I have a confession to make.

Before reading O2S Media’s post about the dangers of cross-posting my writing, I reposted some of my blogs and articles on helium.com. Unfortunately, I can’t delete them now. Although, I did learn something very important from that blunder. I found out that my total Helium.com earnings are less than 13% of what I earned on PrintNPost.com just yesterday alone. They might have been even more if my other posts weren’t detouring site traffic.

What does this have to do with finding your muse and getting paid for it? It’s a lesson in maximizing earnings from your writing. Let me reiterate, I earned nearly 87% MORE money in one single day from PrintNPost than the entire time I’ve been signed up with Helium. The PrintNPost system works! It’s the best way to earn money writing I’ve found so far. The trick is to be prolific enough to fire off pieces quicker than a machine gun,  then get them posted on the site as soon as possible. Think of each thing you write for PrintNPost as residual income. You write it once, but it will continue to earn money as long as new site visitors keep discovering the site. If you’re like me and consider one article a day minimum acceptable output, then you’re going to need to find a lot of different things to write about.

Here are some ways to encourage your muse:

Listen to a good morning radio show. Morning radio shows are great for several reasons. Besides being funny and relaxing, they usually discuss currently popular topics. Even if they’re subjects you’re sick of hearing about, they’re popular. Popular means that a lot of people are interested in reading about those stories and that’s exactly what we need to increase our site traffic.


In the case of my article, Harry Potter and The Devil’s Influence, I’m certain that it was indexed so quickly by Google because you can’t listen to a radio, read a paper, or watch the news right now without hearing about Harry Potter’s final book being released or how different the tone of the new movie is.

Another thing that makes morning radio shows great is they often have questions or debates that listeners call in to discuss. Take the subject of a debate you enjoyed and write about your opinion on it. That alone can make for a great blog. Throw in a little bit of research that supports your opinion or a few links to other stories about the subject and it becomes an article. Either way, it gives you something new to add to PrintNPost.

My favorite morning show for inspiration is Chio in the Morning on Philadelphia’s Wired 96.5. But, what if you don’t live in Philadelphia? Well, you can always download the Podcast at http://www.wired965.com/index.php?page=66 I highly recommend the July 19th episode from 7 a.m. – 8 a.m. There are some really great, and grossly disturbing, news stories there that are just begging to be written about. But be warned, the episodes expire every 7 days.

Another way to find writing prompts is to frequently check news sites. It’s not stealing if you take one of their stories and put your own spin on it. Sometimes just reading the stories can inspire you on another topic you’d like to write about.

Some of my favorite websites for this are:

http://drudgereport.com/
http://breitbart.com/
http://www.weirdus.com/
http://www.comcast.net/
http://www.variety.com/

If nothing else, just do a Google search for “Hot Topics” and you find tons of new links to feed your mind.

Don’t be afraid to write about something that is personally significant. For example, I was thinking this morning about how difficult it was to get my dog apartment trained after she grew up in a totally different environment. Then it hit me that I bet other people would like to read about that. I could write about my trials and errors, what finally worked, and then throw in all the research I did on dog training to back it up. Boom! One article for today was practically written in my head before I even left the house.

Next I thought about how pleased I was to see my Google AdSense reports this morning. It occurred to me that I want to help others feel the same excitement I do knowing people enjoy my writing and everything I write is a never ending source of income. That line of thinking is what inspired me to write this article. By the end of today, I’ll have two brand new articles posted. All just from the thoughts I had during my morning routine. The final lesson I can teach you is to keep your eyes open, your brain thinking, and never plagiarize, but don’t be afraid “steal” ideas from every source you can find. 

For more info on making money online, check out my other article.