It took me many years to come to the conclusion for me personally that I could earn from writing, even though I knew I was pretty good at it and enjoyed it very much. Getting paid writing was something that seemed lofty or too hard just for regular ol' me. Have you ever thought that about yourself? It's true that it may take awhile to start getting those paying jobs that actually replenish your bank account, but why not start now? The sooner the better. And you never know, you just might land a great writing position, right from the beginning. You won't know until you start and then keep at it.


I used to think, "Who am I to do that?" I'm the one that corrects those I love on their English usage and grammar, one of my many faults ...but only because I want them to sound smart (and I don't want to hear or see the error again, hee hee hee). ;) I certainly would never want to insult anyone. That's me, always thinking of others. Well, I try. But making a career at writing? Okay sure, why not. If they can do it, so can we. Someone has to do it and anyone can become qualified enough with practice.



Did you know that if you can learn EARLY to take advice and instruction without getting upset, you're doing a wise thing? ;) Just thought you might need that little reminder. I'm just full of useful hints. Ha ha.



Anyway, I hold back from correcting people as much as I can. I know how it irritates most people and yes, I know we aren't in a classroom; but I'm still a teacher. In any case, I think I learned more Outside of the classroom, while living my life instead of In one, didn't you? I learned from watching people and from reading. Oh, and trial and error.



Writing isn't too hard if you have the basics down. Just about anyone that can talk, can probably write. If they have any confidence. It helps to use the proper tools too. Using Word is important as it can help you check your spelling and avoid some grammatical errors. If you need help using Microsoft Word, here are some training slides: Microsoft Word Training
If you want to test yourself to see how much you know about using Word, here's a quick little quiz for you: Microsoft Word Quiz



Here's a BIG hint - read a LOT and your brain will automatically learn the rules of writing without trying very hard. Your mind is smarter than you know and the more you use it the better it works.



So READ A LOT and eventually you will most likely want to write a lot. No kidding. Of course it helps if you start by at least your twenties or earlier, but I'm sure any age will do with some effort. Once you get fast at reading, you are on your way.


Here's a simple formula for writing strong articles. Remember the 3's. Make your opening line and perhaps involve a question you are solving. Make the reader want to know more about what you have written. Then have 3 parts to your topic. 3 stages or 3 steps, 3 examples, 3 solutions, you get the idea. With each one of your 3, have 3 small things about it to make a paragraph. Here you can add
statistics
quotes
stories
examples
lists
mention the familiar and new things
bullets (people love bullets
et cetera.
Use a variety of types to keep all your different readers interested. Then sum the whole thing up and mention various things from throughout the article, to help your reader remember everything they read. There you go, it's all in the 3's! Start posting articles at Post articles here or somewhere like it mentioned below to get going. You can be a writer. Start now.
You might want to look at licensing your work so nobody outright steals it too, Writer License.


And not that this has anything to do with writing but I found some places that will give you a car for a year or two, if you don't mind having advertising on it. Either that or they will give you 3 or 400 a month for putting an ad on your current car...

AutoWraps
Paid to Drive
AdSmartOutdoor

Just thought it might help a few of you.
We don't want any writers going without as they get their writing careers now do we?!

Here's another of my sites that may help you with working on the Internet. Look at the page elements for tips on what you could add to your page for extra income, while working on your writing career at this work at home opportunities page.

We'll look at some options for writing for money a little further down this web page, right now, let's take this quick poll...

Many writers enjoy writing engaging articles that help others with things they have found to be useful. It's like sharing helpful information with your friends over dinner, but on a broader scale.

When you post these helpful articles in the right places, you can make a few dollars each month on the same article. This is called Web 2.0, Social Networking and commanding web "conversations." Making your own Squidoo page is this type of networking boosting your web presence and rankings! Or use of any of the online communities like MySpace, FaceBook or the New Yuwie, where absolutely everyone loves meeting everyone. You can make a few cents for each page view over there. It's really fun, honestly. And it can become addictive like Squidoo here. Find as many web site portals as you can handle to make pages on. And then you can "Digg" an article about them to rank higher too. Have you been to Digg? It helps just to have a post there whether it's voted on or not.

Have you made your own page yet?
Here's a couple of sites that you'll need to help your web page get noticed on the Internet:
Let the indexes know you've updated your page, each time you write something new.
Here's the Google submission tool (don't use the bulk submission site for Google. Un-check that box if you use the tool under this link and use this one,, just for Google instead).
Google submission tool

List your site in the search engines here.
Check your email after submitting to the search engines. You'll have to confirm you wanted that done. And you don't need to pay for any extra rankings. It's a free service. If your page is good and you write on it at least 3 times every week, it will go up in rank. Now do MSN and Yahoo also on that bulk submitter. Notice how I put the KEYWORD as the LINK? That's very important for your pages to be ranked higher on the search engines so do that for sure.

Here's another free place to advertise. Find your own and post them in the Guest book for others. Let's support each other.

Once you get a lot posts out on the Internet you start to dominate the conversation, so to speak, for your topics! This is also called organic traffic. And everyone knows organic is better, right?
Another thing to consider is doing a Press Release at PR Web. They do offer a free service so this could help get the word out about your writing abilities.



Quick Note - Do you ever need a file converted to a different format? Here's a Free file converter site you may want to use.

Learning to write White Papers could also get you some extra writing business. Look at this link:
Write White Papers



I've heard of a man named Travis that writes an article for a piece of software he likes or a program he finds useful, he posts his article with a link to sell the item and then makes thousands of dollars every month from his continual efforts.


I like a good tool as well as as anyone, so let me recommend this free one to you: Free Keyword Tool

Here's an example of what my email acquaintance Travis, the Bum Marketer, might sell. It's a keyword search tool like this one here at
Writer's Tools. Then his articles keep selling for him each and every month. If he needs extra cash, he writes more articles.

You might want to read some tips from writers that post a lot so open this link in a new tab for an example: Re-Purpose Article. Then look at some of the articles written there. You can learn a lot from other writers. Here's a new spot to post articles to open in another tab: New Article Posting Spot. There's a little tutorial there to learn from also so have fun with it.
After you get a lot of posts all over the Internet (notice that capital "I" as the proper name for the Internet ...wink, wink) you will probably have a few job offers and several articles that sell. Won't that be encouraging. Check out the Helium link I have above and post some articles there. Other writers get to rate your writing which helps you move up in ranking. That's a good way to get noticed and make a little cash too. It also helps you to know if what you write is interesting for others.


Now that's writing for yourself!
The Bum Marketer also employs email marketing to work for him as he offers tips to writers so, be aware of that, if you sign up for his helpful newsletter.


You can post at places like:
Qassia
and/or
InfoSweet
Those first two places allow you to add your Google Adsense code to your articles to earn money alongside your writing. If you write something very interesting, you could make some extra cash.
There's also:
Go Articles
or
Article Marketer
or
Do your own search for places to post.
Or better yet, visit this Article Directory List.
This site also has a Free Article Submitter! Try it out.

If you want to do a product review or take a survey for an extra 5 - 25 dollars, try these sites:

American Consumer Opinion
E-Poll



Another avenue to make money from writing is in the Global Data Entry field. This can earn you cash working for major companies as you get established in front of your audience and prospective publishers. Everyone likes to eat and have a roof over their heads so Global Data Entry can be an excellent place to start IF you are motivated and really want to work.
Here's: My Data Team

It takes several hours to get started and registered with all the places they direct you to go and you'll learn a lot about where to post to get noticed. They teach a lot about affiliate marketing but also have traditional writing and proofreading jobs. It takes several days to get approved for the traditional jobs just like going on a regular job interview, except it's online. The software My Data Team offers for free is very good to use for yourself too for marketing.
I'll list some more very soon. I've discovered about 5 or 6 of them and will tell you more soon after more research. Get this free report about one of the more traditional jobs they offer and find out what a Virtual Assistant can do for someone needing clerical help It's a 40 page free report that tells about everything a Virtual Assistant (VA) does...


If you would like to be referred to them for some traditional data entry jobs, let me know. I can put in a good word for you and tell them why they should hire you. VA's can make 30K-40K a year, just by typing and managing documents for individuals or companies of every size, if you really want the work. It's kind of like working for a Temp Agency and they assign Data Entry type work to you. So, let me know if you're interested and why.

Here's Legit Online Jobs

and here's Work At Home Data Entry.

You don't have to pay to get jobs, but you have to pay a one-time fee to get into the job portal and instruction site. The detailed instructions and software provided are worthwhile so don't be fooled out of making money by the up-front membership fee.

I'm trying two of the Global Data Entry and Article Marketing programs and will post my experiences soon. I just signed up for the web article portal and it takes a solid week to set everything up so I'll let you know how it goes: Web Colleagues. Now go ahead and get started for yourself!
I wrote an article comparing the 2 programs. You can see it at eZineArticles.com. I recommend the Web Colleagues program.





I just found a very informative website that lists going rates for writers... The Write Page. He also has a lot of information about using correct grammar, among other helpful things. You might want to refer to it often.
And here is a site about the contract you may need to prepare... Writer Contract Format suggestion.

I've found several places on the Internet to help you along in your making-money-writing endeavor. If you know of another site I could add, let me know. I'd like to have as many viable work links as possible.


So, here we go...