Need advice: best market strategy for a writer/journalist?

Hi everyone, this is my first post! I've been lurking for a few weeks but decided to register because I could use some advice...

I'm an out-of-work journalism graduate (news-editorial). As I'm sure even people outside the industry know, it's a struggling market, especially for print. I made the transition to online journalism a few years back, but was laid off recently.

For now, I'm taking a step back and looking at website monetization, SEO, affiliate marketing, PPC advertising, etc... Beyond my experience as a successful and published journalist, I also have adequate experience in sales and marketing, as well as copy writing (including a bit of SEO copy writing).

My question is this: Being brand-new to all of this, which market(s) should I jump into first? I don't have much start-up capital and I'm not sure which area I should "invest" in...

The reason I'm posting here (and not some freelancing website) is because I'm looking for advice from people who have taken the initiative to form their own monetization strategies, as opposed to chasing scraps from someone else's table. (I'm not interested in writing content for $5 per article for someone else's site, especially after working in an industry that typically pays 10 to 20 times that for a 500-word, original article...)

Any advice would really be appreciated... Since I already have the skill set of a writer, for example, would you guys recommend the content publisher route (blogs, perhaps?), with monetization of AdSense and other ad servers? And would you recommend supplementing that work with another strategy? Something that would work in synergy with it?

Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far... (Sorry for the long post!)

-Wax

 

There are a lot writers who are making a full time income selling PLR packages.

I know you said you hate writing for $5 per article, but what if you could sell that same article 20 times? You now made $100 off of that article!

I considered going into this business myself, but honestly, I don't enjoy writing enough.

Here is how it can work...

1. pick a niche (something popular, health/wealth/hobbies/beauty, etc...)
2. Write 10 articles focused on a specific topic in the popular niche (500-600 words per article)
3. Sell PLR rights to the article package for say... $10.00
4. Limit your PLR packages to 50-100 customers for each package.

Do the math... If you sell 50 packages at 10 bucks per package, thats $500 for writing 10 articles.

The reason I say limit to 50-100 customers is because you want your customers to have some exclusivity. The limited number of packages adds to the value they receive when they buy from you. The smaller your limit, the less money you will make, but you will probably sell the package must faster and easier.

Also, don't forget to add all of your customers to a buyers list in Aweber or something similar!

Rinse & Repeat...

Every time you create a new package, send a broadcast to your buyers list. If they bought a package from you before, chances are, they will buy again!

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, send me a PM. I will show you a few examples of people using this business model, and I'll also show you where you can easily sell your packages.

I have nothing to sell... I just want to help point you in the right direction

 

Hmm, that's interesting... Never heard of that business model before, but it seems like a combination of syndication and SEO/copywriting. Yeah, I totally understand the "exclusivity" angle, coming from an industry where it's pretty much considered blasphemy to print the same article twice, unless you're the publisher and you own it, or you're syndicating your own work as a writer.

I had to Google "PLR" to find out it's an acronym for "private label rights." Totally new concept to me. Sounds pretty intriguing, though -- and makes me feel a bit slimy at the same time, for some reason, lol... It's probably just the traditional journalist in me, having an unconscious, knee-jerk reaction to the idea of selling identical copy to multiple publishers.

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I'll do a little more Googling and hit you up if I have any questions. Cheers!

 

Interesting business strategy of creating one article and selling it to many people...SEOs will not accept....

 

i think the best way to start with a job is to start it in a little way. i mean, start with the most comfortable job you want like and then jump off to another level if you are already ready to market and indulge yourself into online business. i believe big achievements starts from doing little things that has great impact in the society. or you can also try to find networking companions that can help you with business and marketing strategies. i suggest you visit homebiztalk.com.

 

I have a friend who made decent money using a strategy like InfantryVet described. The deeper your domain experience, the easier it will come.

 

Hi there, yes, there's definitely money in this. And a great idea as a stand-alone money-making strategy, or as an adjunct to affiliate marketing etc.

 

You should follow a similar route to the PLR writing path. Instead do your keyword research find some niches and purchase a few keyword domains for those niches. Get WordPress set up, find a decent theme and just start writing and promoting a few niche sites. Just make sure you go for the long-tail keywords and you shouldn't have to much of a problem ranking if you write decent content. It may take a few months but build up traffic then monetize with Adsense, CPM which pays per 1k page impressions, and affiliate marketing. Also start building an email list right away on each site by offering some kind of free info product for signing up to your news letter. Eventually you'll build up a decent list and be able to send them emails when ever you have some new or exciting to sell to them.

Hope this helps!