Keyword Research – Do it First!

Now that you have a better idea about what you would like to write about, next thing is to determine how to write best so the search engines can spot  you and publicize you across the globe.

One of the best ways to do that is to have done some keyword research BEFORE starting on the article. Here are some reasons why.

1. It is best to have the primary keywords and keyword phrases within the domain name, title and subtitle of every page of the website.

By determining the main set of keywords ahead of time, you actually ensure that you maximize this asset and get your readers right from the web address. A lot of times, it is not possible to keep changing your urls. Therefore, the first step in any online work is to get the right kinds of URLs ahead of time.

2. It enables you to write naturally and include the keywords inside the text.

The key to good SEO is not merely the inclusion of proper keywords in strategic locations; it also is to incorporate them NATURALLY into the text and titles of the website. Google might not be human, but it would know if you randomly add a whole lot of keywords in an attempt to gain higher rankings. Also, content that isn’t pleasing to the human eye would result in you losing your visitors quickly. Remember the ultimate aim is to get your readers to come and stay at your site and benefit from your content. Google is just a means to this end and one should always remember that.

I know keyword research can take some time and get taxing, but it truly reaps a lot of benefits in future. So for the long run, go ahead and get that keyword research done first.

So where do you start with keyword research? There are many websites where you could start. One famous one is Google Keyword Tool. More about that on the next post.

For now take a look at this nice book on Keyword Research. Click on the book to find out more and see if this would be a useful resource to have you started on a successful keyword research.

My Articles of Internet Traffic and SEO

Here are some of my articles that I wrote on website traffic and SEO. I hope that they provide a brief explanation of what each of them are and why they are so important to shine in the Internet world.
How to Optimize Your Websites for Search Engines
Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Site For Free
Enjoy the articles and let me add on more about what I have learnt about SEO and its power on the Internet.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization

We have seen how important it is to gain visibility on search engine results. This is called optimizing your website (or articles ) for search engines. So let us understand a little about how search engines work before we find out how to make good use of it, the legal way.
Now, before I proceed, please allow me to make a small request/warning. There are many bad SEO practices also known as Black Hat SEO out there. These practices are not only wrong, but would also harm your efforts to gain an online presence as search engines are smarter than people give them credit. That said, it is always advisable to stick to the right SEO practices also called White Hat SEO.
So how do search engines work? You should know by now that search engines are not humans. It is essentially search bots or search engine spiders that crawls through your websites and makes notes of who you are and what your website content is about. These search bots visits your websites from time to time to note for changes and based on the information indexed, they categorize the rankings of your website with respect to the search engine query they the user has entered.
Search engines use many criteria to determine how important your website is and how relevant it is to the search engine query it is attempting to answer. Here are some of them.
1. They check the relevance of the keywords used in the website
2. They check the quality and relevance of incoming and outgoing website links from the website.
Based on their judgment, websites earn a certain ranking on search engines. Now note that this ranking is not permanent. It could improve or get worse.
So let us use the next lot of posts to determine how we can gain the search engine’s love and find targeted traffic to your online works. These tips would also work great for your online business websites too.

The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing

You Figured Out What You Want To Write On...Now What?

From my line of posts about nailing the niche, I hope you have an idea about what it is that you intend to write about. So what is next?

When you hear the term "online writing", you must remember that there are 2 aspects to this. While it is vital that your writing adds more value to the reader and is done well, it is also important that it REACHES the reader in the first place. Writing online and having no one visit the website to read it is equivalent to you talking to the walls of an empty room. Your writings could just disappear in this ocean called the Internet.

Thus ensuring that you have achieved a significant amount of online presence is as important as ensuring that you have done a well written article that has something unique to offer to your readers. You must make sure interested people are reading your online works? So how do you do that?

So for a moment, lets think like an online visitor. What is the first thing you do when you are out online searching for a specific topic? If you are anything like me, I would do a quick search engine search to find what I need. You would use the keywords that make the most sense in the hope of getting search engine results that almost exactly match your needs. Normally you would browse through a few entries, mostly within the first page or two, and try find the answers that you are seeking.

Now back to being the writer, so what should you do to reach the readers? Get on those first two pages of search engine results based on keywords relevant to your topic of writing and your target audience. Sounds complicated?

Well I thought so too at first. But experience shows that it is doable. There are a few steps you could take to ensure that you are as high up the search engine ranking as possible.  To give a brief outlook, you need to work on good keywords, gaining great search engine optimization for your article, and marketing it directly to your target market.

Through this next set of posts, I hope to share with you my insights on how this is possible and hopefully get you to see how achievable this goal is.

Write and Be Seen!

Image Credit: All Eyes On Me (as usual) by debbie205

What is Ghostwriting?

Ghostwriting is the act of writing articles and books on behalf of other authors. There are many people out there with the desire to create products and books, but they just do not have the capability of producing one of a good quality. They need the help of a good writer who could voice their words and make it into a product to share with others.

If you are considering being a ghostwriter, there are somethings you should remember
1. You can not have that piece published in your name.
2. You can not claim that the piece was written by you.
3. It can never be a part of your writing portfolio.

If you are agreeable to these conditions, then ghostwriting is for you. It is understandable that not everyone would not agree to these conditions. But I do see some good in ghostwriting.

Firstly, it is a great way to get exposure to many fields and topics. It infact is a challenge. Before doing some rewrites as a ghostwriter, I may never have known about auto insurance, sports news or about some travel location. As a ghostwriter, I had to opportunity to not only write about these topics, but also to learn more about them.

So if you are looking to write, you could see if ghostwriting is for you. When I said that your ghostwriting pieces can not be claimed as your original work, I only meant the works. You can always inform others (potential clients and employers) that you have ghostwriting for the patricular firm or business. I would certainly think it is a good career option to consider, especially as a work at home job.

Take a look at this book to learn more about the art of ghostwriting

Working With Textbroker

Whilst having alot of fun (too much fun sometimes) writing at Squidoo, I also do alot of writing assignments at Textbroker. Till date, I would have written about 100 articles or so for them. Textbroker is an excellent starting point for anyone who is entering the world of writing. Sadly, it is only available to US residents.

Textbroker is a firm that facilates online ghostwriting for writers around US and clients. Potential customers post their requirements into a pool of assignments. These assignments are categorized according to subject matter and posted to be viewed by all Textbroker writers. Writers are given the ability to select the assignment that suits their expertise and are required to get them done within the time allocation. When the customer has reviewed the articles, they can either accept the article and process the payment, or request for some changes till they get the article that they like. Clients and writers can only communicate through the Textbroker portal.

Payment is made twice a month. Each writer is paid according to their quality of their writing. Writers are allocated a ranking number to determine their level of writing.  Level 2 indicates that you are slightly below average, level 3 average, level 4 and 5 places you above the average.  You could see the Textbroker's payment information at this link.

What was it about Textbroker that attracted me?
1. They always have a very large pool of assignments for all their writers.
2. They state clearly the specifics about the assignment. They would state the exact instructions, the number of words and the timeline.
3. This is convenient as it allows their writers to determine if they have the ability to perform the assignment.
4. You get to set your time to work on Textbroker assignments.

While the average assignment usually is between 200-500 words, there are times when I managed to write some very interesting pieces that were 1000 words and over. There are many kinds of articles that one could write at Textbroker. Some of them are content for websites, articles about topics, rewrites and even articles that help promote a business.

Another great thing about working at Textbroker is their assistance in ensuring that we provide quality work for the clients. For instance, they provide an inhouse software that allows us to verify that our article meets copyright requirements before being released to the client. Also there are indicators that would ensure that we met all client's requirements before we are allowed to submit these articles to the clients. These indicators usually ensure that all keyword and word count requirements are met.

Marketing Effectively Through Squidoo

Marketing through Squidoo isnt achieved merely by writing one lens introducing your store. Remember - Nail The Niche! Talk about different aspects of your online business. Inform your readers about the subject matter that you write about. You could talk about individual aspects, what motivated the birth of the business, and about recent changes to the services. You could also talk about how your business would benefit the customers and everyone else around.


In my case, as you know the business that I have ben promoting via Squidoo is my Zazzle store. So apart from the lens I mentioned earlier, I also have created a series of lenses promoting some categories of products that I have designed and featured at the store.

Celebrate a Happy Friendship Day 2010

Spread Love, Joy and Motivation With These Unique Inspirational Gifts from AddMoreColor

Look at the Sunset for Some Stress Relief

Likewise, you too could create individual articles about each type of product and service that your business provides. It is also important to link them all back to your business website and to also interlink one another. This would in turn increase the quality of backlinks and have your business gain the exposure you need for better business.


The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice)
To find out how to promote your website effectively and gaining more online visibility, click on the link to get this great resource.

Squidoo Is A Great Place To Market Your Business

Squidoo is not only a great platform to write about what interests you and is important to you, Squidoo is also a great place to market your business. Especially if they are online stores or your business website, writing effective articles on Squidoo would certainly drive more targeted traffic to your online business while the number of quality backlinks your website has earned. Search engines favor quality backlinks that come from relevant websites. This way, you could earn a higher search engine ranking and be noticed by more potential customers.

Likewise, I too have created a series of Squidoo lenses to promote some of the products at my Zazzle store AddMoreColor.There is one lens that acts like a main hub for my store. In lens, I add updates of my latest designs and latest products. This way, by subscribing via RSS or adding this as a favorite lens(only available for Squidoo members), people can stay upto date with the updates I have made to the store and to the article.

This is not only a great exposure for the store but also a great way to maintain the search engine ranking of the article and hence the store.

So even if you are not into writing online, but are seeking for ways to promote your online establishment, then you should consider writing a series of Squidoo lenses and maintaining them as part of your marketing plan. These articles are more attractive and would attract Squidoo readers who are interested in your content. This is an easy way of talking about your online establishment in a conversational and informational way. You could also introduce latest changes to your business.

That said, its sharing time.. If you do have a Squidoo lens that talks about your online store or business, please do list it here. This would give the readers a chanc to take a look at how they could promote their business via Squidoo lenses.


Image Credit: Squid Art by tagsforkids

My Series on Gift Ideas

Along with writing, I also have started a Zazzle store called AddMoreColor. Well, in the online world, you need to do more than create a store, you need to broadcast it across the World Wide Web. My gifts blog "Wonderful Gifts for Wonderful People" was created in an attempt to do that along with providing good gift tips.

Why gifts? Because I have had the hardest time in the past getting people the right gift. And I always hated resorting to gift cards. I mean it was one thing to get a gift card because you know they like items in the store and you want to give them the liberty of making their own selection. But to get them one because you do not know what to get them, now I always hated doing that.

So this gift blog was also my way of doing my research to get better and more creative gift ideas that I could share with everyone.

As part of the gifts blog, I thought, why not some gift idea lenses at Squidoo too? So over time, these were the gift type lenses I created

2010 Graduation Announcement Ideas
Celebrate a Happy Friendship Day 2010
For Men Who Love to BBQ
We Know You Love Your Mum… Now Let Her Know That
Disney Cars Movie Toys for the Children

There would be more coming my way and I would certainly talk about them as I write. I hope you enjoyed the articles and my blog as well. If you are a fellow blogger, please feel free to grab my new button at the gifts blog and help me spread the word.

Another Topic - Herbal Benefits

Over the past 5 generations, my family has believed in the herbal benefits behind regular food products, vegetables, plants etc that exist around us. Not that we use these to substitute medications, but we try to use them to supplement our intake of required medications and vitamin supplements. As my online writing skills improved and I knew more about what I was doing, I decided to write about health benefits in foods that we eat. To start off that series, I wrote about the herbal benefits of alfalfa entitled

Healing Power of Alfalfa-Learn About Alfalfa Health Benefits

I enjoyed writing it as it gave me more reason to love alfalfa. I liked it alot in salads but as I researched to create this lens, I learned about other fun ways to consume Alfalfa and also other benefits that I had no idea about. I also found that how simple it was to grow it at home throughout the year.

So writing has yet another benefit - you learn more about the topic you write about as you would need to do some good research to create some great pieces.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition
Learn more about other nutritional healing methods from this great book.

Image Credit: HERB IS GOOD FOR HEALTH by OtherVices

My Articles on Photography

When I decided that online writing was my way of working from home, I wanted to see if I could write about my hubby's photography. My husband's hobby is photography and I personally love his pictures. You can find some of his photographs at his Flickr Page. Along with taking good pictures, he also taught me some tricks and tips to take good pictures. These were very helpful when I was capturing my growing little son as he was learning new skills everyday as an infant and toddler.

So when I first joined Squidoo, I thought to myself "Why don't I write about what I have learnt?" I was also in the midst of creating our online store at Zazzle called AddMoreColor, so an article on photography seemed like the right thing to do.

So came my 2nd lens - Photography-The What and the Why

This lens was done WAY before I joined Fresh Wonders and learned the actual art of writing good lenses. The lens in itself was fine, but like I said before, it covered way too many topics.

That led to my next photography article -
Waterfall Photography Tips- Capture The Waterfall With Your Camera
Why I chose waterfall photography
1. I love waterfalls
2. At the time I did the lens, there were not too many Squidoo lenses on this topic.
3. Its only about 1 type of photography and made a good branch out from the first lens I mentioned here.

This waterfall lens also won in an internal Nail That Niche contest organized by Fresh Wonders. Learn more about that at this Nail That Niche lens.

So this is how you create more articles and remain nichey. I would have created more but I got excited and started exploring other niches. Which isn't a bad thing and I hope to make more photo tip articles in future.

Image Credit: Camera Chat by slackingest

So What Niches Am I Working On?

Me talking about niches might get you asking about what niches I am working on now over at Squidoo. Thus far the Niches that I have worked on are


1. Photography Tips

2. Medicinal benefits of herbs

3. Gift Ideas for Special Occasions

4. Lenses featuring AddMoreColor products

5. Travel/Local

6. Toy Reviews.

Over the next couple of posts, I would be sharing some articles that I wrote within the niche, talk about what got me started in this niche and where they are at today.

I did create one lens on web traffic creation, but decided not to pursue it as it was already over done and the competition was too high.(Lesson: Choose a niche with a high demand and low supply(competitors))

Image Credit: Typing Monkey by ShovelTest
make buttons online at Zazzle

Happy 4th of July Weekend

4th of July is here again. So this is me wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of july! Stay tuned for more on my story after the long weekend

Is Niche Writing Effective?

Absolutely! Niche Writing has so many benefits and would help you succeed as an online writing in ways that you could never imagine.



1. You can specifically target your viewers. For instance, let's say you want to select a niche "Photography tips". Now if you think about it, very few people actually search for a broad topic on search engines. By having articles written on a narrower scope, you would be able to gain the attention of the search engine user who then could ALSO take a look at your other articles within the field and see your expertise. A great link building method, dont you think?

In this case, suppose someone searches for "digital waterfall photography tips"... I got it.. they can find my article ( hopefully) and when they do... they also find my general article on tips on photography!! That way, you not only cater to the SPECIFIC need of the online reader but also can provide them with more.

2. Helps you build a reputation as an expert in the field.
By writing about very specific segments of a niche and nailing it down to the point, you not only create many articles within the field, but also can be seen as an expert in that field with lot of information to offer the public.

3. You never run short of articles.
By narrowing the niche further and further, you also create a countless number of articles that you could produce and never find yourself with a shortage of ideas. Infact this form of writing could cause you to explode with way too many ideas.. (More on how I dealt with that later...)

4. Better linking = better traffic and SEO
The links that the articles within your niche create within one another is a great way of making all your articles more search engine friendly and thus it would be easier to grab the attention of your target market...through one article or another... And the best form of traffic is organic traffic from search engines.

So think of what niche you can write about best, break it down into as many sub parts as you can think of..and make an article of each of the parts now.

You could try this book to learn more about niche marketing on the Internet

Image Credit: Thumbs Up by This_and_That

So What Should Be Your Niche

Ideally your niche would be something you know, love or see around you everyday. One thing you need to remember is that you should actually know alot about your niche topic to ensure that you have good original content to serve your readers.

It is best if you have first hand experience or expertise of some kind in your niche. In my case, toddler toys would be a great niche as my house is filled with them! And within that niche I could narrow it down to educational toys for toddlers too!

Likewise, take a good look around you, see what grabs your attention, notice what gets you interested or excited...and then work on making that your niche.

Read this great article by my Squidoo friend, Kim wrote about choosing your niche topic

Image Credit: Orange and Lime Choice T-Shirt by Yellowriting

Is there Such a Thing As A Too Tight Niche

Now that is food for thoughts. At least it was for me, when Fresh Wonders gave me suggestions to create tighter lenses based on my photography one, I thought I would handle travel locations.Which naturally could be broken down to (well in my case) locations in Irvine California. Parks especially as that was the time when I used to go to a park every weekend (with a 2 yr old who wanted to do nothing but run in the park like a free bird). So I figured this should be tight enough. So I did one on Irvine Parks.


Not only did I think it was tight enough, but I was afraid it was too tight. I thought to myself, "Now who would come searching for information on Irvine Parks?" Is that going too narrow...should I say Irvine tourist spots.. and not just talk about parks? So I ran this query by the forum group at Fresh Wonders.

Not only did they say that this isnt too tight, but they also helped me narrow it down further. 1 lens per park. For starters..That was what they said.. WOAH! 1 article just on 1 PARK. What could I possibly write about? So I gave it some thought. Observed very carefully and then wrote these lenses

Irvine Regional Park
Heritage Park

Now, believe this or not, this could be broken down further to create a whole new set of articles. Whilst I didn't do all of them, I did do one.

From Irvine Regional Park, I went ahead and created one on the Orange County Zoo.

Talk about the perfect cure to the writer's block. Now you would probably just have too much to write about!

Image By Muppets' Kermit the Frog Disney by disney

I suppose on a nice note, I shall end this post with an opportunity to share. In the linky below, feel free to leave any travel articles (from any website) that you have written and wouldn't mind sharing. Please also do remember to check out some links already on the linky while leaving yours behind.

First Lesson To Conquer-Nail The Niche

Alright when I joined Squidoo, these were the two lenses(each article/page in Squidoo is called a lens..so you would see me use this term often) I made

Drive Traffic To Your Website
Tips on Photography- The What and the Why

If you take a look at both these lenses (and feel free to leave a comment or share them with your friends when you do), you would see that within 1 article, I talk about MAny many things.. Which is good, except, that is probably not the best way to get targeted audience into the lens and to let them know your expertise.

The key point to note is, you should NAIL THAT NICHE.

The idea is to go deeper and deeper into the topic at hand and create specific articles that cater to specific sections within the topic.

For instance if you take a look at the Tips on Photography article, these are the topics I cover within that 1 lens
1. Why is photography a good hobby
2. How to make money with photography
3.  How can photography be used to create unique product items
4.  Photography can encourage travel
5. Mountain photography
6. Sunset Photography

Now what if I told you that while this is good, what would make you establish yourself within the niche of photography if you create an article or lens on each of these sections and see how much more you could narrow it. Whilst it may sound overwhelming, it is possible and is certainly a way of destroying any writer's block! Imagine 1 article can now create 6 (and even more) tighter niched articles that would attract readers coming for specific information.

In this accord, I did work on narrowing it down a little
To narrow down to 1 form of photography within an individual lens, I wrote about Waterfall Photography

To touch the topic on photography and travel, I thought it would be nice to write about some travel locations and added some nice pictures. So on that note, these were the lenses I wrote.

Irvine Parks-Great Attractions in Southern California
Heritage Park in Irvine, CA
Irvine Regional Park
Orange County Zoo
 
There was something I wondered at that time... is there such a thing as too tight a niche.... The answer is coming right up on the next post...

So meanwhile, do share what topics you see yourself writing in and how many potential articles  you think you could create out of it. This isn't necessarily just for Squidoo. You can use this technique anywhere online.

Image: Success Greeting Card, Nailed It! designed by CEHiday.
Click to purchase and congratulate someone on their latest success.

Why Fresh Wonders?

I mentioned Fresh Wonders being the best thing that happened to me over at Squidoo.. So now I shall start telling you why that is...

Fresh Wonders is a great community that Michelle Willows at Squidoo introduced me to. Initially it started with a Fresh Squid and Nail that niche contests. Then I started to get to know the people in this lovely group and also find more tips and resources on how to excel in Squidoo.

Wow!! I realized that there was so much more to writing an article than just writing an article.Am I not making sense? Well my point is, an article is worth being written online only if READERS actually get to see them online!

The Internet indeed is a vast "open space" that connects the different parts of the world together, regardless of time and location. But it is also the place where many people have the same type of content as you and in order for anyone to see these articles, they must shine out in the search engine. They must stare into the faces of your target audience and not get lost in the ocean.

Prior to joining and getting seriously involved in Squidoo, I did know about keyword research, search engine friendliness etc. But never did I know it was this crucial and this doable without spending 1000s of dollars on some internet marketing program.

Also Fresh Wonders has very very nice people who always make you feel at home and always offer great suggestions to improve your lenses without making you feel afraid to ask. Their comments are always constructive and certainly help you to improve your lens and get them to higher heights. They never make you feel bad. I have made some dear friends from all around the world. Just sitting on my couch!

Fresh Wonders is also a great resource ground for great tips and resources on how to nail the niche, do proper keyword research and how to make your articles (lenses) more search engine friendly!

I am certainly going to be sharing some of the tips that I learned along the way and you can see how Fresh Wonders has made me the writer that I am today!

What Are Some Other Writing Sites and Why Did I Not Choose Them?

There were many other websites that offered services similar to Squidoo, Helium and Bukisa and paid to write online. Here are some of them

Associated Content
Article Alley
Xomba

There are also many more that were mentioned on this blog ,
The Freelance Home Writer


For the most of them, the reason I didnt choose them are one of these

1. I had no time. I had already signed into too many websites and may not be able to juggle them all.

2. They were not in my topic of expertise. For example, if one was talking ONLY about travel, then I probably didn't take that. I could write a few articles on travel and local but considering that I barely have had a vacation in like three years, I couldnt possibly produce a countless number of travel articles. So I wont take a membership in those.

3. I read bad reviews about them.

Another site that I never wrote for is Content Current. I did try out but after a very very long wait, they declined my application. Well I suppose everything happens for the best as I found Break Studio after that (Which is a great site by the way..)More about them next time.

So essentially, please do your research and see if the topic is right for you and the sites is the right thing for you too before signing in. But still don't be afraid to try out something just to see if the site is right for you. If I didn't try these websites, I wouldnt have expanded as an online writer this much.

Image Credit: Disney at Zazzle

So What Happened to me in Helium and Bukisa?

Well nothing really... there is only 24 hours in a day- during which I still need to raise a child, manage a household, work on building an online store at Zazzle, do ghostwriting at Textbroker, create fun Squidoo lenses and build a blog (which just became 2)... while all of these are fun...(and they are!) I had to draw the line somewhere to ensure that I do not spread myself too thin and give up on the quality of work that I publish on these sites. So for now, there is a pause and these are my articles over at Helium and Bukisa. I do hope that sometime in the future, I do write in these sites... as they are great sites to write in...

Aysha @ Helium


Aysha @ Bukisa

Introducing Squidoo

I came to realize that there were many many platforms that we could use to establish ourselves as an online writer. One great avenue, and I can truly say one that changed it for me, for the better ofcourse and one that I almost could credit for making me the writer I am today is Squidoo. Before I talk about how that happened, let me first talk about what attracted me to Squidoo and some other nitty gritty details.

Squidoo was different...why? Because we do not just create articles..we create something that looks like mini-websites or what is called "lenses". These make our articles jump out to life with pictures, videos, musics and many more widgets that Squidoo offers. The pages honestly looked more appealing and more fun not only to read,but also to create.

Squidoo is also great for marketing purposes, business promotions and for those who aren't too apt at creating a full blown website. What makes them different from other articles is that there are more than words and this certainly keeps the audience engaged for a longer time.

To start off at Squidoo, you don't quite need HTML/CSS knowledge..but there are many resources within Squidoo that could get anybody started off.

And yes Squidoo does pay a little, you can earn some ad revenue income here and there and also donate that to charity. But mostly, Squidoo has been an eye opening experience for me.... almost solely because of this group called the Fresh Wonders. More about them in the next post...but before I go...

If at all you are interested in writing at Squidoo, and are truly serious to learn and excel, you should visit the Fresh Squid Headquarters after registering and find out how to join this amazing group and start your Squidoo days on the right foot.

How did they create my turning point? Stay tuned to find out more....

Looking for a good avenue to write? Start at Squidoo
Click on the icon above to take a look at some of my works at Squidoo.

A Great Reference that would help create mindblowing Squidoo Lenses

Writing At Bukisa

Bukisa is yet another great option for writers who want to write articles for many purposes

1. To start off writing

2. To find another platform to write

3. To market their business, products and services

4. To create a portfolio of their own published works

5. To have fun doing what they love-Write!

Bukisa is also an ad revenue site, where the more people view your article, the more you can earn. It is also a great chance to gain some exposure in the writing arena. Not only are you publicizing and letting the world know you exist, you also get to meet many friends with the same interests. You also get to see the works of other writers-newbies and veterans and get some insights on how to improve and become a better writer.

Bukisa requires only a minimum of 250 words per articles. At Bukisa, you can also showcase audio files, videos and presentations. They offer a wide range of topics-you can certainly find something appealing.

So why wait? Click on the icon above and be on your way to discovering a great writing website, Bukisa.

Writing at Helium

There are indeed many great writing sites for beginners to start their writing career, publish their work to the public, create a portfolio, and even earn some money through it. These sites are easy to use, and would show you how easy it is to start writing online and pursue a career in writing.

What I really liked about it is the fact that others could read my articles and and let me know where it stands. It also gives you the opportunity to read the articles from writers all over the world, learn more and also gain an insight on many writing styles and learn which is more suitable than others.

One such site is Helium. Helium is a article submission directory that gives people the chance to write articles on a wide range of topics. Each article is expected to be 400 words or above. Another great feature on Helium is their rating segment. Writers are not only encouraged to submit articles but also to anonymously rate the articles written by fellow Helium members. This way, not only did I learn alot about many other topics, I also got to see what are the different qualities expected in a good article.

So how do we get paid on Helium? Well part of the income comes from adshare revenue when visitors view your article. They follow the rating star system to determine how much you earn. The more active you are in the rating section, the more stars you get, the more your views earn.

For the written article, the amount you earn is determined by the number of writing stars you have earned. Helium is a community that wants to encourage good writing. Thus the ratings on your article earn you stars. When you get one-star or more, it shows that your article stand in high ranking. This would be an excellent assessment on where your article stands.

If you are looking for another avenue to write, or would like to explore this to start writing, click on this icon and check out Helium.com

Me?? Writing??

Now writing was an option that I used to consider and hesitate. I mean me?? write?? Why did I reconsider
1. I am no English scholarly writer. I mean my English was fairly good..but I am no Shakespeare or any famous novelist.
2. I won't even write my own personal diary

But then I liked the idea of exploring topics, finding out more, learning new things in the name of research. And it can be done online! So I did some search and came across hiring websites like Demand Studios and asked myself "Why would they hire me?"

I am yet to build a portfolio. I do not have a degree in the English language or Journalism ( I do have a degree though). Then why?

So then I started thinkin "How do I get hired as a writer eventually?" Answer: Create a portfolio!
But it didnt make sense for me to write random articles and file them at home. I needed to be out there. In the World Wide Web.. So I did some searches.

And lo and behold, I was amazed to find that there were websites that would let you publish your articles, and some even paid you a little for them. The money was almost close to nothing. But, I just found the perfect platform to build a portfolio.

So then I started trying out these websites.

Helium
Associated Content
Bukisa

There were a whole bunch of others I tried, but didn't quite like. Some were too spammy and others just didn't work...

So how did these sites help me build the portfolio and what happened next?.....



Image Credit: Shocked Classic Mickey by Disney @ Zazzle

Welcome!

Welcome to all my readers!
Firstly, thanks for visiting this blog. As it says, the sole purpose is to describe my journey into online writing and to see my insights on the wonderful opportunities and eye opening experiences I gained thus far. So before the flashback begins, let me talk a bit about who I am.

I am a mum who wanted to move from being a SAHM to a WAHM. For months, I was on a quest for the right work at home job/opportunity that would satisfy these criteria
1. It must be exciting and fun
2. I need to interact with sensible adults.
3. The timings must be flexible.
4. I must be able to control when and what I work on.

Now I believe that if I commit to something, I must see it through. I mean that is how I grew up. But nonetheless, I am a mother and a wife too! And certainly my family takes precedence..(which is why I was on a hunt for a work from home job). I looked at some possible fields and saw what I thought was the answer to all my requirements-Online Writing....

Like I said, it has been a eye opening experience so far. So how to summarize what I do..(in terms of writing). Well you can find my online published articles at these profile pages

Aishu19 at Squidoo


I also have articles at Helium and Bukisa.
I have also done some ghostwriting articles and rewrites.

Along with this blog I also have a gifts idea blog called Wonderful Gifts for Wonderful People

So how did this all begin? Stay tuned for the flashback to begin......



Image: Vintage Maroon Typewriter by JuJuGarden