This article is for a friend of mine who is just learning to write online. I hope it helps!

I write a lot, I mean I write A LOT! When I’m not writing articles for the work I find on freelance websites, I am working on articles for topics I am interested in. I try to write about five articles per day, which I can then post to article websites, which share advertising revenue or pay for number of page views. To maximize the money I can make, I follow a routine to ensure my articles will have the best chance of being seen and read. Here’s how to make sure they read what you write. Be sure to check the bottom of the article for links to the sites discussed here.

Keyword Research

Before I publish my article, I want to make sure it can be found by Yahoo and Google. So I shoot on over to Google Adsense and do some keyword research. I enter the title I have chosen and Google suggests some keywords that I might like better. Google even shows me how many people are searching for the term both globally and locally. I take that information and choose the best keyword phrase and add it to my article.

I include the keyword phrase in a total of four places: Once in the title, once in the first sentence (if I can get it in there without wrecking the sentence) and then just two more times in the body of the article.

Keyword Density?

I have heard differing opinions on weather you should write keyword phrases three times in the article body or if you should maintain a 3-5% keyword density. Some say using the keyword too much could make your article look like spam to the search engines. Honestly, I do not know which method works better, but I sure know putting the keyword phrase in those four places is a lot easier than doing the math for keyword density.

SEO Optimization

What I have just done is called SEO Optimization. Not difficult at all and well worth a few moments of my time to be sure an article can be found by those looking for the information. Next I want to attract readers who maybe were not looking specifically for this information, but would still be interested in what I write. This is where social bookmarking comes in. Social bookmarking is nothing but a site where you post a link of something you like, which lets other people see it. If they like it too, they may give it a thumbs up, a vote or whatever the rating system is for that site.

Social Bookmarking

If this is your first foray into social bookmarking, you should understand something about them before you jump right in. Each site has its own flavor, appearance and acceptable behavior. Some have no problem with you posting links to your own work. Others look at it as spam. Each site has something different to offer. Below is a list of the sites I use:

Blinklist
Blue Dot
Connotea
del.icio.us
Digg
Google Bookmarks
Mixx
Multiply
MySpace
Newsvine
Propeller
Reddit
Spurl
Technorati
Twitter
Yahoo Bookmarks

Stumbling on StumbleUpon

A word about StumbleUpon needs to be said here and I should forewarn you that this rule may apply to other sites as well, I just haven’t heard about it yet. The algorithm StumbleUpon uses is set up so that you can only post so many links from a particular site before it will stop posting them. It will not give you a warning or anything; the submit simply does not go through. You find these things out the hard way, I guess.

OnlyWire Social Bookmarking Service

Now onto the important part. It takes a little time to sign up at each of these bookmarking services, but it is well worth the effort. About 30% of my readers come from referral links on these sites. In the beginning, I was wasting time going to each site and posting links. Now, I use OnlyWire to submit all my bookmarks at once. I just submit to OnlyWire and then go back and finalize a few and Poof! I’m done. Now my article link is posted to all of these places in about two minutes time.

Other Places to Bookmark

There are a few other places I bookmark not included in the OnlyWire service that I think are worth my time. They are:

Yahoo!Buzz
Xomba
ClipMarks
eSnips
Facebook

While Facebook is included with OnlyWire, I could never get it to play nice. Facebook, ClipMarks and eSnips have user-friendly toolbars that integrate with Firefox, making it just a matter of a click and the adding some search tags. I then go to Yahoo!Buzz and Xomba and post my links there. My favorite part about Xomba is the user community here which is good at giving feedback and kudos.

My Favorite Article Websites

So where are all my articles? What sites do I post to? After trying many, many sites, I have settled on six that I like to use. Unfortunately for my friends outside the US, many of these sites will not offer upfront payments to foreigners for tax reasons. I use different sites for different purposes:

Associated Content

I go here first because they offer upfront payments. If they don’t want to pay me for my article, it is usually because I did not research keywords properly. I usually get about three or four bucks upfront. I then earn based on the number of page views my article brings. I can also choose to write from one of the titles on the assignment desk for a few bucks.

Bukisa

Bukisa is great for articles that Associated Content does not want to pay upfront for. They pay almost three times the AC rate for page views, but they do not get the same level of traffic AC gets. It’s a trade off, but it works for me.

Helium

I am madly in love with Helium. It’s a great place for any serious writer to hang out. They also have a Marketplace where you can compete for titles and make some money from your writing. They do not share exactly how they come up with the payment structure, but I have gotten some pretty good bonuses from them. I guess I spend so much time on AC because of the whole, ‘a bird in the hand’ deal.

Triond

Triond has a large following on its various niche article sites. The pay isn’t great, but the exposure is. I usually reserve my deeper, thinking topics for this site.

HubPages

HubPages does not pay for page views. They share advertising revenue from Google and Kontera. You can also place Amazon product links to make money as an Amazon Associate. HubPages works best for me when do product or website reviews, especially since AC will not publish a website review.

Xomba

Xomba lets you post articles as well as links to stuff you find online. As I have said, Xomba has a supportive and engaging community. I love it here. Xomba shares ad revenue but does not pay for page views. It’s a shame because the number of views you get there is enormous. That’s why it makes a good bookmarking site too. I used to write a lot on Xomba, but now just save the stuff that moves me so I can share my thoughts with other writers.

So that’s the deal. This is what I do in my spare time and I love every minute of it!

Google Keyword Research Tool
OnlyWire
Yahoo!Buzz
ClipMarks
eSnips
Facebook add-on for Firefox
Associated Content
Bukisa
HubPages
Triond
Helium