Great content can be the path to starting a successful online business — but it’s not the only step involved. To build an online empire, you need a business structure that supports your writing.

Chris Guillebeau has created a way for you to learn that business structure without years of trial and error. The Empire Building Kit offers in-depth instruction on how to create your own empire: a sustainable business that can earn you at least $50,000 a year and that typically revolves around something you are personally interested in. As a writer, that approach is ideal. More than a few of us want to wind up owning our own businesses, although the idea of exchanging our time for money day in and day out doesn’t seem like an ideal plan. Chris’s concept of building empires will let you use your writing skills to move beyond business models like freelancing. Chris himself is a writer, and his personal empire supports his travel habit — he has a personal goal of visiting every country in the world by 2013. So far, he’s visited 125 out of 192.

Learn to Build Your Own Empire

As Chris has built his online empire, I’ve been working on one of my own. I wish I’d had this kit when I’d started. The Empire Building Kit includes interviews with successful empire builders, all of whom earn at least $50,000 a year from their businesses and some of who have hit the $150,000 mark. These interviews include details that you won’t find anywhere else: Chris convinced each person to talk about details like how they created their marketing plans, how they handle logistics and other details that most business owners are normally very tight-lipped about.

Chris even opens up his own business practices, talking about the successes he’s had with the Unconventional Guides business (along with a few mishaps along the way). I think every freelance writer needs to be studying the Unconventional Guides, by the way — this is how to turn your writing skills into a business model. The Kit also includes 365 steps — small steps that you can do over the course of one day — that will keep up your momentum for an entire year as you launch your own empire.

Why is momentum so important? As Chris explains,

When you’re first getting started, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to begin. When we get overwhelmed, we tend to do nothing — or at least, nothing highly productive. Breaking it down over time not only makes it easier, it also makes it more likely to succeed.

It’s also important to say that small steps taken over time can create a huge impact, but you have to take the right steps. For example, lots of people get hung up on the tactics and logistics. I’m happy to talk about tactics and logistics all day, but the reality is that having a clear vision for your business idea is much more important. The question to ask is: “What is really going to create such an interest in your business idea that people are actually willing to pull out their credit card (or log-in to their PayPal) and send you money?” That’s what the 365-day series focuses on relentlessly. And of course, with 365 messages to work with, I’ve also got a few surprises saved for the journey.

Why Do You Need The Kit?

It’s rare that I say that anybody absolutely needs a product that I review. But if you want to build up a business of your own, but you are having trouble finding where to start on your own, I think that you need the Empire Building Kit. You can put years of hard work into building a business, learning the information that Chris has put together on your own, or you can read, listen and watch all of the information included in this kit and have a business that is actually earning you money in a year.

You might ask why hard work isn’t enough. I actually asked Chris just that. He said,

You have to do the right things. Hard work and passion are extremely important, but you’re right — they’re not sufficient. I like to say that I can be passionate about eating pizza and playing video games, but so far I haven’t found anyone willing to pay me for it. Therefore, the key is to build a business not only around your own interests, but also around what other people are willing to pay for. Knowing how to do that is probably the number-one takeaway from the whole project.

I did receive a review copy, but I would happily pay full price for the information contained in the kit. It’s like what an MBA really needs to be.

The Empire Building Kit is available from EmpireBuildingKit.com Oh, and Chris’ travel habit does mean that the Empire Building Kit will only be available today, for just twenty-four hours. Chris is leaving tomorrow for Africa.

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It seems like a new site pops up every day, offering writers the chance to post anything we want in exchange for a few cents for every page view. Many disappear quite quickly, but RedGage has been in place for several years.

Direct From the Users

Soulosphere (who requested that her interview be only associated with the user name she uses on RedGage) has been adding her work to the site for over a year and a half. “To date, my RedGage posts have been quite varied. I enjoy writing about Spirituality, dreams, synchronicity and creativity. In my blog series titled ‘When Dreams Come True,’ I explore my personal experience with prophetic dreams. ‘A Series of Synchronicities,’ a second blog collection, is an ongoing account of my adventures in synchronicity/meaningful coincidence.”

Currently, all of Soulosphere’s writing is posted at RedGage. Her background in writing focuses on the creative: “I’ve always been passionate about writing including poetry, non-fiction and creative composition. After obtaining my undergraduate degree which included a minor in English, I went on to complete a graduate degree in Art Therapy. I wrote my thesis on the Role of Imagery in the Process of Individuation and Separation in Women. Combining my passion for psychology, art and the written word proved pivotal, greatly expanding an already wide interest in writing.”

When asked about her writing and income, Soulosphere simply says that it varies. “My blogs uploads are anything but regular. I write when the mood strikes and time permits which generally results in a new piece every month or so, though I have plans to significantly boost this frequency…This number, too, is highly variable. My RedGage earnings vary from month to month as generating income on this site is dependent on a number of factors. RedGage pays per view, via bonuses in which individual works are selected to be featured on the homepage, and through raffles; I’ve had months in which I’ve made $20.00 and others which have earned me 200.00!”

Other writers report similar experiences on RedGage. Mark Jasso posts his writing exclusively on the site, as well. “I first discovered RedGage through a listing on Craigslist. My initial use of RedGage was mostly just me rambling a couple times a week…recently finished a challenge that pushed me to write a blog every day for the whole year of 2009. If you had to put my writing into a category, I would consider my writing to be human interest.”

Jasso earns between $20 and $30 a month through RedGage, although he explains that he knows that he could earn more if he invested more time.

Considering Content Sites

I generally advise writers that content sites aren’t the most effective ways to earn a living off your writing skills. Even running a blog of your own with AdSense will usually bring in more income. However, in the case of RedGage, I feel it’s necessary to add a corollary.

Browsing through the site, I noticed that most of the work posted was creative (fiction, personal blogging and so forth), rather than material that will easily earn money elsewhere. It would be difficult to earn an income even with AdSense on this sort of material. If you have a preference for this sort of writing, RedGage may provide a way to earn something for your efforts. It won’t be a full-time income by any means — most of the top-ranking articles on the site have less than 60 views with corresponding earnings of less than a dime — but if it’s something you were going to write anyway, it may be an option.

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The web has opened up many opportunities for writers, and I’m not just talking about finding clients to write for. Because of the relative ease of publishing online in formats ranging from blogs to ebooks, writers have significantly more opportunities to build up income sources of our own than we did a couple of decades ago.

These opportunities can work ideally with freelancing careers. An ebook or another project is not absolutely passive income, of course — you have to put together a product people want to pay for and then you have to market the heck out of it. Just the same, it doesn’t have the day-in-day-out grind of pitching new clients. When you add in the fact that most of us freelance writers experience good months and bad months — feasts and famines — you can see how building up at least a small source of alternative income can be beneficial.

That’s lead me, personally, to explore the passive income sources I could add to my freelancing income. Ebooks, niche sites, blogs… I’ve tried out many options and successfully created a few different sources of income. I’ve also collected huge amounts of information and talked to many other freelance writers. All that information is now available to you, in the format of my new ebook: The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Passive Income.

If you’re a freelance writer who would like to add a passive income source to your freelancing gigs, this ebook includes not only information on a whole list of different passive income projects, but also information on how to plan, create and market the projects you have in mind. (If you’ve already launched a few projects, maybe written an ebook of your own, this probably isn’t the best resource for you — just so you know.

The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Passive Income is 80 pages jam-packed with information. The price is $27 and, if you aren’t entirely satisfied, I’m happy to offer a full refund (within 30 days of purchase).

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Susan Getgood is the managing director of the Blog with Integrity initiative — an effort to help bloggers not only disclose appropriate information when writing posts, but to generally create best practices for bloggers. Susan answered a few questions about her efforts for us:

What was the inspiration of Blog with Integrity?

The four of us (Liz Gumbinner, Kristen Chase, Julie Marsh and myself) had been having an ongoing conversation about ethics and best practices for well over a year when the FTC guidelines on endorsements erupted into the blogosphere in May 2009.

As you probably know, the guidelines caused a great deal of consternation and confusion among bloggers. At the same time, there was increasing negativity in the media about bloggers who participated in marketing programs (reviews, sponsored trips etc.) It was particularly nasty about mom bloggers — “Mom bloggers are shills.” “FTC to regulate mommy bloggers” etc.

We knew this wasn’t true. Most bloggers operate with very high ethical standards, and we wanted to do something positive that would refocus attention on the basic principles that we believed most bloggers live by — honesty, respect and responsibility.

So we created the Blog with Integrity pledge. It’s a simple statement about how we intend to behave as bloggers. A code of conduct if you will. Signing the pledge or displaying the badge (or both) let bloggers reaffirm their commitment to these very simple principles.

What are the goals of Blog with Integrity?

Our goals are pretty simple. We wanted to get people talking about ethics in a more positive way, and we wanted to develop an educational resource for people about business and ethical issues in social media, especially blogging.

More than 2700 people have signed the pledge to-date.

We held two webinars in 2009 about the FTC disclosure requirements, and will be holding more sessions this year on a variety of issues related to best practices.

Do you have any suggestions for what a blogger should include in her disclosure policy?

A disclosure policy is a best practice. The FTC doesn’t require bloggers to have a policy; it wants disclosure on every post that meets the requirements.

I did a session about disclosure at the BlissDom conference earlier this month. The slides are posted as a PDF on my getgood.com/roadmaps blog. There are some specific examples in the slides about language you can use, both in a policy and within the relevant posts.

How did you decide what to include in your own disclosure policy?

I suggest that a blogger include information in her policy about herself, her relationships, her business practices and employment that will help her readers understand her point of view. That’s how I decided what to include in my own policies.

Here are a few examples of policies:

• My own of course: At getgood.com/roadmaps and at snapshotchronicles.com and snapshotchronicles.com/roadtrip.
• WantNot
• Cool Mom Picks
• BlogHer has a great overall policy that is a good model for larger community sites.
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When blogging, it’s considered appropriate to attribute photos, information and just about everything else to wherever you found it. The format can be relatively simple: it should be a link to the source website, preferably the specific page where you found the media in question. If it’s a website that includes content from many users, it’s appropriate to note the user name of the person who added the information you’re referring to.

Jeri Dansky, a blogger and magazine editor, notes that convention requires you to follow instructions for attribution, when available: “Sometimes people will give you explicit instructions on how to handle the attribution, and then I follow those instructions…If I’m using a photo (or text) licensed under Creative Commons, I note that. (Creative Commons provides information on how to give credit.)”

If you do not have instructions on how to attribute information, it’s up to you to create a style that works for you blog. The important thing is to use that style consistently. Especially with concerns about anchor text, it’s important to have a consistent way of deciding how links will read on your blog.

For many bloggers, acknowledging how they found a particular piece of information is important. Jeri uses a simple format: “If I’m acknowledging a source – another blog, for example – that pointed me to something else, I’ll use a [via source] type of text link – where “source” would be the other blogger, with a link to the blog. That’s what other bloggers I respect seem to do, so I follow their lead.”

Many blogs offset sources in some manner. BoingBoing offers a link to sources below the main text of a post, for instance, while Gizmodo offsets sources links in brackets.

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Magazines and newspapers have always made a point of checking facts before they publish them. At many big publications, there is an employee who’s sole responsibility is to take every article the publication plans to run and double check the facts. That can include calling sources to confirm quotes, researching statistics and even making sure that details thrown in more for style than for fact — like the weather on the day of that a particular interview took place — is correct.

Unfortunately, most blogs just don’t have the resources to handle a similar level of fact checking. When you’re a one-guy or gal operation, you aren’t often in a position to hire a fact-checker.

But at least some fact checking is necessary for ensuring that you turn out reputable posts. Lynda McDaniel, a business writing coach and Director of the Association for Creative Business Writing, fact checks her own work as necessary: “I usually interview people for my facts, so I know where I got the information. (Even so, I let my sources check their quotes to make sure I got it right.)”

As a blogger, you can take similar steps. Making sure that you’ve gotten quotes down correctly is an important first step, but verifying the story behind them can be equally important. Lynda points out, “Don’t assume something another blogger or even some journalists said is true (especially from media with a strong, obvious bias). You have to check it out. We’re seeing a lot of half-baked ideas spread like wildfire because someone picked up on a salacious rumor. Listen to that voice within when it tugs at you. You’re on deadline, you want to hit ‘send’; you’re in a hurry, so you don’t want to take time to check. But do it. That voice is telling you something needs to be checked. Your intuition is helping you do a better job.”

Even small details deserve extra attention. Check that you’ve spelled names correctly, posted the right locations and times for events and so on. You wouldn’t want another blogger to misspell your name, after all, so why should you let that happen to someone else.

You may be primarily writing from the basis of opinion, but even then, it’s still important to make sure that you have the right facts. “If…you are writing more from your own head, sharing an opinion, for example, check assumptions you’ve made, verify them through Google, newspapers, books or a phone call.”

Your blog posts will be stronger if you’re sure of the facts they rely on.

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Unless you’re blogging for a very specialized audience — such as on an internal blog limited to members of organization — it’s important to keep the reading level manageable. It’s not a question of how smart your readers are. Instead, it’s a matter of how much time they’re able to devote to your post.

Angie Banicki is the blogger behind Angie’s 30 Before 30, as well as a publicist. Her biggest recommendation for styling your blog posts is to keep it quick and easy to read. It’s not a question of length, but rather of formatting and engagement.

Angie points to the short attention span of readers: “I always try and think about what would personally keep me engaged. I generally go back at least three times and shave off sentences. It’s a bit of the twitter method: less characters – short and tweet.”

You can use the format of your post to help break up the text for readers: use photos to tell a story or explain a point, as well as lists and formatting to make the text visually appealing.

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Rod Holmes, of Chicago Style SEO, relies on the Chicago Manual of Style when it comes to writing blog posts. But there are some gaps between the style that the manual sets forth for print and what bloggers routinely run in to: “Everything from the small (how to format hyperlinks—do you include ending punctuation in the link or not) to proper use of sub-headers. All of these issues have SEO ramifications as well. From an SEO perspective, its best to not have the closing punctuation in the link, and liberal use of sub-headers (when properly formatted in the HTML) is vital.”

While some bloggers may want to be above the nitty-gritty details of SEO, the fact remains that you want the search engines to be able to read your blog posts. That means getting your links right, among other things.

Rod offers advice that does double duty for SEO and style:

1. Include links in naturally written text; don’t write the text with linking in mind. This means don’t use links like click here or link:
   Good: My favorite pizza in Chicago is from Bob’s Wizz Bang Pizza.
   Bad: Click here to see my favorite pizza restaurant in Chicago: Bob’s Wizz Bang Pizza.

   Also, the more keywords the link text (also called, “anchor text”) contain, the better they are for SEO.

2. Don’t include closing punctuation in link anchor text.
   Good: I recommend Chicago Style SEO.
   Bad: I recommend Chicago Style SEO.
3. Use sub-headers ever two or three paragraphs. The sub-headers should contain keywords related to the article and the paragraphs below. These sub-headers are important to readers, most of whom tend to skim and scan looking for what they want to read. Sub-headers are also very important for SEO if they are properly formatted. An example would be, <h3>Important Style and SEO Tips</h3>. These tags tell the search engines that this is a third level header and should be given more weight than the rest of the text.

Not only do these points make it easier for your posts to be found online, but they also make them easier to read for human readers.

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Jenny Greenleaf has four books available — but driving around the country, holding book signings for each one isn’t an option. Instead, she’s holding a virtual book signing on Facebook.

How? Each book has its own custom bookplate designed and signed by Jennifer Greenleaf. All customers have to do is forward their receipt to Jennifer once the purchase has been made, and then they will receive their signed bookplate. The email you need to use in order to receive your custom bookplate is jgbooksigning@aol.com.

She agreed to answer a few questions for us about how her virtual book signing is working.

How did you get the idea of a virtual book signing?

I had heard of another author doing one years ago, but their name escapes me.  I remember participating and thinking it was a great way to allow people from all over the place to attend (even if it wasn’t face to face) the event.

Can you describe how you’re conducting your virtual book signing?

Each time someone purchases one of my books, they forward their receipt to jgbooksigning@aol.com.  From there, I’ll forward them a custom book plate.  Each book has its own one-of-a-kind plate, so customers who buy more than one title will receive bookplates that are different from each other.

What kind of response have you had to the event?

It’s been interesting!  There are a handful of people who aren’t attending because they still think they have to go somewhere to participate, and there are others who are wishing it could be on Skype.  I”m considering that for future events because, to be honest, that thought hadn’t crossed my mind until it was brought to my attention the other day.

What books are you making available through your book signing?

• 101 Mixed-Media Art Projects, How-to’s & Ideas: A Beginner’s Guide to Messy Art Without Rules! (Volume 1)
• Maine Living: One Writer’s Perspective (Volume 1)
• While We’re Apart: A Fill in the Blank Book (Volume 1)
• WWhile We’re Still Apart: A Fill in the Blank Book (Volume 2)

The Future of Book Signings

I’ve seen a lot of authors looking for alternatives to the traditional book signing lately. Between the fact that publishers aren’t offering much help in that department and the ever widening geographic area many authors are dealing with these days, it’s tough to plan a big publicity tour. I think that Jenny’s approach is just the beginning as writers look for new ways to connect with their readers online.

You can learn more about Jenny at her blog.

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One of the most important aspects of writing online is getting published online. Publication can take many forms, from a very short story sent out over Twitter to a guest post to an online magazine. Finding these opportunities can be difficult, though. In order to simplify the process, we’re creating a directory of online opportunities.

We’re using a couple of different criteria to determine whether to include a site in the directory, but one of the most important aspects is payment. If a site does not pay contributors, it will not be included in the directory. That said, payment can differ dramatically from site to site. Twitter markets may pay only a dollar or so for a piece of work, while online magazines may pay hundreds of dollars. Many writers prefer to avoid lower paying opportunities, but especially when a writer is starting out, any opportunity may be worthwhile. With that in mind, we’ll try to include any payment that seems reasonable, but leave out those that are more along the lines of slave wages.

You can also submit your own links to help out other writers working online. There is an approval process in place to ensure that spammers cannot slip in a site that won’t be useful, however. I think we can build a very worthwhile database that can be used to find lots of work for online writers.

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