Saturday, July 23, 2011

Take Advantage of Popular News Items: Amy Winehouse Dead

Back To Black [Explicit]
I am overdue for an update on my Infobarrel Challenge, but first wanted to share a tip on getting paid 2 write online--take advantage of the headlines!  If there is a big news item that you know will be getting a lot of internet searches, jump on it and write something! Especially if it is about a celebrity and there's no bigger celebrity news than a celebrity death (except maybe a celebrity wedding or break-up!)

It was recently announced that Rehab singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home.  I quickly jumped on the news and wrote articles on sites that I knew had instant publishing (why waste time on articles that won't be published right away and miss out on the heavy spike of Internet searches as the news goes viral?)

So I wrote my first "Amy Winehouse is Dead" article for Triond: Amy Winehouse: Dead at 27.  I then backlinked this article on SheToldMeSo and RedGage.  I even backlinked the SheToldMeSo and RedGage backlinks to themselves.  With RedGage, I even uploaded a blog post with a trackback link to Amy Winehouse: Dead at 27 and submitted it for RedGage's knowledge based content.  (I've put examples of these backlinks at the bottom of the blog post.) 

Then I wrote an Associated Content article, only to realize that while in the past "Display Only" articles on Associated Content went live automatically, there is now a delay...boo!

I then created a Squidoo lens about Winehouse's death: Amy Winehouse Dead at 27.  This was an opportunity to also backlink my Triond article as well as try to gain some revenue from purchases of Amy's CDs and singles which I promoted on the lens.  I also was able to use the Google News module and the Twitter News module to provide up to date content on the lens about Amy's death.  I also of course, backlinked Amy Winehouse Dead at 27 with SheToldMeSo and RedGage.

When publishing Amy Winehouse Dead at 27, I quickly threw something together and in the future will continue to add more and expand the lens.  Ideas include more detail about Amy Winehouse's life and struggles, utilizing my affiliate programs, such as AllPosters and Zazzle and promoting their products about Amy Winehouse and also creating new lenses and articles that can be backlinked through that site and backlink to that site, topics include surprising celebrity deaths and the dangers of drug an alchol addiction.

This is an example of how you can take an hot news item and work it to your advantage to gain views to your articles and webpages.

Here are my backlinks related to Amy Winehouse's death:

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Infobarrel Challenge: Week 1

Well I've got to admit, my Infobarrel Challenge started out pretty weak. On the 15th, I was swamped at work and went out for drinks with co-workers so I had no time to write. I figured I could "cheat" and count an article I wrote about Groupon on the 14th that was published on the 15th as an article for the 15th.
The only problem? I didn't write any more articles until the 18th, however on the 18th I did write three articles.  As the first week comes to a close I have written 9 articles and am actually ahead of my 30 articles in 30 days pace.

Week 1
Goal: 7 articles 
Articles Written: 9

These are my articles from the first week of my Infobarrel Challenge:
Groupon
How to File a Case at the SDNY
How to Not Get Buried by Student Loan Debt

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

My Most Successful Squidoo Lens: Daily Deal Sites Like Groupon

Before starting my Infobarrel Challenge, I wanted to give a bit of love to my highest ranked Squidoo lens, Daily Deal Sites Like Groupon. As many of you may know, Groupon is a popular "deal of the day" or "group coupon" site.  Daily Deal Sites Like Groupon lens gets the most traffic and is my highest ranked lens.  It is consistently a tier 2 lens and is inching its way towards tier 1 (hence why I want to give it some love).  If you don't know, Squidoo lenses are all ranked and lensrank determines how much revenue you received from the Squidoo adpool.  The higher the rank, the more you earn.  I will shortly post a blog entry about Squidoo and how the tiers and lensrank work, but right now my goal is for this blog post to serve as a good backlink for my Daily Deal Sites Like Groupon lens, so in order to have relevant keywords, etc... it's best if I talk about that lens.

Groupon has spawned many popular "Groupon clones" like LivingSocial or Social Steals.  Most recently, Google got into the daily deal game with Google Offers.  My Daily Deal Sites Like Groupon lens, offers a comprehensive guide to the many Groupon clone sites that keep popping up and describes each of the daily deal sites so you know what they offer and what cities they offer them for.  If you don't know what Groupon is (have you been living under a rock?!--jk!), well Groupon sends daily e-mails with group coupons that harness the power of social buying and offers discounts of 50 -90% off the best things in your city, such as restaurants, bars, salons, spas, and other retailers.  So if you haven't signed-up, sign-up for Groupon and go check out my Daily Deal Sites Like Groupon lens so you can learn about and sign-up for all of the other Groupon competitors--and hopefully help push my Daily Deal Sites Like Groupon lens to tier 1!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Infobarrel Challenge

Many people talk about a $1,000 Infobarrel Challenge.  The theory being that if you write 3 Infobarrel articles per day for one year, by the end of the year you will have enough articles to make $1,000 per month.  That's a great goal (although so far I have only seen this as a theory and have heard no stories of success) but quite frankly, I have a full time job and a pretty active social life that as much as I'd love to have the dedication and time to write 3 articles per day for a year, I know that between other paid to write sites, SEO research, and backlinking, I'd never have the time and would give up quickly.
Instead, I propose my own simpler challenge: One (1) Infobarrel article per day for one (1) month.  I will also vigorously backlink these articles through sites like SheToldMe, RedGage, and Best-Reviewer. (For more info on backlinking, check out my blog post on backlinking.)  I will also cross-promote/backlink these articles on other article sites like Bukisa, Associated Content, and Squidoo.
I have decided this challenge will start on July 15, 2011.  Therefore, I will have from July 15-August 14 to draft 30 articles for Infobarrel.  I will update with my status of getting articles published, but not my earnings until September 1.  I think that gives the articles a little bit of time to saturate and get listed by search engines.  If this challenge is successful, I will perhaps try the $1,000 challenge.  Want to join the challenge with me?  Leave comments and update readers on how your challenge is going.  Include links to the articles you have published as a great source of backlinks!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

My Real Housewives Obsession

I am a huge fan of Bravo's The Real Housewives and when I say I'm a fan, I don't just mean that I sort of like the show and it's my guilty pleasure, I mean I'm obsessed! My obsession for all things Real Housewives has spilled over into my Squidoo lens making and as a result, I have made several Housewives lenses about the different shows, about the books they have written and about the latest news about all things The Real Housewives.  I only wish I had started making Real Housewives lenses sooner as now there are so many franchises and there have been several seasons--not to mention spin-offs. ( I love Bethenny Frankel!) So please check out my Real Housewives lenses below (all of which are constant works in progress). Let me know what you think and if you are a Housewives fan, let me know what other lenses you would like me to create or things you would like me to add. If you haven't seen The Real Housewives, well you are missing out, but don't worry there are plenty of links on my lenses to watch episodes of The Real Housewives instantly on Amazon.

General Real Housewives Lenses
The Real Housewives...
Real Housewives News
Books Written By The Real Housewives


The Real Housewives of Orange County
The Real Housewives of Orange County
Real Housewives of Orange County News
RHOC: Season 1
RHOC: Season 2
RHOC: Season 3
RHOC: Season 4
RHOC: Season 5
RHOC: Season 6
Spin-off: Date My Ex

The Real Housewives of New York City 
The Real Housewives of New York City
Real Housewives of New York News
RHONYC: Season 1
RHONYC: Season 2
RHONYC: Season 3
RHONYC: Season 4

Former NYC Housewife: Bethenny Frankel & Her Spin-off
Bethenny Ever After
Bethenny Frankel News
Bethenny Frankel's Empire

The Real Housewives of Atlanta
The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Real Housewives of Atlanta News

The Real Housewives of New Jersey

The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Real Housewives of New Jersey News


The Real Housewives of D.C.

The Real Housewives of D.C. has the distinction of being the first and only Real Housewives series to be cancelled.  For that reason, I have not prioritized making D.C. lenses.

The Real  Housewives of Beverly Hills
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills News

The Real Housewives of Miami
Real Housewives of Miami News

International Real Housewives Series
The Real Housewives of Athens
The Real Housewives of Israel

My First Infobarrel Article!

I finally published my first Infobarrel article! I hit a few roadblocks because some of my old eHow articles were either too short or (even though they have been 100% removed from eHow) were showing up as being published elsewhere.  So I got a little discouraged and took a break from publishing eHow articles.  Instead I wrote a new article about my experience with a horrible ear infection and remedies I have learned.

In April, I had a terrible ear infection that came on suddenly and painfully.  (I have a very high pain tolerance and this pain was unbearable!) It turned out to be a fungal infection, not the typical bacterial infection.  It was only a few weeks ago (2 months after the initial infection!) that the infection finally cleared up.  In the process I learned a lot of remedies for how to treat and cure fungal infections as well as  how to relieve the pain caused by fungal ear infections.  The most common and easiest home remedy is a solution comprised of 50% vinegar and 50% rubbing alcohol.  The treatment that proved most effective for me was the use of gentian violet.

Check out my Infobarrel article about my experience with my fungal ear infection as well as treatment and home remedies for fungal ear infections here: Fungal Ear Infection Treatment

More eHow Articles on Bukisa: How to Tell if Fruits are Ripe

One topic that I used to write about a lot on eHow were articles on whether fruits were ripe.  I guess this was one of my "niches."  It started simply enough.  One day, my boyfriend, who had recently purchased a mango asked me how to tell if a mango is ripe.  Neither of us knew and I figured if neither of us knew, there were probably plenty of people on the internet who had the same question.  So I did some research on how to tell if a mango is ripe and wrote an eHow article about it.  Very quickly it became one of my highest paying articles.  That's one of the tricks to getting paid to write, write about things people want to know.  You can have as many backlinks and sources driving traffic to your articles as possible but if no one cares about what you're writing about, no one's going to read your articles.

After I found success with my "How to Tell if a Mango is Ripe" article, I wrote several other articles about how to tell if fruits are ripe.  I have chosen to migrate these articles to Bukisa because Bukisa has their own "how to" format and I didn't think the articles were meaty enough to turn into Infobarrel articles. Also, as a way to create backlinks and also have a separate paying source, I created a Squidoo lens "How to Tell If Fruits Are Ripe" and linked to all of my Bukisa articles.  This will be useful to people who want an ultimate guide to whether different types of fruits are ripe and will send them to by Bukisa articles.