eHow Sweeps

eHow has been a godsend for me for extra money. Any US citizen can sign up, write articles, and generate residual income. Simple, right? Well, not necessarily so. I've been a member since July 08, and I've only lost a few eHow articles in sweeps. And honestly, those should have went. They came across as spammy, didn't meet the how-to criteria, or were poorly written. All we can do is learn from our mistakes.

There are several guides available to help somebody become a better eHow writer, to increase income, and to avoid getting articles deleted. This guide, by one of eHow's top earners, WriterGig, can help get the most money from each article. It has proven invaluable to my own time on eHow, what a fantastic investment!

This free guide, written by a well known presence in the eHow forums, shows how to not only write a good eHow article, but to make sure it is in the proper format to avoid deletion in eHow sweeps. I strongly suggest reading both to get the most out of your time on eHow.

So what is proper format, you may ask? It's actually fairly simple. It has to be a straight forward how-to article. The writing doesn't have to be fantabulous, but of course that helps! Each step should be in a logical, chronological order, and show a specific action. Many suggest starting each step with a verb.

Proper spelling and grammar are also of utmost importance. Using spell check should be done on every article. Once published, you should take another look and read aloud, to ensure grammar is used properly. You can go back and edit if necessary.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Using good keywords is also important for the value of your articles. There's several different theories on the best way to go about this, but using Google's Keyword Tool and clicking CPC (cost per click) can show you the best paying keywords. Really, anything above a dollar can be good. Plus the Google Keyword Tool will show the amount of searches per keyword. Going for keywords that are heavily searched, say above 10,000 searches per month, will probably have stiff competition. So a good approach is to go for keywords with less competition, to ensure you get a fair amount of traffic.

eHow can provide a nice little residual income in time, but it takes a while to build up a library to achieve success. Working at it a little bit every day will have big rewards in the end. If you lose some eHow articles in the sweeps, don't let it get you down or turn you off to eHow. It happens to some of the best authors. Learn from the mistakes and keep writing.

Update on eHow earnings

I am taking a good hard look at eHow, and how much money I am currently making from my efforts there. To date, I have made almost $750 in just over a year writing for eHow. I estimate that I spent around 82 hours in my time writing there, which would make about $9.14 per hour for my work. Here's the catch, once the work is done, the earnings keep coming in, so even if I never write another article there my hourly wage is only going up. Not bad for passive income for a stay at home mom!

Obviously, the way to raise this even more is to churn out more articles. Easier said than done. I've mentioned before keeping a running log of article ideas to draw from in moments of writer's block, or to just keep on paper before I can forget. Then there's the issue of time. What stay at home mom has enough of that? There's always laundry that needs done, always dishes in the sink, always life in the way. I'm making it my goal to FIND time to write more articles, and up my passive income.

Another important thing. You can never know enough about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It's not good enough to just throw it out there and hope your writing just strikes it rich. If you are counting on this for another stream of income, make the most of it! Use Google's Keyword Analysis Tool and find the keywords that are searched for and have a decent pay per click. I was going about this wrong in the beginning, going for keywords with tens of thousands of searches AND a very high CPC. Those keywords often have very heavy competition, which means it will be hard to get on the front page of searches in search engines. 

Finding keywords with a couple thousand searches per month and a decent payout (between $1 and $5) means there is a demand for the subject, but not so much competition that your article gets buried in thousands of other search results. A little bit of homework in this area goes a very long way with passive income!

How does that work with "the list?" Finding which keywords to use for your subject is tricky. It may involve wording that you're not very comfortable with, which can show through in your writing. Take the time to MAKE it work, to make it sound natural and you will see much better rewards in your writing. Go through "The List" from time to time and do your homework, and take notes. If you think BBQ is going to provide better results than Barbeque, take note. It's the little differences like this that can make a huge difference in the long run in passive income. 

When using passive income and writing online as a means to becoming a stay at home mom, you've really got to stay on top of things. Read through everything you can get your hands on to ensure you are finding the best way to maximize your time, thus maxmizing your income.