You might have noticed the ‘Ask Sharon’ box in the sidebar.  That’s my attempt to help writers with the real questions they have about getting paid to write. The first question I’m going to tackle is: “How do I write online and make money without it costing me money?” The questioner was anonymous, but I thought we could all benefit from this.

Writing online and making money is simple, though not easy. By that I mean that there are plenty of writing opportunities out there. There are also lots of people who take the time to weed out the dross so that you don’t waste your time. It’s no secret that I like the Writer’s Bridge, but since that costs a fee, I won’t include it here. Instead, I suggest that you focus on the opportunities available through Freelance Writing Gigs, the Problogger job board and others. See my post on freelance writing opportunities for ideas.

Although it can be difficult to win bids on freelance marketplaces such as Elance and Guru, you can sign up for these and others and take advantage of the free membership level. Since many clients post jobs on several boards, being selective will mean that you can bid for a large number of jobs without having to upgrade any of your accounts. Admittedly, this isn’t my favorite way to get work, but it works for some people.

Finally, you can do what others have done successfully. Start by writing for free contributing guest posts to blogs that you like and you may be able to parlay this into a paid blogging job. It’s yet another way to write online and get paid – without spending a dime! Good luck!

P.S.

If you don’t mind investing in your career, then consider these options:

• invest $30 in a year’s subscription to Writer’s Market – you will have your pick of writing markets that offer decent pay
• sign up for the Writer’s Bridge daily job listing
• subscribe to the Freelance Switch job board

(Photo: dichohecho)

Last week , in Article Writing Research and Idea Tips – Going Beyond Wikipedia – Part 1, I talked about the importance of doing more than cobbling an article together for pay when you want to build a writing career. Today I’m going to share some of my own sources of inspiration and research.

I often preach that writers should carve out a writing niche for themselves so that they can make more money and research less but there are times when you might take a writing assignment on a subject you know nothing about. And even if you do have an established niche, there are times when you’re going to run out of steam on a topic.

In either case, here are some (hopefully) helpful ideas that work for me for researching:

• Read Wikipedia, yes, but don’t just read the info in the first few paragraphs to help you cobble an article together. Read the whole page and click through to the resource links on that page, which can often give you further detail.
• Go beyond Google.  I do love Google (dearly. I really do) but take a look at other search engines to help you delve deeper into a topic, too. You’ll notice that Google, MSN, Bing, and others often have different page one results.
• Delve deeper into Google. Go beyond page one. I also like to go through Google Blog Search or Google News. I search with words related to a topic matter and the News search tells me what’s being said in news circles about the topic. When you write an article for syndication purposes, it’s much more likely to get picked up when you write it as a news item and relate the topic to current information.
• Search for videos. There’s a vast world of how-to and informational videos out there on just about any topic. I’ve often watched a few videos to help me grasp a new topic by jotting down notes while the video played.
• Search social media. Check out Technorati or mine Twitter for information and links related to the topic at hand. You’ll often find a goldmine of information on other people’s blogs that can provide details, subject inspiration, and further links that you can use.
• Article directories. Directories can sometimes be no better than Wikipedia but they are often worth a look. They  can provide info, facts, and inspiration.  And if you’re writing an article for a client who plans to use it in a directory, it makes sense to see what your article will be up against on the site. Searching sites like Ezinearticles for a topic can be a great idea. Because there aren’t internet cops that delete bad articles, you can’t absolutely trust that information you find will be 100% accurate but there may be useful facts and ideas for you to draw from. Chances are that if you’re getting paid to write on a topic, others may have also written on that topic and you can search Ezinearticles. Don’t forget to skim the resource box and check those links out for further info, too.
• If I write on a topic regularly, I subscribe to Google Alerts for keywords so that I get information delivered to my inbox. This is a great timesaver.
• The library.  Oooh, researching the old-fashioned way!  I love the smell of books and there’s just something about libraries that wakes up sleeping parts of my brain and make me feel inspired.
• Ask your client for help. The client might have ideas for topics that they’d like you to cover and they may have previously published articles on your subject that they can share to help you trim down your research time.

What about you? Where do you get your article research information and idea inspiration?

(photo courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nkzs)

It’s while since I’ve done a round-up post. Here are some of the posts that have caught my eye over the last couple of weeks. One of the issues for many bloggers and writers is how to bring in additional income. Many of us are in search of passive income, which is why Daniel’s list of 28 Ways To Make Money With Your Website is useful. Daniel lists both direct and indirect methods, proving again why DailyBlogTips is one of my must-reads. You can also find out more about making money in Kristen King’s post on Working Towards $100,000.

Of course, if you’re going to make money, then you have to get visitors, so you might find it useful to explore 20 Ways To Promote Your Freelance Writing Services Using Forum Marketing Techniques. Problogger Darren Rowse tells us How To Write Posts That Set StumbleUpon On Fire, which is definitely worth studying, while Daily Blog Tips advises on Extending Your Reach From Blogger To Influencer.

As always, I’m interested in what’s going on in the freelance world, so I was fascinated by the results of the FreelanceSwitch survey. One of the cool things there is information on average charges for different types of freelancing work. The report is available if you make a donation. There were also plenty of useful posts on writing including:

• Who Owns Your Words?, a guide to the rights you might be asked to give away.
• Top Five Tips When Bidding For Freelance Work (my favorite piece of advice is ‘watch out for pirates’)
• 8 Ways To Kick Start Your Freelancing Career (I found a link to a new bidding site)
• Getting Creative With Your Content (if you aren’t reading Men With Pens yet, why not?
• Are Your Words Like A Tornado? (all about having energy in your writing)

Finally, here are a few posts I bookmarked to blog about later (I guess the time has come):

• Wayne Gretzky’s 8 Tips For Freelancing Success
• Who’re They Gonna Call? Ghostwriters!
• Why Freelance Writers Should Have Blogs

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: blogging,freelance writing,get paid to write,make money online,ghostwriting,monetize

A lot of people find my blog when they are looking to make money online. In fact, they want to know how to do it. While that’s not the main purpose of this blog, like many others I want my blogs and sites to serve three purposes. First, I want them to be useful to the readers; second, I want to use them to promote myself as a writer and blogger;  and third, I want to make some passive income (who wouldn’t?)

When I began my online existence, I was very much influenced by Rosalind Gardner, a super affiliate who had made half a million dollars in a year from her online activities. I wanted to know how I could do it too and I downloaded her excellent Super Affiliate Handbook and set out to take a crash course in online marketing and promotion. I learned a lot from that book that I still use today.

Building A Blog Identity

Around the same time, I set up my first blog, with the aim of bringing some traffic to my site. What I didn’t realise at the time was that a blog needed an identity and a purpose to be truly successful – and to make money.

It’s not a case of ‘build a blog and they will come’, but rather of laying the foundation with good content and telling people about it so that a few people might stop by. And if people don’t come to your blog, you can’t make money with it. In spite of all the claims of the Adsense revenue share blog sites, you need to promote your blog and have good content to get a regular audience. Then people might start clicking on your ads or asking you to promote certain resources.

Another temptation is to take advantage of every opportunity going so that you can clean up as soon as possible. However, there are two risks to doing this. One is that you might end up cluttering your blog with ads and posts that have little relevance to your readers, and the second is that you might actually lose readers in the process.

Selective Promotion

A better approach, I find, is to be selective about what you promote and what you advertise on your blog or site. Now, I don’t want to be hypocritical. I have other blogs where I am less choosy about the content, but those blogs are not as successful as those where I exercise some discretion. It’s a slow approach to earning from a blog, but I believe that this method results in a quality blog with a sustainable readership. I have actually turned down offers that I didn’t think would fit in with this blog.

It’s the same with choosing affiliate products. I have promoted very few on this site. In fact, all I have are a few badges in the sidebar. However, I have used those services and can genuinely recommend them. I’m also prepared to discuss the negatives, which means that people can trust me to give an honest opinion of a service or resource. I got more sales when I did a review of Rosalind Gardner’s book than when I put a pre-prepared ad on another page of my site.

Creating an online presence has been a great learning experience for me, and I’ve shared what I’ve learned in some of my posts on promotion. What are your tips for making your writing site or blog make a little money on the side?