September 21, 2009
I wanted to add one more thing to this list: get ”on the go” wireless internet access via a service like T-Mobil HotSpot.

The foliage is typical of what you see EVERYWHERE in Jamaica. It is a breathtakingly beautiful country.
I don’t have it yet, but my sister does. She gave me her information so all I had to do was log in while I was waiting in the airport (there’s no equipment or anything needed). Thanks to her, I was able to get some article writing and marketing done while waiting for my flight.
It was the only work I did the day I travelled — and as regular readers of my blog/website know, I’m an avid fan of article marketing because it works so well. It’s the way I make a lot of my passive income from ebooks and various affiliate products I promote, which I’ll talk about a bit more in tomorrow’s post.
Cost: $10/month (for T-Mobil wireless access).
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with T-Mobil as a wireless user. I only recommend it here b/c the connection worked great for me in the ATL airport (I also have a T-Mobil cell, so I’m pretty familiar with their products).
P.S.: Want to train for a recession-proof freelance writing career? Get the FREE Report, Learn SEO: 6 Reasons SEO Copywriting Is the Ideal High-Paying, Work-from-Home, Recession-Proof Career (pdf file).

Tourists from all over the world gather on this little island to eat fresh-caught lobster cooked over an open flame by the locals. It's such a warm vibe. Dripping in butter and garlic, no 5-star restaurant serves lobster better. And yes, you can buy beer here too! Yet ANOTHTER thing to do in Negril, Jamaica on the beach.
July 11, 2008
Learning how to write a resource box that increases traffic and generates sales is something I recently learned, and I’ve been marketing with articles since 2002. For years, I did it all wrong.
Note: This is Part III of III of Inkwell Editorial’s article marketing tutorial. Read Parts I and II.
With hundreds of articles circulating on the net, I often wonder how much more traffic my sites would have had and how many more sales I could have generated had I known what I know now. But, as the famed poet Maya Angelou says, “When you know better, you do better.”
Article Marketing: Definition of a Resource Box
For article marketers, the resource box is the most important part of the article. It is the main reason you slave over good content and give it away for free, after all. If you’re new to article marketing, you may be wondering, “What is a resource box?”
A resource box is the part where you get to promote yourself, your product/service and/or your website/blog. A good one will do all three. It’s included at the end of published articles you write. See the end of this article on how to get high-paying SEO writing gigs for an example of a resource box.
Resource boxes can be long or short. Most fall within the 3-6 line range. The length is often determined by the restrictions of the article directory you submit your article to.
Now that you know what it is, you may be wondering how to write an effective one. There are 4 keys to writing an resource box that increases traffic and produces sales. They are:
4 Keys to Writing a Resource Box that Increases Web Traffic and Produces Ongoing Sales
Following are four things every effective resource box should have. It took me years to learn this, but I’ve definitely experienced the positive results of “getting it right,” so to speak.
1. Benefit to Readers: I used to write resources boxes that included more like a professional bio. They were all about my credentials. Readers don’t care about that as much as they care about what your credentials can do for them. This is a critical distinction.
So offer a free report, a more in-depth article on your website about the topic at hand, a free podcast – whatever it is, make it something the reader is interested enough to want to take action to get.
If your article has done its job, it’s already whetted the appetite of the prospect; your resource box should deliver on that.
2. Links: Article directories limit the number of links you can use in the body of your article; some don’t allow you to use any at all. They require you to put all links in your resource box. Usually, article directories allow anywhere from one to three links in the resource box. Do your best to use al of them. Speaking of links . . .
3. Link with SEO in Mind: This can get a little complicated if you don’t understand, but bear with me for a simple explanation. The whole idea of article marketing is to generate traffic and make sales, right? The links in your article and/or its resource box do that. How?
When search engine spiders crawl the web and index the information found on each page (whether it’s a blog or website), one of the things that tell it what that page of information is all about is the words that make up a clickable link.
To use an example, if I were to offer a free ebook on article marketing with this article, I would make the link to the words “free ebook on article marketing” like this in my resource box:
Example 1: Get a free ebook on article marketing to learn more.
I WOULD NOT WRITE:
Example 2: To get a free ebook on article marketing, click here.
Making the words “click here” in Example 2 linkable tells the search engines nothing about what the page is about. But, the words that make up the link in Example 1 tells search engines exactly what the page is about.
To remember this SEO tip, try not to ever make the words “click here” linkable. Links should be a description of what the page/article is about.
There’s one more tip about linking, which is the fourth thing that makes a resource box effective.
4. Home Page Link: One of the links in your resource box should always be to your home page. This is extremely important because one of the benefits of article marketing is building backlinks.
What are backlinks? Backlinks are simply when another site links back to your site. They drive traffic and position your site as an authority site. For a fuller explanation on why and how, read more about backlinks and the benefits of article marketing.
The benefit of article marketing is that each time your article is published on another website, another blog and/or in someone else’s e-newsletter, is that it creates another backlink to your main site. This can gain you thousands of backlinks pretty quickly. If you have a good navigation structure and an enticing home page, users will want to hang around to locate more information.
Backlinks push your site higher in rankings, which means more traffic. More traffic equals more sales. And, that’s what article marketing is all about.
Free Article Marketing Tutorial
Read this article marketing tutorial in its entirety and feel free to subscribe to our newsletter, RSS feed or Twitter feed if you like this content.
July 9, 2008
This is Part I of III of Inkwell Editorial’s article marketing tutorial. Read Parts II and III.
If you visit this site regularly, then you know I’m an avid fan of article marketing. My recent article marketing experiment just reconfirmed what I already knew – article marketing works – if you put in the work.
I increased my ebook sales by 166% during this recent article marketing experiment, which has made me start to do it again on almost a daily basis. And, this is where the title of this post comes into play. With all that being said, what exactly are the two types of content every website and blog should have?
Raising Rates Illuminates the Need for Two Types of Content
I was updating my seo writing website this morning, raising rates and fine-tuning some service offerings.
As I was updating my SEO Article Writing page, I realized that the two types of content every site needs is what I call “easy, breezy content” and “foundational content.” To illustrate, take the article I wrote and uploaded to InkwellEditorial.com yesterday, Green Tips for Freelance Writers: How Freelance Writers Can Help the Environment.
The article is over 1,100 words long. It is a foundational article in that it is comprehensive, unique, authoritative (cites numerous sources) and can only be found on InkwellEditorial.com.
I wrote a companion article (easy breezy content) to this article, entitled Green Tips for Freelance Writers and posted it to Amazines.com, an article marketing directory. It’s a little over 600 words long, about half as long as the foundational article.
Even though it carries basically the same title, it’s 100% different but covers the same subject matter. This was done on purpose.
The Differences Between and Purpose behind Easy, Breezy and Foundational Content
Both types of articles are used to drive traffic to a site, but they do it in different manners.
How to Use Easy, Breezy Content to Drive Traffic to Your Site
Easy, breezy content can be distributed to multiple outlets, eg, article directories, forums, blogs, newsletter, etc. It is meant to whet the appetite of readers, giving them enough info to create interest so that they click through to your primary site.
Just because it’s “easy, breezy” does not meant that it shouldn’t be well written and insightful. This must be the case at all times. The real difference is that it is shorter than your foundational content.
How to Use Foundational Content to Drive Traffic to Your Site
Foundational content is your site’s unique content. It should not be distributed elsewhere and it should be extremely informative, highly valuable and make the reader come away with an “aha” moment.
This is the type of content that will garner repeat visitors because it sets your site up as an authority. The article, How to Create Cornerstone Content That Google Loves gives an excellent tutorial on why this type of content is a must for every site. FYI, foundational content is also referred to as “cornerstone content.”
How to Effectively Combine Easy Breezy Content & Foundational Content to Create Sales
Notice how in the resource box of the Green Tips article on Amazines.com I include a link to the foundational article on InkwellEditorial.com? By using easy breezy content to drive traffic to more informative, in-depth content, you have a better chance of making a sale.
When you consider that customers have to see your sales message anywhere from 7-28 times before they will purchase from you, combining these two types of content makes sense.
Your easy, breezy article may appear on 5, 10 or 20 sites. Every time someone sees it, that’s another touch, another impression you make. By the time they click through to your foundational content, they are usually practically sold.
2 for 1: How to Create Easy Breezy Content & Foundational Content from One Article
Now that I’m back into article marketing with full force, when I write an article for my site (foundational content), I automatically create a shorter version to post to article directories.
I include a link back to the foundational content on my main site/blog so really interested readers can learn more. When someone is interested enough to click through to your site, that’s a pre-qualified customer – the kind every business owner wants.
Create Passive Streams of Income for Years to Come
Foundational content; easy, breezy content; and article marketing — the kind of 1-2-3 knockout punch that can create passive streams of income for years to come. And, if you’re a freelance writer, all it costs you is time.
May 30, 2008
PLR content may be on its way out the door. As an SEO* content provider, I have mixed feelings about this. Before I delve into why, let’s explain what PLR content is for those who may not know.
What is PLR Content? What are PLR Articles?
PLR is an acronym for Private Label Rights content. It is content sold to many different parties. Many businesses are built around the PLR content model.
For example, have you ever seen ads on the net that sell you on the concept of starting your own niche site? They promise you a website already loaded with pre-written content.
The vast majority of these sites use PLR articles. The idea being that you will take over the site and build it out with fresh, unique content on a regular basis. Many never do, of course. Read more on how to make money with PLR content as explained in the article Turn $1/Day into an Online Empire: How to Make Money with Minisites.
Why PLR Content is Extremely Popular
Most PLR content is written for and by web entrepreneurs who run what’s known as VREs (virtual real estate) businesses. They may operate as many as a few hundred sites. Even if they only have 20 or 30, that’s still a massive amount of content that’s needed.
These sites make money by showing ads from programs like Google AdSense or affiliate programs from affiliate operations like Clickbank. The reason this is such an appealing business model is because “all” the site owner has to do is drive traffic to the site. All is in quotation marks because that’s the hardest part of any internet business. And, that’s where the need for loads of content comes in.
Why would someone waste their time on a business like this you may be thinking. Consider this: if a site owner has 25 sites and each one is making $5 a day, that’s $125 day. Keep adding sites and you can see why a lot of web entrepreneurs like this business model. But, keeping the sites up to date with fresh content is a big chore. And, this is why there’s such a huge demand for PLR content (and PLR content sellers).
How/Why PLR Content Providers are Discriminated Against
Following though is why there is a lot of discrimination against PLR content providers. I’ve experienced it firsthand.
3 Reasons PLR Content Providers are Discriminated Against
1. Article Directory Discrimination: If you write and sell PLR content, many article directories are not your friend. They won’t let you link to your PLR site – even if the link you provide is in the proper place – ie, the resource box of your article.
As article marketing is one of the top ways to market your PLR website and its services, this means a powerful avenue of marketing is shut down to PLR content providers. PLR content sites get about as much respect as porn and hate sites on the web as for as how they’re treated by some article directories.
Hyprocrisy at Work?
This smacks of a bit of hypocrisy to me, as article directories are basically PLR content providers. How? Well, they offer free content to millions of website owners, e-marketers, newsletter publishers, bloggers, etc. And, they make money off of this “free content” because many article directories are monetized via ads from Google AdSense and similar programs.
Hmmm . . . could article directory owners be policing the web for their own benefit?
2. Clients Don’t Want PLR Content: Many clients simply don’t want PLR content; they want original content. For me, this is completely understandable and is the law of supply and demand at work. The thing is, many want to pay PLR rates though. However, that’s a discussion for another article.
3. The Duplicate Content Penalty: Many clients worry about the possibility of being banned from powerful search engines like Google. This is what some attribute to what’s known as the duplicate content penalty.
If you don’t know what this is, read this article on the duplicate content penalty. It does one of the best jobs of explaining it so that it makes sense. And, it also happens to mirror the experiences I’ve had as an article marketer.
Now that you understand what PLR content is and why it’s not favored by many, I’ll give you my personal take on it and how to use it effectively.
Why the Death of PLR Content is a Good Idea
The web is progressing to the point where surfers no longer want regurgitated content that can be found on 50 other sites. They want unique, specific content. And, this is why the death of PLR content is a good idea. As the vast majority of PLR articles are so generic as to be practically useless, having less of this on the web can only serve to better search results.
End users will get a lot less crap when they search. But, as an SEO writer who produces PLR content, I hate to see its demise on the other hand. Following is why.
Why the Demise of PLR Content is a Bad Idea
PLR content has two good uses, in my opinion.
(i) It allows new web entrepreneurs to get up and going quickly. If you want to start a website, but have no writing skills or tend to procrastinate, starting with a PLR site is a good way to get up and going quickly. Then, you can build it out, adding original content on an ongoing basis.
While many may take issue with starting a web business in this manner, I know from personal experience that the thing that stops many from achieving their dreams is that they simply fail to start. With PLR content, you can have a complete website in minutes.
All of that frustrating, beginning, behind-the-scenes work is already done. This allows you to delve right into what you do best – building the site out with original content, marketing it, creating new products, etc.
(ii) It allows established web entrepreneurs to stay on track with their marketing: What I mean by this is, using a PLR article every once in a while is one of the best timesavers you can rely on. For example, if you have a blog that is updated four times a week, but you’re so busy that you only have time to update it three times this week. Rather than throw off your schedule – and disappoint your readers – using a PLR article to “fill in the gap,” so to speak, can keep your marketing efforts on track.
3 Keys to Successfully Using PLR Content
As a freelance writer and web entrepreneur who publishes my own blog, website and numerous ebooks, let me be the first to say, I’m a big proponent pf original content. I write all of my own content and don’t use PLR articles on my sites.
But for those web entrepreneurs who want to, the pros can outweigh the cons, if you follow these rules:
(i) Use Well-Written PLR Articles: As previously mentioned, many PLR articles are so generic as to be useless. It’s obvious that they’re stuffed with a certain keyword phrase and are only written as search engine bait.
Don’t use these types of articles. Use PLR content that is well written and useful. You’ll have the best luck finding this from PLR content providers who only sell to a limited number of buyers.
(ii) Use PLR Content Sparingly: This is perhaps the best rule to employ when using PLR content. Most of the content on your site should be original – preferably written by you. As mentioned above, if you find yourself in a pinch every once in a while, a well-written PLR article can be just the thing to keep your internet marketing efforts on track.
It’s the same as using a well-written article from a article marketing directory. But, if you start to use PLR content on a regular basis, you can hurt your internet marketing efforts because you lose your voice, your credibility and the trust you’ve built with your customers.
(iii) Add Your Take to the PLR Article: When you do use a PLR article on your website or blog, add a few lines to make it your own. What I mean by this is, add an introduction or summary, eg:
”The following piece explains why I believe “x”. Pay particular attention to the third tip discussed, as it goes into detail and gets to the heart of my belief.”
Just this simple intro injects your voice into the “conversation” of a PLR article. It maintains a personal connection with your audience, which keeps the trust flowing – and hence the sales.
PLR content is the black sheep of the web. But in my opinion, there is a place for it, if used correctly.
*SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO copywriters provide copy that is optimized for search engines. Hence, it increases web traffic and sales for internet marketers and entrepreneurs. Need an expert SEO writer?
November 19, 2007
Part #6: Freelance Writer’s Technology Month
[Want to start a successful career as a freelance writer?]
In Post #4 of Freelance Writer’s Technology Month, we discussed software tools for niche sites, ie, software that helps you easily create niche websites and blogs.
Warning: Many consider the following “unethical” online marketing strategies. You decide.
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Read here how I routinely make $250+/day as an SEO writer – and how you can too!
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3 Ways to Promote Your Niche Site
1. ARTICLE GENERATING SOFTWARE: I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I didn’t know about this type of software until I spent a solid week researching how to make money online – real money, not pennies.
The technology available to freelance writers to help them increase their online income is amazing. Using even a few of them can exponentially increase what you bring in on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
For example, take the article-generating software JetSpinner. Want to create hundreds of article fast? Whether you’re an SEO article writer for other webmasters, or run a multitude of minisites of your own, content is key to making money online. It is the foundation of any online business.
How does JetSpinner work? In essence, it takes one article and creates hundreds of versions of that same article – instantly. As explained on JetSpinner.com, “Once you learn the basic syntax you can easily create a seed article within an hour that will generate hundreds of unique articles instantly.”
Instead of spending hours creating content by hand, this software saves you hours, days and weeks of time.
NOTE: Many question whether the articles are indeed unique enough to get past the search engine spiders without being tagged as duplicate content. As it’s a free software, try it for yourself. It can be found at JetSubmitter.com.
2. BLOG POSTING SOFTWARE: One of the best ways to get found online is by posting comments on blogs and in forums. Did you know there’s a software that does this for you?
You can post comments/adverts on literally millions of blogs with the click of a button. As described on TrustedArticles.com, the software “… takes less than 1 minute to install [and] only 30 seconds to set up. It can run automatically 24 hours a day, … placing your links on blog websites that are targeted to your exact niche, or you can use it to mass market your advertisement links to millions of blogs.”
This software has obviously been used to post comments to my blog. For a few days, every times I posted to my blog, I’d get the same comment from a company that advertise freelance jobs overseas. The first time, I posted the comment.
When I got the same comment again though on a different post, it seemed a little out of place, ie, not relevant to the content that was posted. So, I deleted the comment instead of posting it.
This happened a few more times – and then, nothing. They stopped coming.
But, the one comment did get through (I haven’t had time to go back and figure out which post it occurred on, so it’s still there).
Just think, if this software posts comments/adverts to millions of blogs and even a fraction of them got through, that’s thousands of backlinks generated for the poster. Which brings me to my next promotional idea …
3. BACKLINKS: What exactly are backlinks? For the uninitiated, “Backlinks or “back links” are links from other websites to your site. They’re sometimes known as incoming links, inbound links, or even IBLs.” [Source: AssociatePrograms.com] FYI, there’s an excellent example on Blogger.com.
How can backlinks drive traffic to your website or blog? Search engines rely on backlinks to determine how popular a site is. If you have a lot of them, the search engines consider your site important – hence, your ranking (ie, PR Rank*) is higher.
Consider this: “While no one knows the exact algorithms used by search engines to determine rankings, most SEO experts agree that the number and quality of backlinks to your … web site [is] critical in determining [its] ranking … the title or anchor text of your backlinks will often determine the keywords or search terms that you rank highly for.” [Source: BankLink.com. Visit this page to learn more].
BackLink.com offers free text linking software that helps website owners generate backlinks. Another way to generate one-way backlinks is submitting to directories. There’s software for this also, aka Directory Submission Software. To learn more about the pros and cons of directory submission software, click here to follow the forum discussion on SEOChat.com.
*Don’t know what PR rank is? There’s an excellent explanation in Inkwell Editorial’s free article marketing e-book, Everything You Wanted to Know about Article Marketing. Subscribe to Inkwell’s newsletter to get your free copy.
Disclaimer: I’m not recommending any of the techniques outlined here, only making you aware of the technology that’s out there — all in the name of Freelance Writer’s Technology Month.
Your thoughts?
Tomorrow: Remember in Post #2 when we discussed how to write SEO articles? As this is one of the easiest ways to get started making money online as a freelance writer (and $100/day is very feasible doing this), tomorrow we’re going to take a look at how to go about getting a job as an SEO article writer.
Best,
Yuwanda
*********
UPDATE 11/30/07: Following is a link to every post in the Freelance Writer’s Technology Month series.
Intro Post: New Series – Freelance Writer’s Technology Month
Post #1: The 4 Fundamentals of Making Money Online
Post #2: SEO Content Development: How to Drive More Traffic to Your Website
Post #3: Niche Marketing: How to Choose a Profitable Niche
Post #4: Software Tools for Niche Websites
Post #5: Turn $1/Day into an Online Empire: How to Make Money with Minisites
Post #6: 4 Controversial Ways to Get More Traffic for Your Website
Post #7: 5 Ways to Get a Job Writing SEO Articles
Post #8: How to Determine What to Charge as an SEO Article Writer
Post #9: How to Optimize Your Website to Get More Traffic
Post #10: Social Bookmarking Software & 9 Money-Making Conclusions from Freelance Writer’s Technology Month
December 14, 2006
Results of a 30-day Article Marketing Experiment
An E-Book Excerpt
[See all Inkwell Editorial Work-from-Home Titles Here]
Following are my findings from a month-long article marketing case study (conducted from October 18, 2006 through November 18, 2006).
NOTE: This e-book consists of 36 pages of in-depth information to help you maximize your article marketing success. If you write and promote articles, or wonder if it’s worth it, this e-book is a must read!
THE DETAILS – WHY I CONDUCTED THE STUDY
As an overworked freelancer, my goal was to create more passive income.
A little history: I’ve been in publishing since 1987, and have been a freelancer since 1993. I kind of took freelancing as it came those first few years, never relying on it as my primary source of income.
Inkwell Editorial was formed in 1996 as an editorial outsource firm. The smartest thing I did as a manager was add staffing/recruiting to Inkwell’s list of services. That really got the company over the hump, as placement fees ranged from a low of 3K on up to around 12K.
NOTE: In general staffing fees are much higher, but in editorial, salaries are low, so recruiting fees are below what you’d make in another arena, eg, tech.
A handful of placements a year and a few temps on assignment, coupled with my freelance income provided me a very nice living.
Then came 9/11. The arena in which I staffed (editorial) crashed. Ad agencies and publishers cut back their output because no one was spending on ad campaigns, so no need to hire copy editors, creative directors, graphic designers, etc.
However, during the time we offered on-site temps, I built up a pretty good roster of clients and now get most of my work via referral.
Present Day: Having been a freelancer since 1993, I’ve reached the point where I want to “touch” projects less. So, my goal going into next year is to create more passive income. My hope is that within a couple of years, I can get by on just my product sales alone. Having reached 40, I want to work less and play more.
Now, on to the details!
NOTE: This e-book consists of a series of blog posts, a Q&A session and conclusions drawn from the experiment overall. I hope you find it useful.
WHAT DID THE STUDY CONSIST OF?
My goal was to submit one article a day for 30 days (excluding weekends) to 25 top-rated directories.
How did I choose which directories to submit to? I used their PR and Alexa rankings. What are PR and Alexa rankings.
What is a PR Ranking? What is an Alexa Rank?
PR Rank: First, PR stands for page rank. Impact-Direct.com defines page rank as:
A method developed and patented by Stanford University and Larry Page [cofounder of Google] to rank search engine results. Page Rank gives a unique ranking to every page on the internet. The ranking number is based on the number of quality inbound links pointing at a page and is represented on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being the optimal rank.
In the article, “What Is Page Rank?” by Kimberly Bodane, she describes why page rank is important, as well as what you can do to improve yours.
You’ll also find a detailed article on problogger.net (“Google Page Rank Explained”) with helpful feedback from other readers. This is the link: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/07/16/google-page-rank-explained/
Alexa Rank: An article published by e3Server.com on thehostingnews.com, What is Alexa Ranking, describes Alexa rankings as “a very powerful tool of viewing and comparing web site traffic for one site to the rest of the web.”
Read full article here: http://www.thehostingnews.com/art-what-is-alexa-ranking.html
The lower the ranking, the better. Sites that rank 100,000 or lower are considered extremely popular.
To learn more, type “alexa ranking” in the search engine of your choice and do some reading. You’ll be able to get a full understanding by reading a few articles of detailed information.
To find out your site’s PR, go here: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
To find out your site’s Alexa’s ranking: Go here: http://www.Alexa.com.
Case Study Notes: I missed 3 days submitting. I also added and deleted approximately 4 directories from the list as I went along. Why? Because they either went offline (in one case), were not uploading articles in a timely manner, and/or were not suitable for the type of article I had written that day.
Overall, though, I consistently submitted and was able to glean some good findings, which will be discussed later.
RE the free offer: This e-book was originally offered free to subscribers who signed up in December (2006). Their feedback helped to shape the info included.
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