The Grapevine: For Writers

If you have been writing online, you have invested considerable time in your blog, web page, or online articles. In most cases, your income depends upon your page views (how many people visit your page). So if you really want to increase your income, you need to work on promoting your website. After all, big companies spend millions of dollars each year on advertising; it must be a good investment.

Fortunately, investing in our articles is not as expensive. The real cost lies in the time spent promoting our articles, not in actual advertising expenses themselves. Thus, a portion of your day must be spent in promoting the articles that you have already written.

The two primary ways to promote your pages are through word-of-mouth and through the search engines. Over the next few days, I'll touch on both topics and discuss ways to advertise your website, blog, or articles without spending money.

If you have not already done so, sign up for Google AdSense and the Amazon Associates program. These sites pay as visitors click through and/or purchase items through their links. (All click throughs must be legitimate. Never click your own link or click a friend's link!)

Oh my! It's been an interesting day for writers of eHow, who have been used to the revenue sharing program that has been in place for several years. Luckily, eHow's changes have not affected my writing, as I have only submitted several pieces. However, I do suggest waiting for the fall-out to finish before signing up.

In the meantime, I have written one more title for Suite 101. It's been slow going, but I have made a few dollars from Suite 101. Check out the article at http://dessert-recipes.suite101.com/article.cfm/how-to-make-thumbprint-cookies.

See you soon!