What does eHow and the Recession Have in Common?

Let’s face it, the recent drama around the eHow UK site and the article sweeps last year have left many eHow writers with a bad taste in their mouth. What once was a very promising and reputable site has been under protest by many long time loyal writers.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t concerned, frustrated, and just plain annoyed at how these events have transpired over the past several months. Instead of focusing my attention on the negative and complain about why eHow is bad and threaten to pull my articles, I want to focus on what we can learn from this experience.

Interestingly enough, the economic recession has also been in the spotlight for over a year now and there are a lot of lessons we can learn from there as well. When you get down to it, there are actually a lot of commonalities between the recession and the events that have transpired on eHow.

Instead of focusing on what is wrong with our economy and eHow, let’s learn from what has happened and take advantage of the situation. Here are a few lessons that I have learned that hopefully you can as well!

Diversifying Your Income

The global recession has been rough on everybody. From lost jobs to foreclosed homes and wiped out pension plans, the economic slowdown has had an impact on many lives. If there is one thing you should have learned during this recession is that relying on a single income from your job is risky business.

The same can be said about generating passive income solely from eHow. While eHow may be the fastest and simplest opportunity to build online income streams, it should only be part of your overall portfolio. The recent earnings drop that many eHow writers are experiencing has been a painful realization that they are not properly diversified.

Just as your stock broker has told you for many years to diversify your assets, the same can be said about your income. Proper diversification of income streams has become just as critical as spreading your savings across multiple assets. The recession has taught many of us this tough lesson, just as some eHow writers are experiencing the same thing through their efforts.

New Opportunities

One of the best side effects of a recession are the innovations and new ideas that come from it. Job loss forces many people and businesses to begin to think creatively. In many cases, an employee who is let go is forced to find other means of income. This eventually spawns new business that may have never been seen during fat economic times.

I have been a huge supporter of building recurring income streams by publishing online content to eHow. While it is only open to writers living in the U.S., there are plenty of advantages. First off, it is FREE so you are only out the time invested in publishing content. It is also probably the quickest way (that I have found) to start earning income immediately after you publish an article.

Unfortunately, for all the reasons on why to love eHow, it makes many of us comfortable. It is just human nature to migrate towards doing what is comfortable to us. Many eHow writers (including myself) continued to publish content on the site knowing they wouldn’t have complete control once it went live.

Do yourself a favor and learn from the events of recent months. Build income streams that have long lasting power that you can control!

Build a Stronger Model

Recessions tend to expose weak areas in the economy and send poorly run companies out of business. For example, the housing bubble has been exposed as well as people who had been living beyond their means in the most recent recession. These specific areas have been exposed in the downturn, while well managed companies have come out stronger.

The same thing can be said about the eHow income model. While times were good, nobody was complaining about the eHow income model. Post an article, wait a few days, and watch the earnings add up. Now that things have changed there, writers are complaining about significant drops in views and earnings.

The facts are that every eHow writer should have known that you are not in 100% control of your articles. If eHow decides to make a change to their earnings model, they can and there isn’t much you can really do about it. The stronger model in this case is writing content for sites that you own outright and control. While these income streams may not be as easy to start and will take longer to earn siginficant income, it is a business model that can withstand the ups and downs of the future.

Final Thoughts

Do I plan to start pulling my articles from eHow? Will I stop writing any new content to eHow? Will I boycott eHow and begin protesting their recent actions? The answer to all of these questions is – NO!

I don’t plan to overreact in the short term to what is going on right now with eHow. My earnings have really slumped in the past couple of weeks, but they slumped back a few months ago and then quickly turned around. For the near term, I will monitor things closely and continue to submit my 20 – 25 articles per month.

While I still plan to include eHow in my passive income model, I will do so with caution always focusing on building and growing my own content along the way.

How do you leverage difficult economic times (like a recession) to your advantage? Are you able to grow stronger as a result?

Tagged as: diversified income streams, eHow, Multiple Streams of Income, recession in america