How Not to Work At Home

Author name domains: Hubpages and Suite101 take the plunge

2011-09-25T09:34:00.000-04:00

Sometime in late July, Hubpages changed my domain name to an author name domain.

In August, my earnings with Hubpages (all through AdSense) increased 500%. Earnings have declined by about 40% in September, leaving me -- so far -- with a net increase of 300%.

I'll take it!

On August 29, my domain name on Suite changed to melaniezoltan.suite101.com

Since then, my earnings have increased 8% over August. Now, August had seen a 25% leap over July, so keep that in mind. I am now at 13% *below* my last pre-Panda month, which was February.

In May, my worst month post-Panda, I was 66% below.

Will author domain names help? We'll just have to watch and accumulate data.

How to Work Out of the Home, or: I Got a Job!

2011-09-05T17:20:00.000-04:00

I haven't been an employee in an office for a very, very long time. I like the WAHM gig. You can read through 4+ years of archives here to see my ups, downs, and in betweens.

So it might come as a surprise to learn that the woman who has spent so many years trying to figure out how NOT to work at home has gone and gotten a job OUT of the home. But it's the perfect position in university administration that works for me and my family.

It's part-time work, which means I still have plenty of time to write and tinker with online work.

Meanwhile, my revenue share articles are rebounding, and August looks to be a decent four-figure month. Not pre-Panda, but getting there slowly.

Writing for Technorati

2011-08-30T17:21:00.000-04:00

I have been publishing on Technorati recently. If you have an AdSense account, you add it in and earn a portion of the ad revenue.

The CMS is pretty clunky. I am not impressed overall, but many online publishers seem to use extremely difficult CMSs. There's no way to caption or easily credit a photo, and no post-publication edits allowed, which means you had better quadruple-check when you proofread.

Check out my latest: Mel's Technorati articles

Free Kindle from Hotels.com!

2011-08-12T10:01:00.001-04:00

Now through August 30, when you book 3 or more nights at select hotels, you get a free Amazon Kindle.

FYI!

Wikio Experts Earnings Review

2011-08-07T10:30:00.000-04:00

Back in May, a group of writers at Suite101 started talking about Wikio Experts, a French company that launched an English version of their site. It's a content farm like any other content farm, but -- like Demand Media Studios -- Wikio Experts offers flat-fee (upfront payments) as well as revenue share articles. The plus? They offer a small flat fee + rev share on many articles.

Write for Wikio Experts

I ignored the hoopla, frankly, because I've been busy getting eBooks out, but a friend asked me about strategies for finding more sites that pay upfront fees for writing. The Writer's Network has dried up (unless you're a fashion writer), and DMS recently put hundreds of writers into an "evaluation program" that few will -- if past experiences detailed on writing blogs and forums are any indication -- survive.

So if you're a DMS writer scrambling, what can you do?

Wikio Experts Review

Wikio Experts has a fairly liberal entrance policy. Apply online and provide a writing sample. I was accepted within a day. Then you need to pick a topic (they offer more than 140) and write a sample article of 200-400 words.

The template tells you your word count (hooray!) and Wikio Experts does not require references or resources. In addition, they have an image library, so adding images is VERY easy. And no captions required!

Wikio Experts Earnings

Cut to the chase -- how much can you earn? Flat-fee articles are in three tiers:

3 Euros
5 Euros
8 Euros

An Euro is currently $1.42, so do the math. You need 10 articles in a topic to become elevated to the next level, so at firt you're writing for $4.20 or so. However, the word counts are only 200-400 words, no resources/references. Some writers claim to write an article in 7-10 minutes, from start to finish. If you can do six in an hour and maintain quality, you can make about $25 an hour.

Once you're writing the 8 Euro articles, that's $12 per -- and then you can make serious money. The site pays via PayPal, two months after you've written the articles. Writers across the net are reporting that they DO get paid.

Wikio Experts Revenue Share

For revenue share Wikio Expertss articles, the structure is a bit different. Here's what Wikio Experts has to say on their payment structure for rev share:

Articles paid at a fixed rate. You must already have been Confirmed in the particular category otherwise you cannot reserve articles; that is to say that our moderator team has approved your first open article. Here are the three rates for these articles:
€3 (reserved for contributors who have published at least one open article)

€5 (reserved for contributors who have published at least one open article)

€8 (reserved for contributors who have published more than ten articles suggested by Wikio Experts in the same Category)

Articles paid at a fixed rate + a variable rate (depending on the audience and advertising revenue):
€10: €1,5 fixed + up to €8,5 variable

€15: €2,5 fixed + up to €12,5 variable

€20: €4 fixed + up to €16 variable

€55: €15 fixed + up to €40 variable

Interested? Sign up for Wikio Experts here. Yes, it's my referral link. Your earnings won't be affected by it. Once you sign up, you can get your own referral link! :)

Suite earnings nicely up for June and July 2011

2011-07-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

I finished out June with a 40% increase over May.

July is, so far, about 15% over June, with a DRAMATIC increase these past two days. Both days have been "pre-Panda" levels, though on the low side for earnings before Panda, but I'll take it!

I'm not adding any earnings from Topic Editor articles ($1 in July so far LOLOL).

Any other Suitees seeing good increases?

How To Buy an eBook Cover for $50 or Less

2011-07-23T16:59:00.000-04:00

So I've been venturing into indie publishing, and spend plenty of time over at Kindleboards these days. I thought I'd write a few articles on book publishing for Suite 101, so here's today's article: How to Buy an eBook Cover for $50 or Less.

Will it be the best cover ever? Probably not. Keep your genre in mind, too. Romance covers need to have a man and a woman together in a romantic pose (man without a shirt or chest showing, ideally). Contemporary romance can be a bit different, with couples in bed or close-ups of kissing, or even cartoon covers for more of a "chick lit" feel. Fantasy (especially epic) can involve illustrated covers that cost upwards of $1,000 -- but you can get by with a less expensive cover at first, or with a skilled designer.

Horror and thrillers need to be dark, but if the cover's too dark it's hard to see on a screen -- reducing your sales. Research your genre's "rules" for covers and, for your first venture, stick to them.

Plenty of indie writers create their own eBook covers, make a little money, and then upgrade the cover. That worked a year ago, but as the indie market's been flooded with new books, and as traditional publishers are pouring more and more backlist titles into eBook markets, you may find youself in the 100K ranking doldrums.

Food for thought. Cheap eBook covers are out there, but as with any purchase, buyer beware.

Suite101 earnings up dramatically this week

2011-06-18T11:46:00.000-04:00

Now, doubling my earnings these days isn't what it used to be, but this week my earnings at Suite have shot up 51% over last week, with a 10% page view increase.

I'm hoping May was rock-bottom for Suite. My overall decline from February to May was about 65%. I'm actually doing better than some, so I can't complain (much).

Are all web writers just content slaves for the machine?

2011-06-18T11:43:00.000-04:00

Oliver Miller has a very compelling story about his years as a staff writer for AOL, writing for their TV division.

Are all web writers just content slaves in some form? Whether you're a staff writer or an independent writer writing a blog, doing SEO rev share, etc., to what extent are we all praying to (and being preyed on by) the great god SEO?

Food for thought.

Demand Media Hit By Panda 2, Ends WCP eHow Program

2011-05-06T06:49:00.000-04:00

Panda is the code name for the massive search engine rankings overhaul performed by Google at the end of February. Panda 2 is the global rollout of the first Panda (which had been confined to the U.S., English-speaking content).

While much was made about Demand Media's survivial -- at a 20% boost in traffic for its main site, eHow -- in the wake of Panda 2 eHow suffered a near 50% drop in traffic and the corporation's stock lost $10 per share.

On May 5 DMS announced to all members of the Writer's Compensation Program through eHow that effective immediately, revenue share would cease. I have one of those accounts, and I've been offered a buyout. The buyout for my 19 articles pays me about 8-9 months' worth of residual earnings. I've decided to take it.

Writers in the WCP break down into the following:

Offered a buyout and take it. Writers lose all rights.
Offered a buyout and remove articles for use elsewhere.
Offered a buyout and don't take it, don't remove articles (in which case rights revert, for free, to DMS on June 1).
Not offered a buyout and leave content for DMS to use for free.
Not offered a buyout and remove content for use elsewhere.

Rev share article writing has taken a hit all around, and in the wake of Panda I read many stories from writers who claimed that DMS knew what it was doing, that the eHow WCP program was a better deal than any other rev share site, etc. And, for a short time, it looked like that was true.

But for now, thousands of writers are weighing their options, if they even have options. It's not a good day in rev share land.

How NOT to respond when a book reviewer reviews your book!

2011-03-28T17:06:00.000-04:00

Holy smokes. Big Al's Books and Pals is a fairly well-known book review blog that looks at a wide range of indie eBooks.

Yesterday he reviewed Jaqueline Howett's The Greek Seaman and gave it two stars. The review was balanced - he complimented some sections but largely panned it for lack of editing, stilted and uneven prose, weird adverb use and poor copyediting. She responded with comments such as:

You obviously didn't read the second clean copy I requested you download that was also reformatted, so this is a very unfair review. My Amazon readers/reviewers give it 5 stars and 4 stars and they say they really enjoyed The Greek Seaman and thought it was well written. Maybe its just my style and being English is what you don't get. Sorry it wasn't your cup of tea, but I think I will stick to my five star and four star reviews thanks.

And, later, adds a lovely "f*ck off!" in a single comment. And it STILL goes downhill from there. The comment stream is at 225 and counting. Have an hour to kill? Take a look.

Don't like a review your book receives?

Ignore it. Don't pull a Jacqueline Howett.

So I'm writing a novel. Isn't everyone?

2011-03-22T11:28:00.000-04:00

I dusted off an old manuscript and am about 5-6 weeks away from having the entire package done and ready to publish. I've decided to simultaneously submit to traditional publishers and publish the book as a Kindle and Nook eBook. I'll publish on Smashwords as well, so readers can download in any eBook format they wish.

I've been lurking at Kindleboards for a good long time and, with the Farmer Algorithm crash, finally decided to give this the attention it deserves. I have a pseudonym, and have created a blog, Twitter account, Facebook page and Goodreads account using my pen name. I'll soon add:

LibraryThing
Wattpad

and...? Any suggestions? I want to have the entire social media platform laid out and ready to go BEFORE I publish.

It's contemporary romance with a touch of historical mystery. ;)

Are Major Publishers Trying to Force Print? eBook Fixed Pricing Means Higher Prices

2011-03-01T12:02:00.001-05:00

Interesting post at the Dear Author blog. Effective today, Random House is instituting agency pricing on eBooks. This means Kindle owners and downloaders won't get a financial break if Amazon wants to cut prices - the price is set by Random House and that's it.

Expect other major publishing houses to follow suit.

So what do readers do when the eBook version costs *more* than a discounted hardback or paperback? Is Random House expecting readers to turn to print? Most folks with eReaders have no desire to turn back to paper.

Will this just drive illegal downloads via torrent? I'm guessing it might.

I'm reading over on the Kindleboards quite a bit these days. A foray into self-publishing via eBook has been on my mind for some time, more for fun than profit. I have some fiction ideas and would love to test them out. Then again, going with a traditional publisher confers legitimacy, yes?

But what if you could be the next Amanda Hocking? Or sell 28,000 copies a month at a $.35-per-book royalty rate?

How many books would you have to sell through Random House to net the same $9,800 Victorine E. Lieske earned as a self-published novelist in February alone? More than 28,000. And at $9.99 how many readers will take a chance on a new novelist?

Health Information Technology Student by Day, Second Life CSR InWorld by Night

2011-02-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

I just wrote one of the more interesting profiles of non-traditional students that I've completed for About.com. Sydahne Phillip is a Health Information Technology degree student at Rasmussen College. She's working toward an associate degree in HIT.

She's also a mother, and works night shift at Second Life, the virtual reality world. I know waaaaaaaayyyyyy too much about Second Life. From 2007-2009 my husband was fairly obsessed with it, to the point of buying entire islands/districts of land "InWorld" and learning to be a developer InWorld as well.

Having a third child sort of killed the so-called "extra" time we had for pursuits like Second Life. We're slowly getting time back, but we hoard it for sleep right now ;).

What I find most interesting about Phillip is that she enjoys the customer care and liaison aspect of work. That kind of networking, troubleshooting and customer service approach - whether you're a front-line CSR or a master's-level health care director - takes a set of skills that go beyond education and experience. It takes softer social skills that you can only acquire if you have an innate ability, or are mentored carefully through your education and career. Phillip seems to possess those skills - it comes through in the interview.

I wonder how it all comes together in Second Life? What a cool job. I think I have a touch of job envy.

A Lesson in Causation vs. Correlation, or: How the Google Farmer Algorithm Unhinges People

2011-02-27T13:50:00.001-05:00

Did you know that if two things happen at the same time they MUST be related through cause and effect, according to most SEO writers trying to figure out why their sites have been downgraded so horribly by the Google "Farmer Algorithm" that hit on February 24, 2011?

It's like pirates. Did you know that the people who want to destroy the planet had a whole conspiracy (notice how that word ends with PIRACY?????) to drive out piracy in the 18th and 19th centuries.

And WHY?

BECAUSE AS PIRATE ATTACKS INCREASE, GLOBAL WARMING DECREASES.

That's why.

So, WHY would "they" want to make global warming increase?

To sell air conditioners. That's why.

Because AIR CONDITIONERS make people vote REPUBLICAN.

The suppression of pirate attacks is a vicious, anti-environmentalist oppressive tactic used by the Republican party to achieve world dominance.

It's true. I've proven it with links.

I rest my case.

Using Anchor Text Properly for SEO

2011-01-28T17:58:00.001-05:00

When you read an article, the links within the article are highlighted text. You click and it takes you to the new article/website. Anchor text is the highlighted text that indicates it's a link to be clicked.

I'll link to my About.com articles and show you the difference.

This is a sentence that does not use anchor text for any phrase for an article on About.com for e-learning teacher certification programs.

This is a sentence that uses anchor text for the keyword phrase online teaching degrees for an article at About.com that focuses on e-learning teacher certification programs.

Anchor Text and SEO

Keyword-driven anchor text means that I am going to link the keyword I want for SEO purposes in my anchor text. Go to my article on About.com and scroll down - see the anchor text for the two links? Some writers would have highlighted the administrator's name, or "Learn more" in the final sentence for the, because we're psychologically driven to connect names with quotes, and calls to action with, well - calls to action. Ever notice how lots of writers link the words "click here" as anchor text on websites? That's partly why, but it's poor SEO.

Google takes alllll that anchor text and uses it as part of its algorithm. You get a tiny boost (but every bit helps) by linking to outside websites using the keyword phrase you're hoping to succeed with in anchor text.

Where you REALLY get a boost is if a website that is stronger than yours - has a higher page rank on Google - uses YOUR targeted keyword as anchor text to link back to YOUR site. That's the Holy Grail of SEO.

Does Keyword-Driven Anchor Text Matter?

It does if you don't use it. If you have your own site and try to make money from it, go back in and change ALL your links to kw-driven anchor text. You'll see an increase in traffic within a week. Whether traffic = money is another blog post.

2011 Business Plan for Writing and Editing

2010-12-29T11:42:00.000-05:00

So, a day late, but as promised, I want to reflect on how 2010 was different from 2009 and use that as a springboard for making some goals for 2011.

Goal #1, though, is a simple picture:

And the picture really tells a simple story, but it's not the obvious story.

It's not "I need to make more time for my family." It's "I need to make the time I spend away from my family working more efficient and work for me."

So with that theme in mind, here are my 2011 goals:

About.com - expand my income beyond the minimum ($500 per month stipend) by the end of 2011.
Suite101 - if possible, complete an experiment of 3-5 months writing nearly full-time, and quadruple my income (by quadrupling my article total) by the end of 2011.
History book - sell the proposal I have out there now, and have a full draft by the end of 2011.
Academic publishing - continue with current client and work to add one new client.
Book reviews - break into Kirkus Reviews with at least one review, and write 2-3 reviews for new academic journals.
Backlinking - write articles for non-paying or low-paying markets ONLY if I can backlink to my benefit.
DMS CE work - continue for now.

So that's it.

What I won't be doing in 2011:

Writing for DMS. I'm done.
Experimenting with lesser/low PR rev share sites.
Accepting work below a set pay rate (per word or per hour).
Chasing new clients aside from those targeted above.

Some other professional measures I need to take:

Create a website that showcases my work (I have the domain name).
Network more locally.
Contact more PR firms locally to get on lists for press events/grand openings/ festivals/etc. related to my writing.
Attend at least one major writing/editing/SEO conference.

Given that I have a toddler at home, I think this is fairly ambitious. I have about 7 hours of babysitting a week, and often sacrifice sleep to do my writing work. I'm hoping to keep my goals reasonable for 2011, but by mid-2012 Daniel will be in preschool and I may inch my way, slowly, toward having more time.

I want to enjoy my family time, though - having a large break (7.5 years) between our second and third means that I know how quickly they grow up, and at 1, 8 and 12 the time will fly by. Querying inappropriate markets, chasing low-pay but "possibly prestigious" work, and wasting my time on fruitless writing isn't how I want to spend my time this year.

Resurrecting My Open Salon Blog

2010-12-28T09:47:00.000-05:00

I started an Open Salon blog in late 2009. You can read my latest post on home health aide training and aging parents.

So why have a blog on Salon.com? First of all, I'm not special - anyone can open one. Most important - the page rank is anywhere from 4 to 7 (depending on who rates it) and the links are DoFollow. Second, if you pop your AdSense in, you get one block of advertising. I think I've made a dollar there :-)

I don't post complete junk, or just links - I used to post updates on my $10K/month experiment, but I'd rather just blog on interesting topics related to my other articles now. The eldercare crisis blog post is a perfect example of that.

I also write at Blissfully Domestic to get high-quality backlinks (and, like Open Salon, you get one block of advertising with your AdSense account). Same with HubPages and Associated Content. Even if the site has NoFollow links, using the anchor text to target my exact keyword phrase can help boost an article's ranking - just not as much as a juicy high-PR DoFollow.

2010 Winning Strategies for Freelance Writing Earnings

2010-12-27T12:21:00.001-05:00

I am going to shamelessly write my own version of Carol Tice's wonderful topic on her Make a Living Writing freelance writing blog. If you don't know Carol, she's a successful freelance writer who has made it her mission to help coach other freelance writers to earn more and take on better work.

She's very active on the LinkedIn editors and writers group, and was extremely helpful (along with Randy Hecht, Ruth Thayer and Karen Berger) last fall when I was making some writing business decisions. I read what they had to say on the forums and found myself really re-evaluating some career choices.

Carol's main message is that writers do NOT have to settle for content mills, substandard wages, and abusive clients - that there are specific strategies one can follow to improve hourly rate, quality of assignment, quality of client, etc.

Subscribe to her blog - I love getting her newsletters, and they take me out of my rigid thought patterns and help me get rid of ineffective activities.

2010 Earnings from Writing

I won't go into specific detail, but I'll say that my 2010 earnings were about 4 times my 2009 earnings. Keep in mind that I didn't get serious about earning from freelance writing and content mill writing until October 2009 - until then I'd had:

1 private client (3 keyword articles/week)
2 academic writing clients (10-20 articles/year, not high pay but exciting work)
College teaching (HA! if you think THAT pays well as an adjunct LOL)
Associated Content performance pay (around $30-$40/month, so I wasn't getting rich)
Demand Studios writing (I wrote about 60 articles in 2009)

By the end of 2010, here's what my portfolio of work looks like:

About.com Contributing Writer in Continuing Education (Nov. 2010)
Suite101.com Feature Writer in History Books and Philosophy Books (Feb. 2010)
1 academic writing client, but in addition to 17 articles at normal pay, a last-minute rush job came up for 7 articles at 2-3x normal pay
11 articles for PC World on smartphones, two of which were licensed to the Washington Post.
1 print article in Bay State Parent on celiac disease and babies (Dec. 2010)
Copy Editor with Demand Media Studios, and I wrote about 30 articles this year
Still getting residual income at Associated Content and writing about 40 articles per year
Book proposal on history topic out with an educational publisher

You can see that I've added some fairly big permanent freelance work (About.com), some additional print work (Bay State Parent and articles in 2 different books for the academic publisher), a major technology publication (PC World, though I'd already written one short piece for them in 2007, but still...), was a "go to" person for a last-minute rush job for an academic publisher.

Freelance Writing and Private Clients

You'll also notice I lost one academic publishing client (just no work that ties in with my specialty) and 1 private client I provided keyword articles for - I raised my rates and that work had become episodic by November, so I don't count it as regular work, but there might be episodic work again in the future.

During late 2009 and 2010, I experimented with:

Examiner
Factoidz
Askables
Bukisa
Break Studios

and while I stuck with Examiner the longest, I never made more than about $100 from them, and found it's just not worth it. The others made me pennies or, in the case of Break, $8 per article for 3 articles that were all kicked back to me for rewrites. I can make $20 per article at DMS if I want rewrites from a content mill :)

My best hourly rates came from:

Print academic work
PC World
Private client
Suite101

(not in any specific order). About.com is so new that I'm not making a good hourly rate as I work to acclimate to the new job, but that's fine - it's a long-term game and I know I'll do well.

So what have I learned? I'll talk about that in my next blog post.

Degree Completion Programs

2010-12-23T13:13:00.001-05:00

I am now a Contributing Writer for About.com and have been writing profiles on continuing education programs and non-traditional students. For instance, so far I've profiled the Home Health Aide training program at Finger Lakes Community College, the same college's CNA Training in New York program, and have just completed a profile on an adult learner who completed the Penn State online RN to BSN nursing degree.

Other online degree completion programs profiled include the University of Massachusetts University Without Walls program and Kent State University's continuing education department.

Bay Path College offers a more traditional on-ground program with a twist: weekend college for students who want a bachelor's degree completion program.

Look for more of my articles, and know that this blog chronicles 3+ years now of my attempts to work at home. If you'd told me 3 years ago I'd be writing for About.com's Continuing Education topic, I would have thought you were a little nuts, but would have taken you out for coffee to pick your brain :)

I'm now a Contributing Writer for About.com

2010-12-12T15:08:00.000-05:00

Hey - check it out: About.com Contributing Writer

Now do you understand why I've been MIA for a bit? I've also written articles for PC World Magazine, Lerner Media, Plus1 Media, Today's Parent and been busy with rev share sites. I have a non-fiction History book proposal in the works as well.

How close am I to the $10K/month goal? Let's just say closer than ever.

Maximizing Writing Income - Which Articles to Place Where

2010-12-12T15:04:00.000-05:00

This post is prompted by various threads on the Suite101 private writer forums. So many folks - oldies and newbies - seem to equate page views with income.

First, Suite doesn't pay by the page view. Examiner does. Associated Content does (plus a small up front). Factoidz does. But not Suite.

Second, while *yes* - there is a *correlation* between higher page views and higher income, the opposite is not automatically true. Low page views does not mean lower income.

I decided months ago to stop revealing specifics about my income at Suite and a few other sites, largely as a result of rampant copycatting on Suite. Let's just say I earn above the site average for Feature Writers, which stands at about $1.13 per article per month. I make more than that.

My page view rank is not - in any way, shape or form - a reflection on my income. I know many other "pay per click" writers in the same boat - modest page views, higher-than-average income.

But they are drowned out on forum after forum (and not just Suite - I've seen it at eHow, DMS, on WAHM.com, and other forums) by people who refuse to see any view other than their own.

It's not just about SEO when it comes to pay-per-click - you have to use conversion rate optimization as well.

I can't count how many times I've said this on forums. I also can't count how many times my statement has been ignored, while folks who flog the old PV = higher income line get attention. And that's fine - but if you want high PV, and you want those PV to earn you money, you're better off going elsewhere.

For instance, if you earn 500K PV on Suite but your earnings per 1000 PV are $1.50, you'd have been better off submitting to Associated Content or Examiner (in theory - if the article is well optimized). If you're getting mega-PV in the hundreds of thousands, worry less about writing more articles and tweak the ones you have that earn huge PV to optimize for conversion.

If your efforts to convert readers to clickers don't work, then take a serious look at which articles you'd be better off placing on other sites. HubPages has complete transparency - try placing a few articles there to see how they perform. Play around with article topics and layout. Use THAT data to feed other rev share sites.

But the worst thing you can do is complain that a site doesn't pay for a model they don't support! Freelance writers are self-employed; we have the freedom to go where the money is. We don't need to stick to rigid business patterns that don't work for us. Find the best home for your articles based on the earnings model in which *each* article performs best. If you don't customize your approach, all you'll get is low earnings and a few long threads of complaints that go nowhere.

How to Use Google to Search Twitter - Find Keyword Statistics

2010-08-22T13:39:00.000-04:00

So I wrote this article on keyword statistics and Twitter. Why is this important? For a number of reasons.

First - go read the article on Suite101. Then come back. I'll wait for you ;) .
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OK - done? Now, here's how it helps with SEO strategies and monetizing:

1. You know when to tweet links to your articles. Tax articles in August? YES. Halloween articles on homemade costumes in August? YES - especially if paired with fabric sales. See where I'm going? KNOW THE TRENDS.
2. You know the exact wording REAL users use when tweeting links to articles on your keyword topics. Think about that - you can catch the natural keywords BEFORE they are trending up, and you can BE the trend.

So go check it out. I am.

Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formula and SEO: Why Grade Level Readability Matters

2010-08-02T11:24:00.001-04:00

More than a decade ago I worked as a Staff Writer for the publishing division of a private school system, writing curriculum materials. I had to learn to write to specific grade levels, and target my content and style. I later took a technical writing course and wrote an entire manual on how to use the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formula to determine the grade level of a particular piece of writing.

So what the heck does the Flesch-Kincaid test have to do with SEO? Quite a bit.

I recently wrote a series of articles on the GED exam (high school equivalency, for those not familiar with the term). Get a GED Online and Free GED Test are two examples. It dawned on me as I wrote the first article that my audience would likely have less than a 10th-grade reading level. So I aimed for 7th grade.

The articles do fairly well in getting page views. So I recently analyzed my top earning articles on all the different sites where I write - I chose the top 5. Guess what? The closer to 5/6/7th grade for readability, the better the article's performance for page views and for revenue (when I know the exact revenue for an article).

The New York Times and USA Today aim for 10th-grade reading level. Most newspapers aim for 9th grade. I've read that romance novels are aimed at a FIFTH grade reading level (though the content is not aimed at 10-11 year olds!). If you're writing SEO/CRO articles, keep your audience in mind.

And to test reading level, check out this free Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formula site, or just use the MS Word feature.

By the way: this post was written at an 11th-grade level.

The Gulf Oil Spill

2010-06-23T14:38:00.001-04:00

I want to take a minute out of my hectic writing and personal life, with 3 kids, two out of school and one an infant, a variety of contracts, a busy telecommuting husband, and a host of other activities and people vying for attention, to talk about the Deepwater Horizon gulf disaster.

We know that families are hurting from oil spill loss of income. We know that BP claims can help with lost wages or revenue, but with projections of up to 100,000 barrels of oil being poured into the Gulf of Mexico each day, we need to break out of our routines (especially those of us living up north, like me) and really think about what this means.

I have friends living on the gulf coast who can see the damage, smell it, have lost property or work because of it. Unemployment is already at 10 percent in this country, and while the mess creates oil jobs for the gulf cleanup, it destroys far more jobs than it creates. And who wants one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in history to be an engine for job creation?

It breaks my heart. So in the middle of writing, and editing, and working for private clients, and enjoying the summer, I'm just thinking. Sometimes writing about the gulf oil spill. And hoping we can technologize our way out of what we technologized our way into. :(