How To Make Money With Short Articles

Before anything let the reader beware, this is not a guarantee or promise of plenty money to be made. Nor is it a guarantee at all for money to be made even a single cent. What this article is and should be seen to be is a mere guide. A write up based on my experience of what I know has made money for me in the past from some of my articles and whether it will work for others really I don’t know. But in the spirit of sharing, I am writing it anyway so have a nice read. One more thing, this topic is especially talking about published articles with contextual ads such as adsense attached to them. By short articles I mean articles less than 1000 words.

The internet is a marvelous invention. From it you can connect with thousands of strangers with interesting perspectives from all over the world in a couple of minutes. Even more fascinating to me is the idea of getting paid to write articles that you may not have considered worth a dime, maybe in the 20th century. But not so in the 21stcentury world, you get paid to write short articles on the world wide web in many platforms such as blogger, ehow and hubpages to mention a few. With the advent of contextual advertising from google and other internet companies, it is possible to make passive income with short articles.

To cut this introduction short let me simply say there are some things that make certain articles stand out and even generate income on auto pilot and those are the things I consider to be money making factors of online articles.

<strong><li>1. Write every article with an audience in mind</li></strong>

If this is so obvious why is it that so many articles I read on the web don’t seem to reach a particular audience? Is it that the writers have forgotten the theme of their article or that they simply lack the required writing skills? I can’t speak for anyone but myself so I would rationalize that they don’t really know what they are doing. One good way to go about this is to do a comprehensive research of keywords that are related to your article’s topic. You can learn about keyword research here on the web if you visit various forums and enquire or go through their archives. The web is a university when it comes to writing for money. If you write an article that targets a specific audience like let’s say “how to knit baby socks” you have a very good article in the making. This example targets people with a passion for knitting or babies and baby clothes or both and so it will certainly attract relevant adverts from contextual ad programs like adsense with baby stuff to sell or handmade clothing which ultimately will result in more clicks and more money.

<strong><li>2. See your article as a real product</li></strong>

When writing an online article, write as if you are making a product that must be sold. Remember that a product solves problems and so too should your article. Your article should be the answer to someone’s question, the solution to someone’s problem, the torch that lights up someone’s life in fact a breath of fresh air. If I write about how to design a cruise missile, well may be it solves someone’s problem, but certainly not in practical terms. What I mean is, not only is it not a realistic article to write but it may be suitable for someone who lives on another planet not earth, if you can find such a person then good luck with that.

<strong><li>3. Promote your article</li></strong>

If you had a product and want to sell it, how would you go about attracting buyers? My guess is you would want to create awareness of the product and attract attention of people who are most likely to buy it. Likewise your article, it should be promoted to the right audience, people who would likely find it interesting. Using the example above, a good place to find people interested in baby socks would be a forum or blog about baby mamas or nursing mothers, even stay at home mums or handmade clothing. Making this article known to them is a key step towards improving its commercial value.

<strong><li>4. Write in a simple, conversational and practical way</li></strong>

Articles are supposed to be simple write-ups. They are simply an expression of what we think, how we feel and what we experience and all these things are the most simple and practical things there are to talk about. I imagine if I was having a conversation with a friend and spoke to him in a highly academic manner when all we are really talking about is sports, then the conversation will be really boring. So too it is with articles. The use of technical language is uncalled for even when the topic is a bit complex. In fact simplifying the language used makes it possible for your ‘client’ to understand what you are talking about and would want to make him/her learn more from you thereby keeping him/her glued to your article. What’s more in future he or she would like to return to know what new thing you have to offer them this is important if you are a blogger. So write simple.

<strong><li>5. Be accurate with your thinking</li></strong>

In as much as you are mostly expressing your opinion when you write, note that your opinion ought to be accurate at least from an objective point of view. Even if every man has an opinion, yours must be subject to reality and reality deals with facts. Get your facts right before you write or else you may have a lot of explaining to do and apologies to make because of the many people who might be offended by what you write. Also learn to empathize see your reader’s likely point of view as well so as to remain within acceptable limits. How does this affect your earnings? Simple readership (traffic in more technical language) will either increase if you are seen as an expert in your niche or diminish over time if you are perceived to be a lay about by your readers.

Be yourself when you write. No need to plagiarize or steal another person’s article and claim it as yours. It is a big waste of time because it doesn’t work and will eventually cost you your reputation. See this article writing thing as a business, not fun. Well may be fun too but be serious about it while you catch your fun but the need to be unique, and not a clone must stand out in your article. That way there will be only a few of you and plenty of the competition out there.

In Conclusion

I can summarize this article in one sentence, “to make money from writing articles you must write unique, relevant, useful and informative articles to a highly motivated audience”.
That is my humble submission, it has worked for me, but I don’t know if it would work for you.