Which other sites should I write at?

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   CyclingFitnessposted 12 years ago

   Having spent 18months on hp with some success I'm starting to see the logic in diversifying to other sites
   
   Where do others recommend? I've had a look at squidoo and find the sports content to be far weaker than hubpages. Any other suggestions for where to write sports and health+ fitness content?

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   1. 79

      Greekgeekposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      squidoo tip: If the content in one particular category isn't that great, that means your good content has a chance of climbing to the top and owning that category. This isn't an enormous advantage, but it is an advantage, since people browsing the categories will see (and rate?) lots of your lenses, search engines will see links to them from the category pages which may help them rank better, and it's possible your pages will appear more often in the "show related" box of the other pages in the category.
      
      The bottom line for that site is: can you create content that people are looking for, and can you make it interactive, with links to interesting related resources, products, or sports pages that readers are loiable to click on? Big payouts on that site come through reader engagement and clickouts. (Or, alternatively, treat Squidoo's in-house payouts as a nice bonus, and make the bulk of your income through affiliate links like Amazon and Zazzle so that you keep 100% of sales commissions. A lot of Squidoo members make more money that way, although I don't.)
      
      Different people have more earnings luck on different sites, but while I publish on four sites plus two blogs and have made a big push to diversify this year, Squidoo provides 80% of my not-quite-minimum wage. Surprisingly, since the September HP crash, my second-best earner is YouTube videos: I'd created a few educational videos and video product reviews to embed on my lenses, and forgot I'd monetized them, but now they're starting to pull a dollar or so of income a day.
      
      Which just means there may be a lot of earning options if you think outside the box. For me, there's three criteria I look for when pondering places to diversify:
      -- Does it let you retain copyright, or does it claim the rights to your material forever, so that you can't delete and repost it somewhere else if the site turns out not to meet your needs?
      -- Are earnings paid as a one time payment (like Fiverr), or does content keep earning month after month, long-term? Ongoing earnings tend to be small amounts each month, but can pile up over time until you've built up a meaningful income stream. Whereas if it's a one-time payment, you have to start over every month. Nooooo, I'm lazy, gimme my passive income!
      -- How likely is the site to stick around? Do a little background research, if you can, to learn who started it, how likely they are to hold on, or at least how long the site has already existed. The longterm earnings strategy only works if the site is going to endure.

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   2. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Greekgeek is right.  If you're looking for a site that's already got lots of content on your topic, you're thinking back to front.  You want a site that's weak in your field, so you can become the "guru" on that subject.
      
      Squidoo is probably the best from an income perspective.  It takes a bit more effort than the other alternatives, because they also have a version of the Featured/Idled process - which means you have to work to keep your Lenses active.  However it's not as harsh as the HubPages version.
      
      Greekgeek has a good Hub on what's involved:
      http://greekgeek.hubpages.com/hub/how-i … on-squidoo
      
      Other sites to consider are Seekyt, Wizzley, Infobarrel, Zujava, Xobba, PubWages, ThisisFreelance.  They don't have any process to feature/idle articles, which makes them more "set and forget".
      
      Good luck!

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      1. 85

         CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Marisa and GreekGeek
         
         It may be time to have a look at Squidoo although I fear that it will not be a big money spinner for me in terms of the tier system of earnings. Amazon definitely tho
         
         Does anyone have experience of Demand Media- I know they provide for health and fitness sites like Livestrong.com

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         1. 85

            CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Well I've published my first lens on Squidoo under the name cyclistliam although really feeling let down by what I'm seeing on the site. It seems like it's just a marketing tool for amazon and ebay. The amount of content is shocking in many of the sports and fitness articles which really let down a viewer coming to the site for information
            
            Many i'm looking at it wrongly again but if I search for information- I want information (with potential options to buy). Maybe the site will grow on me over time, we'll see. Otherwise it's a good potential backlink source

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            1. 90

               Will Apseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Info often trips the dupe content filter on Squidoo so writers have learned to write a lot of empty words. It is hardly the writer's fault.

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                  CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  So the site has designed itself to be filled up with rubbish- and not information for a reader?

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                  1. 90

                     Will Apseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I imagine some people would disagree but you need to look long and hard for pages with any concentration of factual information. They like to talk about their 'originality pact' and say 80 per cent of the page must be absolutely original.
                     
                     So either you write about something very, very obscure. Or you really stretch out some copy-writing to go with your ads. Or you might be able to whip up a gracefully written, magazine-style piece around one or two simple facts that people enjoy but is not not much good for info seekers.
                     
                     I write for the money so I won't criticize the writers on Squidoo. I just think the institutional bias against data and facts is insane. Squidoo's super-powerful SEO is propelling so many poor, information deficient, pages to the top of the SERPs that Google could easily decide to hit the site with a manual penalty. Or it could just provoke more and more severe algo action against content farms (or user generated content if you think Squidoo is not a content farm).

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                     1. 85

                        CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        I'm not against writing for money- but from what I see there is very little writing with regards to sports and fitness related content which is my main interest and passion- which doesn't always involve selling a product- often it involves selling a point of view or workout for an athlete to use which doesn't necessarily bring in a revenue from ad- clicks or amazon purchases.
                        
                        I'm going to see how a couple of specific cycling training lenses work on there as to providing information- it may be that such levels of information are more suitable to what I already do here on hubpages
                        
                        With regards to the SEO which has raised profiles of poor pages- can you see this strength crashing potentially over time?

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                        1. 90

                           Will Apseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           This is Squidoo's 'lens of the day': httx://www.squidoo.com/skagen-men-s-titanium-black-mesh-watch.
                           
                           I imagine lens of the day is designed to highlight content that Squidoo finds exemplary.
                           
                           The two or three hundred words of text has one piece of info that you cannot find in the Amazon ad (wrist hair). Apart from that, it is an exercise in not saying anything that might trip a dupe filter.
                           
                           If people are obliged to write for Copyscape rather than the reader this kind of page is one of the chief results.
                           
                           And, yes, I would say that this kind of page does endanger a site. Fill a sub-domain here with similar and are guaranteed a visit from Panda.

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                           1. 85

                              CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              Thanks Will- I saw the skagen watches article. The author is probably kicking themselves that they didn't do one for Rolex! (Or are mid way through that)
                              
                              It's bizarre how squidoo has a completely different focus compared to other content writing sites

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                        2. 86

                           Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           In that case, you have two options:  you either stick to sites that pay per view (like the HP Ads program), or you concentrate on your own blog, where you can have a mix of helpful articles and sales pages (take a look at my website to see what I mean, there's a link on my profile). 
                           
                           Personally I would strongly suggest the blog.  You have a subject you're both knowledgeable and passionate about.  It doesn't matte a d@mn whether other people already have blogs about the same topic - there's room for one more. PM me if you want some help getting it set up.

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                           1. 85

                              CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              Thanks Marisa
                              
                              I've had a couple of blogs set up for a while which I'm considering expanding on.
                              
                              I'm not averse to sales hubs/ lenses- just feel that I'd like to keep some integrity in doing so- maybe there is a way to do that successfully on squidoo.

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                              1. 86

                                 Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 Pick one blog and stick to it.  Google is now looking for "authority" blogs - blogs which offer expertise on a subject, and have a large amount of material on that topic.  So you really want to concentrate all your best material on one blog. Then you write guest posts and articles on as many rev-sharing sites as you can find to promote it - you only have to write two or three on each, including a link back to your blog.  And participate in cycling forums where you can include your blog in your signature.
                                 
                                 Adsense alone isn't enough to make money on your blog.  You need to create pages specifically to sell products to your readers.

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                                 1. 85

                                    CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                    Thanks Marisa
                                    
                                    On that note I may have to start from scratch and go from there to add the authority aspects- I've certainly seen that Adsense won't make me a wage

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                                    1. 86

                                       Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                       Yes, I took a look at your Google+ profile and you don't appear to have a blog with the word "cycling" or "fitness" in it, so you need to fix that at least!   One tip - even if you're going to use Blogger, you MUST have a proper domain name. Nobody is going to take you seriously with a .blogspot URL.  It costs less than $10 to buy a .com, .net or .org domain name (don't buy anything else), and it's easy to attach to your Blogger blog.
                                       
                                       Then move as much cycling-related material from your other blogs to form a base. Non-Featured Hubs from HubPages (if you have any) are an obvious example since they'll be invisible otherwise.
                                       
                                       If you look at my blogs, you'll see I have some advertising in my sidebar and sometimes recommend a  product in my posts too, but I also have separate pages devoted to products. 
                                       
                                       Take a look at ShareASale.   They have a lot of cycling merchants.

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                              2. 79

                                 Greekgeekposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 There are a great many Squidoo writers and old timers who strongly agree with that sentiment!  In fact, many of us sit around grouching about how lousy the LOTD and front page selections are compared to all the good, educational, thoughtful, useful, or just plain fun content on Squidoo. It seems like the people in charge have very different tastes from a lot of us.
                                 
                                 That does not, however, prevent good content from being seen and visited by the web, even if the Squidoo community organizers have rather...startling...  criteria.
                                 
                                 I don't want to hijack a HP thread too much, but for example:
                                 
                                 http://www.squidoo.com/NurseryRhymeHistory
                                 http://www.squidoo.com/keukenhof-gardens-holland
                                 http://www.squidoo.com/ancient-beer
                                 
                                 (none of those are mine)
                                 
                                 It is also possible to create genuinely useful product reviews that you aren't too embarrassed to put a name to. I don't have any examples of that besides my own, but as someone struggling to support myself online without bending my principles, I've found some models that work. (Okay, one example, but no backlink since it's mine: Google "cat corner desk.")
                                 
                                 Ignore what the people in charge are highlighting. Research (or learn from others) how the payouts work on the site you're investigating. Consider what kinds of things you like to write on, which other people might be searching for, that will fit that system. Also, be prepared for trial and error.

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                                 1. 85

                                    CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                    Thanks greekgeek for those insights- will have a look at those lenses
                                    
                                    And will google your search term a little later too
                                    
                                    Many thanks

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   3. 58

      Drive By Quipperposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      At which other sites should I write? Maybe you should stick around for awhile.

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      1. 85

         CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Drive By Quipper, I never said I'd be going away- just looking at options to diversify. I've been very happy here on HP but at the end of the day I would like to make some more money (the aim is to at least pay my mortgage each month) so it pays to have your hands in a number of different pies.

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2. 61

   LindaSmith1posted 12 years ago

   Cyclling, the reality is that these sites pay by views, adsense which is ridiculous. Not going to make lots of cash on sites like this, unless you make it from affiliate marketing sales. The only other way is to go to various sites where you bid for jobs, wait til a client picks you to write articles for them,

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3. 89

   theraggededgeposted 12 years ago

   CyclingFitness - I wrote for Demand Studio for over a year - about 150 articles. However, since they got very, very badly hit by Google, they have had to rethink their entire strategy. They pruned down the number of writers by their scores for grammar and research skills. No-one with a double score under 4 could apply for certain publications (which then became just about all of them). My grammar score was 3.9 and research score 4.2. Probably because I am British and we had to write 'American'. Their criteria for joining is now very strict.

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   1. 85

      CyclingFitnessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's theraggededge
      
      I've noticed from what it's seen on Livestrong the content is very well written- but doesn't actually tell the viewer enough information. Which is a real shame as their content ranks highly with google.

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4. 0

   passion4fassionposted 12 years ago

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   my lot have you seen this site its amazing site you can write post photos join forum and discuss  things  you learn at the same time you earn money

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