What are Awareness Articles?

So, what exactly is an awareness article?  Some may call it by a different name.  Some may even think they are a waste of time.  I mean, the reality is, they are not going to improve your position in Google, and for many, that is all they are really looking for.  Personally, my belief is, awareness is awareness, and the larger web I can create, the more likely new people are to find me.  So, this is why I find awareness articles important.

There is another reason to enjoy awareness articles…..MONEY!  And that alone drives me and what I do on the internet.  It is a very strong pull for me and there are MANY opportunities to make income on the internet.  Other than that from what you can make with your blogs.  There are many sites that will pay your for your content.  Usually paid per view from a unique party.  And I have to admit, the income is not great.  But it is still what it is and it is still something that should be considered.  Because, not only are you making money from your work, but you ARE creating awareness of you, the author, and of any link you include in your article. 

So, with this awareness article, you are not only creating a link back to your web property, but you are creating an awareness of yourself.  And you are as important in this article as the link itself.  Undoubtedly, the link will be a No-Follow link.  And this of course means that Google will not give you “Credit” for the link, but what you can gain from this link is direct traffic to your blog, or Hub or whatever else you make link to it.  And being that these sites sole purpose are to drive traffic.  They tend to get a healthy amount of traffic, and they tend to naturally place well in search engines without a whole lot of work.  This alone gives you a chance to make an impression.

The goal of these articles should be to create a spark or create interest in what you are and your writing style.  You want these articles to be snappy.  You are trying to catch people.  Remember, that what you are trying to build is a web of links, you want them to spend as much time in your web as possible.  Because sooner or later, you will attract permanent readers, repeat readers who will come back every time you write more.  And this is really our goal.  Whether it is income driven or just your drive to be recognized and for people to see you is irrelevant.  You are just trying to capture a persons interests. 

So, above I stated that there are many places that offer this kind of service to you.  Some I have mentioned here before.  Some may be sites you are well aware of.  Some formats you may like.  Others are not all that great.  But, as with all things when we are talking about awareness.  Variety is key here.  Don’t be afraid to have multiple sites you write for.  Work smart and create a similar article for every site and have them all posted.  It will pay off in one way or another. 

Well, what are these sites you might ask…

Here they are, in no particular order.  There are others besides the ones I will cover, but I use these and find them to be very suitable for my needs.

Helium:
Helium has been around for quite a while now.  I believe I have been a member of helium for years.  They have a huge library of topics.  And you are judged by your peers.  Every article is judged independently.  And the system they employ will require you to judge articles as well, if you intend on earning income from your own articles.  You can just post and not earn income.  That is completely acceptable, but if you do a little extra work, they will pay you per view on your article.  The pay scale varies depending on how well you rank within a particular topic and what the topic is about, and it will not pay a lot.  As an example, I have 30 some odd articles on Helium and I rank in the upper 75%  and make a few dollars a month usually.  It is not going to make me rich.  Maybe if I had thousands of articles, I could say it may make me rich, but the shear volume needed to reach that level is beyond my comprehension really.  I tend to right on a whim, it comes and goes in spurts.  I just lack the focus to maintain a consistent writing schedule.  But, in any way, helium is a well rin site that had a great reputation and should not be overlooked.

Bukisa:
Bukisa is relatively new.  And lately service has been somewhat sketchy to say the least.  They have had a lot of server issues.  But, when they are running smooth this site is super easy and pays well comparatively.  They have no specific topics, meaning you can write pretty much about anything as long as it falls within their rules.  And you are paid on a set scale. Based on 1000 unique views.  I make good money from Bukisa, I get lots of views, but that may be soley based upon my topics.  I chose topics really well and they immediately ranked well in Google.  Well, immediate in Google terms.  It took a few weeks.  Again they allow you to add back links and an author profile.  But links are No-Follow.  It is a site I would give consideration to if you have a hard time confining yourself to particular topics.

And the Third I am going to mention today is

Associated Content:
Ok.  Something is amiss with Associated Content.  You can still write for it, but it is now owned by Yahoo, and I honestly do not know how it even works now.  Once I have the chance to investigate, I will let you know.  Join if you want, I am pretty sure it will still provide a very useful tool.  I am just not sure how at this moment, and do not want to wait on publishing this post.

So, there you have it, and understanding to what awareness articles are and how they will benefit you and your goals at becoming a blogger that is reconnized in the blogging community.  These articles are not amazing link builders and they are not going to give you a great SERP by writing them, but they will start to create some constant online income.  And in many cases that alone will give you drive to keep working at it.  Becoming discouraged by lack of change from your efforts is all too common.  I hit several road blocks along the way that made me want to quit.  In fact I did quit a time or two.  Feeling that the amount of effort was largely unbalanced to the result I was seeing.  And even now.  Close to two years in to my commitment to seeing this thing through, I am still not to a point to which I can retire and happily spend my time blogging.  But I can see progress.  And with time and effort you can too.  Just give it that, time and effort, and a huge helping of patience.  The internet works in a very slow and methodical manner.  You will most likely not become an overnight success.  But you can build it and find your success at some point.

Again, thank you for reading blogging for beginners.  Talk to you all soon!