So, you want to learn how to make money while you sleep, writing articles. Well I did and you can too. This is the first article I have written in over five months. I didn’t make much money during that five month period, but I did make money. I ask you, what other profession can make that claim? Not many. Oh, I know that all sorts of MLM’s claim that you can make money while you sit on your laurels. But, they fail to tell you about the constant phone calls and countless rallies and meetings you must attend to maintain momentum and keep your sales flowing.
I experienced a family illness that brought everything in my world to a halt. My writing stopped. I became the chief bottle washer, cook, laundry man, gardener, chauffeur, and general all around doer. You get the picture. This is not a sob story. I just want to set the scene. Thankfully, all is now better and on the mend. I decided to peek at my accounts. I had not looked at my accounts during that five-month period.
Money! There was money in those accounts. I’m not saying how much. It’s not relevant. If I quote a large number, you will think I am lying or boasting. If I quote a small number, you may wonder if it’s worth it. The point is: I was making money while I virtually slept.
When you write an article and post it with an ezine publisher or on your blog, it is there for as long as the internet is up and running. Of course, you can’t just write gibberish and expect sales. If you learn the fundamentals and are persistent, you will generate sales.
You may question my advice on persistence, since I haven’t written anything over the past five months. The persistence I am speaking of is that of not giving up. Write! Write! And, write some more.
Here are four things that need your attention: keywords, content, education, and traffic.
Keywords
As you probably already know, keywords target your customers and optimize search engine queries. Two things that are necessary for the exposure of your article and consequently your sales. You need people to come your sales page. You need traffic.
Content
Your articles must contribute value. They must provide your reader with good and useful information. Without good content, your reader will give up and not read the entire article and follow through to your sales page. You need traffic.
Education
Educate yourself. Learn from your mistakes. If you submit an article and it is rejected, find out what was wrong with the article and correct it. Learn basic grammar. Take a course in article writing. Join forums and ask questions.
Article writing can be very profitable. Although, there is much more to address in learning the skills of article writing, the three suggestions I have outlined will get you started on the right foot. I promise that if you are persistent and continue to learn, you cannot help but make money writing articles. I am.
Traffic
Doing the first three things, will drive traffic to your site or blog and generate sales. Imagine a small town. As the town promotes growth adding souvenir shops, grocery stores, boutiques, taverns, services, etc. the town’s traffic grows accordingly. The same applies to your articles. As you increase the variety and content of your articles and as your skill and reputation grows so will traffic to your blog or website. Ultimately, your sales will grow.
If you are serious about making money writing articles and you want to learn how to write them in a way that moves readers to want to click on your promotion, I suggest you read my review of Persuasive Article Writing Secrets, P.A.W.S.. It will improve your sales tenfold.
Sarge,
Thank you for your comment.
Carlos
I found your article full of useful information. It remotivated me to do some article marketing.
Especially thanks for the thumbs up on the 2 products that helped you – all the more genuine because you are not promoting them.
Thanks for the informative material, it was really helpful.
Sarge
Hi Carlos! Excellent blog here!
I must admit I have been trying to earn money in affiliate marketing since 2003 and only recently learned that article marketing is the best way to generate traffic for the long term. Problem is that it takes a while for your article marketing to take effect. Most people are just too impatient to wait, but it is really worth all the waiting and also the effort of writing articles and distribute them.
All the best, Carlos!
Dean,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, you are right there are no magic bullets.
Carlos
Very insightful post Carlos.
While people are running around in circles looking for magic bullets we will always be able to make money while we sleep by doing the ground work first.
I liked your analogy of the small town – very good.
Dean.
Thank you, Pavol
You’re right, there is much to learn and a Newbie can quickly become discouraged and give up. It’s not easy to sort out the wannabe gurus and the true experts. I don’t promote anything that I haven’t found to be useful or beneficial to my own growth in this industry. Hopefully, my suggestions will benefit others.
Carlos
This is the first time I am reading your blog, but I am glad I stumbled upon it. I am into article marketing myself, in fact, we both are members of ArticleProductions, so I know what you mean with all four points you made. I think, lot of people get too excited when they start, but give up too soon, before they have a chance to see results. As you pointed out, persistence is important in this business (well, any business). 1-2 articles are not going to cut it, even 50, or 100…although you should start seeing some money coming your way by then. The point is, you need to keep writing, make it part of your DAILY schedule. Not a weekend thing you do on the side, not a quick thing you do while watching TV. If you want to succeed, you need to provide content, and if you want to provide content that people take seriously, you need to take it seriously.
Of curse, you have to be equally determined to learn more and do proper keyword research. All of this is interconnected. You need to learn more to know what works. You need to do keyword research to be able to drive traffic. You need to make valuable content to be able to sell. There are no shortcuts.
But there are good and bad products, good and bad advice. And it may be hard for a newbie to figure out who is selling the real deal, and who is just scamming them. But when it comes to the “Persuasive Article Writing Secrets (P.A.W.S.)”, no newbie can go wrong with that, as well as with the “4-day marketing blueprint” you review on your blog elsewhere. These two products are the real deal for a newbie, but even experienced marketer can learn new tricks, especially from the P.A.W.S. BTW, this is not a solicited testimonial, and I do not promote this product myself, simply because I do not promote marketing related products. But man, they did help me a ton.
In fact, I was a part of Wealthy Affiliate university, and after I bought those two products, I had no need to pay tremendous monthly fees at WA, as those two products explained everything WA did, and then some.
Anyway, hope your blog will keep getting evolving, your later posts are quite good and informative.