I’m not going to go into the “how to” of writing e-books in this post. If you decide that e-books or reports are a good residual income stream option for you, be sure to check out the more comprehensive collection of posts from our previous 14 Day E-book Writing Challenge.

There are two main ways e-books and reports can fit into a freelance writing career, leading either directly or indirectly to more income for you as the writer:

Selling E-books

This is a no-brainer. You write an e-book or report, and you sell it. In most cases (and what I recommend), you’ll sell your e-book or report directly to end readers (as opposed to selling it once at a higher price for someone else to put their name on and earn an even bigger profit from).

You can write something as short as a 5-page report to a several hundred page survey / study in your specialty area. That’s a key to making decent money with this income stream though – specialization. While I won’t say that no generalist writers can make it work for them, e-book writing works best for specialists who can sell copies on their own authority status (and preferably existing niche audience).

Giving Away Free E-books

Free e-books can bring in income? You betcha!

While it may sound strange on the surface, free e-books and reports can actually bring in a lot of indirect income – they can attract prospective clients, give them a good feel for your work and style, and convince them to buy from you over your competitors.

There are two main things to keep in mind if you go this route:

1. The e-book has to be something that would interest your target clients, and
2. The e-book should include a clear call to action (to let them know you can fulfill a need of theirs, and to tell them how to hire you).

Your call to action can be a simple line in your footer (I do this in my press release writing e-book), or you can have a separate page at the end. It all depends on how much detail you need to go into, and the type of action you’re trying to provoke (visit your site to learn more? call you? email you?).

If you’re a freelance writer looking to add new revenue sources to diversify your income a bit, consider testing one of these methods with a short report or e-book to see if it’s right for you.

Different Ways to Flip a Website

There’s more than one way to flip a website. In some cases, the website is a long-term investment – you build an authority site or high-income site to sell at a high price. In other cases you’ll cultivate a website for a few months (long enough to build a bit of traffic and have income stats to show potential buyers). In a third type of website flipping, you build and then sell the website almost immediately on completion.

It’s the third way of flipping a website that is most relevant to freelance writers looking to build another revenue stream from their writing.

Benefits and Drawbacks of the Quick Flip

Some people look at quick flips as a bad thing. They assume a new site (with no real traffic or income to use as selling points) simply can’t make much money, so it’s always better to hold onto it for a while first.

That may be true for a typical webmaster, but it’s not true for you – a freelance writer. You have an added value in the sites you flip. You have your content.

That said, one of the biggest drawbacks of a quick flip is that, even if you can get a decent amount for the site quickly, you could probably get even more by holding onto it for a little while. Another downside of flipping sites (specifically for freelance writers) is that you’ll often get less overall than you would if you sold the content on that site separately (through unique and custom sales to clients).

Despite those two negative aspects, flipping websites can still be a great extra income source. Why?

• A quick flip can put money in your hands fast (often in a few hours to a few days).
• A quick flip doesn’t require much of a time investment in marketing (link-building, traffic generation, etc.) or monetization.
• You can create and flip website on your own time and in any niche that you want. While you can get more for a site where you’re offering expert content, they can be a good way to dabble in new niches as well. You don’t have client deadlines, or have clients deciding on the specific content – they buy it as-is.

Whether you have a slow day or two without much client work, or an extra half hour a day you’d like to start monetizing, you can flip a site and earn some extra income.

The Site-Flipping Process

We already mentioned that there are different ways to flip a website. Now let’s look at the easiest process when your primary value is your content (then we’ll talk about things you can do to increase the value to potential buyers if you want to).

1. Choose a niche. - Ideally, you’ll want a niche you’re an expert in to some degree as well as one with a solid potential demand from buyers (like a typically high-paying niche).
2. Register a Domain Name. - When building a site for authority value in the long run, I consider it vital to look for a brandable domain name. However, for quick flips I’ve had the most luck going with search engine friendly / keyword-rich domains. This tool may help you find one (use the word search tool).
3. Get Web Hosting. - You’ll need to host your website(s) before flipping anything. In some cases, you’ll transfer the hosting account to the site buyer. Personally, I don’t operate that way (just an added headache). I use one shared hosting account when setting up sites to flip (or new sites of my own being developed), and I transfer the files and database to the buyer for them to host on their own account. I find this easier and more cost-effective when flipping more than one site. But do whatever you’re more comfortable with.
4. Setup the Web Site. - You can set up pretty much any type of content site that you’re comfortable with, from a static site to something on a content management system (CMS). I always set them up on a self-hosted WordPress blog. It makes for a relatively easy transfer (and there are a huge number of templates / themes out there you can use). A blog format also means you don’t have to create a homepage in addition to your content pages – it’s dynamic. I also always use free themes when flipping a site. Why? Because the value is in the content – a custom design would be an up front cost that then also has to be accounted for in your selling price. I find it easier to base the price on the content (and sometimes the domain if it’s a particularly good one), and then let the buyer swap in any theme they want. That said, I try to make sure it’s a decent theme, not overly basic or over-used, and I generally make a few design changes (color changes, add a logo or header image, etc.).
5. Write the content. - Pretty self-explanatory, right? You know the niche, the site’s setup, and now it’s time to create the content. Write your articles. Make them unique. Make them worth buying. Make them on par with (or better than) your work for clients. It’s also a good idea to incorporate advertising into the site or blog when you add the content – even if it’s not earning money yet, you want buyers to see how it could.
6. Sell the site. - You can sell your sites anywhere you can find potential buyers. Personally, I sell them at a webmaster forum. You can set a price, or run an auction – I suggest running an auction (you choose the starting bid, bid increment amounts, and set a buy-it-now / BIN price for an instant close to the auction). Going this route, I’ve sold sites in anything from a few hours to a few days. It helps if you sell them in a place where you’ve already built a reputation.
7. Transfer things to the new owner. - When your sale or auction ends, you can choose to transfer files first or have the payment sent first. My usual policy is this – I’ll send them a copy of the files and database up front, but they don’t get the domain name transfered (and I don’t pull my site down) until they pay in full. This way, even if they don’t pay and try to essentially steal the content for their own site, it’s just duplicate content for them and there are things you can do to have that stolen content pulled down (I’ve never had this happen fortunately). The last thing to do is to transfer the domain name to the new owner (you’ll need to check with your domain registrar on the process – it’s a bit different with each one – know though that you generally can’t transfer to a new registrar if it was registered within 60 days, so you can only “push” it to an owner who has an account with the same registrar).

How Much Can You Make?

I mentioned that one of the drawbacks of flipping websites as an income stream for freelance writers is the fact that you’ll likely earn less per article than you would if you had spent the same amount of time on client projects.

However, quick-flips can be an excellent source of “filler” income – when you need to kill some time, just want to try something new, or simply want a break from your typical routine.

It’s tough to give you an exact estimate, but with the half dozen or so sites that I’ve flipped, I’ve sold them for anywhere from $75 to $450 (sites I spend no more than a day putting together between the site setup and content creation). I’ve seen many sell for less than $75 (generally from people who don’t have the luxury of putting added value on their content). The exact price you can get will depend on a few things, including:

• How much unique content is included.
• How old the site and domain are (traffic, revenue, etc. will play a role on the higher end sometimes if you’ve chosen to hold onto it for a while).
• How much you normally charge to write unique content.
• Whether or not you’re a niche expert / specialist.
• Your reputation in the community where you’re holding your auction or sale.
• Whether or not your domain name is good enough to add extra value.

Why would your normal freelance writing rates matter?

Easy – because people are looking for bargains. For example, when I was flipping a few previously, I charged a starting rate of about $.35 per word for most unique content in that niche. Many webmasters in that community couldn’t afford to hire me to write custom content for them. But because I offered a price on the site being flipped that would be a big discount on my normal rate, it became affordable. I didn’t earn as much, but they didn’t have the luxury of choosing the content, asking for edits, etc. – at the same time, I earned some money for sites I didn’t feel like keeping and maintaining on my own, and they got affordable professional content from an expert in a decent niche (which they couldn’t have otherwise afforded). That value completely outweighed the fact that the sites were relatively new, had pretty much no traffic, and no declared earnings during the auctions.

That said, if you normally charge $100 per article, you’re going to be able to get more for your flipped sites than someone who normally charges $10 per article. Let’s say in both cases, the writer is offering a site with ten unique articles. The asking price is $300. Buyers aren’t going to be attracted to the site by the lower-price writer here. Why? Because it’s still three times cheaper to hire the writer to put together exactly what they want instead. However, it’s a 70% discount over unique content from the first writer – that’s a more attractive proposition for the buyer (and relatively quick money for the writer – again, I suggest this as “filler” income and not a replacement for client work if you have a full schedule – do it during some free time or slow periods).

Adding Value

You can better your chances of getting a decent price for your quick-flipped sites if you do a few things:

• Choose a niche that’s in-demand.
• Choose a niche with high-paying keywords.
• Use those high-paying keywords in your articles (especially in the titles).
• Include on-site SEO (add meta descriptions and keywords, cross-link related content, etc.).
• Build some incoming links (you could do something simple like setup a Squidoo lens even – and include that lens with the article price).
• Don’t sell until it’s indexed by search engines (my sites are usually indexed in 2 – 3 days – if you want it to happen quickly, get links to it).
• Spend some time in a community with buyers before trying to sell something to them – the more they already know about the value of your content, the more likely it is they’ll be interested.
• Age the domain. While the site can be quick-flipped in the end, it can be a good idea to register the domain name earlier, and let it sit before building and flipping the site (better yet, let it sit with a page of content, and it may pick up natural backlinks, search engine traffic, and Google PageRank before you complete it for sale).

Have you ever flipped websites to earn some extra money as a writer? If so, share some tips of your own for those new to flipping websites and blogs.

My Background in Blogging

I’m not at the point where I would call myself a “professional blogger” just yet (although I hope to be in the foreseeable future — EDIT: as of early 2009 I do blog “professionally,” earning a full-time income blogging both for myself and for clients). Even so, I’ve done fairly well with my blogs, bringing my “big three” to decent income levels at various times ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month. I’m working to bring them all back to those levels (including some newer ones – around a dozen blogs in all). The key (and where I sometimes struggle) is consistency.What I’ve found personally is that your consistency in your blogging can have more of an impact on your earnings than your SEO or even monetization streams (although I’ll readily admit this can vary depending on the type of blog you’re running – mine were all launched with the intention of creating so-called “authority sites,” so repeat traffic is my most valuable asset).

Revenue Streams for Bloggers

Speaking of revenue streams (how you can actually monetize your blog), here are some common examples that can be used or combined into an overall monetization strategy:

1. Network ads (Google Adsense, Chitika, etc.)
2. Private ads (selling text links, banners, etc. on your blog)
3. Sponsored posts (sold privately or through pay-per-post programs)
4. Affiliate ads (Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction, etc.)
5. Donations (through Paypal or similar services)
6. RSS feed ads (through Feedburner or other services)
7. Digital Products (e-books, reports, software related to your blog niche, etc.)
8. Teaching / Services (paid webinars, offering services related to your blog niche, etc.)

The Reality of High Income Blogging

Plenty of people make far more money than I do blogging. Plenty of people also make far less (and almost nothing). Pro blogger Darren Rowse did an interesting casual study in 2007 on what real bloggers are earning (many simply aren’t). (Read his findings.) Should you be discouraged by the fact that a lot of people make next to no money from their blogs? I don’t think so. Here’s why:

1. Not all bloggers are really “in it for the money.” Earning may just be an added benefit, so many bloggers may simply not be optimizing their revenue streams (because they simply don’t care).
2. A lot of bloggers are new, and still learning the ropes of monetizing their blogs. Like in any kind of business model, it can take time (one of my blogs became my highest earner in just three months, while another wasn’t earning significantly for over a year, as an example).
3. Frankly, not all bloggers know how to effectively market their sites. If they can’t market the blog, or offer something people really want to read, they’re not likely going to make money.

Ingredients of a High Income Blog

On that note, there are a few key elements that, while they won’t guarantee you’ll earn real money, will make earning a blogging income easier (assuming you’re looking for a long-term strategy, and not a “post crap content, load it up with ads, SEO the hell out of it, and earn until Google penalizes you” strategy):

1. Niche – Your blog’s niche is the topic it covers. You’ll have an easier time earning money from a blog niche that lends itself to ads, products that you can sell as an affiliate, or products and services you can offer to that audience. You’ll also have an easier time if you go with a niche that not only has a decent-sized audience (preferably one that you don’t expect to disappear in the near future), but that also isn’t already over-saturated with other blogs that would make it difficult for you to reach your target readers.
2. Expertise – Do you have to be an expert in your niche? No, but it certainly helps. That’s because when you know the niche topic well, and you have credentials, it’s easy to build trust with an audience. When your blog audience trusts you, they’ll take more kindly to certain types of monetization (such as affiliate links to products that you’re reviewing, because they’ll trust your reviews more).
3. Quality Content – It’s not usually too difficult to tell the difference between a blog written by a true expert giving quality advice and information and a blog where the “blogger” simply hired a bunch of cheap ghostwriters to put together keyword-rich posts for ad revenue. While the not-so-”elite” content can serve a purpose (and even make money for a while), quality content carries far more long-term income-generating potential. Why? Again, people will learn to trust it. When people trust your content, they not only keep coming back, but they start to spread the word about your site (including by giving you unsolicited backlinks). High quality content offers other benefits as well. For example, you may be able to get media exposure if you become recognized as an expert in the niche. When others spread the word for you, your blog’s (and income’s) fate doesn’t rely solely on traffic from search engines (so you don’t have to panic if you get penalized for some reason). Quality content makes that easier.
4. Marketing Ability – You have to promote your blog in some way to get traffic. Without traffic, you have no visitors (no one to monetize through ads, sales, etc.). Many bloggers don’t excel at marketing… they just follow the same “been there, done that” tactics that everyone else uses, instead of really paying attention to their market and how they would best be reached. Marketing encompasses everything from your search engine optimization (SEO) to get higher search rankings to advertising to networking with others in your niche (such as by commenting on their own blogs).
5. Consistency – It’s important that your readers have at least a vague idea of when you’ll be updating if you want to keep those regular readers exposed to your income streams. Depending on you and your niche, that may mean posting once per month, once per week, daily, or any other schedule for that matter. (This is what I mentioned previously as being one of my own biggest struggles in blogging.) In my own experience at least, when I blog consistently, income climbs quickly; when I stop for a while or get too irregular in posting, income drops respectively.

Making money from your blog might not be an easy task, but it can really be done. If you treat your blog like a business, and don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll instantly make a lot of money, you’ll improve your chance and rise above the ever-growing blogger crowd. Take your blog seriously. Take yourself seriously. And most importantly, never give up. Anyone can start a blog, but you need to be persistent to really make it work as a business.

Do you have additional monetization tips to share? Would you like to share your own successes or struggles with making money blogging? If so, leave a comment.

I’d like to get a list going, after which I’ll write more specific posts on each income stream for freelance writers (or ask guests to write posts if they suggested something I’m not personally experienced with).

The point is to get folks thinking now about things they should add to their freelance writing business plan (you can find my free one page business plan template for writers here if you’d like to use it).

Let’s face it – the end of the year is sneaking up on us, and now’s the time to start thinking about ways to improve or grow our careers!

Here are some of my favorites (feel free to add your own suggestions to the comments):

• Blogging
• E-books
• Flipping content sites
• PLR article sets

What are some other ways you can earn income as a freelance writer that don’t necessarily involve taking on client projects directly?