You can beat your competitors with written content and you can outrank them with how you market your site. There is a free tool you can use called SemRush which helps you find out where your competitors rank, what keywords they are using, and you can then focus on using the same keywords your competitors use and bet them at their own game. My 16 year old daughter calls this stalking, I call it research. SemRush is totally free and it really comes in handy to help identify keywords and phrases that your competitors use.

I learned about this trick through a blogging course I am taking. I am now in month 4 and the information just keeps coming. Monthly fee for this online course is $19.99 per month if you decide to sign up. This course is like getting your Masters in blogging. It is very detailed and you will need to spend a few hours a day learning how to do this – but once you get that first blog set up, you start more blogs and all of them will create passive income for you down the road.

If you aren’t up for the $19.99 a month, no problem. Go in and do the the FREE 3- day trial (crash course!) and get as much as you can out of it. You can learn a lot in 3 days if you set aside the time. I think the program really user friendly and you can move at your own pace. (I have had to go back and review some things I learned in previous months.) Click here to check out the free trial. Feel free to email me with any questions about the program.

1. Always post a picture with your article. You can find free photos from Flickr and other photo sharing sites. Save the photo to your computer and name it to correspond with your title for better SEO.

2. Keep the articles short and simple. You can make just as much money with a short article as with a long one. Focus on writing lots of shorter articles rather than a few long ones. It should only take you 15 minutes to write an article. You can do research on your topic using Google if you get stuck. Just reword what you find. This is the key to making money on the web – lots of content.

3. Keep the article between 5 and 8 steps. The more articles you have, the more money you will make. If an article gets too long, break it down into 2 or 3 articles. For example you are writing an article about How to Lose Weight. That is a very broad topic. You could have several articles like, “How to Lose Weight with Acai Berry Juice, How to Lose Weight without a Gym Membership, How to Lose Weight after Pregnancy, How to Lose Weight after the Holidays.” Make the article specific. You will be able to write more articles if they are about very specific topics.

4. The most important tip – DO YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCH before posting your article! The trick to eHow is learning how to identify what keywords pay the highest and include those in your article. You don’t want to just slap up a bunch of articles for the sake of posting them. Making money on the web is all about optimizing keywords. Watch this video that explains how to choose high paying topics and keywords.

5. EHow is not formatted to include hyperlinks in the article body. But, you can put them in the resources section at the end. ALWAYS TRY TO PUT SOMETHING IN THE RESOURCES SECTION. You can link to another of your eHow articles, your blog, your eBay or Etsy store, or your Facebook fan page. Take advantage of the traffic eHow provides and put one of your links in front of the readers.

I don’t mean to sound like a sexist here, but research shows that women dominate the internet when it comes to surfing and using social networks. Women also are predominantly the grocery shoppers and household budget keepers in the family so if your blog is going to have a female audience, get those coupon ads posted.

Here is a short video about how to use the MySavings advertising affiliate program.

Everyone is good at something, and you can get paid to share that information on The Examiner. Maybe you are a great internet marketer, know how to work on vintage cars, have knowledge of the legal system, or are good with animals. The Examiner will pay you to write for their site. I have been the National eBay Examiner for several months and can tell you first hand, it is a great way to get more website traffic and establish an internet presence.

There are several benefits when writing for The Examiner. First, it is a highly indexed site and you will get great exposure. Second, you are allowed to include backlinks to your website (which means more website traffic for you!). Third, you are allowed to include affiliate links on your articles. Finally, you make some money. I only make between $25-$50 a month from my articles, but the exposure is unparalleled. Readers find my blogs and click on my affiliate products. It is a win-win situation.

Anyone can apply to write for the Examiner. You can apply for a local or national position. And if you don’t see a category that fits with your expertise or interest, you can create one! There are some crazy categories out there – Hotdog Examiner, U2 Examiner, even a Farmville Examiner. The possibilities are endless.

Step 1 : Find appropriate forums that correspond with with your niche and contains your target audience assembled in one place..

Step 2 : Find opportunities to answer questions and be helpful. Do not blatantly post about “buy my product.” Be subtle.

Step 3 : Professionally reply to threads in a helpful way. (Do not just ask them to go to your site.) Add link anywhere in the middle of the thread or use signature link to let them visit your site.

You have probably seen blogs with product reviews. When a blogger reviews your product, she is exposing you and your product or service to her readers. The trick is to choose blogs that are already talking to your audience.

1) Visit Google Blogsearch, Blog Catalog, Techorati, and Twitter and search for blogs that talk about your topic. Let’s say your product is natural homemade soap. You won’t want to target other soap makers, because those are your competitors. You want to target blogs that discuss natural health and beauty products, non-toxic beauty products, chemical-free skin care, sensitive skin care, or environmentally conscious products.

2) Look for blogs with lots of traffic. To determine how much traffic a blog gets, look for the SiteMeter widget and click on it. Or, look for the Feedburner widget that says how many readers the blog has. You also want to look for blogs with lots of comments on the posts, which is an indicator of the blog’s popularity with its readers.

3) Contact the blogger and ask if she will do a product review. If she agrees, you will need to send her the actual product so she can use it and form her opinion.

4) Understand that she doesn’t have to like your product. She is going to give it an honest review.

I love this site. Over the past few months, I have been redeeming my points for the Starbucks gift cards, selling them on eBay, and making some nice cash. (Click here for my strategy on selling gift cards on eBay – they sell for 95% of the face value.) Now I have moved on to getting free groceries.

You can get a $25 Amazon gift card using only 315 points. I get the Amazon gift card, and then shop for groceries, pet food, health and beauty product, or other consumables that my family normally uses. You want to make sure the price is fair and not more than you will pay at the grocery store. Also, ALWAYS choose items with free super saver shipping. You don’t want to waste your valuable points on shipping charges.

Summary:
1) Choose high paying keywords for your articles.

2) As the last step, refer the reader to the resources section. They may not even know it is there.

3) Choose affiliate products or links that correspond with the subject matter of your article. You may need to take some time to go find one that will work, and then add it to your article.

4) Enter the URL of the affiliate product, your blog, website, or whatever you are promoting. Then type out the text in the box next to it.

5) If you have not yet purchased Maria O’Brien’s book, click here to get it. Her book explains all these types of issues so that you can maximize your earnings on eHow.

I have learned about how to make money selling on other sites like Amazon and Craigslist. I have delved into affiliate products using sites like Commission Junction and Amazon Associates. I’ve learned about selling information products – writing my own and selling them, and selling others through programs like ClickBank and e-Junkie.

I’ve found some fantastic writing sites that pay. Some pay based on ad revenue, others buy your article outright, and others have great referral programs.

I have also come across neat ways to earn cash doing every day things – like using your Paypal account or using a specific search engine to earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards or cash.

I’ve had the opportunity to be a paid blogger for sites like B5Media and Know More Media. Although I didn’t make thousands of dollars as a compensated blogger, I learned many tricks of the trade that I can share with others.

The internet is a wonderful but vast place. Hiding out there in cyberspace are unlimited legitimate opportunities to make money and all it takes is your brain, some time, and a computer.

We live in a very different world than we lived in 20 or 30 years ago. We no longer have to make money through manual labor, or slaving away in an office from 9-5 making someone else rich. God gave us all a brain, and we can use it to earn money in this information age that we live in.

I am not saying goodbye to eBay. But I can’t ignore the income producing opportunities on the internet. I’ve learned a lot and come in contact with some brilliant internet marketers. Maybe I only know enough to be dangerous! Either way, I hope you will join me on this new journey as we travel down an exciting new road in 2010.