Writing to make money online by writing Hubs, blog posts or articles may seem like trying to find gold at the end of the rainbow. It looks promising but is it elusive? Is it really possible to make money writing online and is it a real business model to pursue and develop?

What is a real business model? A business provides value to customers who will pay for a product or service.

If the business has set its prices properly then after a customer pays the business has enough money to pay the owner, employees if there are any, and there is also enough money to reinvest back in to more advertising, marketing, equipment and other expenses to keep the business operating.

When a business sells a product or provides a service, a tangible asset has been exchanged or a transaction where there is a clear benefit offered and a real result has occurred.

1. My son bought me a Pittsburgh Steeler mug for Christmas. Bless his heart. He paid real money for a real product and now I’m a much happier and better man than before I had the Steeler mug.

2. My mechanic worked on my brakes to ensure their safe operation. I paid him money. Now I can safely drive my car and set my Steeler mug near me and I can stop without fear of crashing and spilling the coffee in my mug or having it break in to pieces.

3. My wife shopped at the grocery store and purchased the little international coffees from General Foods that are full of calories that I use to stir in to my Steeler mug. She may have used our debit card but still she paid and she received something tangible in return.

So this is the question: is there a true business model for writing online?

Yes, and it is often advertising based but not always. Sometimes writing online for money is a fee-based process. But in this Hub I only focus on the advertising based approach.

The Advertising Based Model

The writer creates a product: an article using text, maybe photos and perhaps a video clip.

The writer posts her product online: Hubpages, or a blog or web site she has created that runs ads like Google AdSense which is a form of contextual advertising.

Why is it known as “contextual advertising"?

Because the ads reflect the context of the article or the web site offered.

That’s why the more specific content developed, known as the niche, then the more likely it is to rank in the search engines to attract an interested reader. And the more likely the ads running on the article or the web site or the Hubpage will reflect the content.

A reader finds the article and reads it. While scanning the article, the reader sees an ad under “Ads by Google” that seems like it will provide help or further information to meet a need.

The reader clicks on the ad, follows through in to the link and the writer is compensated via advertising. The click may be worth 5 cents, 27 cents or, as happened on my marketing blog a few days before writing this Hub, $1.38.

The more clicks that occur the more money the writer earns for her work.

Why did the reader click on the ad? Because a solution appeared to make the reader want to click.

But who paid? The advertiser: maybe a global corporation, a restaurant chain, or a local beauty supply store.

The writer is the one who benefits directly and could even be seen as the “middleman” in the transaction by bringing both the reader and the advertiser together.

But is this process enough to show that writing online for money is a real business model?

How many writers may spend one hour or two hours developing an information-rich article only to have it bring in 3 cents or 23 cents? That’s when the business model doesn’t make sense.

The challenge in creating a sustainable business by writing online is by attracting a large enough volume of readers who will find the article and then find the contextual ads helpful so they will take action.

The idea, too, of contextual advertising or contextual shopping occurs in real buildings in your community. Go take a look.

This is the same principle that a business in a real building, a brick-and-mortar operation, must follow. There are good brick-and-mortar business models and bad ones.

A Bad Model

Let’s say the ABC Grocery Store opens its doors to customers in a densely populated area. They have a 12,000 square foot operation, they hired a dozen employees and they have enough parking for 500 hundred cars.

So far, so good. There is a context in which they’re doing business.

But wait! They only have one product on the shelf: a can of grape juice situated on a shelf in the middle of the store.

They wait and they wait but no one ever comes in to buy the grape juice. Why? The store looks empty. There are not enough products to meet the need of the shoppers. In fact, the store is so empty that no one will ever find the can of grape juice.

Finally, the store cannot meet the overhead of lights, payroll, etc and so the can of grape juice is given away to the last employee who turns off the lights and locks the door after bankruptcy is declared.

Okay, a bad business model was in operation.

A Good Model

So the founder and board of directors of the ABC Grocery Store evaluate what went wrong. So they make changes. They discover through market research that shoppers in their area like fresh produce, fresh meats, and fresh bakery products. Then they discover that shoppers will pay more for fresh juice and they prefer that to canned juice.

The store is beginning to provide its products in the “context” of the needs of the shopper.

I believe that good business models are contextual in nature.

Cities even zone sections of the city for this purpose. Look where fast food restaurants are located – often in a group, clustered together along a busy street where they’re more likely to do volume.

Go to an area of expensive homes and look at the shops that are closest to those homes.

If you’re at a university, do the shops near by cater to the elderly or college students?

The writer who makes money online consistently is providing information that the reader can use.

Pure and simple.

The reader finds the information helpful, sees a contextual ad that an advertiser has paid for, clicks on it, clicks deeper into the information and the writer is rewarded by seeing money show up in an account.

Once the account reaches a certain level then the writer receives a check.

The Google Adsense program has a payout of $100. It took me two years to receive my first check from Google for $106 which I received this past June 2009. Now, I know the reason why. It wasn’t Google’s fault.

I expect my next check within the next couple of months and hopefully every month after that with my earnings increasing steadily.

This article will have appeal to prospective writers who are wanting to know if writing online is a real way to make money. Hopefully, it will also show their spouses, lovers or significant others why writing online is not a waste of time (my wife once asked me if I would ever stop writing one of my blogs; now I have two blogs, Hubpages, etc).

Hubpages and the Grocery Store Analogy

I believe the grocery store analogy applies clearly to Hubpages.

Let’s say you’re an expert on fleas and you write one Hub. It’s an informative article of about 600 words. The title ranks well in the search engines for the subject matter you’ve chosen. It has a photo and it has a video clip.

You’ve opened an account with Google or another advertiser and you wait, and you wait and you wait.

But few people read it and no one clicks on the contextual advertising. Eventually, it loses its ranking in the search engine and you give up, discouraged, that you’ve failed to make money writing online.

But let’s face it: if you wrote one article on “the mating habits of fleas found in southwestern U.S. soil” you’re not going to make much money and it will have little interest.

Stick with the general topic but make it extremely useful for readers.

Write 5 to 10 Hubs on the “best organic ways to get rid of fleas on dogs” another one on getting rid of fleas on cats, on people, in homes.

Then write another Hub on the best online stores to buy discount flea powder and another one on pet accessories. Begin to link the Hubs together.

Repeat the process on a consistent basis and you’re going to start seeing your Google Adsense account moving toward the $ 100 level.

The first article example may have used your specialized knowledge but it was of little use to advertisers and readers.

The second article example meets more specific needs of readers in your hometown and across the country – and even around the world. It has more of an audience!

Writing Online can be a Business Model

So writing online can be a business model that generates revenue when helpful articles that are well written offer solutions to readers. In contextual advertising, the ads will then reflect the content and readers will be more likely to click on them.

This, in turn, will begin to create revenue for writer seeking to make money by writing online.

Class is dismissed for today.