Step 1: Choose a profitable topic

What not to write about

You may look at Google trends or Digg and see that particular topics or stories are being searched for much more than others. Here are a few reasons why these are not the topics that you want to write your hub about.

• Google trends, if you are not familiar with it, is basically a list of the top 100 searches. Because the top 100 searches frequently change, what is hot today will not be so hot tomorrow. As you can see, if you write a hub about a topic that appears on Google trends today, it will likely result in a short lived burst of traffic followed by none at all.

• Digg, like Google trends, consist of mainly topical news stories that are hot today, but likely will not be so hot tomorrow. If you write a hub on a hot topic just because it has been dug a thousand times, it will likely result in a short burst of traffic but nothing more.

What to write about

Unlike the "hot" topics that frequent Google trends or social bookmarking sites, long-term topics that will continue to be searched far into the future also exist; these are the topics that will continue to make money online for months or even years after you write your hub.

Some good examples of long-term topics include:

• Small business
• Business plan
• Start business
• Home business

These are just a few examples that were pulled from a less know Google research tool called Google Insights for search. This tool is completely free to use and it can be especially useful in helping you to pick long-term search trends, because it allows you to research Google search trends back to 2004.

Once you have picked several topics to consider, you should research the price per click that keywords for each of your topics are worth. You can do this by going to Goolge AdWords: Traffic estimator and entering each of your keywords. If you are stuck for ideas about what keywords you might try, you can go to Google AdWords: Keyword tool and enter a broad search term such as small business. Google's Keyword tool will produce a rather large list of related keywords for you to choose from.

A search for "small business" in Google's traffic estimator returned:

• Average CPC: $5.48 (at a maximum CPC of $13.76)

A search for "business plan" returned:

• Average CPC: $3.25 (at a maximum CPC of $10.93)

A search for "start business" returned:

• Average CPC: $3.02 (at a maximum CPC of $6.90)

A search for "home business" returned:

• Average CPC: $2.66 (at a maximum CPC of $6.32)

In addition to the average CPC, Google AdWords: Traffic estimator also gives you the number of searches that are done each day for your term. This can give you a good idea about the popularity of your term.

Step 2: Write useful content

When deciding what in particular you want the main focus of your hub to be, take into consideration what needs the reader may have. If your hub topic is small business, ask yourself what kind of people would be interested in reading a hub about small business. These could be people who already own a small business or people who are interested in starting a small business, but your hub will best meet the needs of your reader if you focus on one of the two.

If you choose to write your hub on how to start a small business for example, this could be narrowed down even further. What type of business? Internet business, brick and mortar? And it can even be narrowed down from there. If you choose to write about how to start a small Internet business, than you still need to decide what type of small Internet business. You could write about how to start a eBay business or a stand alone Internet business. Once you have narrowed it down to say, a eBay business, ask yourself what problems potential readers may be trying to solve. Are they trying to find the best drop-ship companies? If so, you could right a hub about the top ten drop-shippers. If you have had experience with particular drop-shippers than maybe you could write a review.

The point is to find a niche with in a niche to write your hub about. This will attract readers to your hub that are looking for the particular topic in which you are writing. Because of the nature of Google AdSense, this will result in an extremely high Click through rate, and it will also increase the amount you are paid for each click. Follow these steps and you will be on your way to learning how to make money online. This is'nt laundromat business tips, it is solid advice on how to make money.