The Cheap Bastid» eHow

What’s the deal with eHow?

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:14:27 +0000

What's up with eHow lately??

The latest news from eHow is that they’ll no longer allow the use of the resource section in any new published articles.

I have to say that the Amazon links I’ve placed in my articles have been a great source of income for the last year.

So the question has to be asked..

Does eHow really care if their writers make any money?

First the article sweep, then the UK ehow debacle and now the elimination of the resource section.

It seems that not only do they not care if we make any money, but they want to milk as much profit as they can from those people who actually do publish articles there.

Personally I don’t see the problem with affiliate links in the article as long as those links add value.

For example…

If I write an article about how to pick out a great toaster oven then I don’t see why placing an Amazon link pointing to a top rated toaster oven is bad. The link provides an actual real world example of a top rated toaster oven that can only help the reader pick out one that’s good. In fact, it can be argued that the visitor is reading that article because they DO want to buy a toaster oven.

To me, this is yet another nail in the coffin for eHow.

I love the site but seriously, the writers need to make some money for their efforts.

If you publish on eHow what do you think of this latest development?

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Why do we still eHow?

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:07:26 +0000

Over the course of the past few months I, like many of you, received a few of the dreaded eHow ‘About your eHow Articles’ emails. You know what those are, the email that tells you that one (or more) of your articles aren’t up to snuff and will be deleted.

Truth be told every time I get one of those it sort of takes the wind from my sails so to speak. I just ask myself why I even bother publishing over there.

And then, as usual it hits me.

There isn’t a single site on the net that makes me more money for me than eHow.

So, if you get a bit discouraged just keep in mind that for every article you lose there are probably dozens that remain (or even more)

Keep writing, follow their guidelines and absolutely keep a copy of your articles on your local drive just in case.

Now over the course of the past few months I must say that my earnings over at eHow have indeed gone up by about 15%. In fact I make more now with less articles than I did before the dreaded article sweep began.

So all in all I think it’s a good thing, they didn’t implement it very well or keep us writers informed but in the end It seems to have benefited us.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to start publishing over there again. I think I have a handle on their standards well enough now to publish safely, with little chance of a deletion.

If anyone has any thoughts on this please chime in, we’d like to know what you’re thinking!

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The Great eHow Experiment

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:20:54 +0000

I find myself in a unique position right now of having nearly identical earnings on eHow for the last two months. In addition, I’ve had no activity there in terms of rating, commenting, or posting on the forums.

I think the time is right to see if what they say over there is true….

Does a persons ‘social’ activity on eHow have any bearing at all on earnings??

Every day this month I’ll read, rate and comment on two articles. In addition I’ll also do one forum post.

It will be very interesting indeed to see if this has any effect on my earnings at all. I also want to see if this ‘social’ activity is judged on a daily basis, averaged out over the month or what.

I already ‘socialized’ yesterday morning so if it’s judged on a daily basis my earnings should be higher tomorrow.

If it’s averaged out however then I should see a steady increase over the course of the month.

If you look up top you’ll see a new page titled ‘The Great eHow Experiment’, I’ll be tracking my daily earnings there for the course of the month.

This should be very, very interesting indeed..

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A Message from Rich@eHow

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:19:32 +0000

I received a note from Rich over at eHow explaining what’s happening over there and what he is trying to do about it.

Now, as I’ve said before I totally agree with the cleanup, there’s some real garbage on there that does absolutely no good to anyone and it really needs to be deleted. In addition, there’s some bad apples trying to publish there that also need to read the TOS and either put out quality, useful content, or get lost.

In a nutshell he said that he is making every effort to explain to their team that their current system of article deletions is alienating their writing community and we’re not happy with it. They’re looking to implement a new system that is a lot more ‘user friendly’

To be honest I’m really flattered that he took the time to stop by and comment on how we feel about the current happenings at our favorite article site. It’s nice that our voice is being heard and considered.

Even better, once this cleanup is completed the future of eHow, and us, the writers there should be better (and more profitable) than ever!

The fact that he stopped by and commented shows a lot about his integrity and goes a long way to easing my concerns.

My opinion is that all will be ok soon, maybe not in the next few weeks but soon enough and then we can get back to ‘work’ at a new, and better eHow.

Hang in there people, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, I’m sure of it.

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First pass complete over at IB

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:41:55 +0000

As most of you know I spent the last couple of weeks moving my articles over to InfoBarrel and Xomba.

I’ve actually just completed my first pass through my article library, moving a total of 75 articles.

I avoided moving any winter or holiday articles as well as any poor performers, I concentrated on those that are seasonally relevant and doing well at eHow. That was a mistake actually, as I indicated on my previous post. What does well (or bad) on eHow really is determined by the keyword that you’re using.

Anyway, I’ve now started doing the same at Xomba, moving over the most relevant articles. Once thats done, which I estimate will be in mid May, I can start making new content again.

My new content will be split between article sites and my own niche sites. I see Dusty, Cookie and Scarlett making niche sites and I certainly can’t let them have all the fun

My strategy going forward will be any new article I write will have three versions, one for eHow, one at InfoBarrel and one at Xomba.

3 for the price of 1, can’t beat that with a stick!

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eHow – My thoughts on the article cleanup

admin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:28:51 +0000

As most of you know by now, eHow is implementing an article purge to weed out all articles that don’t fit within their publishing guidelines, as well as those that are apparently cheap duplicates of existing articles.

Now, for the most part I’m all for this. Most of us have read utter trash on there that was nothing more than glorified spam. I’ve also seen one person who wrote an article titled something like “How to get child support in Alabama” and then proceeded to republish the article 49 more times, once for each state. That’s a little ridiculous and should be removed.

The purpose of this, as eHow states is to improve the quality of the brand name. And you know what, that’s true. A well trusted site will get more clicks than a site that exudes little trust, I even wrote an entire series of posts about building trust to get the click.

Here’s the problem though….

The eHow article purge – Point #1

You better type in the exact keyword or you’re not allowed to read our “approved” articles!

I’ve lost three articles, which, is just a tiny fraction of my 141 articles. If that was it I wouldn’t complain at all. BUT I’ve looked at those articles and I simply do not agree with them being deleted.

First off, at least have the courtesy of an email letting me know they’ll be deleted, don’t just remove my work. You got it for free, I had to create it.

Secondly, and here’s the part that I disagree with.

Two of my articles were rewrites of an existing article using an entirely different keyword. Yes, I admit it, rewrites, significantly changed, but the same article information was presented in the two articles.

Now, if somebody types in one keyword and gets my useful, quality information that’s great, buy why should somebody who types in a different, but related keyword be excluded from seeing my helpful article?

In a way, and really pushing it, it’s a form of censorship. An entire group of a specific keyword users is excluded from ever seeing my information.

Here’s an example…

How to spot child abuse
How to spot an abused child

Both will have nearly the same information, but really, should either of these be deleted?

So, my contention is, that by changing the keyword of an article I actually provide an entirely different group of readers the opportunity to read my quality content that would never have otherwise seen it.

The eHow article purge – Point #2

Apparently eHow readers aren’t allowed to use their mind, only their hands.

eHow has stated that any article that is not ‘actionable’ is going to be deleted. I would like to know exactly what ‘actionable’ means. Whereas making a casserole is certainly an obviously actionable activity I contend that deciphering and breaking down otherwise confusing topics is actionable as well.

Do we not learn in school step-by-step or are kindergarten kids being taught algebra today? Learning HOW to do something is, in my opinion, actionable.

I wrote many articles on ‘HOW TO BUY’ so and so. I contend that breaking down the relevant technology and describing it so that the potential consumer can make an EDUCATED purchase decision is a very actionable MENTAL activity.

Oh, and by the way, doesn’t their website byline read “How to do just about everything” or is it only physical activities??

Well, learning how to decipher and buy a PC Sound Card is something to do, and learn about, just look at all the confused faces at Best Buy and other electronics stores.

The eHow article purge – Point #3

Do as I say, not as I do

Now here’s the one that just kills me. We are held to the utmost of standards in terms of content, originality and ‘actionability’, whereas the eHow editors are not. I continually read sub-par, nearly useless crap written by so-called eHow editors that, if I were to publish it, would be deleted in a heartbeat!

Come on guys, at least hold everybody to the same level of quality otherwise the ‘Preserve the value of the eHow brand name” argument doesn’t hold water, not with me, and certainly not with the eHow community.

The ehow article purge – Point #4

We’ll just redirect that traffic to our content

Yep, not only are they deleting articles but they are redirecting the URLs to existing eHow editor traffic! What the hell?!

Wow, I work hard promoting my article URLs then you delete the article and redirect the URL to a crap article! I don’t know, that seems a bit dishonest to me, especially since some people claim that these articles have been around for months, if not years. Some people even had a former eHow of the Day winner deleted.

The eHow article purge – My final thoughts

I’ve been reading in the eHow forums about people making the decision to jump ship and give up on eHow. Personally I’m not going to do that. I’d like to believe that this is only a passing phase and eventually they will realize that, although they will indeed get rid of the spammers and duplicate article publishers, honest people are getting screwed something fierce.

It really bothers me that simple working class folks just looking to make a few extra dollars to make ends meat are being treated this way.

A simple email, and a chance to correct the article is all I ask. I really feel that most people will fix whatever offends eHow management.

How about putting a tab up top called ‘Flagged’ or something like that where the offending article can sit for a week or so, requiring a special read and approval from an eHow editor to get republished. You can even put the reasons behind the flag somewhere in there. That would make all of us a bit happier I think.

For the time being I will no longer publish anything on eHow until this mess is sorted out. You know, for eHow, those articles just ‘appear’. For me it’s an hour or so each night after a hard days work. It really bothers me that it may, or may not, be deleted without warning at any time in the future.

Get consistent and show some consideration for your users!

We are, in the end, people, and I think we deserve that much at least.

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InfoBarrel/Xomba Update

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:40:00 +0000

When I get home from work I always sit down with a nice cup of coffee and go through my earnings pages for the day.

As I was looking at my adsense page, which, once again is over $1.50 today I realized that I haven’t had a single, zero dollar day in over a week.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m beginning to wonder, as I watch my adsense earnings approach my eHow earnings, just how little is eHow giving us?

Anyway, it’s just a thought. The point is between Xomba and InfoBarrel I’m starting to make some nice money through adsense.

I haven’t published an article on eHow in about two weeks now, and probably won’t get back to it until the end of April or even may. I still have another 50 articles to get up on IB, and then I’ll start doing the same on Xomba. Only after all that’s done will I start publishing on eHow again.

Anyone else starting to pull in some nice adsense numbers?

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Adsense/Adwords eHow Experiment

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:56:21 +0000

I’ve heard of people using adwords ads to drive traffic to their eHow articles. I’ve always wondered about this so I’m giving it a try.

The basis for this experiment is one of my articles that is now earning about 5 cents per view, which is great by the way.

It’s targeting a very high paying keyword.

Now, running an ad based on this keyword is quite stupid since I’ll be paying very high for a click as well. So what I did is found some related keywords that are real cheap, about 10 cents per click.

So now I have an ad, which will cost me 10 cents per click targeting my article which gets about $12 per click.

This has been going for about a week now and I’ve received 4 ad clicks (I’m bidding low for views). My article has earned money 3 days in the last week.

The idea here is that a reader who clicks my ad is a proven ‘clicker’ so I think there is a high probability of the person clicking an ad on my article page too.

I’ll run this for the month and see what the final totals are. Since eHow doesn’t report clicks it’ll be real difficult to judge the true results of my ad, I’ll just look for higher earnings than usual.

If this works out I have 4 other articles that have earnings in the 5 cents per view range that I’ll run ads on too.

I should say that I’m not a big fan of the ‘pay money to earn money’ club. But this article is targeting a keyword that has some fierce competition so I need to get more views to maximize my earnings.

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eHow Earnings Dropping!

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:25:19 +0000

I’ve noticed my eHow earnings are near pathetic, about $4 a day lately. At first I was panicking but then I realized there are a few factors that may be responsible for this.

Adsense advertisers are paying less, I know this for a fact, as you will see tomorrow
It’s spring, people aren’t cruising the ‘net looking for stuff
Tax time is here, again, people have more important things to do than shop online.

My views are down to about 400 a day, they are usually in the 1K range, again, people aren’t online, they’re outside doing stuff.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

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Article Writing Tips | eHow Strategies – Part 1

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:00:35 +0000

Some article writing tips that I think might benefit those looking to make money online are the different ways to use eHow articles.

Most people just write an eHow article with eHow earnings in mind, and, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing that.

There are other ways to use eHow though, each requiring a slightly different style of writing, keywording and linking.

Lets list the 4 different types of eHow articles and what they do.

The Earner – A basic eHow article, with two well researched keywords, one for traffic and one for earnings.
The Driver – An eHow article with one or two traffic generating keywords with no regard to the keyword CPC
The Promoter – An eHow article one or two deeply targeted keywords designed to draw targeted traffic towards an affiliate link thereby increasing the chance of a sale.
The Hybrid – Jack of all trades type of article. Basically an earner type article with affiliate or other links in the resource section. To me this just confuses the reader especially if you say ‘Click this’ and ‘Click that’

Now each of these types of articles need a different strategy for it to be successful.

The Earner article is your basic type. Two keywords; one for traffic and one for earning. We’ve talked about this type before. The key thing to note about this type of article is the resource section should have no links so as to make the reader click on an ad. The best way to get a click is to publish the article, see what ads come up, and then edit the article to name the most well know advertiser. Keep in mind though that as per google you can never say ‘Click this’. You can however say ‘Visit so and so’

The next type is the driver, very simple here, get some high traffic keywords onto the article, don’t concern yourself with how much they pay, that’s not your goal. Make sure you say ‘I’ve linked blah blah in the resource section for more information on blah blah’. The key here is to get as much traffic to your article and then, in no uncertain way, tell them to visit what you have linked. With the page rank of eHow this is an incredibly effective way to get some traffic.

The Promoter is a bit more difficult. Simply put you want to draw as much TARGETED traffic as possible to the article that directly relates to whatever you’re trying to sell in the resource section. The key here is targeted so for the most part those keywords with traffic over 100k aren’t targeted. Choose three, and yes, even four word keywords deeply targeted and make sure you tell them to click on the link in the resource section. It isn’t a Google ad so you can do that.

And the final type of eHow article is the hybrid. This type tries to do a little of everything. Personally I don’t think this is very good at doing anything at all. You’re not limited to the number or articles you write and you can even write two (or more) articles using the same keyword. This type basically has two keywords like the earner type and then a few links in the resource section, either to an affiliate or maybe another site. Do yourself a favor and try to avoid this type and instead write multiple articles each designed to excel at whatever it’s trying to do.

Armed with this information you can make adjustments to existing articles to maximize your income.

Let’s assume you have an article with 200 views and $15 in earnings. Obviously you need to drive traffic here, there’s no rule that says you can’t create a few Driver articles on eHow and direct them to the other article, trust will be high since it’s the same site so you should see some results rather quickly. I know I have.

So the next time you sit down to write a new eHow article think about what your goals are with it and choose the appropriate type for the best results. If you want to drive traffic don’t beat around the bush, grab as much as you can and get it moving towards your target. If you want to sell something don’t waste your time trying to get 500 untargeted readers a day, they won’t buy a thing. Try to get 5 deeply targeted visitors a day for a better chance at a sale.

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