Quick Update

Hi everyone,
I've been absent for a few days.  I've been dealing with my 3 blogs, and writing.
Anyway, I am now following a fellow ehower who has a blog about ehow as well.  If you get a chance check it out.  It is yet another version of how we do what we do at ehow.

http://ehowaboutthat.blogspot.com

Has everyone been busy trying to come up with ideas to win the Spring contest?  I know I have.  I am about 2/3 done with an article.  I wish everyone the best of luck, myself included.  At least to be in the 10, if not the 1st. Even that would be special, when you think of all the people who will probably be making entries.
You may have noticed that I have quit sending mass emails.  I still get them, and I want to get them, so keep 'em coming!  I love reading other's articles.  I always learn something new.

I am so happy with my other blog, http://howtoblogablog.blogspot.com
If you go to Google search and type in how to make a blog, my blog comes up in either the first or second spot.  I see the ad for it everywhere I surf.  There's an ad for it on Peg Winns blog, e How About That.  So I have been learning a lot about search engines, key words, meta tags, back links, robots, crawling, etc.  I love it!
Now that I've said my blog is at number one spot on google search, I have to go and check it again.  I haven't checked it today.  One time, it dropped to the third page.  But then I posted an entry, and it went right  back up.  Amazing!

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Technorati Tags: ehow, blogs, blogging, writing, articles, emails, spring,

Don't send Mass Emails!

Don't send mass emails!
This is my opinion as of now. Everyone should do what they think is best. As for me, I am going to respond to my received inbox, my comments, my friends emails, and my group Milestones members. No more mass emails for me. There is just too much controversy surrounding them. They really are not worth the trouble.

Did you know that the comments, the points, the amount of friends, and the stars have no value whatsoever towards what we are paid? The comments may make the Search Engines look a little more favorably upon our articles, but that is all.
So in a way we are just spinning our wheels in our attempts to rrcr all the time. I am going to be concentrating more on my writing in the future.

An Article By Kaytay Reprinted with her permission

How to Avoid "Click Fraud"

By kaytay, eHow Member Rating

Rate: (15 Ratings)

Click Fraud is against eHow policy, not to mention illegal and selfishly unfair. If you do not know what click fraud is, you definitely want to read this article and protect yourself.

Step1
Click fraud refers to clicking on ads simply for the sake of earning money from the click. It is considered an internet crime to click on an advertisement for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having any interest in the ad's link.
Step2
eHow writers get paid based on the ads generated from their article when someone clicks on a particular ad. Unfortunately, people are falsely clicking on ads to boost their own earnings. I can't emphasize enough that this is illegal and in some states, considered a felony.
Step3
I have seen IM's stating that xyz person read, rated, and commented on an article and also clicked on a few ads. These people may have good intentions trying to help out a fellow eHow writer, but what it is actually doing is falsely stealing from the company paying for that ad. This is robbing that company of their hard earned advertising money and wasting their advertising dollars. If you are unsure how pay per click advertising works, consider this. A company allots x amount of money towards a specific ad. They pay a predetermined amount each time a web user clicks on that ad. Usually the company sets a maximum amount they will spend on that ad. As people click on the ad, they are charged for the click, and their overall allotted amount steadily decreases until it is depleted. Once the money budgeted for that ad is gone, the ad is removed. So think about this. If someone is fraudulently clicking on their ad, that company has no chance of earning any money from that supposed interested prospective customer. Again, click fraud is the same as theft. It is illegal and fraudulent clickers can be charged with a felony.

My Article from eHow

If you are like me, ever since I began writing at eHow, everything I do and everywhere I go, I look at as potential ideas for an article. I have been looking at some of the articles that I have written already though, and I think it is time to take a pause and go through ALL of them and proof read them and correct some things. Maybe some others need to do the same.


The first thing I am going to do is to categorize my articles and group them together for myself, and copy the link for all of them. Then I will save them as a group on Notepad, so that when I write another article that is similar in context, I will copy and paste the list in not the resource list, but in the last step of the article. This way, I may get more views and more pay! At least I can hope.
Step2
The next thing to do, is to go through them and proof read them. Looking for misspelled words, wrong words; like scene instead of seen, incorrect punctuation and capitalization at the beginning of sentences. I think I have quite a few errors. All of these kind of errors are very unprofessional appearing and need to be corrected.
Step3
Then I am going to check each one for the ads that are surrounding my article, and just to stay with the flow, write down the ones with incorrect ads for the moment. When I'm finished going through all of them, I will go back to the incorrect ones, one by one, and see if there is anything I can do to fix it.
Step4
I am by no means an expert, but I believe that some of the things that you can do to fix the ad situation are:
Remove the category the article is under and choose another one; play around with it to see what happens. Although keep in mind, the ads may not change immediately. It could take them an hour or a day to catch up with the change. Some of our articles are very hard to categorize. Did you know that you could choose up to 5 different categories? Or that you can have more than 5 key words? I always use the key words of the categories and then key words from Google key words, plus my own key words. If you use a phrase such as, home organization, type it as home-organization, so it will appear as one word. Three or four word phrase, same thing.
I will check to see if my title makes sense, and change it if I think it does not. You have to think like the person who is asking a question. How to......... ? How to know if you are going to have a heart attack would be better as: How to Recognize the signs of a Heart Attack. Because that is probably what they would ask.
Step5
There is more that can be done, like making sure you have key words within the article and title, but this is a start, and you should start seeing positive results in just a few days for your efforts.
If anyone thinks they may need to do some of the same things, I suggest it will be in your best interests to take a few days (pause) from writing to fix the stuff you've already written.

eHow's Blog

This was on eHow's Blog.

ehow-blog-21109-washington-post-and-us-news

Wow what a week! Our eHow members are kicking some major behind and making some waves in national news. The Washington Post and U.S. News and World Report recently ran stories on our very own eHow members, David Sarokin, ccrock, and Writergig. Many of you know David Sarokin or have chatted with him on the eHow Forums. He told The Washington Post reporters of how he utilizes his researching and writing skills to make $25,000 a year on eHow. (Yes, that comma IS in the right place…that’s twenty-five thousand dollars ya’ll)

The U.S. News and World Report, showcased eHow as one of the, 7 Ways to Make Extra Money,” online and wrote about the success stories of Writergig and ccrock. Both these ladies are work at home moms and have published on eHow to supplement their family incomes - but their online activities don’t stop there. As you know from our previous post, Writergig is a guru on optimizing articles on eHow and recently aired a podcast with eHow member, A. Suzanne Wells. As for ccrock, she helped spread the word about eHow by modeling for our banners ads and by writing about eHow on her personal blog, Smokin’ Mom. eHow is steadily proving that it’s not just another social networking site but a highly interactive community where people can share their expertise and earn some well deserved bonus income. Keep the great work everyone!

PLAGARISM

I had an article taken away for what they
s.
aid was plagarism. I was devastated!
But even though I tried to fight it, I
found that once the decision is made, that
is pretty much the way it is. I also found
that if they want they can even kick you
completely off of writing for eHow anymore
if they suspect you of plagarism.
So let me tell you about my article.
It was a recipe for mini pizzas. It was
a recipe that I had gotten from somewhere
and had used several times. But then I
got curious about the origin of pizzas, and
I went to Wikipedia and looked it up, and
there was interesting information about
pizzas, so I copied and pasted to my
article, but I said that it came from
Wikipedia.
Well, I guess the very day that I wrote
the article, someone else on the web, also
wrote the same information from Wikipedia,
however, the recipe was for larger pizzas
So, I'm still not sure if you can quote from
other sources, or if it's okay as long as
no one else happens to do it on the same
day. Also, make sure your recipe is not
a current one I guess.
But also, I guess some people do copy ideas
from others. Be careful, if they even
think this is the case, you will be tossed.
It is not worth it.

Don't Use Quotation Marks

I just discovered something today. You should not use quotation marks in your articles. Like "this". Why? It seems to confuse the ad determiner for your article. I mean what ads appear on your article page. The quotation marks confuse it, and the ads do not relate in any way to your article, and they are supposed to; that is the whole idea behind your getting paid. People interested enough in your article that they want to check further and so they click on an adjoining ad, and you get paid from this. The way I found out, is I did it. I put quotation marks, and the ads do not relate at all to my article. Then I went to someone elses article and they were quoting from the Bible and their ads were about sign language. I guess you could try saying (quote)this (unquote) or just not use quotation marks at all.

WHAT TO WRITE?

You write about what you know or what you have done during your life. If you have a talent, skill, craft, hobby, you have probably hundreds of articles you can write about them. Are you a mother/father? You can write abotu those experiences. Other people are going through similar situations. Are you a brother/ sister, write about that relationship. Do you sew? Describe how to sew. Are you a really good cook/chef? Write your secret recipes. Are you a caretaker for a parent? A woodworker. A mechanic, a doctor, dentist, grocer, etc. Are you happily married, or divorced? All of these are topics to write about. Are you good at giving instructions? Are you interested in the theater or arts? Are you a musician? The topics are endless. The important thing is to just keep writing. The more articles you write the better your odds are for making money, and pretty soon it becomes passive income, which means, money still comes in, even though you are not doing anything else.

HOW TO RRCR

When you first start writing at eHow, pretty soon you start seeing, rrcr. Now what is that? It stands for read, rate, comment, and recommend. In other words, when a friend sends you notice of a new article, they want you to go to that article and first of all, read it, and then comment at the bottom of the article. Then at the top of the article in under the title of the article, you will see 5 stars; this is where you rate. If you enjoyed the article, you rate it by clicking on the 5th star on the right. Now I didn't know this at first. I thought you just clicked on any of the stars and that meant 5*, but if you click on the first star, you are only rate 1 star, and so on. I always rate 5* because I figure that everyone is putting forth their very best effort in writing these stories, and they deserve a 5 for effort alone, but most of them that I read are really 5's. Then, if you really enjoyed the article, and felt it was very well written and instructive, you want to recommend that person, and you do this by clicking on their name in under the title of the article. This takes you to their profile page. At the top of the page is a place to click to recommend this person. Also, to the left in under their avatar (their photo/logo) you you can add them as your friend if you want So that is the entire process of rrcr.

TO SEND OR NOT TO SEND MASS EMAILS?

When I first started writing for ehow, and acquiring a few friends, I started getting mass emails, that is, emails not only to me but to many people. I had no idea how they were doing this. But I always checked their article and rrcr'd. Finally, I figured out how they were doing it. After entering a subject and topic on their email, they would start clicking on the little boxes next to each of their friends and their friends name would jump into the email "to" box. So, I began doing the same thing, thinking that this is how it is done. This is how you get your articles noticed, and commented and rated. However, after just a few times of sending these out, I got a few unfavorable remarks that this mass emailing could be considered spam. Whoa! I sure didn't want to do anything like that. But they kept sending them to me, so I sent a few more, and again got negative remarks. I had just about decided to quit sending them, when I started to get a little mad about it. Why do we have the friends, if it is not to communicate with them about our articles? Are we supposed to send them one at a time. I have over 500 friends, I know some people have over 2000. Can you imagine how long that would take? So I say, I am going to send the mass emails and I am glad to receive the mass emails. I am going to put this on my profile page. I send and gladly receive mass emails from friends. If anyone does not want to participate, they should put on their profile page, I do not send or want to receive mass emails. Because you can't have it both ways. You can't send if you don't receive. So, for all you new ehower's I say go ahead and send mass emails, until or unless, eHow comes out with a mandate telling us we should no longer do this.

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Desolator's FREE Book

I was wrong! Not the first time, either.
Desolator's book is free!
I now have all three books here on this page, so if you are interested you can buy them from here, or download Desolator's.

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David Sarokin

The other name that I was trying to remember, the one on ehow who is a top earner, his name is David Sarokin. Check his articles out as well.

How it;s Worked for Me!

How it;s Worked for Me! Since I have read all three of the books that I mention in another post on this page, my earnings are increasing every day. I applied a lot of what I learned from reading these, so now instead of the earnings being stagnant, day after day, they are growing each day. Now I am concentrating on writing more and more articles, as the odds increase for more earnings, the more articles you have. Again, you won't be sorry if you purchase these, and I am not making any money for recommending them. I just truly believe they include valuable information, that every writer at eHow should know. And then like me, set back and start seeing your earnings increase.

Finding friends

If you want to add more friends, you can go to community, and members and click on their Avatar, and go to their site. Click on add friend. But then be sure that you click on their articles tab, and RRCR at least one of their articles. It is the fair thing to do, plus, when you read their profile, you might not want to be their friend,. This is not likely, as there are so many nice people writing for eHow, but it is possible.

Your Article Page

Did you know that on your article page, you can scroll down past the 5 featured articles, and you will see at the top of your articles the divisions of:
feature date title views rating earnings

You can double left click on any of these, and they will change the order of your articles to reflect what you clicked on.
Like date, double click on it, and the order will change showing the most current articles, double click again and it will show the oldest articles first.
Click on views and it will first show the least views to the most views; click again and it changes to the most views to the least views.
Same with rating and earnings.
You can see just which articles are getting the most views, and whether they are making any money.
You may need to go back in to some of them and change the title, or add more key words.
There are a couple of free places that you can find which key words are viewed or asked for the most.
The first one is: Google Key Words. You type in a word or a phrase, and it shows you which key words work best.
The other one is: WordTracker.
Type either one of these in the address bar, and you should find them. Bookmark or put in your favorites, and you will have it close when you need it.

Also, did you know that while you are on the publishing page, you can go to another tab, or click on file, and it will give the option of opening a new window. This allows you to go back and forth between the two, maybe checking for key words or looking for your pictures, without losing your publish page. It won't work though, after you have hit "Publish".

Include Links!

The recommended links at the bottom of the publish page, should have links that relate to the article. The way that I get mine, is when I am looking for pictures at photobucket.com, I look at the ads surrounding the pictures, and they always refer in some way to the pictures. I just copy them and include them on my published page. This way, people may click on these to find more information about your subject. It keeps them on your page a little longer, and tempts them to click on the ads.
Also, if you have written another article that ties in with the article you are now writing, include your link to that other article.
But you may also enter the key word of your article in the address search line on your browser, and find lists of sites that relate to your subject.

Recommendations!

There are several writers at eHow who have written books, and can tell you the ins and outs of ehow, much better than I can.
First is Writergig, she has a book that you can buy for $25, but then sign up as an affiliate, and recommend others, and you will be paid $12.50.
Next is Janet Ford, she also has a book that costs $20.
The next is Desolator, who also has a book that I believe costs $20.
There is another man, but I can't remember his name at the moment. He is one of the highest paid writers with eHow. I will try to find out his name and post it another time.

But I have them all, and every one of them are excellent reads. They cover a lot of ground, and with slightly different opinions, but you would need to weigh which one you agree with.
You will not be sorry for getting any one of them.
You can buy 2 of them on my other blog, http://shirleyslog.blogspot.com, but I will work on getting them on this blog as well. The one says 20 ways to make money, I think. The other says e-junkie. But check some of their articles out. Just enter their name under member search, and you should be able to find them.
I highly recommend all three of them. They all taught me a lot.

Check my other blog; http://shirleyslog.blogspot.com

I have started a group on eHow, called Milestones. It is intended to be a group where you can post your own milestones, and also read others milestones.
A milestone could be 20, 25, 50, 75, 100, 200, or whatever articles you have written. It could also be; "I finally made $10!" Or I am making $1000 each month. I believe we are all curious about this, for it gives us all hope, that someday we may be making that much. Proves that it is possible.
To join the group, go to communties, and it is listed on the first page that opens as a brand new group. Later you should still be able to find it under groups, and search.

Windows Live Writer

There is a free program at Windows.com, called Windows Live Writer. It gives a lot more options for typing an entry into a blog. It will highlight link/key words in the post, with a gadget called, I believe, Zehara. You can add hyperlinks, quotes, pictures, tables, and on and on. It could also be used for eHow articles, with copy and paste, and then rearranging into the different steps.
You might like to check it out.

What is eHow?

I have only been writing for eHow for about three months, but during that time I have learned a lot,
and continue to learn.
When I started I did not understand how you were going to get paid, or why you were paid in the first
place.

I understand a lot more now, and I would like to pass on what I have learned in the sincere hope that
a new writer can understand the process quicker, and get down to the most important part - writing!

How you are paid
Vistitors to ehow are looking for advice on how to do something. If you have written an article that
answers their question, they will click on your article to check it out. So far, you are not paid
for this. When you first wrote your article, ads were put with your article that pertains in some way
to that article's topic.
So, after the visitor reads your article, and it was helpful, hopefully they will look all around at
the various ads and links, and will click on them to get further information. Now you get paid!
It is a portion of a portion of what eHow is paid for listing the ad, but nevertheless, it does add
up. Especially if your article is found by visitors and what you have written has interested or helped
them. They may even check out some of your other articles, or if you have listed another of your
articles that pertain to the same subject, they may click on it as well.

But, in order for your article to even be listed, Google's search engines has to be able to easily
recognize what the article is about, and it does this in two ways. First with the title of the article.
The title needs to describe exactly what the subject is, in as few words as possible. And this brings
me to the second thing that the search engine is looking for - key words.
In your opening description box, you need to include the title's descriptive words here, and also
within the individual steps. But don't go overboard with this. The better your key words are the more
likely that the SE will figure out what the article is about, and place you in a good spot to be
found by visitors.

Photos in your article
Photos are important, and eHow awards more points for more photos, however, this does not make you
any more money, and neither does your amount of friends. However, in a less tangible way, these do help
in your popularity. The more popular your articles are the more the SE will notice. They also notice
the comments made, in the sense that a lot of comments is a good thing.

There are several places on the internet to find quality photos to add to your articles. The ones I am
listing are free; you just have to sign up with them.
My favorite is:
photobucket.com
I go there and type in the search box what I am looking for, let's say I am looking for towels; pages
and pages of photos come up that pertain to towels. You can type in a phrase as well, such as, I am
so happy, and bingo there are references to this!
You see the one you like, left click and it goes to a screen showing just the one you clicked on. The
easy way to do it for me, is to right click on the photo, a menu comes down and I click on "Save As"
which brings up the place on your computer that pictures are stored, or you can start a new place, by
clicking on new file. Anyway, there are several options, but let's just say you have the photo where
you want it, and you click "Save".
Now when you are writing your article, and see the place to add an image, click the browse, and your
photo place comes up, scroll to find the one you want, left click and it will be uploaded to your
article.
A few other places to find photos are:
dreamstime.com
freeFoto.com
freerangestock.com
freedigitalphotos.com

I will continue in another post. Follow me on the blog, and you will receive updates.
Hopefully, this has been helpful enough to get you started. There is still more to learn.