Do You Have What It Takes To Write For Pay?
Making money at home by writing may sound appealing, but not everyone is suited for it. The following are some skills and personality traits that writers need. Do you have what it takes to write for pay?
First of all, you need to enjoy writing. If English was your least favorite subject in school and the thought of writing an essay sends shivers up your spine, you should consider other ways to make money from home. On the other hand, if you do enjoy writing and have a good set of basic grammar skills, writing from home could be a profitable venture for you. Simply enjoying the writing process may not be enough, though. Writers spend a lot of time at home working alone. Do you find it easy to work by yourself or do you prefer to work with a group of people?
Writers need to be able to meet deadlines and they need to work well under pressure. You may get an assignment for a 500 word article that must be completed that same day. Writers also need to be excellent researchers. You may get an assignment to write an article on something you have never heard of, a place you have never visited, or a hobby you have never tried. Do you know how to find quality information about a subject and do you know how to take what you have read and break that down into your own story?
Many professions require a “thick skin”, and writing is no exception. How well do you handle criticism and rejection? As a writer for hire, you are being paid to write something for someone else. You may think it is the best piece of writing since Shakespeare, but your opinion doesn’t count. The customer is always right and if your customer doesn’t like what you have written, you will need to start over or take the article in a new direction. Is that something you could handle?
If you are going to be working as a copywriter or ghostwriter, you may not receive credit for your work. While it is becoming more common in the “book world” to give credit to a ghostwriter, the general notion is that the ghostwriter goes unknown. The owner of a website may ask you to write several articles or blog entries for her. Would it bother you to see her take credit for your words?
Of course, these are just a few, general examples. If writing is something you want to try your hand at, by all means, go for it!
Three Ways to Break Into Freelance Writing
Freelance writing is known for being a tough industry to break into. However, with some hard work and determination, you can find success in this field.
The online market is booming for freelancers. Website owners need content! They know that the more fresh, quality content they have, the more visitors they will receive. Online markets will not pay as well or carry the same clout as a glossy, full-color magazine, but they are a great way to get your feet wet. Plus, given the fact that the cyber world moves a lot faster than the traditional printing world, your articles will be published sooner. As you know, the more pieces you have published, the easier it will be to land bigger jobs in the future.
Don’t forget to target your local newspaper when looking for freelance writing jobs. Newspapers have strict deadlines, and can certainly use freelancers (often called ‘stringer reporters’). Writing for a newspaper can be hectic; as mentioned before, they do have strict deadlines, and you may get an assignment on a moment’s notice. However, if you do a good job and complete your work on time, the editor at your local paper could open the doors to bigger newspapers and magazines.
While you may only be able to name a few magazines, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of small, regional, and trade magazines being published today. A great tool for writers is www.writersmarket.com. It is a database full of information on markets that buy freelance work (“market” is a general term for a magazine or newspaper). The editors at smaller magazines are oftentimes more open to working with people that have little experience.
Contacting a market and offering to write for them is often called a “query”. Each market will have different guidelines they use to accept queries; for instance, some may accept queries via email whereas some will want them by snail mail. Always use the proper name of the person you are sending the query to. You can find this information on the company’s website or through www.writersmarket.com. It is also important to know the market you want to write for. For example, if you want to write an article containing tips for traveling with pets for XYZ Magazine, make sure that magazine hasn’t published a similar article in the last year.
Once you have written several pieces for smaller markets, you can take the leap into writing for larger, more well-known magazines and newspapers. However, you might find you enjoy and prefer working with smaller markets.
Blogging for Pay
A few years ago, the word “blog” did not exist in most people’s vocabularies, and now it seems that everyone is expressing themselves with an online journal. You may have heard stories about people making money with their blogs. It’s true!
Obviously, the first thing you will need to do is start a blog. We will cover this in more detail in another course, but the basics would be that you choose a blogging platform (we recommend Wordpress), install it to a web host, set up a domain for your site, and then begin writing.
Google’s Adsense program is a great way to get started making money on your new blog. Submit an easy application at www.google.com/adsense. Once you are approved, you just add some html code to your blog and small text ads will appear on your blog. Google will display ads that share a common theme with your blog. When one of the people reading your blog clicks on an ad, you get paid! The amounts vary, and clicking the ads on your own blog is strictly prohibited. Do not expect to strike it rich with Adsense. You can make good money with the Adsense program, but it depends highly on your topic selection and the amount of traffic your site gets. If you get a lot amount of traffic to your site, you will not make much from Adsense.
Affiliate marketing is another great way to make money by blogging. Most companies have an affiliate program, where they pay people to advertise their product online. In most cases, you will be paid a percentage of the sale of an item. Most affiliate programs have many different ads you can choose to include, ranging from full-color graphic ads to simple text ads. You can find affiliate opportunities through Linkshare (www.linkshare.com) and Commission Junction (www.cj.com). The AzoogleAds.com network is also a good source for CPA advertising. Marketing affliate products can net larger payouts for new bloggers because it is not as dependent on your blog's traffic. It is based more on your skills as a writer and your ability to persuade.
“Pay per post” is somewhat controversial, but still a way to make money blogging. When you are being paid to post, you are actually paid to write about a certain product. In a nutshell, you can register your blog with a company and they will give you a list of things you can choose to blog about. Once you have completed your post, you send a link back to the company and if they accept your post, you will be paid. There may be certain guidelines to be approved, such as the amount of time your blog has been online, how many times you have posted in the last 90 days, and if it is indexed in search engines. The controversy enters into paid posting because it entices the reviewer to post a falsely positive review. So, your best bet is to disclose the fact that it is a paid review and then be honest about it. Being paid to do a review is no reason why you need to lie about it. Sources for paid posting are ReviewMe and PayPerPost.
The most important thing to remember is to keep your target market in mind. If your blog is targeted to stay-at-home moms with young children, you will want to keep your ads focused to things that would appeal to them. Do not try to create a blog that appeals to the masses. If you have several different target markets in mind, it will be easier and more profitable to create several different blogs that cater to individual markets. In other words, make sure your writing has a focus and does not try to be all things to all people. It is easier to write for and, ultimately, will be much easier to target advertising for.
Three Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills
Writing is a skill that doesn’t come easily to everyone; some people have a natural writing flow that almost bursts off a page while others stumble and trip over the words they write. If you happen to fall into the second category, don’t let that stop you. You can improve your writing skills by using the following tips.
Like it or not, your grammar skills play a big part in your writing. You may not want to think about nouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions or prepositions, but if you want to be a good writer you need to know what they are and how to use them correctly. Using the proper punctuation will ensure that people are reading your sentences correctly. For instance, if you intended a sentence to end, but didn’t end it with a period, your readers wouldn’t be able to make sense out of your writing. Don’t forget to use the spell-check function that came with the word processing software on your computer.
This may sound backwards, but to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader. Try to read something everyday. Expand your knowledge by reading different types of writing. If you are primarily a fiction reader, start reading the newspaper or non-fiction books. Read articles online versus magazine articles and see if you notice the differences in writing styles. If you happen to read something that you really enjoy, study the article or story. Use the tips you find to improve your own writing. On the other hand, when you read something you don’t care for, make mental notes of the mistakes the writer made and try to avoid them when you sit down to write.
To become a good writer, you need to practice, practice, and practice some more! Writing something everyday, even something as short as a few sentences can improve your writing over time. There are many websites targeted to writers that offer daily writing exercises. For example, the site may ask you to write the opening paragraph of a romance story one day and the next day it could ask you to write a “how-to paragraph” about grinding coffee. Experimenting with different writing genres will greatly improve your writing.
Save your writing and re-read it from time to time. You will see the improvements you have made. As your skills and your confidence grow, you will find that writing not only comes easier to you, it becomes something you enjoy doing!
Overcoming Writers Block
Suffering from writer’s block is a very common problem. Whether it is a student trying to finish a report, a professional struggling to write a speech, or a journalist who is under a deadline, writer’s block is so common, it is almost a cliché. How many times have you seen a movie, television show or cartoon that featured a frustrated writer, staring at a blank computer screen? Fortunately, there are many things you can do to overcome the situation.
Writers’ block is very common at the beginning of a project. Having some kind of outline of what you intend to write will keep you moving in the right direction. Experiment with your writing environment; do you like the noise and energy of having other people around or do you prefer to write in a quiet space? Are you more comfortable using pen and paper to get your thoughts down, or do you prefer a computer screen and keyboard? Eventually, you will discover the type of writing environment that gets your creative juices flowing.
Once you get started, you will find that words will start flowing. However, if getting started is the hardest part, try “free writing”. Simply write whatever comes to mind. Write about the room you are in, what you had for breakfast, or the color of your socks. It doesn’t matter what you write about. Once you start writing about something, you will find that you will be able to keep writing; words will just start to flow out of your brain and onto your paper.
If you find yourself getting stuck in the middle of a project, print out what you have written. Take the paper to another room and proofread it. Holding the paper in your hands versus reading from a computer screen will stir different senses. Going to a different room to read will also engage your senses and may be enough to fire up some ideas and end your writer’s block.
Sometimes, you just need to clear your head and take a break. Go for a walk around the block, throw a load of laundry into the washer or some other small task. You might find a bright idea comes to you the second you start focusing on something else. After a few minutes, you will be able to come back refreshed and ready to write.
Most importantly, don’t give up. Writer’s block won’t last forever! Stay focused and you will be able to conquer it.
What is Copywriting?
Though the term copywriter may be used in a variety of ways in different industries, online the title usually applies to a writer who is skilled in promotional writing. More specialized than the general ghostwriter who provides content of many kinds, a copywriter is usually hired to write words that sell something.
Some examples of tasks that a copywriter may take on are:
- They write item descriptions that present products in the best light.
- They write advertisements for print and the internet.
- They write copy for brochures and flyers.
- They write sales letters for the web and direct mail.
Copywriters have been trained to gently (and sometimes not so gently) induce a desired response in the reader. They use words in a way that guides the potential customer to want to buy and overcomes objections by anticipating what they might be and responding to them in the copy itself.
Good copy involves important principles of presenting the benefits of a product rather than listing the features and keeping the focus of your words on the reader. This is often difficult for writers without training and is what makes it particularly important that you hire the right writer for the job. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the same person you pay to write content articles can be tapped to write a sales letter. The skills needed are different.
Take care in shopping around for a copywriter for your project as they often have very different styles of writing that may appeal to different target markets. Ask for testimonials and examine examples of their work. Great copywriters have often studied under a more experienced writer and submitted to months if not years of critiques to hone their skills. Many have degrees in marketing or advertising or have come through the trenches learning their craft through personal experience.
Copywriting can be a very profitable business for someone who enjoys writing compelling copy and would like to have a flexible working from home. It will take a time and hard work to establish yourself, but if you are willing to put in some effort, you can reap the rewards!
What is Freelance Writing?
If you pay attention to movies and television shows that feature people living in
As a freelance writer there are numerous markets ready to hire you. The online market is growing everyday as more and more websites pop up. These websites need content for the website and many of them have e-newsletters that are sent out on a weekly or monthly basis. Newspapers, both local and national routinely rely on freelancers; although in this industry the term is known as “stringer reporters”. Since newspapers have strict deadlines, if a story suddenly pops up and the staff writers already have other assignments, a freelancer will be called. Assignments can be given out on short notice and the work can be hectic, but writing for a newspaper is a great way to open doors to bigger opportunities.
Many people dream of freelancing for national magazines, and they do hire freelancers. This can be a tough market to break into, since so many people are vying for a limited number of jobs. It is best to start out with smaller regional or trade magazines and once you have several “clips”, copies of your published work, you can break into the national magazines.
Typically, a freelance writer will think of a story idea and write a brief synopsis and send it to the publication’s editor. This is called a “query”. Different publications have different guidelines for accepting queries; some will accept them via email and some will only accept them via postal mail. If you are going to send one via snail mail, enclose a self addressed stamped envelope; if your material gets rejected the editor will send you the rejection slip in your SASE. Rejection is a big part of a writer’s life. Remember, they are not rejecting you. They are rejecting your story idea. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are a bad writer, it just means it is not the right time for that particular publication to publish that type of story.
Pay rates vary wildly in the freelance world. Some publications pay upwards of $1 per word and some pay one cent per word, and some do not pay at all! As a beginning writer, you will be earning fees on the low end of the scale, but as more of your work is published and you gain experience, you can begin asking for more money.
Contrary to what
What is Ghostwriting?
Ghostwriting may sound mysterious, but it is a profession that you are probably very familiar with. You have, undoubtedly, seen many books written by celebrities. Well, the celebrities name may be on the cover, but a ghostwriter is the actual author; for instance, Clay Aiken’s autobiography “Learning To Sing” was actually written by Allison Glock.
Ghostwriters are by no means limited to writing books for celebrities. They can find work in any venue – anything that involves the written word qualifies. A great market for ghostwriters is the internet. Website owners need content to attract visitors and search engine traffic. Most often, this takes the form of informative articles, newsletters, and sales letters. However, anything that is “written” can be outsourced to a ghostwriter, including blog posts, emails, and more. Ghostwriters can also find work offline. A local business may hire a ghostwriter to write anything from marketing materials to an employee handbook.
Typically, the person hiring the ghostwriter will contact the ghostwriter and explain what they need written, the price they can afford to pay, and when the deadline is. The ghostwriter may request that half of the payment is received upfront and can expect the other half when the work is completed. The pay rate for ghostwrites varies with the amount of experience they have and which market they are writing for. Beginning ghostwriters may earn around $4 for an article of 350 to 500 words. As you prove yourself to be a good writer who meets deadlines, that price will grow. An experienced ghostwriter can easily expect $10 - $12 for the same article.
Ghostwriters need to enjoy writing and posses basic grammar skills. Being able to work independently with little direction also helps. Ghostwriters generally spend many of their working hours alone. They also need to be good researchers, have the ability to manage time well and meet deadlines, and be willing to take a back seat and let others take the credit for their work.
Getting started as a ghostwriter is surprisingly easy. Start contacting website owners and offer to write a few articles for them – for free. In exchange, ask for a testimonial or recommendation. Some of your first contacts may prove to be your best customers. If they do not offer you any paid work, ask for referrals. Approach other website owners and let them know you are available. Eventually, you will find paying clients.
The market for ghostwriters is growing every day. If you are looking for a way to make money from home and the basic job description sounds appealing to you, you should definitely try ghostwriting!
Writing for Yourself Part I; Creating a Content Site and Using Google’s Adsense
Many people who want to make money from home through their writing often turn to copywriting or ghostwriting for others. However, by creating your own content site, with the help of a pay-per-click program, such as Google’s Adsense, you can earn money with your own writing.
The first step is to decide what kind of market you would like to target. The options are limitless. We will use an example of creating a content site targeted to stay-at-home moms who home school their children. That is still a very broad category, and you can limit that further by focusing on lesson plans for stay-at-home moms who home school their children that are between the ages of 4 – 8, for instance.
You will also want to do some keyword research. By using a service such as www.wordtracker.com, you can pinpoint what people are typing into search engines when they are trying to find your product or service. By doing a little keyword research, you will know if history lesson plans are more popular than science lesson plans.
Once you have determined what people are looking for, you can start creating your site. One option is to outsource the creation of your website to a web designer, but if you are going to be adding lots of new content and making many changes, it is best to learn how to create the site yourself. You no longer need to know HTML in order to create a website. There are many web design editing programs on the market that essentially do all the work for you; two of the most popular being Microsoft FrontPage and Xsite Pro.
After you have the framework of your site completed, it is time to start filling it with articles. People are going to visit your site to learn something, so give them clear, concise information. Keep adding fresh content and your visitors will keep returning to learn more.
You can apply for Google’s Adsense program by visiting https://www.google.com/adsense. Google will review your site, and once it is approved you simply add some HTML code to your site. Google will place small text ads on your site that have something in common with your site’s content. When one of your site’s visitors clicks on an ad, you will earn a commission. The amounts vary, and you are strictly prohibited from clicking on the ads that appear on your site.
Over time, you will gain search engine traffic and repeat visitors. Keep your content fresh and relative to your target market and the money you earn with your content site will really start to add up!
Writing for Yourself Part Two (creating information products to sell)
Many people turn to the internet for information. They want to know something, so they turn on the computer and do a search on the subject. They scroll through the search results, looking for websites that can give them the information they need. By creating information products to sell on your website, you can create a very nice income from home. An information product can be anything from an e-book to a special report, or even an MP3 recording or video.
If you already have a website and have done your keyword research, you are one step ahead of the game. If not, your first step is to determine what market you would like to target. The options are limitless. For example, let’s pretend you are interested in targeting dog owners who would like healthy food options for their pets. By using a keyword tool you can determine what words and phrases people use when they search for healthy dog food. Are people searching for homemade dog food, vegetarian dog food or healthy vegetarian dog food? Your best scenario will be to find a keyword or phrase that a lot of people are searching for that is also not used by many other competing websites.
Once you have done your keyword research and know what your target market is looking for, it is time to build your website. You can outsource this and hire a professional web designer. However, if you plan on making lots of changes to your site, you might want to invest in software such as Microsoft FrontPage or Xsite Pro. These programs allow you to quickly and easily design websites without knowing HTML code.
The next step is to create your information product. When you are ready to set your price, take a look around the internet and see what the going rate is for your type of product. You will want to set up a shopping cart and information delivery system on your website. There are many to choose from, so do your research and find what will best fit your needs at a price you can afford.
When it comes to creating information products, you can also team up with another website owner and create the product together. This is called a joint venture. You will split the work and you can both sell the product on your websites. To increase your sales and profits, you might want to open your product up to affiliates. An affiliate will advertise your product, and when they get a sale for you, you will pay them a portion of that sale.
There are many benefits to earning an income with information products. People are always going to want to learn things, and there will always be a market for information products! This is a wonderful way to make a passive income from home. Plus, you can create a product today, and still be earning profits from it five years down the road!
Making Money With Information Products
Introduction
If you’re looking for a way to create an additional stream of income through the business you already have, then creating an information product may be the answer.
No matter what type of business you own, there’s always an opportunity to create an added flow of income. Whether you promote affiliate programs, take part in Google Adsense, or market to your mailing list - these are all great and easy ways to bring in some extra money.
However, there’s nothing better than an information product when it comes to taking your business to the next level. Here’s why:
- An information product can establish you as an expert in your field, and your readers will continually come to you for answers.
- It builds credibility because you have proven yourself to your readers, and they know that they can trust you when it comes to matters within your niche.
- Your product will turn into a passive source of income. Yes, it will take work on your part, but the beauty of information products is that you only have to do the work once and you can make money over and over again.
- You can promote your main business. By placing your website address inside your information product, readers can click the links to learn more about you and possibly buy other items.
- Make money on top of money. When you create an information product, you will likely find a need to mention other products, programs, etc., that your readers will find helpful. By signing up as an affiliate for the products and programs that you mention throughout your info product, you can earn an extra income from the commission. So every time someone clicks your affiliate link and buys the item you mentioned, you just earned money on top of the money you earned selling your information product.
- Even more money and traffic. If you have set up an affiliate program, then others will be sending you traffic and gaining you sales in exchange for a commission.
Information products have exploded across the Internet and people from all walks of life are partaking in this lucrative, online industry. A quick Google search brings up an astounding 1,460,000,000 listings for the term “information products,” but does that mean there can’t possibly be room for one more product?
Of course not! Surprisingly enough, new information products are sprouting up every day and many of their creators are earning a nice side income, while others are rapidly building up an information product empire.
Keep in mind that millions of people log onto the Internet every day because they are searching for information, and chances are, there will be people willing to pay for what you know.
How To Get Started
One of the unwavering rules that writers live by is, “write what you know.”
Why?
Simply because it’s more enjoyable, easier, and faster to write on a topic that you already know about. For example, if you want to write an instruction sheet on how to make a soy candle, but you have no idea how to make one, then it will be that much harder to write about it. But, if you love making soy candles and you do it all the time, it will be incredibly easy for you to write because you’re experienced and passionate about your topic.
Don’t make it harder than it has to be. Choose a topic that you’re already experienced in, interested in, and excited about; otherwise you may never actually finish your information product.
How To Get Started
The first step to creating your own information product is to figure out what people want to know about your niche. Think back to when you first started your business, what questions did you have?
Let’s say that you own a business selling floral arrangements created from silk flowers, here are a few questions that people may want answers to:
- How do I make my own arrangements?
- Where is the best place to buy the items needed to make them?
- How do I preserve them to last over the years?
- How should they be cleaned?
- How can I start a floral arrangement business?
All these questions can be answered in one information product like an e-book, but they can also be split up into a few different ones.
You can write an e-book using your business knowledge that will teach other people how to start their own floral arrangement business. You can tell them everything they need to know about how to get started, and even provide them with a bonus resource sheet on where they can buy the best items for the best prices.
Write a step-by-step e-course and split it up into different lessons that teach people how to make their own silk floral arrangements. Once you have the course written, the rest is automated. Your visitor can sign up, pay for the course, and your autoresponder will automatically send them the lessons based on the schedule you have set up.
Promote through freebies. If you want to answer the questions about preservation and cleaning, then write up a tip sheet or small report and give it away to people who sign up for your newsletter. A 5 day e-course is another way to do this, and you will benefit in more than one way. First, you’ve captured your visitor and placed them on your mailing list and will be able to promote your business to them, but you’re also promoting your information product within the tip sheet, e-course, or small report that they are reading.
How To Find Ideas
If you have a good idea of what people within your niche want, but you’re having a hard time nailing down specific topic ideas, don’t worry, there are a few things you can do.
Amazon.com - This website contains a wealth of ideas that you can implement into information products. A search of “silk floral arrangements” in the books category brought up 107 results. The first page listed books with titles like these:
- Decorating With Silk & Dried Flowers: 80 Arrangements Using Floral Materials Of All kinds
- Creative Floral Arranging: How to Decorate With Fresh, Dried, & Silk Flowers
- Fabulous Silk Flowers for the Home
- Silk Florals for the Holidays
- Garden Inspired Silk Florals
- Faux Florals for Your Wedding: Fifty Easy and Original Projects
- Creative Wedding Florals You Can Make
Imagine the ideas that will flow after you use Amazon! Use the titles to create your own information on the same topic.
Do a quick search and scan the listings to see if anything grabs your attention. Perhaps the site that says “Silk Flowers for Your Hawaiian Wedding . . .,” will spark an idea. You could create an entire line of how to e-books that will teach brides-to-be, how to make silk flower arrangements for various wedding themes (country, Victorian, medieval, fairy tale weddings, winter wonderland, etc.).
Article Directories - By reading what other people are writing about within your niche you can create a large list of topic ideas. A search at ezinearticles.com for “silk floral arrangements” resulted in 428 articles and a few of the following article titles showed up on the first page:
- Silk Flower Arrangements:
- Christmas Flower Arrangements
- Contemporary Flower Arrangements
- Tips for Making Your Silk Floral Arrangement Beautiful
- Silk Flowers: Are They Better Than The Real Thing?
- Silk Flowers for Home Decoration
Remember, when it comes to creating your own information product, you don’t have to “re-invent the wheel,” find out what others are doing that has proven successful and follow their lead.
I Know What I Want To Do, But Will It Sell?
Yes, it can certainly be intimidating to make the decision to create an information product that you’re not sure will sell. Fortunately, market research can prevent this from happening.
As a business owner it’s important that you take advantage of market research, and be willing to invest your time, and possibly money, into doing it right. It’s the perfect way for you to learn about your customers and understand what they buy and why. The flip side is that if you don’t do market research, your may waste your time and financial resources on something that could have been avoided.
As far as the cost that is associated with market research, it really depends on what type of research you plan to do in order to answer the questions that you have. So it can be as inexpensive or as costly as you need it to be.
4 Different Types of Market Research You Can Do
Surveys: This a widely used form of conducting market research for online products because it is inexpensive (or free), and it can be sent out to your customers through email. If you opt to do a survey, make sure you keep the questions simple and don’t list more than 10. Otherwise, you run the risk of overwhelming them and taking up too much of their time. By keeping it short and sweet, your response rate is likely to be much better.
Online Research: By using a keyword research tool like wordtracker.com, you can find out how many people are looking for information on your topic. So if you were to type in “silk floral arrangements,” it will tell you exactly how many people are typing that keyword into the search engines. If a lot of people are looking for information on your topic, then it may be worth creating an information product based on it.
Experiment: Test your information product by giving out freebies. You can do this in the form of a free small report or e-course to test the waters before you create a large information product on your topic. Doing so will give you an idea of how many people are downloading your report or signing up for your free e-course. If it turns out to be wildly popular, then an in-depth information product will likely prove to be just as successful.
Tracking: Software programs can tell you where your customers are going on your website, what they are doing, what they buy, and how long they stay. One way to use this method is to set up a category on your site with some information on your topic, and use your software program to find out how many people are going to that section and how long they are staying there. It will give you an idea of how much of your traffic is interested in that topic.
What If I Don’t Want to Write My Information Product?
Today’s information products rarely consist of just written material, instead you will find audio and video that complement the written portion of it. So even if you don’t want to write it yourself, you can still be involved by doing an audio interview with a fellow expert, or creating an instruction video.
If you want to avoid writing the product yourself, then there are a couple of different ways you can do this.
- Hire a ghostwriter: A ghostwriter will write whatever you need, but they will not take credit for the work. That means their name won’t be found anywhere on your product. If you would like to hire a ghostwriter, you can place an ad for your project and set your budget limit on job boards like getafreelance.com or elance.com. Writers will bid on your project (within your budget), and you will be able to select the writer you think will be most suited to the job. The best way to know if they are right for you is to view their writing portfolio, or samples to get an idea of what they are capable of. You certainly don’t want to pay a writer to create a shabby product that has your name on it.
- Private Label Rights Articles: There are many great companies, like allprivatelabelcontent.com and easyplr.com, that offer top-notch private label rights articles on various topics. If you can find articles that fit in with your information product topic, these will be perfect for filling it out. So rather than writing the entire thing yourself, you mix up these articles with your own writing.
You will need to read the company terms because they vary from place to place, but typically you can use the articles any way you like. Some will even allow you to put your name on them as the author, while others won’t. You can edit them to fit in with your product, or just use them as a starting point to write your own articles. These are also great for putting together in a free report that you can give away as freebie to your mailing list (a great way to experiment with your topic).
