Showing posts with label Make Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Make Money. Show all posts

Wednesday 24 February 2016

How to Control Your Writing Income

“Hand Pressing Enter Icon For Money” by samuiblue
One of the problems with being a writer is that you can never be sure of your income.

When you’re employed you receive a regular weekly or monthly income, but being a writer is so different to that.

Every year I start out with goals of how much money I want to earn from my writing and then I have to figure out how I’m going to do it.

Some things I do are successful and I can hit my income target, and other things turn out not so great or maybe even just mediocre.

Then I read a really fascinating article written by freelance writer, Mridu Khullar Relph at http://www.mridukhullar.com/setting-yearly-goals called “Setting Yearly Goals…In November.”

In this article she talks about how it’s not possible to always hit yearly financial goals, because writers don't have complete control over that.

But we can hit yearly writing goals, or as Mridu calls it, production goals.

She then sets down what her writing goals are (books, blog posts, freelance writing work, etc), breaks it down into how much writing she needs to do to achieve it, and then divides it by how many writing days she has in a year (365 days minus 2 weeks holiday, minus 2 weeks sick days minus weekends, etc) and from there gets a really “do-able” daily word count.

It’s great to read how she breaks it all down and shows you that you don’t need to work full-time to earn a full-time income as a writer.








Wednesday 10 February 2016

How to Start an Online Business Simply and Free


There are many people who now have blogs and earn income from them.

Many also earn all their income from their blogs or websites.

Earning money online is a dream come true for a lot of people yet few seem to actually do it.

So what holds people back?

It's usually fear. Either fear of failing or even, fear of succeeding.

So what's the simplest way to set up a blog?

And how can you do it for free?

And how can you make money from it?

Setting up a money-making blog or website

If you want to set up your own online business, don't try to get it right. Just get it going.

Trying to be perfect will prevent you from getting out of the proverbial starting gate.

My first ever website for writers was terrible. I don't know how I made money from it but I did.

On reflection, I think that the only reason I made money was because I got the website going. I didn't procrastinate, I just wanted to do it. So I found out how and just did it.

Writers need websites (or blogs) as a place to sell their books. Having a website and being able to use it to market your books really helps. It's also a place where you can earn a residual income while you write.

So if you want to get started, do it now. Don't wait for a better time (there's no such thing) or wait till you can get it perfect. Just get it going.

If you want to do it for free,  that's OK too. This blog that you're reading is a free blog from Google. It's called Blogger.

Many popular website are run on Blogger including Down to Earth and Zero Waste Home (ZWH has its own domain name but it is still run on Blogger which you can see at the bottom). The owner of the Down To Earth blog is now an author of several books and was offered several book deals after a publishing company saw her blog and liked her style of writing.

Just Google Blogger to get going now and you can have your blog up and running in minutes. It's the easiest free blogging software I've ever found.

And if you want to publish your books quickly then set up a publishing account with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing at http://kdp.amazon.com. It's free and you can sell your ebooks all over the world through every Amazon website.

You can also use Amazon's free print publishing service called Create Space. Your book files are uploaded to the Amazon website and printed and shipped when ordered.

Just keep everything simple when you get started online and you can grow your writing and publishing business from there.

Just remember that you don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

And after that, anything can (and will) happen.

Living The Laptop Lifestyle - How to Start and Grow A Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job

Click the image below to find out  more.










Thursday 14 January 2016

Are You Wasting Your Time Blogging When You Should Be Writing Books?

“Notebook Pen And Cup Of Coffee” by photouten
When most writers start blogging their strategy is usually to 'throw content up on the blog and see what sticks'.

We all start out that way, even I used to do it.

I didn't really understand back then how my content could earn me my full-time income. I only saw what I was doing as a simple equation:

Blog Visitors = Income

And this is the same for many people who want to make money from blogging.

It's so easy to think that your main goal is to write huge amounts of content to drive more people (traffic) to your blog.

And this type of thinking used to be regularly encouraged online when all the so-called “blogging gurus" were bragging about how rich they were from their advertising income.

This created a blogging boom because everyone began to think that if they had a blog and wrote a huge amount of content, they'd get rich too.

Unfortunately the thing that wasn't talked about was how most people earned little or no income from their blog, and THAT’S still the same today.

The real truth is that if you want to make a lot money from blog advertising, then you need to get millions of visitors to your site.

And that's just not not going to happen for most people.

Advertising requires unrealistic amounts of blog traffic. Not only that but the very nature of online advertising is that the ads are there to take people away from your site, which is not a good business strategy at all.

So if you really want to earn all your income from your writing, don’t just use a blog as a way to earn money from advertising. Use a blog to sell your books.

You can still use your blog as a place to post great content AND you can have a few ads on there for extra income if you want to (it's more profitable to have visitors leave by clicking an ad than clicking their back button), but instead of leading people to the ads that will take them away from your site, use your content to lead people to your books.

You also need to create a relationship with your readers by setting up an email list so that you can keep in touch with them and let them know about every book you write, or tell them about it while you’re still writing to create ongoing interest.

So the flow of what happens on your blog isn’t that your content attracts attention which leads people to click an ad and buy a product from someone else. The flow is to use your content to attract attention which leads people to read your content and then sign up to you email list, buy books from you and become a regular reader.

This creates a whole community of loyal readers who love your work and want to buy more books from you.

This will lead to you earning more money selling books than earning advertising fees and not only that, the greatest thing is that you don’t need to constantly try and get millions of visitors to your site in order to earn a decent income.

You can relax into your book writing without the worry of how many people are or aren’t visiting  your blog.

And once you realise what a far better business model this is, it becomes a whole lot easier (and more fun) to make money writing and selling your own books, because you don’t have to attract a huge amount of people to your books, only the right people, those who want your books and are eager to read what you write.

This leaves you free to get back to the writing you should be doing instead of spending all your time writing free online content.

And if you want to learn more about blogging and making money on line from your writing, you can always download Living The Laptop Lifestyle.

Thursday 7 January 2016

How to Generate More Income From Fiction Writing

“Woman Reading Book At Home” by marin FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Self publishing has been especially great for fiction writers because it used to be difficult to get fiction books published.

Non-fiction writers used to fair better because plenty of people were willing to buy PDF ebooks that could be downloaded from the internet. But fiction readers always wanted physical books. Sadly for most authors, THAT option was too expensive.

But now publishing fiction is easy because not only can you published all your own novels for free (and do it quickly), but also fiction readers are now happy to download and read novels on their smart phones and other reading devices.

This has freed up fiction authors to earn a living writing their books.

But how can you earn even more money from fiction writing?

One of the first millionaire self published fiction authors was John Locke. He wrote a series of novels but struggled to publish them.

Then he discovered Kindle publishing and not only did he publish all his novels as digital books, but he made so much money that he also wrote and published his best selling non-fiction ebook, How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!  And he sold over 1 million of that ebook even faster.

So what was his secret?

His novels weren’t better than anyone else's, in fact they are just OK to read IMHO.

But what he did differently than most fiction writers is that he published a whole series of novels.

So when one of his readers finished the first book they were eager to read the next, and so on, and so on.

And that’s the real secret to success through fiction publishing. You need to write and publish a whole series of novels instead of just publishing one and sitting back and expecting to make a fortune.

But having said that, the first caveat here is to make sure that each of your novels, not only leads the readers through an on-going story, but each novel must also stand alone. There can be no open endings.

It’s just like the Harry Potter novels. Each book is a complete story so even if you only read one of them, you can follow what’s happening and understand who all the characters are. But every subsequent book builds on what happened in the previous books.

Another caveat, is to make sure that the readers, when buying one of your books, knows that it is part of a series.

I know of one author who published a series of novels but didn’t make it clear on the cover. So when readers found out that there were more books to read they felt cheated because they thought  each book was a separate story.

The author changed her book covers to make it clear that it was a series, but the damage was already done because of the unfavourable reviews being posted online.

And if you want to write non-fiction you can also write and publish a series of ebooks by expanding your subject and breaking it down into separate ebooks instead of separate chapters.

So if you want to sell more novels, think about writing a series to keep your readers hooked and wanting more.

-------------------

Self Publish Worldwide






Thursday 17 December 2015

Finding Writing Markets and Finding Ideas

“Idea On Monitors Showing Variety Of Thoughts” by Stuart Miles FreeDigitalPhotos.netFreelance writing for magazines can be a great way to earn money if you do it consistently.
$200 for an article plus $100 for a tip and $50 for a joke can soon all add up to a decent income.
But first of all you have to find enough markets.
This is all part of the process and can be even more helpful than you realise because looking for freelance markets can also trigger great ideas for other writing projects whether it’s an idea for an article for a magazine or an online article for your own website or for your next ebook.
Once you start looking you'll start having idea overload, or at least that’s how it always works for me.
Whenever I start looking, the ideas never stop coming.
So if you’re stuck for a few new writing ideas, try searching through some magazines for writing opportunities and see what great ideas they can spark.
---
Don’t suffer from writer’s block ever again.
Download Goodbye Writer’s Block today.

Tuesday 27 October 2015

My Recent Income From Book Sales

3d Laptop On Top Of A Pile Of Books image courtesy of by renjith krishnan freedigitalphotos.net
I get asked a lot about how much money I earn from my writing, but it's not something I like to talk about.

I always think that if I had a regular 9 to 5 job no one would ask me how much I earn but writers get asked about this often.

In a way I can understand why people want to know.

There's much talk about how it's possible to earn a really good income as a writer and apart from asking successful writers, there's no way to find out.

For regular careers there's a minimum wage and average income that anyone can look up. But writers are different because we're not paid by the hour. It's the same for musicians and artists. None of them earn a 'standard' income because there is no standard income for creative careers.

But having said all that, just to show that it is possible to earn a good income as a writer, I'll tell you about part of a conversation I had with my bookkeeper just a few days ago.

He rang to ask me a few questions about my most recent income. I'd sent him all the paperwork but he still had a couple of questions.

Then he asked me another question.

He said, "Do you know who much money you've earned from your book sales in the last 2 weeks?"

I admitted that I had no idea. Math has never interested me much so although I know I'm making sales, I don't really track them all the time (that's what bookkeepers are for aren't they?).

So he told me.

"$5,000."

I was pleased. That's pretty good earnings from my books. I don't even have as many published as some authors.

I also make money online from affiliate sales and from advertising on my websites, so earning 5K from just my books was great.

And I'm telling your this not to brag (although some will think 5k is nothing compared to what they earn) but to show you that there is money to be made from self publishing.

And that's another thing...he was only talking about the books I self published and so that figure doesn't include my two books that I didn't publish myself, one of which is The Wealthy Writer.

So if you've ever wanted to start taking your writing seriously and earn enough money so that you can work as a writer like I do, I hope this blog post helps to inspire you to start writing, publishing and marketing more.

And I include publishing and marketing, because without these two things, you won't make any money from your writing at all.

The really good news for me though, is that I'm about to start writing many more books (they're on my schedule of work for the next few months).

So my income can only increase.

:)

Wednesday 16 September 2015

No I Won't Personally Tutor You And Here Are The Reasons Why

Okay...As you must already know by now I've been doing a run of local talks about setting up websites/blogs and making money online.

I called these talks The Laptop Lifestyle, after my best selling ebook of the same name.

Since then (as well as during my run of talks) I've had quite a few emails from people asking if I do private group lessons on how to do it all.

Now, while I can understand everyone wanting to know more about this, I'll give my reasons for not doing private group lessons:

  1. It takes up too much of my time.
  2. I'd rather be doing the work myself than teaching others how to do it. 
  3. Most people don't want to know how to do it, they want me to do it for them.

All three of these reasons are valid on their own.

I'm far too busy doing my own work to take time out to teach others.

And the reason I work online is because I enjoy working alone. As nice as it was to get out and meet lots of new people, at heart I'm a working alone kind of person.

I love to sit here every day, learn more about working online, write ebooks and courses and earn money from what I do.

And there are many people who also want to do the same. I know this because many of them were at my talks.

But the difference, is that I found that many of them don't really want to work like I do. They want someone else to do the work while they reap the benefit.

I kept pointing everyone to my Laptop Lifestyle ebook that provides everything they need to get started. I told them that working online involves getting going and learning as you go along.

Yet still I keep hearing from people saying they couldn't set up a free blog because they'd learned all about how to do it but were confused (without even starting), weren't sure how blogging software works, weren't sure how many blog posts to write to get started, wanted to know what to do if they didn't make money...and on and on the list went.

I've been repeating myself over and over about this to so many different people lately, and I'll say it again.

You don' have to get it right. You just have to get it going.

It's impossible to know everything there is to know about something before you start.

Look at learning to drive. Did you know how to do it before you started or did you get in the car and learn as you went along?

At school, did you learn your math lessons by the teacher explaining everything about math without you having to lift a finger, or did you learn by actually doing the math yourself?

And as for knowing how something works to be able to use it (like blogging software), I use electricity every day but I have no clue how it works or how to fix it when it breaks. I also don't know how computers work either, but that doesn't stop me from earning all my income from one.

So if you want to make money online from writing, blogging, affiliate marketing, advertising or any other of the hundreds of ways to do it, stop making excuses and just get it going. (This advice also applies to everything you want to do that you've never done before).

And if you don't know where to start, you can start by clicking the image below for more information.

But please don't ask me to tutor you personally.

I'm far too busy writing and living my own Laptop Lifestyle.


Living The Laptop Lifestyle: How to Start & Grow a Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job



Thursday 10 September 2015

Money Likes Speed

Typing FastThere are no speed limits on the road to excellence. We can’t be fined for speeding.” ~ David W. Johnson

Money Likes Speed is a saying I've heard over and over for the last few years.

But it's not just money that likes speed. Success (in all areas of life) likes speed too.

If you think, ponder, question, doubt, plan, meet, discuss, worry, etc, before you act, you'll never make enough money.

And it's the same with writing. Money likes writing speed too.

When you get an idea of something you want to write about, don't sit around and think about it.

Act.

If you procrastinate you'll not only lose your initial enthusiasm, you'll also think of all the reasons you shouldn't write it, plus you'll lose all your ideas.

I've heard it said that ideas are gifts. You didn't ask for them, you didn't pay for them, you don't owe anyone anything for them. They are given to you.

So don't throw away these gifts. Use them straight away before they disappear, because ideas can be lost really quickly and so easily.

People who earn a lot of money from their writing are those who act on every great idea they have.

If they get an idea for an ebook or a great article, they don't sit around and think about it for a few days or weeks. They sit down, map out an outline of what they want to write and then they get down to work.

Some of the writers who have been successful through their speed of writing are Joe Vitale (who prides himself on how fast he moves from idea to finish product), Sylvester Stallone who wrote the script for the movie Rocky in just 3 days and Isaac Asimov who wrote over 400 books in his writing life which equated to around one book a month.

What would have happened to these writers and their work if they hadn't acted fast and sat down to write every time they had a great idea? They'd be broke nobodies.

There are those who believe that because writing creates a passive income, it means you can sit around, do nothing and earn money.

On the contrary. Successful writers are always writing and they act fast when ideas come to them.

That's the secret of earning money through speed.

The money you make may come long after you've finished your writing, but the speed of writing is what makes the money come.

And what writer doesn't want to earn money?

I've been working as a writer for almost 20 years now and I always find that the more I write and publish, the more money I make.

So next time an idea hits you, act on it. Make the most of your gift (idea) and when you get another one do it all over again, and see the difference it makes to your writing income.

FYI (just in case you're invested, this article went from idea to published in 20 minutes.


Goodbye Writer's Block - How to Be A Creative Genius and Have an Abundance of Ideas PLUS the Inspiration and Motivation to Write


Writer's Block

Tuesday 8 September 2015

How To Easily Make Money Online, Even If You Don't Know How

Turn Ideas Into Money courtesy of kasahasa, FreeDigitalPhotos.net
One thing I've really enjoyed doing over the past 15+ years, is working as an online writer.

And as you know, I've recently been touring around teaching what I do.

What struck me the most was that nearly everyone who attended my classes had absolutely no clue - zilch, nada, none - about what to do or where to start.

So I helped them as much as I could in the short time I had.

And to help them even more I gave everyone a handout with an outline of what I'd be talking about plus links to useful websites to help them get started.

I also put the handout online so that I could show it on a projector screen as I worked my way through it.

The talks that I was giving are now over but I thought that because there were so many people that I met who had no idea about even the basics of making money online, there are probably even more who I haven't met who have the same problem.

So if you're someone who wants to make money online but you have nothing to sell and you don't know where to start, here is a link to my handout from my talk which was called The Laptop Lifestyle.

I hope this information helps.

http://writeaholics.net/handout.html


Friday 28 August 2015

The Most Asked Question About Making Money Online As A Writer

Image courtesy of Ambro, FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I've been a bit lapse lately about posting on this blog.

For this there are two reasons.

Firstly, I've been doing other writing work and secondly I've been busy doing a run of talks at several local libraries about how I make money online.

And yes, there really should be a third reason that I could have tried harder to keep up with everything, but I was just SO busy.

The reason that I'm telling you all this is because at the talks I've been giving (and I haven't finished yet, so I'll be out on the road again next week), I talk a in quite a bit of detail about how to set up a blog, how to market it, and some of the different ways to earn an income online.

Afterwards, someone always asks me, "How do you know all this stuff? How did you learn to it it all?"

And as I answer this question, everyone seems to hold their breathe as they wait for my answer, as though  I'm about to impart some secret, mystical knowledge.

I tell them my 'secret' in one, un-mystical word.

Google.

This is my go-to place for everything I need to know.

Through my searches I've always found answers to all my questions, no matter how random or complicated they seem at first.

Sometimes I find what I'm looking for, for free.

Other times I find courses, services or products that can help me, so I buy them.

But I'm always searching, finding and investing.

I'm not afraid to invest my time or money in what I need to move my business forward.

And neither should you.

Search for what you need and then use it.

The people attending my talks (called The Laptop Lifestyle) were searching for knowledge and they found a lot of it.

You can find it too, without leaving your chair and attending one of my talks by investing in your own...

Laptop Lifestyle

Living the Laptop Lifestyle

Thursday 20 August 2015

What Do You Want To Write?

Speculating woman image courtesy of  Poulsen Photo, freedigitalphotos.net
Let me ask you a question.

If you could earn enough money from your writing, regardless of what you were writing, what kind of writer would you be?

Would you be a novelist?

Ebook writer?

Blog writer?

Ghost writer?

Freelance writer?

Copy writer?

Screen writer?

Comedy writer?

Poet?

Review writer?

Speech writer?

Technical writer?

Article Writer?

Translator?

Or any other kind of writer.

Just imagine if you could sit and write for a few hours every day and earn all the money you needed.

Once you know what type of writer you want to be, then the next question is, why aren't you doing it?

There can be lots of reasons like no time, too many other commitments, don't know how...and the list goes on.

But the truth is that you're probably afraid of failure, so you invent excuses and stick to them.

The good news is that unlike other professions, it takes no money to start, the hours are flexible and it  requires no specialist training.

So if you haven't starting doing the type of writing you want to do, or you're already a writer but you're not enjoying it, then the time to make a change has come.

But don't go thinking that you need to quit your job or sit and write all day long, because you don't.

You just need to know what you want to do and then start doing it, even if you only have an hour or two to spare every day.

Stop making excuses and start living your writing dream.

If you want some inspiration, just look at all the writing books and writing courses available at http://cheritonhousepublishing.com.



Monday 27 July 2015

Why I Feel Like I've Been Shirking My Writing Responsibilities And Why You Should Care

Lately I've been really busy with my writing and publishing. Yet at the same time I feel as though I've been shirking my writing responsibilities because I haven't been updating my websites or this blog.

But it's not because I've been lazy, but rather because other things have gotten in the way, or should I correctly say I'VE ALLOWED other things to get in the way.

What has mostly kept me busy is working on my new online course which is aimed at teaching you how to make money as an online writer. I'm still working on the script and figuring out how I'm going to make it all work but the eventual course will consist of text, video and audio so it will have a lot of content.

I'm also about to embark on a tour of several local libraries teaching the same thing that my online course will be about. This is all linked to my original ebook Living the Laptop Lifestyle which I'm currently updating and adding many more features and information to, and I need to get it ready before my library tour.

At the same time I've been hassled with other issues because we have been in consultation with a local builder for the last two years about a major renovations to our house. But in the end we couldn't agree on the terms of contract so we decided to amicably part our ways, after years of engineering reports, house designs etc. And now we're starting over with another builder. Sad face.

So all in all it's been a busy time.

But why should you care?

Because in the end I will have available  for you a whole new and improved Living the Laptop Lifestyle course that will include far more than it does now. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with the current ebook, it's just that things change in the online world so everyone needs to know more.

I will also have available my new online course that includes video, text and audio. This is a big project and will be available within a month.

So if you want to learn about how to make money online as a writer, creating your own blog, writing ebooks, doing affiliate marketing, earning money through advertising and a whole lot more, these products will help you get to where you want to go with your writing dreams.

But in the meantime I need to keep working hard to bring it all together.

And you'll soon be able to reap the benefits of all my hard work.

In the meantime, I need to put my nose back to the proverbial grind stone.

:)

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Free Podcasts That Are Helping Me to Double My Writing Income

I started a part-time cleaning job a few months ago so that I could get more exercise.

I clean two local banks which takes me less than 2 hours a night.

I've got my routine working so well that I don't have to think very much about what I'm doing.

So now I listen to audios while I work.

I plug my ear buds in and listen to audios about writing, marketing, wealth, time management, blogging and more.

And I find that not only do I get my cleaning done faster AND better than before, but I take home a few nuggets of useable information every week.

So I look forward to going to work every night because I know that I can listen to more inspiration and informational audios (and there's something really soothing about working alone in the evening).

And what I learn is helping me increase my income from my writing.

Sometimes I only have to make one small change and the impact it makes is clearly noticeable.

And not only is all this new-found knowledge helping me to earn more money from my writing, but the cleaning company I work for is paying me while I listen.

So it's like I'm being paid twice.

And double money is always good.

And just in case you're curious as to what I'm listening to and learning from, I'll tell you.

I'm currently listening to free podcasts on iTunes which are:

Ben Settle - Anti-preneur Show

Jeff Goins - The Art of Work

Jeff Goins - The Portfolio Life

Yaro Starak - Entrepreneurs Journey

I've also recently listened to all the free podcasts at http://bensettle.com/blog/media-interviews/. There's quite a few hour worth there.

Enjoy and I hope they help you too.

:)

Wednesday 13 May 2015

How to Earn $100 From 5 Minutes Writing

Quick Cash WritingYears ago, when I first started writing, I knew that I wanted to be a professional writer but I had no idea where to start.
Then I stumbled across a writing course called Quick Cash Writing.
I bought it, downloaded it and immediately started working my way through it from virtual cover to virtual cover.
And guess what happened?
I made enough money so that I could give up my job and write full time.
Previously I’d worked a full time job. Then once I started making a bit of money from my writing I got a part time job instead to give me more time to write.
But once I’d worked  my way through Quick Cash Writing, I was amazed at just how much money I could make from my writing.
I was eventually writing for private clients as well as writing for magazines.
The easiest money I made from magazine writing was from Reader’s Letters.
These are so fast to write and pay a lot of money. One of them paid me $100 for a few words and a small photo of my dog.
Reader’s letters, in  most magazines, are just a few words about something funny that happened. Other magazines look for tips that other readers can use or opinions about articles from a previous issue.
But either way, these only take 5 minutes or less to write - and they can usually be submitted by email which is the quickest way to do it.
And I know from first hand experience that it is possible to earn $100 for 5 minutes of writing - or less.
And I also made quick cash from sending a short joke into the Readers’ Digest magazine. They pay up to $100 for jokes and they send you a copy of the issue your joke is in.

So if you want to earn a fast buck or two (or even a hundred or two) try submitting a few reader’s letters, tips, opinions or jokes. 
Try it right now. 
It only takes 5 minutes.

Monday 11 May 2015

Get Online Today Even if You Don’t Know a Thing About Websites

I get asked so often, is it possible to have a website or blog without knowing anything about HTML code?

Can it be done?

Of course it can. Naturally it’s better if you go online and learn a bit about HTML code first, but even if you don’t know a thing you can still launch your own blog today and start uploading articles.

How?

Well, to keep it simple and quick, you can create your own Blogger blog. Blogger is owned by Google and anyone can start a blog in minutes (the blog you're reading right now is a Blogger Blog, click the Blogger link in the top left corner to get started).

Once you have your blog you then change how you want it to look using the simple dashboard that Blogger provides.

If you don’t know how to do it, there are hundreds of videos on YouTube about how to set up a Blogger blog and how the dashboard works. You only have to do a quick search to find the info you want.

And I’m betting that you can have your blog set up and start posting articles in less than a couple of hours.

It really is that simple.

There’s a saying online, KISS. This stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. And starting a quick Blogger blog is simple.

Of course, there are also those who ask for my advice and then don’t take it.

I say “Start a Blogger blog. It’s so easy to do.” and they say “OK” but they do nothing.

This is because they really aren’t interested in having a blog. They just want an excuse to not have one so that in their own minds it’s not their fault that they’re not a successful writer. It’s because they don’t know HTML code.

So if you’ve always wanted to have your own blog, check out a few videos on YouTube about starting a Blogger blog and then go to Google and set one up yourself.

Just stop making excuses and get your online writing business started.

Even if you’re not sure exactly what it is you want to do yet, forget the minor details and just get something started.

Remember you don’t have to be able to see the whole staircase to take the first step.

:)

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Thursday 7 May 2015

Proof That There is Money to Be Earned From Short Ebooks

Recently I was doing a Google search for writing markets to include in my latest newsletter for writers.

I came a cross jobs for ebooks writers so I clicked through to see what they were.

The jobs were advertised on freelancing job websites.

I didn't use these jobs in my list of markets because they weren't high-paying, but I was amazed by them all the same.

Nearly all were looking for someone to research and write a short ebook of around 5,000 words.

I thought "Only 5,000 words? That is really short! I've read article on people's blogs that are longer than that (take a look at Steve Pavlina's How to Make Money From Your Blog as an example). And it's only about a 25-page ebook, or 30 if you include cover pages, disclaimer pages, etc.

And for this they are willing to pay the writer several hundred dollars. Why so much? Because there seems to be a lot of money in ebook publishing. In my most recent newsletter I linked to an article about this called $2700/Month of Passive Income by Publishing Kindle eBooks, and No Writing.

So it became clear that if people will pay writers hundreds of dollars to write a short ebook, it's because they are making much, much more money from the writers hard work.

Most of theses ads offered plenty more ongoing work for the right person. Some said they would keep the writer busy for a year.

The downside to these jobs is that they wanted the ebooks completed in a week - or less, in just 5 days.

Is it even possible to research and write a short ebook this quickly? You bet it is. And it has all given me much food for thought. (Who is this guy called Thought and why do I keep feeding him?)

And hopefully it will feed your thoughts too.

Because I now have proof that there is a lot of money to be made from writing and publishing short ebooks.

But wouldn't it be better to write them for yourself and keep all the profit?

You can do it with my 7 Day Ebook Writing & Publishing System.


Thursday 30 April 2015

How to Earn Money as an Affiliate Marketer

Online Earnings Image courtesy of Stuart Miles, FreeDigitalPhotos.net
There are so many ways to earn money online from your writing that sometimes it can be hard to choose which one. Or if you're like me, you do quite a few.

One of the ways to earn money is from affiliate marketing. This means selling other people's products for commission.

The fastest way is to join an affiliate network rather than an individual affiliate program for just one product or one company.

The reason for this is because from a network, you can advertise multiple products from multiple companies all from one account so that  your income accrues faster.

But to be successful it takes more than just putting up a few banners and images on your webpages.

To be earn a good income from affiliate marketing, the best way to do it is through article marketing.

This means writing information-packed articles on the subject of whichever product you're trying to sell at the time and using your writing skills to increase the readers desire to click on your affiliate link and buy the product.

But how many sales to you need to make?

Well, look at it this way...if you're selling an ebook or similar product for which you'll receive $20 per sale, then you'd need to sell 10 products  a day to earn $200, which, over 5 days a week will provide an income of $1,000 ($200 a day for 5 days).

On the other hand, if you're selling a higher-priced product and receiving $50 a sale, then you only need to sell 4 a day to earn the same amount of money.

So if you're advertising and selling multiple products all the time, then you can see how it isn't difficult to make several sales a day - if you're working hard and constantly promoting the products.

I have several different websites online and I work across 3 different and unrelated niches. This gives me ample opportunity to promote affiliate products as well as my own products.

From this I earn  a pretty decent income. And by pretty decent, I mean great.

But I work hard at what I do. I am always thinking of different ways to promote the products I sell as well as researching other suitable products, watching the online markets to see what's selling and what's not, and writing my own books and ebooks.

I prefer to sell my own products because I have better control over them. But the affiliate products I sell bring in plenty of income as well.

Just a few weeks ago I found a new product to promote that pays $66 a sale. I now sell an average of 2 of these a week. I also began promoting another product in a different niche that pays $50 a sale and I now sell around 3 of these every week. This product is also part of a funnel where the customers are offered other products as well and these up-sells also bring me more income.

So just from these 2 products alone I'm earning well over $300 a week. But I know that it won't last long. Products don't always sell well because once people have bought them they no longer need to buy them, so I'm always looking for the next great product to promote.

And it's not only article marketing that helps bring in sales. I use several other methods as well.

So if you want to raise your writing income, find a few great affiliate products to promote.

If you want to earn higher commissions take a look at http://www.highpayingaffiliateprograms.com. Their programs pay up to $1,000 a sale, but I think you'd have to have quite a swanky website to attract such high paying customers.

Or you could try my affiliate page at http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/affiliates.html where you'll not only find out about my affiliate program, but I've also listed some others that are good to use as well.


Wednesday 22 April 2015

My Affiliate Program is Back

A few months ago I did away with my affiliate program for my products.

Why?

Because too many people were signing up and only using their affiliate link to buy products for themselves.

This is annoying because not only are they looking to get something half price (my affiliate program pays 50% commission) but also because they weren't promoting my products to others, which is the whole point of the program.

I always offer my new products at really low prices to subscribers. I do it all the time, so there's no need for anyone to try and get a 50% discount because my reduced prices for subscribers are way better than that.

So I stopped allowing affiliates to sell my products.

The problem though, was that more people wanted to sign up, but couldn't.

I gave it much thought and in the end I decided to start my affiliate program again but this time with a difference - affiliates won't get paid for purchases through their own affiliate links.

There are plenty of other affiliate programs that don't allow this practice. Even the mighty ClickBank, with well over 150,000 affiliates doesn't allow them to make purchases through their own affiliate links.

And now I don't either.

I've updated the new affiliate information at http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/affiliates.html and added the new info about not paying out for affiliates own purchases.

So there it is.

If you were already signed up as one of my affiliates, your links will still work. I haven't changed anything, I've simply re-instated it again.

And it's worth joining because affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money from writing. It's something I do all the time.

I regularly promote other people's products as an affiliate. Not all products that I recommend are through affiliate links. But many are.

And I NEVER promote products that I don't believe are great because I don't want to upset anyone and make them not trust me.

So if you've ever wanted to make more money from your writing but you've never tried affiliate marketing, you could be leaving a lot of money on the proverbial table.

Just recently I began promoting a product (in another niche) that paid out $66 per sale. I wrote 3 short articles to promote it and made 2 sales in the first week! How great is that?

I'm often asked what's the secret of making money through affiliate marketing, and I honestly don't know. But I do know that it works as long as you're not too "salesy."

When I made the quick sales on the $66 product, the articles were only loosely based around subject of the product. They were information articles that I uploaded to EzineArticles.com one at a time. It was that easy.

But I'm not saying it's always that easy, but sometimes it is.

And when it is, it's great.

-------------------------------------------------------------

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Tuesday 24 March 2015

3 Ways to Make Money Writing Online Articles For Your Own Blog/Website

How to Write an Article in 15 Minutes or Less
Writing online articles is what being a writer is all about.

You can’t get away from it. If you’re a writer you need a website and that means writing articles/blog posts regularly.

You website needs to grow and to be filled with regular articles. But what are the articles you’re supposed to write? And how can they help you to make money?

Every article that you write needs to have a reason for being. In other words, what is the article for? How does it help the reader? And most of all, how can it help you to make more money online?

Below is a list of 3 ways that you can use article to make money from your own blog/website.

1. Blog/website Articles. Your website or blog can be a site about you as a writer to promote your books, or a niche website where you sell products and write articles around the products you sell to help drive sales. Use your online articles to help promote what you sell while providing worthwhile information for your readers.

2. Article Marketing. Once you have your blog/website set up, you need to drive traffic to it. You can do this with article marketing. You can write press releases whenever you begin promoting a new book/product, write articles for other blogs/websites and link them back to your site, or write articles to publish on the article directories. Short articles are fast to write and can go on helping you to make money for years.

3. Emails. once you get people to your website you need to get them to subscribe to your email list so that you can continue to market to them long after they’ve left your site. Writing regular short email articles can help keep your subscribers entertained, educated and, hopefully, turn them into regular customers.

So set up a blog/website, fill it with informative and entertaining articles that help you make sales, drive traffic to your site with article marketing and then keep in touch with your website visitors with regular emails.

This is how many people have been making money online for years.

You just have to keep on writing.

Monday 16 March 2015

Why I Use 2 Computers and How It Helps Me to Write More and Earn More

Image Courtesy of Photostock, FreeDigitalPhotos.net
As you know, I have a publishing company and I'm a full-time writer. These two things keep me really busy.

Up until late 2014 I only had one computer, a 13" Mac Book Pro.

Then in early December 2014 I splashed out and bought a 13" Mac Book Air.

I didn't buy it because my other computer wasn't working. On the contrary, My Mac Book Pro still works like a Pro, but I wanted the other computer so that I could write more and earn more.

You see, my original computer contains everything I use to run my business. It has all my files, my passwords to particular website accounts, etc. So I used it all the time.

The problem was though, that it also has my emails and several computer games. So whenever I wasn't in a complete working mood I'd start constantly checking emails and clicking links in them and browsing the internet or I'd start a computer game and get lost in that for an hour or two.

I kept telling myself I'd stop doing doing these things, but every time I time I got bored, I'd open my emails to check them again or I'd play a game. I also have quite a few RSS feeds on my computer so they kept disrupting me too because I just HAD to read the latest article on my favourite websites.

Eventually, I realised that there was no way I was going to stop wasting time with these things. I was a distraction junkie. I needed my distractions to get my fix every day.

So I needed a way to stop myself.

I had two options.

The first was to delete my email accounts, computer games and RSS feeds from my computer. But this wasn't really an option because I need my email accounts and some of the RSS feeds are to websites that I'm affiliated to so I need to know what's going on.

So I decided to turn to my second option which was to get another computer and not fill it with these distractions.

I hummed-and-hahed about it for while because the thought of spending $1,000 to stop myself being distracted seemed wasteful. I hated spending that much money for such a flimsy reason.

So I thought about it for several months, while trying to not let myself be distracted so easily by other non-important things.

In the end I made a deal with myself.

I'd buy another computer, a Mac Book Air, and take it out with me every day and work away from home because it's really light to carry.

That would work out great because it wouldn't have the usual distractions on it plus when I work away from home I get more done.

It was a win-win situation.

Plus the added benefit was that if I got more writing done, I'd earn more money so that the new computer could pay for itself in no time at all.

So that's what I did.

I bought the new computer and I use it when I'm writing.

Sadly though, almost instantly, as soon as I bought it our weather got really hot.

Here in Australia December is a summer month and it heated up quickly and became incredibly hot so I started working from home working inside in the cool air-conditioning which was also much appreciated by our two dogs.

I didn't mind too much but I really wanted to go out and work every day but it was far too hot and it made me really thirsty all the time so I needed to drink a lot of water while I worked, which isn't easy to do away from home. The hot weather also attracted a lot of flies and they were everywhere outside.

So I figured once the weather cooled down a little I'd start working away from home.

But then we had a cyclone which brought weeks of rain and strong winds that lashed our little tiny house and flooded the garden.

When it was all over and the sun came out again, it took weeks for the ground to recover and we were  all slipping in mud for a while.

But now it's back to hot weather again and I still haven't taken my new computer away from the house, except when I go to teach my classes once a week at the local college where I show others how to make money as an online writer.

In my classes I hook my computer up to a projector and show everyone what I do for a living and teach them how to do it too.

So my new computer does get out now and again but not in the way I first intended.

And it feels like it's not so much a computer as a glorified word processor because I only use it for writing and nothing else.

But it has earned it's keep because even when I work from home now I mostly work outside sitting on our big wooden deck that has views of miles and a nice cooling breeze, even though most days do end up too hot to stay out there, but winter is on it's way which, here in Brisbane, means warm (but  not hot) days which should be just about right for outdoor writing.

So eventually I know I will take my computer out to the local parks or the library to work but in the meantime, I'm enjoying using it at home as a distraction-free writing tool.

And I was right that it has enabled me to get much more writing done.

And more writing always means more money, because I'm a working writer, I need to earn from my writing.

So if you are distracted by time-wasting apps on your computer, you might consider getting another computer and using it just for writing.

For me it was a great investment which has not only earned it's own keep, but is still helping me earn money every day.

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Living The Laptop Lifestyle: How to Start & Grow a Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job

Is going to work something you suffer through all week so you can enjoy the weekends?
Do you bury your dreams and passions so you can chase a paycheck every week?
Do you spend Sundays with a feeling of dread because you know Monday is right around the corner?

Click the image to find out how you can escape.