My Pen is My Weapon: Content Is King

I've been making my living from the Internet for almost ten years now. First I ran a newsletter from 1998 to 2001, and then I hooked up with my partner and we have been running affiliates websites from 2003 until the present. People have always asked me, "What's the best way to make money on the Internet." And it seems as though they always expect some kind of a secret formula, something that will involve them making a great deal of money in a very short period of time.

The answer to making money on the Internet is very simple. If you want to make money on the Internet, then write this out on a piece of paper and stick it on your forehead.

Write great, original content that people will find useful.

That's it. If I could give someone starting from scratch one piece of advice that they would be able to make money with, then that would be it.

Some people will try to take the quick and easy road. They will find useful articles on the web, and link to these articles from advertisement saturated pages and throw in a bit of text on their own. I call this "blog hopping", and to me, it's a major problem and in most cases, clearly unethical. Here's how it works. Someone writes an original review of the Canon 310X camera. Well, a mega-powerful digital camera site will come along and link to this review from a page that is saturated with advertisements. They will also label their page "Canon 310X Review." Now, since their site is so strong, their link page may actually appear above the original content in the search engines, or at the very least, appear near the top. So they are hoping that people will hit this page, and click on an ad, rather than actually visiting the original article.

If you write original content though, you will be able to build up a traffic and revenue stream after a couple of years that will be unstoppable.

Here's how it works. You write a really good and original article on how to train for a marathon. The article is so good, that other web sites and blogs link to the article. So not only are you receiving free traffic from these sources, but you are also gaining strength in the search engines, because sites are linking to you and that is a major factor in determining search engine rankings.

You write article after great article. People start checking your site on a daily basis, knowing that you will be writing a new gem for them to read. Sites continue to link to your articles, and you continue to gain strength in the search engines. Soon, you have top spots for a bunch of keywords because of the strength of the one-way links pointing towards your site.

Then you have word of mouth. Because your articles are of a high quality, word of mouth starts to build. Readership increases. Your gain a faithful following. And before you know it, you are making enough to pay your car bill, then your car and mortgage bill, and then all of your bills.

If you don't believe me, then check out Stevepavlina.com. $0 to over $40k per month in just over two years. All from writing great articles that were linked from all over the web. Two years of writing original, quality articles has set Mr. Pavlina up for life, as his site will continue to make money indefinitely. Something to think about. There are no shortcuts if you want to build a sustainable business on the Web.

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