Rev-Share Sites Still Viable for Residual Income

While eHow.com's Writers' Compensation Program was the best revenue-share opportunity I've experienced for residual income, it's no longer an option as far as adding new articles directly through the site. Still, there are other places to go for a similar model: you write content and get paid according to the ad revenue your articles generate.

Demand Studios, Bukisa, HubPages, Squidoo, and Infobarrel are all sources of residual income for me -- several more eggs in the proverbial basket, if you will. In addition to their income, articles I've written on these sites provide backlinks, site or blog traffic and/or brand recognition in several niches.

Out of this handful of revenue-sharing content sites, some do better than others for page ranks and traffic and thus earnings.

Here's how they stacked up in March 2011:

Demand Media Studios revenue-share: 4.58 with 21 eHow articles

Bukisa: .39 with 17 articles

HubPages: .59 with 6 articles

InfoBarrel: .81 with 6 articles

Total ...... 7.37 with 50 articles, for an average of .55/per article.

With many hundred articles on the right sites, you can still make a viable residual income through revenue-sharing programs. A thousand articles with that average would give you ,547 per month. You can actually do much better than that; some of these articles were written when I was just starting out and didn't know much about what niches perform well. By specializing in one or two areas which you know well and whose audience you understand, you will see a higher level of success than the random collection of articles here represents.

While I am currently working almost exclusively on my niche websites, I do still recommend some rev-share writing for those new to online writing and marketing. Writing content articles is a great way to experiment with several or dozens of niche topics. You can figure out what you enjoy researching and writing about, what you want to specialize in and what topics are most profitable. For me, eHow was very well-paid market research and has certainly contributed to the successes I'm seeing in creating my own niche sites and blogs.

That being said, don't wait too long to branch out to your own properties. Once you've identified a good niche topic, done keyword research and learned the basics of site creation and promotion, start a site of your own and monetize it with ads and affiliate links. Revenue-sharing sites are great, but having your own online properties is even better. For web hosting, site design and other recommended resources, see my Tools and Training page.

What revenue-sharing content sites have you earned well with? Do you still write for them?

Car Insurance Comparison Sites Urged To Shape Up

As more and more price comparison sites spring up offering a facility to compare car insurance online the quality of service offered is apparently falling.

According to a recent investigation by the FSA several car insurance comparison providers are not working to best practices in terms of providing accurate and relevant results.

If you are considering using price comparison sites to shop around for your car insurance check out the FSA’s findings before proceeding.

A high quality price comparison site can be an invaluable tool when searching for car insurance, but if a few bad eggs are entering the market being able to trust the service you use has never been more important.

Norwich Union Car Insurance Boycotts Price Comparison Sites

Insurance giant Norwich Union has taken the decision to pull its motor insurance policies from car insurance comparison sites. This means you can only get a Norwich Union car insurance quote directly from norwichunion.com

In a move that mirrors the stance taken by Direct Line if you search for car insurance on one of the UK's many price comparison sites you won't be able to see quotes from Norwich Union and compare them against other insurance companies.

Director of Marketing at Norwich Union, David Tyers, said: "We think direct should mean direct. As a brand with 200 years behind it, we think that customers trust us."

Given the continued success of price comparison sites this is a bold move. Not being visible to people who use these services is not without risk. On the upside Norwich Union will avoid having to pay fees for customer referrals. In a time when the global credit crunch is biting any saving a company can make will be welcomed. Whether or not this turns out to be a good decision, only time will tell.

The move has, unsurprisingly, received criticism from some price comparison sites including confused.com, gocompare.com and insurancewide.com.

All this arguing aside the only point that really matters is how this affects car insurance customers. We all want a policy that offers a sensible level of cover but we don't want to pay over the odds.

If more insurance companies join Norwich Union and Direct Line in boycotting price comparison sites it means more time spent shopping around to find quotes, making it more difficult for customers to find the best deals.