The Frugal Freelancer

With the take over of eHow by Demand Studios, my posts here have somewhat slowed down.  Writing for other sites has really opened up a whole new avenue for me, which is really exciting.


I would like to invite everyone to come over to my new blog, The Frugal Freelancer.  As my work as a freelancer writer evolves, I have decided to bring my blogging to a new level as well.  I have found that there are many people who have made freelance writing on the web a full time job.  Freelance income combined with residual income allows for freedoms traditional careers do not.

Over the next few months I will be exploring this new aspect of freelancing to a new level.  The Frugal Freelancer will be a reference for those seeking the same freedom and luxury of working from home as I am.  The site will offer honest reviews and discussions about online magazines and other freelance writing opportunities.

Use Correct Grammar and Punctuation

Resources:
Accept or except--Use the correct word in online writing by Peggy Hazelwood

Backlinks

Below are some great articles about building backlinks to your articles and websites:

eHow 101 by David Sarokin
Building Anchored Backlinks with Content Websites and Article Directories by Chezfat
Using InfoBarrel for Backlinks by Chezfat

Adding Advertising Links to Your Website or Blog with Infolinks

Tammy Frost posted some great information on her website the other day about Infolinks.  They offer advertising for websites and blogs.  They are the inline, highlighted ads you see on web pages and articles.

You can see Tammy's full post here:  eHow Members:  Make more money and be a featured visitor. 

After applying  you immediately receive a code to place in the HTML of your website, blog or article.  I placed the codes as instructed and within two days I had inline text ads on my sites earning!

Sponsored Tweets

The new advertising site Sponsored Tweets claims to provide ad revenue for those who have an established Twitter account.  Advertisers purchase adds from Sponsored Tweets and members tweet the info for pay.  The minimum fee $1.00/per ad.

2009 eHow Earnings Poll Numbers are In

Janet Ford, a contributing writer at eHow, posted a poll in the forums for writers to anonymously post their total 2009 income for eHow.  The results are in!

What was your 2009 ehow income?

Success Stories and Inspiration for Keeping your Goals

Need some inspiration (or a reality check) to keep your online writing goals on track?  Check out these fellow online content writers and their success stories:

• Freelance Writing Pays Off for Lena:  Suite101.com Writer Earns $4,940.77 in July 2009. 
• How to Get a 2 week paid vacation with ehow article writing by Wasatch
  
• My eHow Experiment  
• My eHow Statistical Trend 
• Writing for Retirement by CWilliams
• Residual Income Blog: eHow earnings by CM Herold.

List will be updated as I stumble across sites that are inspirational or detail driven, so bookmark this page or check back often!

Creating Residual Income for your Online Content Using RedGage - Tip 21

A fellow Suite101 contributor, David Harris-Gershon, alerted me to a new do-follow site for promoting articles, blogs and websites, RedGage.

From their site RedGage is defined as, "RedGage is a website that pays you for your content and monetizes

eHow News: Contributors will be Compensated for eHow UK site earnings!

Yes you read the headline correctly, eHow contributors will be receiving compensation for their cloned UK articles.  eHow just released a video blog explaining the details. I actually had to replay it a couple times to make sure I had heard it correctly.  Contributors that were affected by the cloned UK site will receive compensation for the issue with their January earnings.  This payment will be received in early February. 

This is great news for contributors and especially good news for those with large article libraries and those who have been contributors for a long period of time.  I expect some of these "bonuses" will be quite significant since the creation of the UK site dates back to April 2009.  This will be an interesting development to say the least - stay tuned!

Ehow Points - Tip 20

Currently there are three levels in the eHow point system, Novice (0-299 points), Enthusiast (300-2,000 points), Authority (2,000+ points).  These points are based on the number of articles and photos you have published as a contributor.

Why use Photos in my Articles? - Tip 19

Why use additional photos in my articles?  I have been asking this exact question since I started.  To me they junk it up and make it seem cluttered.  The the pics do not match in style and content they can seem unprofessional and amateurish.  Not to mention how much of a royal pain it is to find one picture, let alone 5 or 6 copyright free pics.

Well, now I know the secret.

Content Writing for Freelance Writers, Where to Write - Tip 18

I intended to write a post about different places to write content, publish articles and generally make money content writing online, but during my research for this post I stumbled a cross this article

Having Trouble Reaching Article Length? - Tip 17

Have you ever gone to publish your eHow articles and been told it was too short?  There is a simple solution to this problem.  Instead of racking your brain for an additional sentence or step, just move a tip or warning to the sections above.

Change, Edit, Append to eHow articles without Resubmitting - Tip 16

As of today, it is taking up to 36 hours for new eHow articles to be approved and go live.  Starting the process again will take existing articles off line and cause readers to be re-directed, causing you to loose traffic.  If you edit and resubmit an article it will go through the same process.  There is a way to edit, change, and append existing eHow articles without resubmitting them.

Finding Earnings when eHow Earnings Tool has a Glitch - Tip 15

Happy New Year everyone!

Seems like this morning there is yet another glitch on the eHow site getting everyone in an up roar.  Apparently the earnings tool has not updated for the year end and has a glitch.  All earnings have disappeared and previous months can not be accessed via the "My Earnings" button on the left of the profile page.