I have been writing content on eHow for well over a year now and have found it to be one of the best ways to make money online. I have also found that eHow is not perfect and several of their flaws are now rising to the surface. Using eHow to build my first reliable passive income stream has been a wonderful learning experience.
Part of building a solid diversified passive income portfolio is branching out by leveraging other tools. I recently opened up an Info Barrel account as a way to start diversifying my income streams. This is something I had been planning on doing for some time. With the recent eHow sweeps and communication issues, I decided now is the time to start taking action.
I have published a handful of articles over the past few weeks and have already noticed a lot of differences between Info Barrel (iB) and eHow. At first, it was a bit of a struggle for me to try and navigate around a new tool. I had been living in the eHow world for so long that I had gotten use to their platform.
If you are new to Info Barrel, or are thinking of opening up an account, here are 8 tips to help you along the way!
8 Tips for the New Info Barrel Writer
- Earnings – Earnings work a lot differently on Info Barrel compared to eHow. If you plan to earn any money for your content using iB, then you need to open up a Google AdSense account and link it to your Info Barrel account.
- Referral Bonus – Info Barrel offers a referral bonus for signing up new writers which adds some incentive to promote the site. While the referral bonus is not substantial (2%), it can add up to a decent income over time. If you decide to use Info Barrel, then be sure to use your referral link to earn additional income. I always wondered why eHow never offered a similar incentive?
- Use the Navigation Bar – It took me a few days to figure out the navigation on iB. The one tip I would give you is to look for the link that says Open Nav Bar at the top right of your screen. I struggled the first few days using this new tool trying to find my draft articles – then I found the navigation bar!
- Adding Links – You can actually add links to your other sites from Info Barrel articles! This was always a frustration of mine when writing eHow articles. If you do plan to add outside links to your iB articles, just make sure they are not in the first paragraph.
- Article Approvals – One area that iB seems to excel at is their article approval process. Before an article goes live, it is screened to ensure it meets the sites standards. Be sure to read the article guidelines to see what is acceptable and what is not.
- Categories – I found that trying to find the appropriate categories to link to your articles to be a little cumbersome. I suggest making a note of how you navigate to your frequently used categories so you can easily find them the next time.
- Multiple Article Types – One thing I already love about Info Barrel is the variety of article types you can submit. They include the following types – “Blank”, “Video”, “How-To”, and “Review”. I have written several “Blank” article types already on iB and have really enjoyed not being forced to use the step or “How-To” format. Do yourself a favor and branch out from the “How To” format for a while and try something new!
- Chitika – Info Barrel also allows you to link up your account with your a Chitika account to earn additional income on top of any AdSense income. I will be honest, I have not had much luck with Chitika in general but can appreciate the kind of diversity that iB is trying to provide. There is no sense in leaving potential income on the table, so make sure you sign up for a Chitika account and link it to your Info Barrel account.
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What are your thoughts on Info Barrel? What other tips can you provide new writers that I am missing?
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
If you have an adsense account, you are definitely leaving money on the table if you do not write for iB. Kevin and Ryan are really nice guys that run a tight ship, yet they really care about their writers.
Another cool thing about iB is that they seem to rank better than squidoo and hubpages and get indexed extremely fast.
@Dusty – Nice point about ranking very well. I have heard similar statements from other iB writers.
I couldn’t ask for better than what Ryan and Kevin have given….I believe that these guys can push this thing to well over 100,000 users (and, they do to…)….
“Multiple Article Types – One thing I already love about Info Barrel is the variety of article types you can submit. They include the following types – “Blank”, “Video”, “How-To”, and “Review”. I have written several “Blank” article types already on iB and have really enjoyed not being forced to use the step or “How-To” format. Do yourself a favor and branch out from the “How To” format for a while and try something new!”
and……..This, I truly believe, will make Info Barrel a True winner above the limited ability of eHow (eHow, from what I understand, only allows “How-to” articles, except ones written by staff….)
John, does it seem like ALOT of research went into Info Barrel? To me, they really address alot of the short comings of similar website platforms….
@Howie – Yes, it seems like they have addressed many problems that other sites have.
Oh, and here’s my latest update! I’ll be sending you a copy soon, John!
http://www.infobarrel.com/Documenting_the_Progress_of_My_Info_Barrel_eBook_-_Part_11
I’ve been on eHow but have tried branching out into Xomba and Hubpages recently. Infobarrel is on my list to try, I’ll have to push it to the top! For me, comparing and contrasting these sites is lots of “try it and see,” because different formulas work better for different writing styles and topics. Thanks for the great info!
@Cat – I have used Xomba for a few articles. Are you making any money through them?
John,
Would you mind if I sent you a few pages of my Info Barrel eBook, right now?….in it, I tell a rather lengthy story of a fictional character named Mrs. Smith who encounters many of the same issues that you have documented, more recently, in your eHow related articles…
I’ll definitely be giving you a free copy of the eBook, as well as, our other complementary guides…..If you’d like, I’d like to send you those 10 pages now….
Howie
I didn’t realise you could use Chitika with InfoBarrel – that’s interesting, really need to start posting some more articles there!
@Ruth – Yeah, I am not sure if I have made any money with Chitika but it is a nice option to have.
I can’t compare eHow- they don’t take non-americans – but I find that although infobarrel is easy to rank that they really need to improve their Adsenes layout as my CLR is very low compared to hubpages
@Lis – I appreciate the feedback. I have had mixed results on my HubPages and not much success yet on iB but it is still early.