When I tell people about my new stream of income –writing for eHow– they ask me two things: How eHow works, and How to eHow.   Around the site, eHow is not just a proper name of a website, it’s also a verb.  I eHow.  He/she/they eHow.  You can eHow too.

eHowing is very simple, and can be done by anyone, really.   Although a lot of us have experience writing for other sites or other media, there is no writing experience necessary to write for eHow.

So this, ladies and gentlemen, is how to eHow:

Brainstorm

Think of titles for articles by just living your every day life. The trick is to walk around your house, neighborhood, or office as if you’ve never been there before. See your surroundings with an inquisitive stranger’s eyes. You might know full-well how to clean car grease from your mechanic-husband’s pants… and that’s precisely the sort of expertise someone might be searching for. Just because it’s your common, every day life doesn’t mean it’s not interesting and searched for.

Keep a List

Article ideas might come to you when you’re out and about, miles from your computer. You don’t want to forget those great ideas before you have a chance to write them, so you need to keep a list of some sort. Personally, I keep a small metal flip notebook (exactly like this one) and my BlackBerry phone with me at all times.  If I’m in a place where I can’t write (such as in a dark movie theater), I pull out my BlackBerry and write a note to myself.   When I get home, I get my notepad and phone out, and write those new ideas down on a legal pad that I keep by my laptop.

Think Like a Search Engine User

You need to phrase your article’s title in a way that a search engine user might look for information. For instance, if you wrote an article about how to make apple brown Betty, and you are using your Aunt Peggy’s recipe (which she had a cute name for), you shouldn’t entitle your article, “How to Make Aunt Peggy’s Amazing Apple Brown Peggy.” Search engines don’t know how to decifer cute-factors, which means readers won’t find you. A reader wanting information about how to make apple brown Betty, they might use the words, “apple brown betty” or “apple brown betty recipe” in their search. This means, of course, that you need these words in your title. For best results, you should call your article, “How to Make Apple Brown Betty,” and include the word “recipe” in the intro paragraph of your article.