New Sources of Income

If any of you write for content mills and internet sites like suite 101 or hubpages, you know that google recently changed its algorithm for displaying search results. This change has "devalued" the content on many of these sites and made them appear further down on search results. The result has a been a large decline in the traffic on these sites.

What this means is still unclear. Some site,s like Suite 101, have taken huge hits. Some writers who were earning passive income on websites like hubpages or squidoo (myself included) have seen a dip in their traffic and thus their revnue stream. What this means for the long term is unclear. Several content sites are restructuring the way they accept writers and aritcles. Others are changing their standards in the hopes of receiving a better valuation by gogle. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Good writers should still survive while the bad ones will get weeded out.

However, for those of trying to eek out an income by writing, these are uncertain times indeed. While I wait to see where the chips will fall on each individual site I an also trying to diversify the websites that I write for.

Demand studios properties, particularly livestrong.com and eHow, seem to be doing pretty well. however they are making several changes to how writers can access articles and how writers are evaluated in order to ensure their quality impresses google. I am continuing to write there, but titles have become scarce as the reorganization progresses.

My application to Wisegeek.com is ongoing. I was invited to test last week and am awaiting the results. The pay is not as god as demand studios, but right now the titles seem more abundant and easier to write.

I am continually looking for About.com jobs that fit my resume and applying for them. however About.com is notoriously slow to respond and even harder to get into.

I am also looking into generating passive income via things other than my squidoo pages. I am considering writing and eBook. I am also spending more time on this blog, because here I can control the content.

Non-web clients are another ideal way to expand and I am actively looking to recruit some. So far I got a decent lead from a work at home mom website that lead to a small gig.

Perhaps this algorithm change has been the kick int he pants we all needed tog et out there and diversify our writing portfolios.

The Best Way to Save is to Earn

There are two sides to saving money. One is managing your expenditure and the other is maximizing your earnings. After all, you can't save more than you earn.

So to supplement my income I have explored several Work at Home Mom (WAHM) type jobs, and I've got to tell you I love them. They serve as creative outlets as well as sources of income. And they are flexible, they work around your schedule and you can do them in your pajamas.

Growing up, I always thought of myself as writer, but I never thought my scribbling hobby would earn me money. Then I heard about Demand Media Studios. This content mill generates articles for ehow.com, trails.com, livestrong.com and several other websites. They hire writers, titlers, copy editors and video artists. When I first signed up I wondered if it was worth it. Then I got my first paycheck.

I was writing short articles for ehow.com and getting paid from 7.50 to 15.00 an article. Considering the fact that these articles were not Pulitzer Prize material and could often be written in less than an hour, I was making a decent amount of money given the time I invested. I was working in spare hours, while watching TV or waiting for the laundry to finish. I quickly caught on to the style of writing which made things faster, less of my articles needed rewrites. I also qualified to write for Livestrong.com which bumped my article pay to 20$ per article. It also made it easier to find writable titles.

I know some of you are wonder if my dabbling in my spare time could actually earn me any significant money. Are those measly 20$ an article worth my effort? After six months of devoting minimal time and planning to this I have earned about 1,700 dollars. Some of that will go to Uncle Sam, but the rest is all going to my savings. So yes, I think it was worth it. And if I sat down and focused on working out a schedule and some goals I could probably earn way more.

I've tried several other WAHM opportunities but this is by far, the one that worked best for me.