So you want to make money online by writing eh? You’re in luck because despite what others may tell you about how much you can make, various ways to go about it and an almost mind boggling array of techniques to do so, it’s actually quite easy – you just need to write. It’s important not to get so caught up in the little details of writing online that you end up never taking action.
With that being said, however, there are some things you need to know and understand before making money online by writing. Let’s get to it.
Method 1: Freelance or full-time writing for clients
In your first foray into making money online by writing, you’ll probably look toward writing for freelance clients of landing a full-time writing job online. Realistically, starting off with clients will be more difficult than the other two within this post but it will give you the greatest option to create your own home-based writing business.
Although there are many ways to find freelance and full-time clients, here are three of the easiest to begin with:
Freelance job boards - Between Freelancer, oDesk, Guru and the countless others you can easily find hundreds (even thousands) of available jobs every day. Although you may not receive the best payment for your writing services it’s still a great way to get started and piggyback your way to obtaining a client list.
Contacting clients directly - Take the initiative with this one: you will be contacting clients directly through social media, email, phone calls or any other method of contact. Find out if a client needs your writing services and pitch it to them as if you were applying for any other job; send samples and keep in contact, land that job!
Promoting your own portfolio - If you have access to a blog or website you’re in luck, you can use your site to host your writing services and list your resume. Instead of trying to make the sale up-front you can direct people back to your resume and increase the chance of landing a writing job.
As you can see, a lot of them are quite common sense; you just need to take action to seek out potential clients – don’t be afraid to market your writing business; this is, after all, what’s going to make you extra money online or your own full-time career.
Method 2: Writing for your own website/blog or paid-to-write websites
The second way you can easily begin making money by writing online is if you have your own blog or join paid-to-write websites such as Bukisa. These two methods will be explained below:
Operating your own blog or website
If you write for your own blog, you gain many great benefits such as:
The ability to sell your own products or affiliate products
Build your online brand which creates greater opportunities online
Sell ad space and insert advertising blocks to earn extra money
Review products and services for a paid fee or sell and earn a commission
Of course, there are many other benefits of running your own blog because you get full control over what you do with it. The only downside is that it will take a while for you to become recognized because your blog won’t be high ranking within search engines and you need to get out there and network.
Writing for article websites
Websites like Bukisa and others give you many opportunities to make money writing online. You can earn through passive income (my favorite) due to your page views and ad-share, win contests for money, be paid up-front or make money through affiliating your links which earn you a commission.
You’re really endless to the possibilities to writing online for article websites; you also gain the benefit of interacting with other writers and can even lead to finding clients – since you have a public profile on these sites.
Thoughts on the two
Just to add in my own personal thoughts, I believe a great way to approach each is to do just that, have each of them up and running. With your blog, you can increase your chances of finding clients and directing people to your articles elsewhere while the article websites can help you earn more money which can be reinvested toward your blog or writing career.
Method 3: Selling your articles on article marketplaces
Finally, one area of making money online through writing that many don’t seem to take advantage of is selling their content on article marketplaces. Article marketplaces allow you to either write titles clients need or write your own and determine your own price.
Here are a few different article marketplaces worth checking out:
Constant Content (pays the highest, by far)
Textbroker
ArticleMe
Each of these has their own level of requirements for applying and creating content for the sites. Yes, you will have to give up a small share of your profits but you can set your own prices so just keep that in mind (raise it just a little to cover the cost).
Thoughts about these various methods
Personally, I think it’s very smart if you were to use a combination of each of these. When you diversify your income streams you’re going to be playing it safe; I personally write on all three of these platforms which does wonders because you’re able to interlink your articles, increase your traffic and overall revenue.
Additionally, when you’re writing for each you can keep a stable income – if one dips out and that’s your only one than you’re pretty much out of luck with your earnings.
Whenever you find the time, write a few articles each day and test out the waters with each of these methods. You may find you like one more than the other; just keep writing and you’ll find yourself smiling after you’ve begun to build up a healthy stream of revenue through your online writing.
Get paid to write on Bukisa! Start here: http://www.bukisa.com/join/69943
Written by Murlu
Hey! I’m a full time web designer/product developer, freelance writer and blogger – let me know how I can help you in your own online career.
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