For nine months I worked in a call centre. I was a telesales agent and I absolutely hated my job. I'd come home from work each night stressed and ready to sleep. This was not a fun period of my life, I couldn't stand my job and yet it was needed to pay the bills. I desperately wanted to get out of it but didn't have the guts to leave. I didn't want to be penniless and I therefore felt that I needed to stay in the job that I detested so much.

Over the Christmas period I had three weeks off from work, this gave me time to think about my situation and plan for the future. I've already had an interest in writing and the most logical route out of the job that I hated was to write my way out of it. I did so, at the end of January I was able to leave my job as a telesales agent and begin my assault on the world of writing.

I'd always written on a small scale, in leaving full-time employment I was able to focus all of my efforts on it however and make a decent living purely from writing. I'm now happy, probably in a better financial position than ever before and I no longer dread getting up in the morning. I'm self-employed, I can write from home and life is absolutely excellent. I enjoy and cherish each and every day of my life. Waking myself up in the morning used to be a chore, it's now exciting as I never know what each day may hold.

Ciao was the first writing site that I ever utilised in order to bring in an extra few pennies and pounds. The website will give you the opportunity to take part in surveys, and you can also write about exciting new products in order to add to your income and increase your potential monthly expenditure. Near the beginning of each month the website will pay out, to make a withdrawal you must have accumulated at least £5 over the month and this is something that I personally manage really quite easily.

The best thing about Ciao is that every month £2000 Premium Fund will be paid out shared amongst the highest quality writers on the website. It's not unusual to be paid over £20 from the Premium Fund, an exciting day in each calendar month and one that I personally look forward to in great anticipation. Again this day is usually at the start of the month, it's great to get paid a chunk of Premium Fund and dependent upon how many reviews/how many surveys you have done in a month then you can actually earn a massive amount of money from Ciao. My best advice is to write about electronics, these are the reviews that you will earn the most money from and also the ones that will benefit you with the best Premium Fund possible.

My Verdict: Join Ciao Now and write as many reviews as possible about electronics!

I have been a member of Helium for some months now. This is another place that I earn a large chunk of money from each month and a place that helps greatly with the paying of my bills. Recently the website ran a 'Rewardathon' and over a three month period you could potentially earn up to $3 from each article you wrote over that time. I personally gained $900 from this, a fantastic help and a very much needed mass of money it was too. Helium is great for all sorts of writers, whether you wish to write on a regular basis or maybe just from time to time; you can be the judge of how much you wish to write with Helium and how much you write will of course reflect upon how much you earn.

The brilliant thing about Helium is the marketplace. There are always publishers looking for articles to be written on Helium covering a vast array of different subjects and issues. With a little research you can write about anything, and a lot of money is often up for grabs here. At times the marketplace publishers will offer as much as $300 for a simple article which will generally take no longer than one hour for you to research and write. This truly is an excellent aspect of the website, I personally have written many articles for the Helium Marketplace and always I have been impressed with the results. It furthers your writing potential, you write about things that you usually would not and this hones your general ability and overall standard of writing. You do not always get published, when you do however it's a huge rush and you will feel as though you're on top of the world.

My Verdict: Join Helium Now and start writing for the Marketplace!

I have a great interest in creating new websites. I have quite a few of them now and the money I earn from them can sometimes be colossal. Through using advertising tools such as Google Adsense and ValueClick Media I have benefited hugely. I've pocketed a lot of money from my websites, learn some simple HTML and you too can make money from your scribblings on websites. I write a lot of music reviews on my website Alt-UK, movie reviews on World of Film, and also I run an online radio station at Hypersound Radio. It's all interesting stuff and I personally love making websites. I'm currently working on another website also, a portfolio website giving an overview of my online work and the lengths I am going to in order to make a success of my career as a writer.

Since February I have been using Squidoo, I must say that so far I have been extremely impressed with it as well! Making lenses on Squidoo is incredibly fun, you can promote any other websites that you might have, and it'll also help you increase your traffic from search engines all round. Squidoo is a useful tool to utilise, I wish to make more lenses than I do but sadly I just don't seem to have the time. My ultimate aim is to make a new lens daily, something that should benefit me greatly and really help in my quest to make as much money from possible from writing.

Joining Squidoo is easy, creating lenses simple, and making money is therefore an absolute doddle. Squidoo is a website that I recommend greatly, you need to put the time in but trust me; it's all worth it! Update your lenses every couple of days to keep the traffic coming in, as minor as the changes may be every little helps and always it will benefit you. Choose your tag words wisely, create your lenses intelligently and you will benefit as largely from Squidoo as I have.

My Verdict: Sign Up For Squidoo now and get creating lenses!

Writing for newspapers and/or magazines can be a great way of earning a substantial amount of income. It's not always easy getting your foot in the door, once you've done so however it all becomes a lot easier. Over the months I've sent many e-mails out to companies, not all have replied but those that have done have always been incredibly positive.

A useful book I've bought which I serious suggest you do also is that of Writer's Market. Writer's Market is great in that it gives you lists of newspapers, magazines, TV channels etc. all in alphabetical order. Separate sections are given for each type of media and this includes book publishers, poetry publishers and even music publishers also. The book provides an extensive selection of publishers and whatever it is that you're after you'll no doubt find it in here. What I particularly love about the book is that it gives you a general submission guide, information about the percentage of freelance writers that the publications take on board, and sometimes figures are even given of how much the publication will pay for assigned and unassigned articles. Writer's Market is basically an excellent book which I personally have benefited greatly from owning, it's the best writing resource of this sort that I have found and without doubt one that I would recommend buying if you're serious about writing.

My personal experience is rooted mainly in the world of music magazines, I've progressed a little further than this in my efforts however and am always on the lookout for magazines that accept articles from freelance writers. Writer's Market is a great tool to utilise, buying the book has made my life a lot easier and I have made a lot of contacts from doing so. Always keep a professional style when writing for publications, research the magazines/newspapers you're e-mailing to and get an idea of what they want/expect in an article. Keep your e-mails friendly but professional, an e-mail to an editor is just as important as a written letter would be and always you want to make a good impression. Persistence pays when it comes to writing; if your e-mails are ignored once by a magazine then do not give up, try and try again. If you keep on hounding the publication then they'll know you're serious, do so enough and they may well just publish you (even if it is just to shut you up).

Slice The Pie is a music website I discovered recently when fellow Squidoo member Rock_The_Ice recommended it to myself. The site gives you the ability to listen to and rate tracks, you can submit your reviews in a form after the music has been playing for 60 seconds. Whilst the music is playing however you can begin to write your review immediately in a text document and copy and paste the writing immediately as soon as the sixty seconds is up.

It's an interesting website in that it pays you to review the tracks on the website and there is a pay scale based on how many stars you have as a scout. You start off with one star and at current this means you receive three pence for every review that you write. Dependent upon how much I have to say, I tend to write between 40 and 100 words per track (but then again I'm a quick typist and this process takes me very little time at all. I'm currently a three star scout and this means that I receive 9 pence for every track review that I write. I'd suggest writing approximately forty words as minimum every time with this website as your progression through the star system is based amongst other things on the quality of your review submissions.

At current the pay system is as follows:

* 1 star - 3p
* 2 stars - 5p
* 3 stars - 7p
* 4 stars - 9p
* 5 stars - 12p

There are currently no 5 starred writers on the website and to gain this sort of notoriety you must first write around 10 000 track reviews amongst other things. It's no easy task to get 5 stars, I personally aim to be amongst the first to make it there however and it's my mission to become a five starred music scout for the Slice the Pie website.

The website is incredibly addictive, I write over one hundred track reviews per day and spend far too much time writing on here at current, it's for good reason however and were I to be writing 100 reviews as a 5 star scout I'd be netting myself a cool £12 per day. As it stands; £9 is nothing to shrug off but my aim is to gain a fifth scouting star as quickly as humanly possible. I gained my second star when I reached 50 reviews, the third when I reached 250, and the fourth when I passed the massive 1500 reviews mark.

The fact you're labelled a scout adds to the addictive nature of the website I feel, you feel professional in writing the track reviews for the website and feel as though you're an active and influential member of the music industry; something I personally find to be greatly appealing.

The website can be used as a bit of fun or to make you a fair amount of money. It's up to you really as to how much time you're willing to dedicate to the website; it's really very addictive though so watch yourself, before long you could well find that you'll be spending many hours of your day listening to music and rating reviews in the 'Scout Room' (the place where you can listen and rate artists unbeknown to you as to who the artist is until a review has first been submitted).

A great thing about the website is that payments are made through Paypal so although the money is paid in English pounds (payment requests can be made when you reach the payment threshold of £5) you can actually receive money wherever you are in the world so long as you have a Paypal account. Paypal is a hugely useful tool, I love it when companies pay by Paypal and the fact that Slicethepie do so really is excellent I feel. Having only been on the website a couple of days I can not yet tell you how long it take for payment to process, I'll let you know here when I do so however.

If you love music then this is a great website to sign up to. You can find some great new artists to listen to and make a bit of money in the process; finding new bands to listen to is never a bad thing and nor is making money.

My Verdict: Sign Up For Slicethepie now and review some tracks!

There is a lot of money to be made from writing. I am one of the many currently making money from the art and never have I been happier. I always hated working for others, working for myself is brilliant and gives me so much freedom. My earnings are based very much on how much time and effort I'm willing to put in, it must be said that I'm willing to put in whatever hours it takes and if you are too then making money from writing is well within your grasp.

Writing can be a fun hobby or an actual way of life; it's entirely up to you really. I've made writing my life but this does not have to be the case. For many years I have been running websites, only for a few months have I been writing for a living. You can make a decent amount of money from writing whilst having an alternative job also. Ciao and Helium are definitely websites that I'd recommend signing up for no matter how much time you wish to spend writing as money is there to be made and is very much up for grabs.

I always loved writing and now it is my life. I've never been happier and every day of my life is now an absolute pleasure. I never liked working for others, working for yourself the profits are all yours and you need not share your earnings with anyone. My partner is also a writer and we inspire each other, spur each other on and remain generally positive and upbeat. We're both very happy and love our jobs; writing for a hobby is fun, writing for money on the other hand can help pay the bills and if you're willing to put the time and effort in then being able to become a full-time writer could well become a definite possibility for you. Don't be under the illusion that writing for a living will be easy; it's not, there is however money to be made from writing in your spare time and I very much hope that I have here inspired you to do so.