Do Christmas Shopping With Coupons This Year

Christmas shopping sucks. The malls are crowded, the best gifts are sold out, and it's usually far too late to buy Christmas gifts online by the time you get around to it. Over the Christmas season it's a good idea to order anything at least 2 weeks in advance, because shipping times get stretched out badly.

Unfortunately, online merchants know that loads of people do their Christmas shopping online, and so they pump their prices up. You can get around this, and end up spending way less than you would in a retail store if you use coupon codes to buy gifts online for your friends and relatives. Online coupons take on a whole new meaning, and you can actually save BIG if you know where you can find good coupons.

Coupon Chief have loads of coupons for all your favorite stores, and you can save a lot of money if you use them. They have coupons for the biggest range of merchants you'll ever see, so you can get a great deal on just about any type of product.

Two of the hot coupon deals right now are coupons for Alibris, a large online bookstore and community with over 40 million new and used books to choose from (Cheaper than Amazon most of the time), and the other is for Dell notebooks and accessories.

The Dell coupons are awesome, because you can save up to $350 when you buy a $999 notebook. If you're planning to buy a Dell notebook for someone this Christmas, don't do anything without a coupon from Coupon Chief!

Technorati Tags: Dell Coupon, Alibris Coupon

Organs in the Fridge & Some Link Love

A few days ago in a semi-rural part of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, a nurse was arrested in a hospital parking lot in possession of a human baby's umbilical cord.

Police raided the suspect's home and found a refrigerator full of human organs. The organs were supposedly destined for use in the preparation of traditional medicines. Read the Full Story on IOL

Now, that story will make almost no sense to anyone who doesn't live in SA. I guess around here this kind of thing only makes the 3rd or 4th page, so without any further ado, here's some link love. Clicky Clicky.

Things By Mike - I don't really know what Things by Mike is really all about, but I read it every day. He runs a rad little webcomic called 'Gummy, The Lovesick Alien', which is funny most of the time, and weird enough to entertain the rest of the time.

As Seen On The Tube - Talia's blog featuring TV products that you actually need. They might not be glamorous or exciting, but one day you'll ask how you ever lived without these things.

The Ominous Comma - One of the most random humor blogs on the net. There's always something funny, as long as The Comma isn't ranting about something.

Want $20? Got a Blog?

PayPerPost is probably the easiest way to get paid to blog. The idea is simple: advertisers post projects that they want bloggers (called posties in the PayPerPost world) to write about and promote. You sign up for these 'opportunities', write the article and get paid instantly into your PayPal account!

Sounds too good to be true? Well, there is a snag, and that's the 1 requirement they have. To join PayPerPost your blog must be at least 90 days old. This is the only requirement that's tricky to meet - the rest are a piece of cake.

The best part? When you join PayPerPost and get your blog approved there will be lots of opportunities open, but you also have the opportunity to blog about PayPerPost, and this pays you $20, instantly.

So what kind of blogger do you have to be to join PayPerPost? Well, any type of blog is accepted, but those that have something to do with products will always find something to get paid to blog about. Since their network is very large, there are always hundreds of opportunities to choose from, and you're bound to find something that fits within your blog's sphere.

So if you have a blog and you want to make money writing on your blog, even if you don't sell anything, go ahead and sign up for PayPerPost - it's the easiest writing money on the internet!

Technorati Tag: get paid to blog

Against Human Rights Abuse

Defining Human Rights is a tricky field in itself. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states the following:

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Human Rights are a distinctly liberal idea, and we should bear in mind that some countries might regard a Western conception of Human Rights as a species of cultural imperialism. In those countries in which the United Nations' conception of Human Rights are supposed to be enforced, we should not tolerate the abuse of those rights.

Human rights abuse can be loosely defined as any force or action which restricts a subject's freedom, political authority or choice of religion. There are many other forms of human rights abuse, but these are the most common that are still felt worldwide.

Human rights laws are in place in every country's constitution as a commitment by a sovereign party to respect certain rights of individuals. However, these rights are still abused by nations and individuals all over the world.

One of the most powerful single figures speaking out against human rights abuse is Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese politician and activist. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and in 2003 used this money to establish a health and education trust for the people of her country. She remains under house arrest, despite the pressure of the United Nations and the popular media.

Amnesty International is the world's leading organization working to prevent human rights abuse and help the victims of oppressive regimes. It not only deals with problems on a global scale, but works to help out the individual who has been a victim of abuse.

You can sign up with Amnesty International by visiting their website and finding out the details of your local chapter. This is the best way for you to get involved and speak out against human rights abuse.

Technorati Tag:human rights abuse

Pink Internet Marketing Review

For those of you who do not know what "Pink Internet Marketing" is, I suggest you check out Danielle's blog, pinkhatseo.info. Whether you are a website owner, an amateur blogger or an expert at internet marketing, Pink Internet Marketing has something useful for everyone.

When I first set this blog up and I was looking for advice on how to promote my blog, get a little bit of traffic and write better blog posts, pinkhatseo.info was one of the first blogs I found. It was the first blog I added to my Technorati favorites, and the first RSS feed I ever subscribed to.

Today it is about the only blog that I check religiously for any updates and snippets of information about internet money makers, how to set up your adsense to make good money, as well as her own brand new discipline called 'Blogthropology' (Danielle is an Anthropology graduate herself).

Pinkhatseo.info is the product of a blogger with a keen understanding of what her readership wants and a good eye on what's cracking in the world of internet marketing and the 'Blogosphere'. Her blog posts are informative, or at least entertaining, and she is as devoted to her blog and her audience as any professional blogger could be.

That's not to mention all the pink. Boys, don't let this discourage you: she might say that SEO is for girls, but there's plenty of gender-neutral stuff there if you look past the adorable Build-a-Bear and candy-pink RSS feed button. I know I'm not making it sound like an oil painting, but in my opinion pinkhatseo.info is one of the better looking blogs about internet marketing and blogging out there.

Technorati Tag: Internet Marketing

Ready to Blog Against Abuse?

All you fellow bloggers out there, you only have only four more days left to join the "Blog Against Abuse" cause at BlogCatalog. September 27th is Blog Against Abuse day, and there is a call going out for everybody to devote their blog to protesting against an abuse of some kind.

So What do I do?

All you have to do is pick a type of abuse that you feel strongly about. Write a post on your blog on September 27th about why people should be aware of this type of abuse and fight against it. Then you go to

http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/you-can-be-a-part-of-blogging-history#reply

and scroll down to where some graphic designer guy put up some badges with this logo:

Then put one of the badges (there are a lot to choose from) on your blog and link it back to:
http://blog.blogcatalog.com/category/community-challenge/
And tell as many people as you can. Simple!

Let's make this a good one, and stay tuned for more blogosphere community projects!

Technorati Tag: Community Project

How To Research a Magazine Article

(Part 2 of Writing For Magazines

The most obvious answer to how you research a magazine article is: read. But what to read exactly? For SEO articles your content can easily be a re-hash of somebody else's - as long as it isn't copied and pasted. For magazine articles you need to come up with something interesting to say.

Reviews and Interviews require straightforward investigation. If it's a product, buy it or see if you can get it free for reviwing it. If it's something expensive like a car, at least go and look at one. Jot down any notes you can.


If you are interviewing a person, you will have to go and speak to them. If you read another interview and think that gives you license to write an interview, it will be picked up by magazine editors. Remember: editors read magazines as part of their job, and they will catch anything that isn't original.

Opinion Pieces probably require the most research work of all magazine writing. If you don't know your facts, you don't have an opinion. If you are writing about current events - even celebrity gossip - you need to be totally on top of exactly what has happened. And don't just read the local papers and watch CNN!

Try to get information from as many sources as possible to try and get a few different perspectives. You are, in effect, writing very recent history. As such you need to make sure your information is accurate and quoteable.

That brings me to quotes - the meat and potatoes of a magazine writer. Whatever you are writing about, get a quote. Get as many quotes as you can, so that you can back up more points in your article. If you can't find the person or one of the people involved, ask an innocent bystander or a relative - just don't come back without a quote.

Unlike SEO articles, writing for magazines will require several pages of notes before you even start. Once you have gathered all of your material, you are ready to start.

Come back tomorrow for tomorrow's post, How to Write Selling Magazine Articles.

Related Posts:

• Part 1: Getting Your Articles Published in Magazines
  

Technorati Tag:Writing for Magazines

Swabbin the Decks After Pirate Day

Well, me hearties, what a great Talk Like a Pirate Day it was. Just some numbers:
This post was dugg 997 times (as of right now) and received well over 6,500 unique visitors who left comments, rum and swill all over WriteNonsense - thank you, come again and please remember to keep digging my posts!

If you were wondering how the whole Talk Like a Pirate Day thing came about, check out Getting To Know Talk Like a Pirate Day at HoboTrashcan.com. It's a rousing good yarn. But now, moving on to today's post:

Getting Your Articles Published in Magazines (Trackback URL)
(Part 1 of Writing For Magazines)

Magazines are tricky customers, and it takes a lot of work to convince them to publish something you wrote. They only have so many pages, and they want to put the best articles they can in. However, magazines pay very well. You can expect to get anywhere from between $50 - $500, depending on the magazine and the length of your article.

Here are a few tips that will help you to get your articles published in magazines.

1. Don't Just Write!

Magazines won't print a random article anymore than they will print the ramblings of a lunatic. Call up the magazine, find out what their submission guidelines are. Ask them the following:

• What word counts are accepted (usually 300, 500, 1,000 etc)
• Are there any topics they need articles for? Magazines like to plan ahead and request articles accordingly
• Whom you should address your submission to. Often this is "The Editor", but try to find out a name as well.
• If there are any style requirements, such as how many quotes they prefer etc.
• How much they pay per word! (Magazines should offer you between $0.20 and $1 per word, so don't accept $20 for a whole article)

2. Familiarize Yourself With the Magazine

Get hold of as many copies as you can. See what kind of article gets featured, and ask someone how much of what you see on the page comes from the writer. Magazines might prefer to publish your article if you can provide a picture or a good sound byte. This will make it much easier to write magazine articles in the way they want.

Also: if you have old issues, check that the editor is still the same person! A new editor might like a different style entirely.

3. Write The Same Article 3 Times

This might sound tedious, but write it for all the word counts that the magazine publishes. This way you give them a choice. If you write a 1,000 word article and they like it, but not enough to give it the space, you won't be paid anything. If you include a 300 word shorter version they will usually be happy to publish this, or they might save your article for a later issue if it is not too topical.

4. Submit to the Competition

By this I mean send your articles to all the magazines that compete with the magazine you want to publish in. As long as they are the same style, at least one of them is bound to like your article.

5. Use Your Connections

Magazines love interviews because they really attract readers. What's more, they're hard to get. If you know an interesting person or a celebrity's nephew's friend from school, use that connection to get an interview!

Trade journals also publish interviews, so if your Uncle Bob is a well-respected restorer of antique furniture interview him. Send the article off to a few trade journals about antique furniture and you'll get back a $100 bill just like this one here (except not as blurry).

Related Posts:

• Part 2: How to Research a Magazine Article

Technorati Tag: Write for Magazine

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

I reckon this be havin' nothin to do with scribblin, but today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

It be on this day each year since the Year of Our Lord 1995 when Ol' Chumbucket an' Cap'n Slappy proclaimed September 19th to be Talk Like a Pirate Day. The rules be simple: any of ye scurvy landlubbers who blogs like a pirate today in yer post wins the trophy.

The trophy being this bright yellow badge here! Put it on yer post and spread the word. Link it back to my pirate ship (trackback URL) an' I'll ad ye to me list of blogger-pirates who won't have ta walk the plank today!


Technorati Tag: Talk Like a Pirate Day

Web Article Types You Should Be Good At

Freelance writing jobs are usually once-off article projects. A client will have a batch of articles for one website, and would prefer to have one freelancer do all of the articles rather than send them out to many different freelance writers. Because of this, people hiring writers will obviously want the person most qualified to do those types of SEO articles.

Here are a few categories of articles that you should learn to write. I recommend these because they come up often, and are often the most paid.

1. Travel Writing

Travel articles are possibly the most common type of web content you will write. If you can write good travel articles you can charge as much as $200 each for them. If you are just starting, expect between $5-$10 per article. The good news: they're usually short and very easy to do.

2. Technical Writing

Technical writing jobs are all over the place: You can find a lot of them on GetAFreelancer. The good news is that good technical writers and technical editors are as rare as hens' teeth. Learn how to write about something technical - anything - and try to broaden your range of subjects that you can write at a technical level on. Technical writing jobs pay very well once you are experienced.

3. Real Estate Article Writing

Everybody's trying to sell real estate, or they're trying to sell real estate investment guides. Being able to write real estate articles means you'll never be out of a job. Have a look at Deborah Ng's Freelance Writing Jobs board, because there are usually a lot of Craigslist jobs for real estate writers there

4. Medical Writing

Clinics, hospitals and websites that are trying to direct traffic to them are always in need of quality content. Most of the time they need general information about specific diseases, operations, equipment, facilities etc. Here, Wikipedia is your friend. Become a skilled at medical writing jobs and you could be making hundreds of dollars a day.

5. Website and Product Reviews

Believe it or not, writing product & site reviews is very lucrative. I did a bunch of 500 word reviews of sites for $12 a piece a few months back. When the project was over I had made a good few hundred dollars for about 3 days work. Here, humor is your friend. See More on Writing Reviews

Related Posts:

• How To Write 15 Minute SEO Articles


• 5 SEO Article Writing Tips


• How To Write SEO Articles


• Writing Well Paid Articles

Technorati Tag: Internet Copywriting

Top Online Surveys Review

A while ago I did some posts about paid online surveys and whether or not you can make money from them. Well, I thought it was a good time to have a look at the top online surveys that I've been using and see how they perform.

As some people know, I am a meticulous record keeper. I keep excel spreadsheets of everything, especially things like how much money I make from paid online surveys. I have signed up with two of the top online surveys that I could find, simply from an academic point of view. They were "Paid Surveys Online" and "Survey Scout". After doing each for at least a month, I came up with these numbers:


Let me explain. First, the lowest paid survey for each was $5. I started up with Survey Scout after doing Paid Surveys Online for a few weeks before. This spreadsheet is just for the month of August. My remarks on each of these top online survey programs are:

1. $773 isn't a lot of cash in the states, but I probably spend 2-3 hours doing surveys a day (but usually less). Converted to South African Rands, this turns into R5,411, which was enough to pay for my rent, groceries and household expenses for a month, as well as keep me in the good kind of Jack Daniels.

2. The Survey Scout paid surveys were more boring than the Paid Surveys Online surveys, but they went faster. The Paid Surveys Online surveys were a bit longer, but tended to be more entertaining to complete.

3. The longer you stay with each, the better you get paid. I haven't been with either for very long.

4. They both have bonuses for joining. Paid Surveys Online send you a $20 survey right away, making you back more than half your $34.95 signup fee, while Survey Scout only start charging you after 8 weeks (I still haven't paid them a cent)

5. If you live outside of the US it is possible to make a lot of money doing surveys only a few hours a day. You could easily make this your full time living if you lived in South Africa, The Philippines, Malaysia, India or any other country with a "developing economy"

So what's my verdict on the top online surveys?

Well, as usual I'm a little divided. I say if you have a bit more time and you want to actually enjoy taking surveys online, go for Paid Surveys Online.

If you just want to do a few quick surveys whenever you feel like it and are a little bit skeptical of the whole online paid surveys thing, go for Survey Scout

Technorati Tag:Top Online Surveys

Get Featured to Increase Organic Traffic Free!

Calling all blog owners out there! If you have a blog or a website and you want more people to see it, why don't you put it up on Fechr.com? (Pronounced Feature).

Fechr.com is a new concept in web advertising that is just starting up. At the moment they are receiving a few hundred unique visitors a day, and so having your blog featured on Fechr.com for a whole day is absolutely free. Once they are getting more traffic they will put the price up to $5, $10 or even $15 per submission!

What happens is that when you go to Fechr.com you see a blog - for me it was Bloggrrl.com - with a tiny Fechr.com nav bar at the top. The featured blogs are replaced with a new blog or website every 24 hours.

Now, these sites do have a tendency to become "bad neighborhoods" - networks of sites that basically share traffic and exploit internet users. However, Fechr.com have a human-review system and they reserve the right not to feature your blog or website if it is low quality, offensive or just ugly.

So if you want to increase your traffic and you're not too proud to be featured on a new website, give Fechr.com a try - it's free!

Technorati Tag: Increase Traffic

Write Answers and Build Your Writing Reputation!

If you're looking for a way to build your reputation as a writer and you some time to kill, Yahoo! Answers is worth checking out. First, have a look at Danielle's bit about Yahoo! Answers ( it's the reason I was reminded to go have a look at it).

The deal is the same as the now defunct Google Ask, or whatever it was called, except you don't get paid. There are a few things that make this a really good place to sit and write answers though.

Apart from self-promotion (which Danielle reminds us is not the purpose of Yahoo! Answers), this is a great place to share your knowledge about things you are an expert in. As you answer questions and provide useful information for users, your reputation as an expert will increase.

If you run a business or a blog about a certain subject, or you are a freelance writer, this is where you can really show off your stuff. The pages will be indexed by Google, and you may link back to your site from it, but the links will not increase your Google PageRank.

However, the links you put in will give you some traffic, and if you keyword optimize your answers they will have high Google rankings for a short period of time. If other sites pick up your answers to use as content, this will give you permanent backlinks which will increase your link popularity.

As a writer, this is an excellent place to build your reputation as a writer of some expertise on a certain subject. If you know something about anything and you want to use that knowledge to build a reputation as a writer and an expert, check out Yahoo! Answers

Technorati Tag: yahoo answers

Just In: I Have the Power of Schmooze!

I am proud to announce that WriteNonsense has received its first blogging award!

Danielle at Pinkhatseo.info has awarded me the "Power of Schmooze" award. To quote from her page, the Power of Schmooze award is:

"an award to recognize those people that were exceptionally adept at creating relationships with other bloggers by making an effort to be part of a conversation, as opposed to a monologue"

Thank you very much Danielle, and Mike of Things By Mike who designed the award badge! It'll go up in my sidebar and be treasured forever as my first blogging award!

Speaking of which, go and register at Blogger's Choice Awards to vote for your favorite blogs.

Review - Deborah Ng's Freelance Writing Jobs

There are a lot of blogs about writing, but one of them is actually useful. Deborah Ng's "Freelance Writing Jobs" is one of the elite online writing studios at WritersRow.com. Freelance Writing Jobs started as a blog about the writing life and a resource for writers, but it has grown into its own bustling community.

I first subscribed to Deborah Ng's "Freelance Writing Jobs" feed because of her incredible writing jobs board. What she does is she scans Craigslist for all the best freelance writing jobs that you can do online. She claims to never post any freelance writing jobs that pay less than $20 per article - and Deborah should know because she's one of the most well-paid freelance writers and reviewers around.

Apart from her writing jobs you can also find a selection of blogging jobs, as well as daily commentary on how to write better, make more money writing articles and where all the best writing gigs are to be found.

If you are an aspiring freelance writer or you want to perfect your trade, Deborah Ng's "Freelance Writing Jobs" is essential daily reading.

Technorati Tag: Deborah Ng

Increase Your Technorati Rank & Authority

On the July 24th, 2 weeks after starting this blog, my Technorati rank was 2,312,988. Since then it has risen to 876,360, and it is climbing higher every day. I have also managed to achieve 7 Technorati Authority, which I think is pretty good.

How did I manage to increase my Technorati rank and my Technorati Authority so quickly? Here are my quick tips and tricks on how to increase your Technorati rank:

1. Search Technorati, Find Friends

The first thing you need to do is search Technorati for blogs similar to your own. Find posts that are about issues your blog deals with. Post a comment on these blogs, adding something useful to the conversation. This creates a link to your blog, and is the best direct way to increase your Technorati rank.

2. Favorite Blogs You Like.

This will show up on the blogs' owners' profiles, and they will notice your blog and check it out.

3. Review Other Blogs

Check out my Review of DayJobNuker, then write your own interesting review of a related blog that you like. Drop them a line, letting them know about your review. With luck, they will post a link to it, and this will increase your Technorati rank and your Technorati Authority

4. Post Every Day, Dammit!

You hear it over and over again, but the only sure fire way to get anywhere in blogging is to post to your blog every day. If you just do this, you are guaranteed to increase your technorati rank.

5. Link to Other Blogs

Technorati is all about Link Love. If you want to increase your technorati rank, spread the love. Check out Danielle's Pink Internet Marketing Blog to see the Mistress of Link Love at work.

Please remember to Add My Blog to Your Technorati Favorites. Leave a comment saying you've done so and I'll add you to mine!


Technorati Tag: Technorati Rank

Advice on Writing – 5 SEO Writing Mistakes

Your writing is a product, and the better you make that product the more money you can make from it, and the better your chances of getting a good job writing. Here are 5 common writing mistakes that you need to know about. Focusing on avoiding these mistakes is essential if you want to improve skill. Writing all will-nilly won’t get you anywhere.

1. Don’t Write Articles in One big paragraph

In academic writing you write in long paragraphs. For online writing gigs, nobody cares – write short paragraphs that take less than 10 seconds to read! The average internet user gets bored of what they are looking at after 10 seconds and moves on.

2. Avoid Excessive Formatting

Don’t, just don’t, use bold, italicized and underlined text in the same article. Use simple subheadings in bold or a font size larger, but don’t let the text itself draw attention! It’s the words that are important.

3. Keep Your Writing Business like

If you are writing a blog, you can write with slang. For website writing gigs you need to keep your spelling, grammar and word choice perfect.

4. Clarity, Clarity, Clarity!

If there is one thing Ron Irwin (my writing teacher at varsity) taught me, it was to write clearly. Use short sentences and the simples words you can find. Don’t use big synonyms if a more widely-understood word will do.

5. Try Not to Sound Like a Salesman

Your readers can smell a sales pitch a mile away, and so can clients. The ideal SEO writing strikes a balance between conversational writing and business writing, a mixture of information and praise.

If you have any writing tricks or tips on how to improve your writing skill, post them as a comment!

In the mean time, here are some related posts to keep you going:

- Write Without Sounding Like a Salesman

- Easy eBook Writing System

- Get Well Paid Writing Gigs

- How to Get Into Internet Copywriting

Technorati Tag: Advice on Writing

Review - DayJobNuker

I stumbled across DayJobNuker when I was looking for help. I can't remember what it was for, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with why my feed sometimes looks funny. Anyway I discovered at DayJobNuker some excellent ways to make money online, and a whole lot besides. Here's what I've learnt from DayJobNuker:

1. Bruce Alan hates his job and he wants to Nuke It
2. The nuking will happen in July 2010, exactly 3 years after he started his blog
3. In order to nuke his day job, he needs to figure out ways to replace his income with his online endeavors

The world of internet marketing is complex, abstract and confusing to pretty much everybody, but Bruce invites us all along to figure it out together. His site is based on readership involvement, and he always answers comments and questions if you have them. He tries all the wacky ideas he puts up himself, so you don't end up getting fooled by scams and unworkable schemes. A lot of his master plots you don't even need to have a website for!

What are you waiting for? Click the button to Nuke Your Day Job

Technorati Tag: Make Money Online

Any Nut can Write a Lucrative eBook!

We all see eBooks all over the place. So what makes eBooks different from regular books that you can buy from Amazon.com? Well, from a reader's point of view an eBook usually offers you some advice or practical knowledge. A lot of them promise to teach you how to "make millions exploiting this crazy loophole" - but they don't work. It takes effort to make money online - but the effort is well worth it.

One of the most sure-fire ways to make money online is: write your own eBook! From an author's point of view eBooks require a little work and research, but once they're done they make money forever. If you write an eBook and sell it for $45, let's look at the numbers.

You will probably want to set up your own site. You don't have to know ANYTHING about web design - simply hire someone. Do what I'm doing: offer them a portion of the profits (say 10-15%). A lot of beginners will do it for a case of beer and the prospect of earning a few hundred dollars a month for nothing. Then you have hosting (say $30 per month). So you basically need to sell only one copy to get your money back each month.

Angela Booth says most ebooks will sell 120 copies, even with minimum internet marketing efforts, within a year. At $45 per book, that's $5,400 turn over, less $360 for hosting, THEN less your webmaster's cut. Your're left with over $4,500 a year, at least! There are no other costs, besides perhaps your credit card processing costs. However, these can be negated if you allow your customers to pay via PayPal. or Moneybookers

But most eBooks that are any good sell a lot more than this, and it is not uncommon for eBooks to sell hundreds of copies a month. I'm expecting my Philosophy eBook to sell at least 2,000 copies.

What most people don't know is that writing eBooks is easy and formulaic, and can be done if you have a week to spare. It requires disciplined time management, but finding an idea and writing a book is ridiculously easy. However, you can't just go out on your own and do it - you need expert advice. That's why I most definitely recommend Jim Edwards & Joe Vitale's book:

"How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as little as 7 Days".

It'll probably take you more than a week to write an eBook, but the time is well worth it! Take a few days off work, or spend a bit of your summer vacation doing it and you could be making huge profits from your eBook, long after you've stopped working on it!

Related Technorati Tags

How to Get Well Paid Writing Jobs

We all know they're out there: writing jobs that pay in excess of $50 per article. But how do you find article writing jobs like this? Well, the first thing you need to know is that $50 articles are not exactly all over the place. There is little chance of finding a regular supply of several of these articles a day, at least at first.

The best-paid articles are usually for magazines. These don't have to be famous magazines - I did one the other day on an auctioneer for a lesbian lifestyle magazine. And the best part is, you don't even have to go to the magazines to find the work.

All you have to do is find a client who can get this type of writing work. I found one at GetaFreelancer, but you could look on any of the other good writing jobs sites like WriterLance.

Of course, to get well paid writing jobs you have to prove you're worth the money. Find a client who says they are interested in doing magazine and high profile work, and then try to help them find it. Chances are they have a much better chance of getting the gig than you do as a beginner, and you get the experience and most of the money for your articles in the end.

If you want to try find the jobs yourself, have a look at Deborah Ng's writing jobs board - this is where I scout for high-priced jobs for my clients if I want more of this type of work.

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Remember to sign up with Agloco before the first quarter payout to get paid for your surfing hours in cash and shares of a large cap dot.com company!

Related Technorati Tags

Make Money Online, Without Writing!

I have recently joined the Agloco network. Allow me to explain how this internet money-making network works:

You sign up for free and they give you a little toolbar which goes at the bottom of your browser. This has a Google search bar (but you can change this to another search engine if you like) and a small advertising space.

AGLOCO put ads in this space, and so long as you use it while browsing for 5 hours a month they stay happy. You don't have to do anything on it, just tolerate it being there while you browse. So how do you make money from browsing like this?

Well, they essentially give you a share of the advertising revenue. The company is new, and they say they will pay out at a set date (you can check out all the AGLOCO payment information here) You can then choose whether you want to be paid for your browsing in cash or SHARES in AGLOCO. AGLOCO plan to list on the London Stock Exchange in the near future.

As a business model, their concept is very sound. The company is run by a large staff (over 40 people), 8 of whom have MBAs. These people wouldn't want to risk their reputation on a scam, so there's no real risk of nothing happening. When the company goes public they will pay out people who want cash, but a lot of your share of the advertising revenue will be awarded as AGLOCO shares.

I'm big into investing, and I see this as a great long-term way to secure residual income and exposure to foreign investments if you don't live in the UK. The shares might not be worth much now because the company is not publicly traded yet, but give it a year and a few million users and you will definitely be able to buy something nice once you sell those shares!

Why You Really Make Money Writing For Helium

I've noticed a lot of people asking "how much can you make writing articles for Helium". A lot of you probably signed up, wrote some articles and checked every fourteen seconds to see how much they had made. A few days and $0.32 later you gave up, deciding that Helium wasn't worth the money.

The thing is, you do make money writing for Helium, but you have to look at it differently. Consider it an investment of your time that turns into money.

For example, if you are a we writer and you wrote for an hour, you could probably make around $30 including fidgeting, browsing, researching etc. I know some writers make a lot more, but most of us don't.

Say your average Helium article takes you 20 minutes to write. You know what you're talking about so it shouldn't take that long. Consider that 20 minutes to be $10 worth of your time that you invested in Helium.

So write 5 or 10 articles and forget about them. Don't write in news or current events, because people stop reading these. Write well-optimized articles and Digg them, and write in "how-to" fields or "about" topics.

Most of my articles make me around 1c per day, but some don't make any money and some make a little more. If there are 365 days in a year (and there I'm informed that there are) that means $3.65 per year. Ok, so that's optimistic - say they have a few bad weeks, and it ends up at around $2.50 for the year. That's a 25% return on your investment!

Real estate doesn't normally give you that, and neither do savings accounts or bonds come even close. Stocks might, but you have a chance to lose your money whereas at Helium the worst that can happen is you don't make any money at all. If the site runs for four years you'll get 100% return on your investment in that time.

I just think this is a better way to think about it.

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How to Get Into Internet Copywriting

There are a lot of ways to get into internet copywriting, but I'm going to tell you how I did it. It worked out pretty well if I don't say so myself.

Step 1 - Join GetAFreelancer

Once you have a bit of confidence, sign up to this site. If you have the chance, try to work for a local company or a friend first, so you can do as few or as many articles as you like to get practice.

I know there are a lot of other writing jobs boards out there, but this is pretty much the biggest. You have to sift through a lot of low-paid writing gigs, but there are some really good article writing jobs in there all the time.

Step 2 - Find a Client

Look for a job post that looks like the buyer is wanting a long-term relationship. Send them private messages, see if they sound like the kind of person you'd like to work for. Bid on their projects (how to bid) and charm the pants off them. Try to find 2 or 3 such people, but don't just accept any projects that come along.

Step 3 - Build a Relationship with your Client

Work hard for your clients, take on any projects they need you to, and sooner or later they will reward you with more highly paid writing jobs. I find that this is a sure fire way to get the best price for your articles without the resources to market yourself, and with little writing experience.

I guarantee that if you follow these steps within 2-3 months you will be commanding at least $5 per article, and from there's not much limit. There are articles out there waiting to be written that people will pay $50-$100, but you have to prove that your articles are worth that much first.

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Write Articles and Make Money on Helium

If you haven't heard of Helium by now, you should definitely go check it out. It's not a get rich quick scheme, and it doesn't beat writing SEO articles and web content for clients in terms of how much you can make, but damn it's just so much fun.

Here's how it works: You write articles on Helium on any topic you choose. You can write on a new topic, or one that already has articles written about it. All of the articles on one topic get lumped together, and users rate them. The higher up yours goes in its little group, the more of a share it earns from advertising revenue. Obviously the groups with 20 or so articles pay more if you get yours to the top, but this is harder to do in bigger article groups.

There are two other ways you can make money writing articles for Helium. The one is the competitions: first prize is $75, but to do this you will probably need to write 15 or so articles on various topics in the competition. This isn't really worth it money wise, but write about 5 articles and these articles will earn you money slowly anyway. You might even get a few bucks from winning!

The other way is to write articles for Helium publishers. Companies post article projects, and then anyone can have a go. The publisher picks the article they want, and pays that person. You get paid anywhere between around $20-$200 per article so if you're good, you can make BIG money writing articles for Helium.

Remember it pays to pick your topics well. Choose topics you think a lot of people will want to read about, and this way you'll make more money from your articles on Helium. The only drawback is that you can only be paid by Helium via your PayPal account - they don't offer other options.

Other Stuff About Helium (and a lot about gas)

SEO Copywriting - What is this stuff?

SEO Copywriting involves quite a few different things. People who offer SEO copywriting services offer more than just SEO articles that are written to feature certain keywords prominently. It can involve heading formatting, small descriptions etc. Large pages of text are simply not suitable for certain pages. So where do our SEO articles end up?

A lot of websites use SEO copywriting services to flesh out their pages, because text written with SEO guidelines in mind guarantees better search engine rankings. If a novice website owner wrote their own text without being aware of SEO writing techniques, they would end up without any rankings. Whereas many SEO techniques gain and lose effectiveness as search engines like Google change their algorithms, large pages of keyword optimized text always gets the same results.

Other times our articles wind up in an article directory. People pay good money for quality articles written with keywords in mind that link back to their site. These articles get a lot of traffic, and then so does their site. Writing these articles can sometimes be more difficult, but this kind of writing work will pay you well.

For those of us who make money writing SEO articles, it is important to find writing jobs that pay well. You can find good SEO writing work on GetAFreelancer or at RentACoder. At RentACoder you can find a LOT more writing jobs that pay well. Another good place to bid on writing jobs is WriterLance, which works similarly to GetAFreelancer.

If you want tips on how to get writing work that you will be well paid for, read my posts on how to find writing work on GetAFreelancer, and on how you can get paid for your writing online.

Make money from online surveys in South Africa

I didn't expect it, but I've had a lot of responses to my post on Online Surveys and whether or not they are a viable way of making money. To recap, I came up with 3 conclusions:

1.Free online surveys are a waste of time
2.If you live in the states, you won't get rich
3.If you live in South Africa, it's easy to make money taking surveys.

That is, if you're prepared to spend the time taking surveys online. You also have to be prepared to take the leap of faith and cough up $30 or whatever to get started. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and this is definitely true if you want to make money taking online surveys.

Personally, I use the original and best Paid Surveys Online. I make between $30-$50 a day and spend about an hour and a half taking surveys online. I generally do it in my down time, when I don't feel like working. It's not a princely sum, but you could make a lot more if you feel like sitting and taking surveys all day.

The nice thing about Paid Surveys Online is that you can do 3 of their other projects as well. If you live in the states you can get paid to drive, or get paid to hand out promotional products. Anywhere else you can do the "get paid to read emails" thing. I did this for a while, and it made me a few bucks but I try to focus on writing articles as much as I can.

My final verdict: If you live in South Africa or any other country with a weak currency, you'd be CRAZY not to sign up for the online surveys from Paid Surveys Online. It's an hour a day and you can make good money doing it.

Writing SEO Articles that Make Money

SEO articles can go for anything from $2 to $25 each or more, but most of us seem to find ourselves working on the bottom end of this scale. Like any other industry, web content writing has vast earnings disparity. So what makes some article writers well paid, and others not?

Well, for starters, experience is worth a lot more in this industry than a qualification (although this helps). The best way to land a well paying writing project on GetAFreelancer or another writing site is to have relevant experience writing the type of articles the client needs. Here are 5 tips on how to be well paid for your writing:

1. Generalize
If someone offers you rectal cancer articles, do them. The next time a medical articles writing project comes up, you can bid high and claim relevant experience


2. Fewer clients, less money
Stick to 2 or 3 clients, and write articles for them for a few months. Good references will get you a long way


3. Focus on Quality
The better your web content and SEO articles are, the more you can charge people for them. The only way to increase your price is slowly


4. Promote Yourself
Tell people what you do, network, make business cards, start a blog - do whatever it takes to tell the world about your writing abilities.


5. Don't Sell Yourself Short
If you know your SEO articles are worth $10 each, don't bid lower than this. There will always be more projects going from clients who appreciate a highly skilled writer.

Web 2.0 - What does this mean for writers?

Web 2.0 is a term that you might have seen bandied about the place, but not a lot of people really know what this phenomenon is. It's not a new secret type of internet that's better, faster and free that you haven't been invited to. In fact, it's no one thing.

To summarize Web 2.0 in one sentence I would say this: It is a change in the way publishers and browsers use the internet. This has all been made possible by PHP and SQL. PHP is a database platform, and SQL is the language you use to get info out of a PHP database. This allows for fantastic new web design concepts, and allows you to do many different operations on one page.

Take my blog, WriteNonsense for example. You see one page, but actually it is many pages stored in a PHP database. When you click on one of my post links, SQL fetches what you asked for. Ever been on Facebook? What you see there is a perfect example of Web 2.0 design and technology. It's simple, fast and easy for anyone to use, and you don't have to know any tech stuff to enjoy the new features we find all over the place.

The major difference that Web 2.0 has brought about is that the internet is now being used as a platform. Google Docs allows you to edit documents and spreadsheets, and save them, online. This is a little clumsy, but it heralds a whole new era. Imagine a few years down the line when everything we do is online, accessible from anywhere else in the world.

What does this mean for writers? Well, it means that we have to up our game. Web content is becoming more important, but also smaller. There is a greater search emphasis on links now than anything else and while that might swing back, we need to stay ahead. I suggest you go and Google "Web 2.0 design" and see what is cutting edge out there. The types of SEO articles that will be required soon will be vastly different from what we write now.

This is just a random thought, but I think we are going to see some remarkable changes in the way people use text to attract traffic. This will be because of the massive overflow of text documents that will now become available on the internet as a result of Web 2.0 applications and practices.

web 2.0

Write SEO Articles Without Sounding Like a Salesman

Writing SEO articles can become a little repetitive, and it is easy to lapse into a pattern of using the same phrases over and over again. Here are a few tips to keep your SEO articles interesting for both you you and your readers.

Write SEO Articles like you are speaking

I can't say this enough: write your SEO articles as if you are speaking to someone. Imagine that you are working for the company you are writing for, and speaking to a potential customer. Instead of using cliche sales phrases, be 'honest' about the product you are selling. Tell them in detail what it could do for them, and why it is good value.

Use Keywords Constructively

Before you start your SEO article, think of a few good ways to use your keywords. Make the sentence in each paragraph that contains your keyword interesting and informative. Your reader found this page because of your keyword, so make your SEO articles as relevant to your keywords as possible.

Be Specific

Don't waffle. The main thing that sets $3 SEO articles apart from $10 ones is their ability to inform the reader. Any 3rd language English speaker can sound like an infomercial for 500 words. You can do better, so write SEO articles as if you are an expert on the product you are selling. Describe it in detail, giving different price options and color schemes, etc. You can easily fill up 500 words on a single product if you give enough detail.

Remember: the higher the quality of your SEO articles, the more money you can charge your clients for them. Because we are in a bulk business increasing your per article rate by $1 or $2 can drastically increase your income.

Seo Articles

Writing Competition - Win Free Link

My previously mentioned Free Link Writing Competition is now on! Write me an article on just about anything you like, and submit it to me via email as a .doc attachment (no other attachment types will be opened).


Writing Competition Prizes:

First Prize: A banner link for one week on WriteNonsense, thereafter converting into a permanent link AND your article featured in the post after the close of the competition AND a neat little GIF saying you won the prize!
2nd Prize: A permanent link in my "Author's Resources" box and a 2nd prize GIF
3rd Prize: A reciprocal link and a 3rd prize GIF


Article Submission Guidelines:

There is no strict guideline as to content. Write about anything you like. Tell me a story, make a point, make me believe something. If you make me laugh, that'll go a long way. There are a few rules to keep the whole thing relevant and fair. Here they are:

Rules:

• Competition closes on Sunday 19th August, midnight GMT+2 (Paris Time)
  
• Articles to be between 400-600 words.
  
• No outbound links in articles
• No self-promotion or deliberate product advertising (you can mention products though)
  
• No websites will be linked to! Only blog owners need apply.
• To qualify your blog must have at least SOME relevance to writing, freelance writing, SEO, SEO articles, blogs and blogging etc.
• The 3rd prize winner will get a link as soon as I verify that a link to WriteNonsense is active
  
• All winners will have links to their submissions on their own pages published in the post announcing the end of the competition, in addition to other prizes.
• Articles, winning and non-winning, will not be used for any purposes other than this competition, and all rights will remain with the author.
  

Tell your friends about my competition - I want to see how many entries I can get!

Writing Competitions at Technorati

Write for Money at Helium

For those of you who haven't tried writing for Helium, I would definitely suggest you give it a bash. This site is different from a lot of freelance writing sites, in that you write articles that they want to publish, and they pay you for them!

All you have to do to get started is pick your categories and subcategories, and start writing. When you article is approved your account will be credited - simple as that. It's also a place where you can read articles on just about anything, so if you want to look something up, this is the place.

It's good to see a new generation of paid article sites coming up, and I really hope this one does well. It's about time people started making good money for writing about things they care about. Forget about those sites that pay you 50c per post, the best way to make money writing articles without going out and finding clients is on Helium.

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15 Minute SEO Articles

We’re in a bulk business people, so the buzzword here is speed. I’m not advocating sacrificing the quality of your work to churn them out, but you need to be able to write at least 10 SEO articles in about half as many hours to make it worth your while. This is not difficult, and here’s the method I use for turning out high quality articles that my clients pay good money for.

1. Do your research

If you have the URL of the client’s site and the site is up, go to it and go straight to their “About Us” page. Scan this and find their ‘hook’ – the thing they say about themselves that makes them different. Scan through the products they have, services they offer, brands they deal in etc. If you don’t have the client’s site, find a similar site and learn about the industry. Learn as much as you can in 5 minutes.

2. Don’t type so fast

It’s great to be able to type 80wpm, but if you want to finish your SEO article in 10 minutes after researching it, you only need to manage 50wpm (If it’s a standard 500 word article). Typing at a slower constant speed gives your mind time to come up with the start of the next sentence as you are typing.

Remember, you make mistakes when you type faster, and correcting them takes time and interrupts your train of thought. When you get to the last sentence of a paragraph, start thinking how you will use the keywords you have been given in the next paragraph.

3. Speak when you type

At the risk of sounding insane to your family and neighbors, speaking when I type helps me to keep my SEO articles conversational. 500 Words is a lot of text in website terms, and you have to make it feel like less when it’s read. Pretending like you’re speaking to someone helps you to write quickly about the topic while at the same time keeping it from sounding like too much of a sales pitch.

There you have it – 15 Minute SEO articles! This is the way I write SEO articles, and I must say it definitely helps with time management. (Although I tend to go a little slower because I find the 15-minute burns a bit taxing) If you stick to a disciplined schedule you can crank them out without lowering the quality of your work – and this means you will have a larger number of high quality articles to sell.

SEO Articles

Online Paid Surveys - Can I make money here?

The whole "get paid to take surveys" thing has been around for a while, but it's one of those easy money things that has never really been discredited. To better facilitate you all as aspiring writers, and the wider community of people who make money online, I thought I'd have a look at one or two of these offers to see if there are any worth their salt.

What struck me as strange was that a lot of the online surveys require you to pay them money before they start sending you surveys. So I went looking for a free one. This was not an easy task, but I eventually came across GlobalTestMarket. I joined up, and they get you to answer a bunch of questions about yourself before they start sending you surveys to complete. For completing surveys you get "market points", which apparently convert to cash at 5 market points per US cent. I haven't received any surveys yet, but I'm not holding my breath to make millions out of this one.

I eventually gave up on that and took the plunge, signing up for the best non-free one I could find. I At first I thought it was a bit of a rip, but then I remembered that just that morning a friend had paid over twice this amount to sign up to an extras casting agency, who did not guarantee any work. The one I joined, Paid Surveys Online, promises you at least 3 surveys a day at $10 per survey. You can do more, but this is what they say you will definitely get.

So how "easy" is the money? Well, it's not free, but it's as close as it gets. Income potential isn't huge if you live in the United States, the UK or Canada, but it's a good way to make extra money for an hour's work every day. I did some numbers, and if you want to make money taking surveys then you need to move to sunny South Africa, or India or any country that has a weak currency vs. the US dollar.

If you spend a few hours taking surveys for the Paid Survey Program and you live in one of these countries, you can actually make a viable income by doing only surveys! I spend an hour a day taking surveys, no more, and I make more in that hour than I make in two hours of writing!

So my verdict is: if you want to answer the odd survey and get a little check after a few months, join up with Global Test Market. But if you want to really make money taking surveys and earn a viable income from it, then join Paid Surveys Online.

At $10 a survey you are guaranteed to make back the signup cost in the first day, even if you only do the minimum number of surveys. Here's a tip: if you try to leave the front page, it offers you a special $10 off coupon!

Related Discussions

Freelance Writing Site Review

I was recommended to a freelance writing site today that has totally blown my mind. Writer Lance is very much along the same lines as the much-more-famous GetAFreelancer but it is far broader in its scope of media.

Where GAF focuses on web content, ebooks, web developing and technical work, this is primarily a place for writers. The writing jobs on this site are mostly web content, but there is a lot of print media work available as well. What makes this site cool is that a lot of the writing work looks quite fun. There are a lot of humour pieces, jokes, poetry projects, writing competitions and such and such.

I know I focus mainly on SEO writing jobs, but this site has something for just about every kind of writer. I would say that if writing fast, easy web content for easy money is your thing, go to GetAFreelancer. If you want to write slightly more labour-intensive pieces that are a bit more gratifying, I would definitely suggest looking for writing jobs at WriterLance.

Freelance Writing Resources

Proofreading Work Available

I have a project that I have put up on GetAFreelancer that I would like to invite my readers to bid on.

It is a philosophy eBook, around 32,000, that needs editing for style. It is a project that should not take a long time, and I would like someone who knows something about philosophy and not just an editing wizard. The project can be viewed here and payment can be arranged through GetAFreelancer or Moneybookers for South African bidders (this will let you get your money faster).

The full details of the project are available on GetAFreelancer, and you can view these after you have created an account (which is free). Anyone who works on this project will get a mention in the book, which is not something you usually get when you do freelance writing work.

I encourage you all to have a look and see if it's up your alley!

Freelance Work

Writing World - Review

To better serve my visitors who are looking for writing work I have decided to start regular reviews of freelance writing sites. The first on this list is www.writingworld.org.

I stumbled across this site by accident, and I notice that it's a little different from a lot of freelance writing sites out there. There is no signup, and you don't make any account. There is just a big job board where people post advertisements for writing jobs.

This works a lot like a classified ads paper. You have to send in your resume (or at least a professional email) to the company listing the writing jobs, and then they will respond privately. If you want to find a regular client who will give you constant writing jobs, this is the place to go.

It differs from GetAFreeLancer in that this puts you directly in contact with the original clients. The writing jobs up for grabs are pretty much permanent or semi-permanent positions, or they are large single projects like scripts or screenplays.

I always have a "why not" approach to applying for writing jobs, so I will keep an eye on this one. If you see something good on this board, by all means apply for it - the worst they can do is not hire you. There are several good jobs up at the moment, and I think this is a good site to find a single long term client to work for.

writing jobs