So how do you keep on writing? Where do all the new ideas come from?

Everybody’s got their own tricks, but here’s one that I love to use when I’m short on ideas. Go through your search engine logs and see what people are searching for – and not finding.

Here’s an example. Last week I wrote an article on How to Create Style-able CSS Tooltips.

As usual, I was browsing through the Google Analytics data a day or two later. While looking through the Search Engine results (the queries that people used to come to my site), I noticed that someone used the query “gradient background image gimp.”

The odd thing about this was that the article wasn’t about creating background images in Gimp – I just happened to mention at the end that you could use Gimp to create a gradient background image and add it to your tooltip.

This tells me two things.

First, someone is looking for this information. If I write it… they will come.

Second, someone else is not serving this information up. If a user stumbles on one of my articles that just barely mentions the topic, there can’t be a lot of targeted articles out there.

I decided to take the topic and run with it. A few days later, I wrote a simple tutorial about how to create a gradient background image in Gimp. I targeted the article at those major keywords – gradient, background, image, Gimp – and now it’s getting some nice search engine traffic.

So if you’re ever short on ideas, this is a great way to respark that creativity. Look through your search engine logs for queries that bring people in – but don’t bring people to what they’re looking for. Then… give them what they want.

But even if you’re not interested in being published on someone else’s site, AC can be a great tool for you as a webmaster. You can use it to get optimized backlinks and targeted traffic.

If you’re not familiar with AC, here’s a quick rundown of how it works. You write an article which you can either submit for up front payment (in which you get paid ~3-8 bucks if they like it) or you can bypass the review process and get published immediately (without upfront payment).

Either way, once your article is published you earn a revenue share (Performance Payment, $1.50 per 1000 page views). The good thing about skipping the up front payment is you can post articles that advertise your site – without it getting reviewed and picked over.

Although most of my AC articles are strictly for content, I have created a few as an experiment for gaining backlinks and traffic. Here’s what I typically do.

I identify a topic on one of my sites that I’ve written a few articles on (3-4). Then I write a brief “Guide” article that gives the reader an overview of the topic. I dedicate one to two paragraphs to the sub-topics that each of my pages targets, and I include a link to my content page so that the reader can get more information.

You can see an example with this article on graphic organizers. It targets three content pages that I wrote on my other website (Babel). It also gives the user some useful information.

I originally tried this strictly as a method to gain backlinks. On that grounds, it definitely worked. I included four links to my site – one to the front page and three to individual content pages. They were indexed quickly and picked up by the search engines.

The unintended consequence of this is that it directed a bit of traffic to my site, too. It’s by no means a vast amount of traffic, but every little bit counts. In the past week, that article sent 21 visits to my site – a couple of visits per day (see the Google Analytics screenshot).

Doesn’t sound like a lot, but consider this. If you write ten guide articles that get an average of ten click throughs per week – that’s another 400 visits per month. On top of that, you’ll get 30-40 backlinks with keywords that you chose to best benefit your site.

This seems like a great tool for promoting your site – especially a relatively new site. You can get optimized backlinks, you can drive some traffic, and you even get income from Associated Content if people do read your article.

Get paid for advertising your own site? I don’t think it gets any better than that. Go sign up for Associated Content and write a few stump articles yourself.

I’ve tried out a few methods, with varying success. What has worked really well, so far, is submitting an article to a niche site: Good Tutorials.

People often advise you to submit your articles to social networking and article sites. Often times this will get you a few backlinks and little to no traffic.

I stumbled on Good Tutorials when I was looking for some information on a different topic. After browsing around the site, I noticed that they take and review submissions of tutorials for inclusion in the directory. I thought what the hell, let me try it out.

I submitted the tutorial I wrote about creating a php script to send trackbacks. After signing up and submitting the tutorial, they told me it would take one to two days to be reviewed.

I never got an e-mail back confirming that my tutorial had been accepted or not. I forgot about it for a couple of days – kind of busy at work. Then, today, I logged in to see what the status was.

My tutorial had been accepted two days ago. In that time frame, it got 95 clicks. I logged into Google Analytics, and sure enough there was a big jump in traffic. Good Tutorials had sent me approximately 90 visits, and some of those people had looked around the site at other entries and articles.

I also noticed a bit of traffic coming from another new site – Tuts Buzz. I checked it out and it was another tutorial directory. A link to my tutorial had shown up there as well, probably from Good Tutorial’s feed.

Whether or not I’ll continue to get substantial traffic from these sites, I don’t know. It may be that I’m getting some click throughs because my tutorial is on the “Newest Tutorials” list. Maybe it’ll drop off to nothingness when it just becomes a filed away tutorial.

However, it definitely seems to be a worthwhile way to get some traffic. Unlike a lot of article sites – that send you a few low PR backlinks and no traffic – I got a real measurable increase in traffic.

So, if you write any tutorials on coding, software, or technology – head over to Good Tutorials and see about getting your own listing.

That depends on a few things.

First, let’s examine what an average article will earn for you.

Average Article – Upfront Payment $3-7

If you submit a decent text article, you can expect to have it approved for up front payment. Associated Content claims that the range of offers is $3 to $20. Typically, people see offers from $3-7.

A great article might push closer to $10, but chances are you’ll average about $5 up front per article. Not a whole lot of money, but you need to consider it in the context of how much work you put in.

Let’s say you’re a fast writer. You pump out an article in about a half hour – pretty reasonable scenario. If you two articles in that hour, you’ll earn about $10/hour. Not a bad wage for working from home, at your own computer, at your own pace.

Exclusive Articles Will Net You About $1 Extra Per Submission

One other thing to remember in here is the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive pieces. Some content producers claim they don’t see a difference. I’ve experimented with each, and it seems to me that I lose about $1 per article if it’s non-exclusive.

My non-exclusive articles average about $3 to $4, while my exclusive ones average about $4 to $5. As a rule, then, I submit everything as exclusive – unless I think it’s a great article and I’ll want to publish it somewhere else in the future.

Don’t Forget the Performance Payment – $1.50 per 1000 page views.

Of course, that’s only half the story. You also need to factor in the performance payment – $1.50 for every 1000 page views.

For some authors and articles, this can be pretty close to nil. A lot of my articles are on education and teaching – not a very popular topic. As a result, those articles see less than 100 page views per month.

Other articles I’ve written, though, were fairly popular. I wrote a series of articles on World of Warcraft – each of which got a couple hundred page views a month. Those are going to make a bit more money – maybe $0.50 per month each.

Doesn’t sound like a lot, I know. But what happens when you’ve got fifty articles in your portfolio, and every one makes you $0.50 a month? That’s $25.00 a month… without doing any work. The beauty of the performance payment is that it typically continues to grow – as you submit more content.

Some other content producers have had tremendous luck with the performance payment. The highest grossing article got about $700 in one month. There are plenty of others that have grossed in the hundreds of dollars (across all their articles) in a month.

Increasing Page Views Means Increasing Revenue – More Money!

You can increase the potential of this performance payment, and make more money, with a few tips.

• Carve out a niche for yourself. Find a topic that is popular and that people will read about. For me it was World of Warcraft. For you, it’ll be something else.
• Remember that search engines are your friends. Your article should be geared toward a keyword or set of keywords that people will be searching for.
• Publicize. If you’re active in social networking and bookmarking sites – like del.icio.us and stumbleupon – they’re great tools for increasing your visibility.

What’s the bottom line?

Associated Content won’t make you rich. It will, if you work hard, make you some extra cash.

If you can find a popular niche and write articles that net enough readers to earn a substantial performance payment, you’ll be golden. Set a goal for yourself – like 5 articles a week – and stick to it.

You’ll guarantee yourself a small amount of extra income, and as you’re portfolio grows your revenue sharing will too. All told, it’s plenty possible to make a few hundred bucks a month on Associated Content.

So what are you waiting for? Start writing on Associated Content. Or check out the last page of this guide – Final Thoughts, Pros and Cons of Associated Content.

It’s a pretty simple system. You submit your content through an online form – complete with WYSIWYG text editor and document templates. Then you choose whether you want it to be reviewed for upfront payment or published immediately – which means you’ll only earn money with the revenue sharing system (“performance payments” at Associated Content).

How to Submit? Type it Up and Hit the Button.

The submission process is pretty painless. When you log in and click on “Submit Content,” you’ll see a list of different article types. You could select a General Article – which gives you a basic form to fill out, an opportunity to add resource links, and a section to add pictures – or you could choose a special template for news, product reviews, or other articles.

You can also submit other kinds of media besides written articles. Associated Content accepts submissions of video, music, and slideshow content. Some people have carved out a nice niche for themselves submitting short video tutorials and product reviews.

Once you’re content is done, you’ve got a few choices to make.

Anything you submit to Associated Content can be exclusive or non-exclusive. If you make it “exclusive,” you give up the copyright to your work – meaning you can’t publish it elsewhere. If you choose to submit it as a non-exclusive piece, you retain all rights to the work – but any upfront payment may be slightly lower.

To Be Reviewed for Upfront Payment, or No? Generally Choose Yes.

You also need to choose whether or not to have your work reviewed for upfront payment.

Every article that’s posted on Associated Content is eligible for the performance payment – a type of revenue sharing where you earn $1.50 per 1,000 eligible page views. If you submit an article or piece of content and select “Performance Payment Only,” then it will become immediately available – no review process at all.

You could also choose to submit your work for upfront payment – which is one of the best features of Associated Content. In this case, it goes into a queue for a content manager to review.

The review process typically takes a few days – although I’ve had articles approved in just a few hours. If the Content Manager thinks your content is good – i.e. that it will attract visitors – you’ll get an offer sent to you. If not, it gets rejected and you can either revise it and resubmit it, or submit it for performance payment only.

For the most part, you should also submit things for upfront payment – you’d be surprised at what they accept and it’s always nice to get a few extra bucks for your writing.

Skip the Review Process If You Can Capitalize on a Hot Trend

The only time you might want to shy away from that is if you think it’d be better to get the article up right away than waiting two or three days. Maybe you’re trying to game the Google trends.

That’s about all there is to it. Write, submit, and wait. Of course you earn more money if more people read your work – so you can choose to spend time publicizing your articles as well.

Head on over to Associated Content and start writing, or read the next part of this guide – How Much Money Can I Make?

At Associated Content, you can.

Great Place to Start Freelance Writing

What is Associated Content? It’s kind of like a home for wayward and beginning freelance writers.

Anyone – with a bit of writing talent and experience – can come in, publish their work, and make a few bucks. No query letters to write, few rejections to worry about. In some cases, instant gratification.

What’s not to like?

They accept a wide variety of work. Informative articles, how-to guides, and product reviews are among the most popular – but local news, fiction, and blog-like musings are also acceptable.

Get Upfront Payment for Your Work – Unlike Other Sites

One of the greatest things about AC is that you can actually get up front payment for your writing. There are plenty of places where you can publish and get a share of the ad revenue, but there are few places where it’s easy to get something published and actually get a paycheck upfront.

I signed up for Associated Content a while ago – September 2007 – and I’ve been submitting work there on and off since then. As long as I’m willing to do some work for it, AC supplies me with some extra spending cash.

Some of the more devoted content producers have earned a pretty good part time wage with their writing. AC is no get-rich-quick scheme, but for the hard worker it is a great opportunity and a good place to start carving out an income niche on the Internet.

Extra Time = Extra Money, If You Spend it Writing

It’s perfect for fledgling freelance writers, college students, stay at home parents, or anybody else that has a good deal of time spent outside the office. All it takes is an hour or less to bang out an article, submit it, and earn some cash.

So if you’re looking for a place to post your writings, head on over to Associated Content and write an article. Or, go on to the next part of this guide – Associated Content, How It Works.