One of the questions that many bloggers express is, “How to I write content articles from home and make money?” To find out I began my blogging experiment, and got sidetracked having way too much fun just writing about my experiences, and hearing back from other folks. However, as my spammers informed me, that is not how to make money writing content as an independent contractor. Here are 5 simple ways to use Google’s Keyword Planner to help you earn income from your writing.
Know What People Want to Read
First, if you want to write content posts, you have to know what people want to read. This post is the result of using Google’s new product called Keyword Planner. This is Google’s newest tool to help advertisers use the right buzz words in their ads to target the biggest market. It is simple to use. Enter a few words to start that have something to do with what you know. I chose: “blog, content, education”. You enter your website, and choose a product category, and press enter. Even if you don’t have a product, you can pick something from the list that describes your website. It is surprising which words are popular, and which are not. You can see what readers search most often, and you can also find out how much competition you would have for buying an ad for that word. The chart also tell you the cost of purchasing that word so your article places high on the Google search engine. It could cost me as much as $212 a day to buy 0-49 clicks some of the words I found and go to the top of the heap on the search engine! You bid on how much you would like to pay. Yikes! 🙂
Use the Highest Use Words in Your Post Title
Maybe you don’t want to pay for a Google Ad. Use the statistics you found to write a title for your post. For example, “content writers” is a popular search, while “how to write a blog” is not even though both choices are about writing content. If you use the word content writer you will get higher traffic than if you don’t use those words.
Use the High Search Words in your Ad Boosters
Many people who write blogs, like me, have fan pages as well. Most serious content writers sell their content, gather their reader’s email addresses, and offer a product. On their Fan pages they have advertising, and they pay for that service. If you are going to pay to gather attention for your services, it just makes sense to know what words attract the most searchers.
Use the High Search Words to Combat Writer’s Block
Maybe you are not trying to make a fortune writing your blog, but you wake up and think, “What am I going to write today?” And you draw a big blank. This is pretty normal, which is why challenges and contests are so popular. The trick is how to weave in what you already know into a great article that people want to read. Keywords is the tool which makes that great – not just good- post possible. I just went down the list of possible keywords, chose ones that I knew something about, and narrowed it from there to high versus low-key words. From my list I had only 10 words. That made it easy to pick only one of those which was a highly searched keyword.
Use Your Stats to Search for Key Words
My top searched key words are “authentic assessments for social studies.” I entered those words into the Google Keyword Planner. I had 25 people this month who have searched for some variation of that subject. Google showed that only 560 people have searched for that topic. I feel that I got a pretty good market share with my old article, so I don’t think I would ever consider buying an ad for using those words. There is low competition for the words. A much more frequently employed word would be “education websites.” The cost for buying those keywords is high as well.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
Maybe one day I will think about trying to make some money from writing, but at the moment it’s just for fun.
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I know you said before it bothers YOU, when look back and see a misspelled word on a post of yours. I wanted to let you know that in this title….planner is misspelled. But still a great post.
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Yikes! Thanks for telling me! How did I miss that? I even have my husband look them over after I read the two or three times! OH well! It’s correctable! 🙂 Thanks again! 🙂
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Done and done – thanks again! 🙂
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This is wonderful, Marsha. I don’t plan but maybe I should (one day when I don’t have windows to paint) 😉
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You are so cute! And busy! 🙂 You should plan some day. Part of your investment IS RUC! 🙂
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Very interesting, Marsha. It has never occurred to me to use my blog to make money. It’s more of a photographic journal really. Good luck with your experiment. 🙂
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I don’t make any money with mine either, but I try stuff. You really can’t make money on WP unless you go through them or go with WP.org. :). Blogging is an experiment in itself!!! Who knew I would make a these friends!!! 😀☺
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tchistorygal, that is the way I felt before.. I have a few ‘lost in space’ blogs started some time ago- but
as babyboomers etc, we all have so much experience that instead of me just blogging into space, I can
find people like you, make friends, and make $.. who knew!
Thanks for your posts. Love em.
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Thanks Karen. 🙂
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I recently found out exactly how to make $ at blogging. Not spamming here! but when I found that out, I got more interested in doing blogs. My friend, who I turned onto my program, said just yesterday ” I post this stuff anyway, I may as well get $ for it too!”
Finding Tchistorygal and her recent article Jul22.. was helpful. I can always learn. And I help others just starting too with this info.
Thanks for posting-
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You are welcome. I’m not making money at mine, by the way. If you host through WordPress.com, you can’t make money. I haven’t changed my host at this point, so I am still a vanity blog just doing this for the fun of doing it.
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Wow, you are fantastic – do you really put to much thoughts into your posts ???? … I just write on about what ever pops up in my head. Neither people like it or not … I wouldn’t really be happy if I had to think about what people want to read about .. and not what I want to write about, something wrong.
Looking forward to see .. how your little experiment will turn out.
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Me, too! I agree, I used to write whatever, but Leanne and I discussed it, and I decided to try a schedule. Having a schedule has its advantages, but then you have to stick to it – even when you have nothing to write on that topic!
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Good luck, very exciting to see if it makes any difference to your visitor amount … I wouldn’t be able to write after a schedule – I’m all over the place as you know.
Very exciting, I must say.
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It was interesting last week. The five days I published, I had good visits. On the weekends, almost nothing! 🙂 That was the first week that it was actually higher during the week than normal.
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I didn’t know that you have already done it … okay, very interesting … do you know what I think .. people read blogs during working hours. *smile
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Haha. Yes I know they do. The boss walks up, “Quick, press like so at least that person knows I was here!” Haha!!!
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Marsha, you are funny … but I don’t think you’re that far away from the truth. That’s why the “traffic” is slower during weekend, when they spend time with families and friends.
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Yes, and I am doing that as well! It makes my husband a little happier. 🙂
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Not much can beat a happy husband *laughing .. makes life so much easier … as married.
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How true! 🙂
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