just one thing that makes you look at writing for money in a different way – and suddenly it all clicks? Suddenly you “get it”.
That’s what happened to me – in fact has happened to me on more than one occasion. I’ve read stuff and though “hello, I’ve heard all this before…” then on the next page there has been one of those “light-bulb moments” that has set me off on a new track and brought me many times more profit than the small investment I made.
It doesn’t happen every time, of course, and I have occasionally been ripped off. It happens. For that reason I never invest more than I can afford to loose and that would be my advice to you.
If you see an ebook that appeals to you and you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. This isn’t gambling it’s building a business and making money with your writing ability. Many useful ebooks are “pizza money” – in other words if you skip a take-out pizza you can pay for it. If you’re not prepared to make that kind of investment in your business then perhaps working for yourself and becoming financially independent are not for you.
On the other hand there are courses out there that will cost you hundreds of dollars a month. Are they worth it? Well that depends… but the point here is that I would never invest $500 on a course if it was a stretch. I’ll earn that money with my writing first and then re-invest if I that’s my decision. Never put yourself under pressure to buy this stuff – it ain’t worth it.
Sure the people selling the course might try and give you a bit of a squeeze and make your mind up for you by saying that this is a limited-time and if you miss out now you’ll miss your chance… blah, blah… but I can almost guarantee that course will be back round again in a few months. At least it will be if it was any good and making any money.
You can get lots of very useful free information about writing for money, no doubt. Somewhere along the line though you are going to have to invest. Not thousands of dollars, not the sort of money that you would need to risk in a “bricks and Mortar” business, Just a few bucks here and there to help you grow. It’s an investment in your business and in your future. Why wouldn’t you?
Jan 15
BobMake Money Writing Blogs money writing blogs, writing for money online
There’s a lot of buzz about making money writing blogs. Blogs were initially seen as little more than a way to share information with friends and families but they’ve matured. A blog is a powerful business platform and a way for you to turn your thoughts and opinions into big piles of cash!
So is it that simple to make money writing blogs?
Well yes and no.
Here’s the thing. There’s the usual heavy dose of hype and “get-rich-quick” bull associated with pro blogging. There are scams and cons galore. There are also ordinary folks like you and me earning not just good money but extraordinary money from writing blogs. They are doing stuff they love and getting paid a fortune for it. It’s definitely do-able.
I say “just from writing blogs” but then of course there are tips and tricks. Tactics that are proven to work – and there are others that seldom, if ever, produce results no matter how much effort you put in.
Truth is, effort is required. When you compare it with traditional business models the ‘effort” a bit of a joke, as is the tiny investment required. You don’t need thousands of dollars, you don’t need to invest in premises and stock, you don’t have to be up all hours of the day and night, working all weekend (although obviously if you want to change where you are now, you’re going to have to find some extra time).
Perhaps that’s why so many people fail. Is it too easy to make money writing blogs? If the only effort required is to repeatedly, consistently put in computer time until it pays off, do some people fail because they think it should be tougher?
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s hugely frustrating. Sometimes it’s disappointing. Early on you can wonder why you’re doing it…
Then something works. You earn your first dollar, your first hundred… then you “get it”.
Some people quit before then. Not because “it” doesn’t work, not because you can’t make money from writing blogs, but because it just wasn’t for them. I’m not going to say that people who don’t make it are lazy – or stupid – it’s just that some people aren’t cut out for it. It takes a certain kind of discipline, a kind of determination not to quit, not to let the bastards grind you down. Full-time freedom does have a price.
But let me tell you, it’s definitely worth it!
There are two people who helped me enormously when I started, they are Yaro Starak and Chris Rempel.
Yaro produced an ebook a few years ago called Blog Profits Blueprint which changed a lot of people’s ideas – mine included. If you don’t know Yaro he’s an Australian and full-time blogger, something of a pioneer in fact when blogging was still very new. I think it was the year before last that he set off around the world for six months, blogging as he went, whenever he could get an internet connection. When he got back his business was stronger than ever – because of course you can run a blog from anywhere.
Anyway, Blog Profits Blueprint is an in-depth look at how to build a proper business blog. It doesn’t matter which method you use to make money writing blogs (we’ll look at several) the information in here is gold dust – and it’s free! – so not getting a copy would be dumb!
Second guy is Chris Rempel. AKA The Lazy Marketer. I don’t for one minute believe that he is truly lazy, but like me Chris doesn’t believe in doing more work than is necessary or make things overly complicated. What Chris does, although not always blogging, is particularly relevant to us.
His ground-breaking ebook “Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate” is, unfortunately, not free but it’s more than worth the little money you need to pay and a positive investment in your future. Affiliate marketing is arguably the most profitable method of making money writing blogs and Chris is a master.
Let’s wrap things up for now. In my next post I’m going to look at a few of the alternatives for making money writing blogs. In fact it’s more about making money writing, with the blog being the most effective tool.
Jan 10
BobFree Online Business Ebooks, writing for money free ebook, Writing Ebooks, writing for money
Well I said I would do it and by golly I have! One free ebook, ready for download.
Yea OK, it’s the not the most exciting thing in the world ever – and of itself it’s not going to make you rich – but if you’re looking at ways to make money writing it’s as good a place as any to start. It will give you a bit of insight, a couple of ideas and hopefully we can build on that. See, I told you I was going to be honest. No overnight millions…
So sign up for the (occasional) newsletter over there on the right and download your free writing ebook now.
Go on, go on, what have you got to loose?
Oh please yourself, your choice…
Dec 22
Bobwriting for money make money writing, work from home, writing for money
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the rss feed, or you subscribed to my not-to-be-missed free newsletter, you might be wondering where I’ve been. Not so much as a tip, trick or snippet of news about the whole writing and publishing thing since March!
Sorry – been busy. I know, I know, not a good enough answer really but there you have it. I’m not prone to bull. Fact is I’ve been busy with other writing and associated projects and I just haven’t had the time.
But those projects are finished and handed off now – or at least in a manageable state – so I’m back. Did ya miss me?
No need to be honest about it – you could lie to me and make me feel good
Anyway, enough of the pleasantries, time to get down to work. If you’re in the US this won’t effect you but if you live elsewhere have you heard that the Kindle ebook reader is now available all over the place? I live in France and I can’t wait to get mine. Size of a paperback but stores 1500 books. Download books straight to it, anywhere you can get a mobile phone signal – stunning.
It will change things for a lot of non-US writers too. Now we’ll all be able to write for it. Could break open a whole new market. Details here.
That’ll do for now. I’ve got a few finishing touches to a freebie I want to get out to you early in the new year so stay tuned, I’ll be back soon!
No honestly… this time I will be.
Mar 25
BobMake money with ebooks publishing ebooks, Writing Ebooks
People looking for home-based business opportunities are frequently attracted to the idea of publishing ebooks – and why not, the potential rewards are huge, entry costs minimal.
Many people, however, are put off the idea because they think they can’t write. I have two answers for you if you’re one of these people. The first is this: absolute nonsense, of course you can write!
Let’s get the idea you can’t write an ebook out of here straight away. If you can explain to someone how to do something, you can write. Think about how you would explain to someone how to make a cup of coffee. You could do that, yes? Then just write it down. You don’t have to be a Pulitzer prize winner, just get your message across. Does it strike you that I’m a literary genius? Of course not. Yet I’m a successful published author with hundreds of articles and six ebooks to my name.
Of course you can write. You might lack a bit of practice but that’s all.
Second piece of advice is this: don’t go for War and Peace first time out!
A lot of folks think that in order to get into publishing ebooks you need to put together something that’s hundreds of pages long. Nope. In fact there are a number of people making a very good living out of writing short reports – and by short I mean as few as thirty pages!
Now in case you’re a little dubious, think about this for a minute. People go online to find information or solve problems. If you can offer someone a solution to a problem they will often be more than happy to pay you for it. A short report can do that.
Let’s take a different angle on it. People searching for information are often looking for something related to their hobby or pass-time – and people get very passionate about these things. Passionate people spend money. Lots of it. Just look at golf. I have a friend who isn’t very good at golf but he is nuts about it. He’s always looking for ways to improve his game and he’ll spend a small fortune on the latest doodad, book or dvd. If you tried to sell him a short report he thought would improve his drive, at a sensible price point, he’d grab one off you without a second thought.
The sensible price point is key. It’s true that in some markets people are selling high priced ebooks that have little content. They might make sales and get good short-term income but it’s no way to build a sustainable business. Much better to sell someone a concise ebook for $7 to $10 now, then a closely related follow-up a bit later. Then the advanced, complete, full-blown version a couple of months after that. Get the idea?
You might also wonder, if you’re going to get into publishing ebooks, where you’ll get your inspiration from. Here’s one for a start. Walk up to your nearest news-stand, or into your nearest newsagent and look at the titles. Almost every one is packed with potential short, profitable ebooks.
More about how we do that in another post coming soon. In the meantime, you can see exactly how I put together short, profitable reports here.
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