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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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.

How to Earn Money as an Affiliate Marketer

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.

My Writing Day

Being a writer is one thing, but knowing how to structure your writing day is another.

In the end it all comes down to what's best for you and how much time you have.

Structuring your writing day depends on many factors including how much time you have to write every day, family responsibilities (school runs, young children, meals to prepare, etc) and wether or not you already have another job.

Personally I transitioned gradually into becoming a full-time writer. I went from full time work to part time work to writing full-time.

I also changed the way I live by moving from a large house in a city suburb to a small house in a small, coastal town. Doing this gave me more time to do the things I want to do because I now spend less time cleaning and maintaining the house.

Working as a writer has also changed over the years. I used to write for magazines and clients but now I work exclusively online, writing for my websites and writing ebooks. This means spending time updating social media accounts almost daily as well as doing constant online marketing. This is not how being a writer used to be.

At the moment, as I've mentioned before, I'm currently updating all my websites to make them mobile responsive. Not an easy task but it has to be done. It's extremely repetitive and boring because I'm mainly copying and pasting web page content onto the new responsive pages. Yawn!

Normally, I work the same way every day, although this varies depending on several factors. But on average my writing week goes something like this:

I cannot sit down and write until chores are done. This is for two reasons. Firstly, it nags my crazy, monkey-like mind if I have things to do which makes it difficult for me to sit down and concentrate. And secondly because once I start work I often don't want to stop and so the chores never get done.

So my days always start out by doing the things that are necessary like, cleaning the house, doing the washing, doing the dishes, cleaning out and setting up the fire (if it's winter) or opening up the windows (if it's summer). If I need to shop, which I only do once a week because I hate (and I don't like using such a strong, negative word) shopping - any kind of shopping whether it's clothes shopping, buying appliances, gift buying or grocery shopping. Yuck! Even online shopping is my kind of hell.

Anyway, whatever jobs need to be done, I always do them first. Some days there is very little to do so I get to work early. But whether or not there's a lot to do or only a little, I still sit down to work somewhere between the hours of 7am and 10am.

I then work through until around 2 or 3 pm, with a break for coffee and sometimes (but not always) a break for lunch. Some days I don't eat lunch until after I've finished work. And on days when I start work at 7am, I'm done by lunch time.

Usually I can get straight to work without giving much thought about what to do because at the end of each working day I write in my diary the things I have to do the next day, which includes anything I didn't get done that day. I also list them in the order they need to be completed. I usually list the small things to be done first, just so that I feel like I'm accomplishing things as I work.

I check my emails before I start work and also look through my RSS feeds. I only allow myself 30 minutes maximum to do these two tasks. Sometimes, I leave these things till coffee-break just so that I can get straight to work when I sit down, without being distracted by getting sucked into clicking on interesting links in emails or browsing articles in my RSS feeds.

I have a Mac computer and I use an app called RSS Menu, created by Jesus De Meyer, which sits in my menu bar and announces audibly whenever I get a new article in one of my feeds. It doesn't have to be audible but I've set it up that way.

I also have a little app called Mindful Mynah which chimes every 25 minutes to bring me back to mindfulness. I also have my computer clock set to audibly tell me the time every 30 minutes. All these things keep me on track.

And they're not the only things I listen to while I work. I also listen to MP3 audios.

One of my favourite ones is Brain Salon which has the "Razor Sharp Focus" track and "Creative Spark" track. I've set them up one after the other so that I get a whole hour of great brain entrainment while I write. You can download a free sample at the website.

I also listen to music, particularly (and almost only) The Celtic Collection by Adrian Von Ziegler which I downloaded from CD Baby. His music is very haunting and perfect to listen to while I write. I can really zone out while listening to his music.

I'm thinking of buying another couple of his albums. And by the way, that link to his CD Baby page is NOT an affiliate link. I'm just a fan of his music. You can click on the link and listen to a preview of all his tracks on his albums.

Listening to audios as I work is a must. It not only helps me to stay focused and keep writing but it also blocks out other noises.

But not all my working days are the same.

Sometimes, if I'm busy working on a huge project, I'll just keep going all day and won't stop. Sometimes I even forget to drink and have headache by the end of the day, and I don't use the toilet until my bladder's so full I can't sit still. I really have to watch these bad habits sometimes.

Also, if I'm in a huge window of inspiration then I'll just keep working and won't stop at my usual times, because these are golden opportunities and they don't happen every day.

Some days I don't feel nearly as inspired as others, and on those days I'll do more technical work or do research or something else first. But sooner or later I'll get back into my usual state of inspiration and then I can get back to writing. It's just that some days it's a little bit harder to get going. But just starting is a wonderful thing because once I sit down and start working, I keep going and get better.

And that is how I work just about every day.

But like I say, some days are different, depending on what else I have to do.

And it's different for everyone. No one person works the same.

But one thing is for sure, it takes a lot of self discipline to actually sit down and write every day.

It's different when you're at work and you have a boss to answer to and you have jobs that are your responsibility and you have to get them done by the end of the day or else you'll get fired.

At home, there is no boss or anyone to force you to get things done "or else!" So instead you have to rely on yourself to sit down and get to work every day, which is so different in so many ways.

It's such a solitary way to work, but I love it and I wouldn't want to have to go back to a 9 - 5 job ever again.

Working from home as a writer gives me the freedom that most people only dream about.

:)

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