Getting ready to earn money on InfoBarrel: Applying for Adsense and Chitika, becoming an Amazon Associate, and connecting them to InfoBarrel.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:19:00 +0000

I was somewhat confused about the process of getting accounts with these places, what the requirements were, and how to plug them into my InfoBarrel account. So I found out as much as I could, and I'm happy to say that I'm now approved for all three and my accounts are connected to InfoBarrel and ready to begin collecting cash!

Here's what I did:

I started with an approved, live article and quick bio at Infobarrel.
According to FAQs at InfoBarrel you should have at least one approved, live article up as well as a Bio (doesn't have to be fancy) on your profile before you sign up for Adsense, otherwise they may decline you, so I started there. I wrote and submitted my article, and within 24 hours I received an email alerting me that my article was approved and had gone live. Yay!

Then I signed up for Google Adsense.
Since you get 75% of the Google Adsense revenue from your articles on InfoBarrel, I wanted to get that set up right away. (As I mentioned above, you should have at least one article and a bio up before you apply.) It was really easy. All I did was use the URL of my profile page at Infobarrel as my "website" in the adsense application form, and filled in the usual info like name and address. Signing up for Adsense was easier than Amazon Associates since they simply send a check to your mailing address, so there's no typing in bank account information. Also, they didn't ask for my social security number - which I like - because I'll admit I'm a bit paranoid about giving it out over the internet! Within 24 hours I was approved.

Then I moved on to sign up for the Amazon Associates Program.

This application was a little more thorough than the others. Once again, I used the URL of my InfoBarrel profile page in the area of the form where they wanted my 'website'.

They ask a few questions that don't really apply to your InfoBarrel account in the same way they would if you had your own website; things like "How many page views does your site receive daily?" and a few others. I just tried to answer them as best as I could. For example: I answered 'less than 500' to the previous question because, at the moment, my profile page hardly gets any views and that was the lowest option they had. They also asked about my site's intended audience, what item categories I planned on promoting, etc., which was straightforward, because I know what most of my articles will be about (for example: I selected sports, beauty, electronics, etc.)

As far as payment goes, I had three choices:

Having a check sent to me when my account reaches the $100.00 minimum payout threshold, from which $15.00 would be deducted for the service (ouch! Although you can set it to 'hold' until it reaches a higher balance if you'd like)
Receiving my payments in Amazon gift cards when my account reaches the $10.00 minimum payout threshold.
Having it deposited directly into my bank account (also after reaching $10.00)

I chose option 3. (The form has prompts to help you properly set up the deposit.) If you want more detailed info, check out Amazon's page "What payment methods are available".

I was immediately given a temporary pass to the "Associates Center" (I believe that's what it was called) and officially approved within 24 hours.

Finally, I signed up for Chitika:
Like Adsense, this was pretty easy. Once again I used the URL of my profile page at InfoBarrel as my 'website' in the form, and filled in the usual name and address info. While Chitika pays via Paypal or check sent to your payment address, it doensn't ask what payment method you would prefer in the application form, so once you're approved you need to go to your 'account', then to 'payee information' and specify your preference. Check out this page for more info. Once again, I was approved within 24 hours.

Plugging it all into Infobarrel:
Onto the fun part; giving InfoBarrel your account info for each of these so that you can receive your share of the ad revenue. To do this, sign into your InfoBarrel account, go to 'my account' and click the tab 'advertising profile'. Select the 'change' link for whichever one you want to enter info for.

For Adsense: Go to your Google Adsense Home page, sign in, and in the upper right corner you should see a number with "pub-" preceeding it. That (including the pub-) part, is your Google Adsense Publisher ID. Copy and paste it into the field and save.
For Amazon: After your account is approved, your tracking ID will be sent to you via the email address you provided on the application form. Copy and paste it into the field and save.
For Chitika: It's super easy. Just type in the username you selected to use as a sign-in for your Chitika account.

Now celebrate!! But not too much, because you should probably go get busy writing articles now :)

Want to know why I chose to start with InfoBarrel? Check out this post.

----For the sake of transparency, I would like to mention that the links I've provided to InfoBarrel and Chitika in this post are my referral links, for which I receive commission. It helps me out at no cost to you, though, so I certainly appreciate if you use them to sign up!

Additionally, remember to use your referral links should you create an account with either of these sites and begin referring people there, so you can benefit from spreading the word too. :)

I'd love to hear what you think, so please, feel free to comment below!

Article photo credit: ZoofyTheJi.

Why I've decided to start with writing for InfoBarrel.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:12:00 +0000

I've done a lot of research on which revenue sharing, article submission site (or sites) I should publish my articles on. There are quite a few to choose from, and lots of points to consider with each site, but I've narrowed it down to InfoBarrel (for right now, at least).

I think InfoBarrel is a great place to start for a number of reasons...

1: They're transparent about the payment system (something about which other websites, such as eHow, kept writers in the dark): You get 75% of the Google Adsense revenue generated by your article, which is more generous than most of their competitors (even super-popular Hubpages gives you only 50%)

2: They offer a number of ways to monetize your articles: Chitika, Amazon Associates, and of course, Google Adsense.

3: They are growing rapidly and gaining on established favorites like HubPages.

4: They're committed to keeping spam and "black hat" SEO's from putting up crappy content to manipulate search engines. They're upfront about it. When I went to their website and began exploring a bit, I noticed I didn't see a bunch of spammy articles with poor "bot-centric" grammar for truly good content to get lost in, and while the the layout has plenty of ad space, it's not too cluttered.

NOTE: You may think that all these measures will limit your profits, but I don't for two reasons:

1: A lot of successful "SEO gurus" suggest concentrating on writing for people more than SEO to actually maximize profits (think: fewer but more interested visitors vs. lots of disinterested ones)

2: Adherence to these principles will keep InfoBarrel (thus, your articles) in good standing with Google and other search engines who dislike black hat SEO tricks. And what's more, while it may sound corny, I don't want to waste my time writing just for search engines; I want to provide valuable information, tips, and ideas that will help people, or at least entertain them while making some extra cash, so that everybody wins.

5: The community is really nice. While I'm just beginning at this, I've had time to browse the forums and read the comments on articles, and it's nothing like the "rate and comment me and I'll do the same" stuff that dominated eHow, for example. It's an actual community of writers and readers having a conversation and helping each other out.

I think these things are good signs about the potential and future of this website, so while I'd like to diversify the websites I write articles for eventually (maybe to include HubPages and Squidoo), for now I'm going to focus on getting some content up on InfoBarrel.

A couple other things worth noting: I've also seen quite a few people suggesting that now is a good time to sign up and begin writing for InfoBarrel because there are more possible article titles than at similar sites, because fewer of them have already been used (which could be a big plus if you're trying to get a specific keyword in your article title.)

Additionally, there is talk that as InfoBarrel's popularity rises with time (which, I think it's safe to say it will), the page rank (thus, profitability) of your submitted article collection will go up.

If you want to do some digging and compare websites yourself I suggest checking out The Smart Passive Income Blog's post, where Pat analyzes InfoBarrel and its main competitors, which helped me a lot, and The Freelance Home Writer's review of infobarrel and the other similar websites she's also reviewed on her blog.

If you want to read about my experience applying for and setting up Chitika, Google Adsense, and the Amazon Associates program on my InfoBarrel account then check this post.

Additionally, remember to use your referral links should you create an account with either of these sites and begin referring people there, so you can benefit from spreading the word too. :)

I'd love to hear what you think, so please, feel free to comment below!

The Passive Income Artist

Getting ready to earn money on InfoBarrel: Applying for Adsense and Chitika, becoming an Amazon Associate, and connecting them to InfoBarrel.

Why I've decided to start with writing for InfoBarrel.