The Transition to Residual Income

It's been a while since I have updated the Freelance Home Writer. All of my free time lately has been spent working on residual income sites. Now, I know what you're thinking - when you need money NOW, residual income sites are on the back burner. But, I've found a solution to this.

I currently write for three different up-front pay sites regularly - Demand Studios, WiseGEEK, and Need-an-Article. I generate roughly $350-$500 per week in upfront pay between them. But they are literally making many times this amount off of my articles. One day it just hit me - I should be getting the residual income from the articles that I write. Instead, I've been selling all the rights away - along with any opportunity for additional income down the road.

Of course, I can't live without that $350 - $500 per week, as much as I would like to stop writing for up-front sites all together and focus on making a long-term residual income. So, I've come up with a plan to slowly wean myself off of upfront pay sites and get to the point where I only have to work when I want - literally.

The Goal

Being a freelance writer, you have much more freedom than you would working a 9-5 job. However, you still have to stick to a schedule. I know exactly how many articles I must write each week for each site to cover my living expenses. Guess what happens if I don't write them? I don't get paid. What's so appealing to me about a residual income model, is that it completely eliminates this necessity.

I write a few hundred articles now, and they continue to generate income for years to come. If something comes up, I don't have to worry that I didn't get those last ten articles written to pay the electricity bill. But, it will be a slow transition to that point. I'm giving myself until the end of the year to make $1000 per month in residual income - and this is how I plan to do it.

The Plan

In addition to my regular workload, I will also focus my efforts on two different residual income sites. According to my research, these two sites seem to be the most profitable for my strategies - eHow and Bukisa. I plan to add at least five articles to each site per week. I am trying a few different keyword strategies on each site, to find which one works best, and makes the most money.

The eHow Strategy

Because the revenue sharing at eHow is based upon ad clicks, my strategy is to write highly optimized articles using profitable keywords, and write them to SELL - not products, but clicks. My tactic for finding keywords is twofold. First, I search for keywords with a large number of searches, high ad competition, a high payout, and little competition using Google adwords.

So far, my progress has been fantastic. If you look at my eHow articles, you'll see that the most recent ones are the most highly optimized. Some have begun to earn money, and others haven't. They are all fairly new (written within the last few weeks as of this writing). The older articles written last year before I knew much about keyword research, are earning VERY little. They were recipes, a few tutorials for a computer program, and a few crafts I made just because I knew how. I earn about $.90 per month on these. I've already tripled my earnings this month by adding a few highly optimized articles per week.

The Bukisa Strategy

Bukisa pays by page view (Bukisa index at the time of this writing: $3.65 per 1,000 page views), so the strategy is a little different. Instead, of focusing on high paying and ad-aligning keywords, I'll focus on keywords that have many searches and little competition only. It doesn't matter to me how much the ads pay if I don't get a portion. I'm being paid for page views, so I need to drive traffic to my Bukisa articles.

In the past two weeks, I've added 23 articles to Bukisa. They were all experiments, and some have earned much more than others. However, I think I've found a pattern with my higher-earning articles. So far, I've earned a little over $3.00 this month, and I'm not disappointed with that, especially for my experimental articles.

Keeping Track

I'll be sharing my progress at both sites on the blog, and we'll see if I meet my goals. I'll update several times per week and hopefully it will offer you some inspiration on your own residual income journey. And if you haven't decided to participate in residual income sites yet, I assure you that I'm kicking myself because I didn't see the potential in this sooner.

The Future of the Freelance Home Writer

Although I am trying to make the transition to residual income, I won't forget about how much I needed that upfront pay in the beginning. So, I'll continue to regularly update the blog with up-front pay sites that I come across in my research, as well as sharing my experiences with residual income. Eventually, I plan to investigate other high paying residual income sites, and expand that section of the blog.