If you’ve wondered how to make money from writing lately then you have never chosen a better time. The possibilities of making a good amount of money from your writing is really overwhelming. In fact, when people ask me what the best way to make money online is, I will often first ask them, “Do you like to write?” If they do, then the rest is a matter of plugging in the right tools and know-how to start generating a regular income through this means.
Of course, even if you are NOT a writer, you can make money online with writing. Yes way! You simply have to know someone who DOES like to write and outsource all of your work to them. Elance is a good place to start looking for a ghost writer by the way.
Note: The methods below WILL make you money but ONLY if you work hard at it. It is not impossible to earn over $5,000 a month just writing, but it takes a good work ethic and desire to keep at it even when you don’t feel like writing.
So here are 8 tried and true ways to make money from writing
1. Article Marketing with Affiliate Products
This is sort of a broad heading here, but if there is a certain topic you love to write about or you have a certain expertise you think would be useful.. write about it. Write an article and submit it to an article directory like Ezine Articles, Articlebase, or Go Articles. But before you submit the articles find an affiliate product to promote and use that link in the resource box or in the article somewhere (keep in mind that Ezine Articles does not accept affiliate links… but you can use redirects from your website to the affiliate page=). Every time someone reads your article and clicks on the link to make a purchase, you get paid.
2. Make Squidoo Lenses
Squidoo is a really cool service I have been using for some time now. It is basically a website service you can use to make a one page website even if you know nothing about HTML. Just write about a specific topic and any time a visitor gets on your page and clicks an advertisement youget 50% of the profits. With a bunch of Squidoo pages you can really rake in the dough. See? Writing to make money online is not THAT complicated. Oh, and you can mix article and affiliate marketing in with Squidoo as well. Just use you affiliate links and earn some extra cash.
3. Write an Ebook
I am actually working on an ebook right now. And guess what it’s about? Yup, affiliate marketing. But I am not selling it. I will be offering it for free to my readers here at CashCoach.net. It’s for newbies wanting to get into affiliate marketing and I will let you know when I am done.
All that being said, you can write an ebook on your area of expertise and people really will buy it. But it’s all a matter of proper marketing. I buy ebooks all the time, but some of them have been a total waste. The more you write, the more people will get to know you as an author and learn to trust you and buy any new ebook you have put out there. You can use Clickbank, Ejunkie, or a number of other services to sell your ebook, but make sure it is priced according to its real value. Ebooks can range from 20 pages to 150 pages, but I recommend at least a 35 page ebook.
Here is a great ebook on HOW to write an excellent ebook. I am using a lot of those principles in my writing of the ebook I’m working on.
4. Write Articles for Ehow and Make Money Writing
This is a pretty cool service I bet a lot of people don’t even know about. Ehow will pay you with Paypal for writing informative “How to” articles. The more traffic they get and the better quality the article it is, the more money you will earn. You can get started here making money by writing with Ehow. It’s free to sign up for an account if you don’t already have one.
Here is a great ebook on how you can actually maximize your profits writing for ehow.
5. Start a blog and generate traffic
There are literally hundreds of ways to make money with a blog, but the main thing is just to get started adding content to it. Write regularly and write about interesting topics that inform people and people WILL come back again and again. The more traffic you get the more you can earn through programs like Adsense, Chitika, Kontera, Infolinks, and other advertising programs. You can also put affiliate links on your blog and earn money that way. With a good blog, the possibilities and endless and entire ebooks have been written on this one topic. One of the best ebooks on how to build a blog to make money online is Blogging to the Bank.
6. Write for a blog
Bloggers have a hard time keeping up with the demand of voracious readers. (oh yeah, I said voracious) If they have a ton of readers they are probably looking for some writers to help with the work load. Guest posting on blogs is a big deal these days and you can get paid anywhere from $20 to $100 per post. Depending how good you are and how famous you are in the blogging world. But even if you are just starting out with writing for money online, you can just contact a blogger and see if he/she needs a hand. There are times I may need a writer too so feel free to contact me if you are interested.
7. Write reviews on your blog
Programs like Payperpost, ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews and others will pay you for writing reviews on your blog about a certain website or product. Advertisers want good exposure in the blogosphere so they will often pay $20 and higher for blog posts and a link to their website. There are some guidelines however. Your blog usually has to have been around for at least 3 months and have a decent Page Rank (PR) or at least a page rank at all. But every program is different so start with one that will actually accept you. Also, make sure you readers know it is a sponsored review. This is usually in the TOS of the review companies too.
8. Do some Freelance Writing for Businesses
Ok, this one you can start doing right now. Like I said, people all over the place are looking for quality writers who are reliable. You can make money from writing by going to forums. Digital Point is the single best forum for trading services like writing. Go under the Buy Sell Trade section and just post that you are willing to write for so much per word. Or you can contact others who have posted their need for a writer. You will need some sample articles you have written.
Or you can always check out programs like Elance. There are a ton of writers to compete with there so don’t sell yourself short because you are trying to compete with some Indian writer who puts out 400 word articles for $2 bucks. Remember to offer quality above all else and let the people who WANT good quality material to be satisfied with your services.
There are lots of ways to get into freelance writing for a living. A great ebook to get you started on how to do freelance writing work is here.
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There are really lots of ways to make money for writers out there. It’s just about finding the right opportunity.
Yes very true. And I find it’s better to stick with ONE thing that works for you than going in as many directions as you can. The specialist are the true money makers.
Great stuff. I also see a lot of people making money through opportunities that present themselves due to their writing such as speaking gigs.
Ed Kohler’s last blog post..WhereTheLocalsEat.com’s Twincy Recommendations
Yeah great point Ed. It’s true that a good writer will find themselves getting all kinds of other work including interviews and speaking engagments as you mentioned. This is why you should make every writing a “work of art” =)
Appreciate your endorsement for eHow. We hope next year will be even bigger and better
-Rich
eHow, Community Manager
I was looking around for other authors who wrote about similar topics as me and I must say I am impressed, very concise but informative rundown here, wish I had run into in 2008 when you wrote it!