How To Make Money Writing Online

Making money online is one of the biggest, most rewarding and exciting aspects to come out of the dotcom generation.

There are numerous, countless, unfathomable amounts of different ways to earn cash on the internet. It is simple, quick, rewarding and pleasurable. People can make money literally at the click of a button.

With advertising, affiliate marketing, online shops and perhaps most significant of all, eBay, anybody who has access to the World Wide Web can generate money whenever, from wherever, they like.

Many people, an increasing amount in fact, quit their day jobs, and live their lives on the internet, making substantial incomes. Dotcom billionaires set the minds of entrepreneurs alight in the early days of Yahoo!, AOL and Google. Such simple concepts generated ludicrous profits and bit by bit, year by year, people all over the world have tried to follow in such footsteps by creating their own online businesses.

With the emergence of eBay as an internet phenomenon, everyday men, women and children alike began to realise the power of the internet. With the colossal expansion of internet popularity, more advertising, more businesses and more products hit the internet shelves.

You can now make money online doing practically anything. With such a jungle to fight through, however, the importance of clever marketing is becoming ever more apparent.

So, with millions of writers, bloggers, journalists and copywriters out there, all wanting their share of the internet-pie, how can they make their money by writing on the internet?

There are plenty of popular websites out there which pay for their writers. Starting with the obvious, BBC and CNN, both cover masses of subjects and topics i.e. News, Business, Sport, Entertainment… and both are updated 24 hours a day. They both offer work experience and occasionally advertise job opportunities, but most notable of all, you can email particular subject areas or journalists with your own freelance articles. Whether or not these are paid, depends strictly on numerous factors. Most poignantly here – they probably won’t use it.

So, what is a good basis to start earning money online? Well, it is firstly important to spread your wings. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. You have to write lots of articles, and publish them on many sites. This will naturally increase the amount of traffic to your articles, and also allows for more back-links to your article/blog websites.

The content of your writing should be from your own ideas and your own words. Not duplicating content already on the web will help people find what you are writing about.

There are numerous websites available such as www.associatedcontent.com, www.haymarket.com and www.helium.com, which serve as magazine websites, in a similar format to the BBC or CNN, but will pay ad revenue to writers who get their articles featured and published.

Advertising is not necessarily earning money directly through writing, but it is certainly a viable starting point. Signing up to a Google AdSense account allows you to place advertisements on your websites, allowing you to earn money as you publish articles. You can filter out unwanted adverts, therefore increasing the potential of your articles.

Maybe this one is a bit of a jungle in itself, but throwing your name about is so important: sign up to various Freelancer websites, advertise your services, promote yourself as a writer, and you may well get spotted by somebody looking to hire a writer. I call this a jungle because there tend to be thousands of writers signed up to these websites – all claiming to be the biggest and best, and they are all in the same boat as you. It is difficult to stand out from the crowd.

But this all ties in with general networking. When hiring a writer, the employer, if you will, would rather hire somebody whose work they have seen, and that they know they can trust. When everybody is claiming to be a great writer, some people will be cautious because they can’t differentiate between one writer and the other. If you have various blogs, websites, facebook and twitter accounts, there is more of a chance that said employer will have come across your name and work at various other stages of their search for a writer. This adds to your credibility as a good writer, thus increasing your chances of being hired. Then, in turn, doing a good job will earn appraisals and testimonials.

www.hubpages.com is a great way to earn money, and a great way to have your work found by varying readers. Use popular keywords and don’t forget to tag your articles. This all helps to increase traffic.

As previously mentioned, eBay has been a phenomenon. You can use your acquired writing skills to sell products on eBay. This is actually a very good tool for testing out the quality if your copywriting. In general, articles well written, with plenty of power words and benefits, will end up selling for more than with just a general item description.

Similarly to advertising, while this is not strictly your writing which is earning money – it is certainly an effective way to test out the harnessing of your skills.