(c) Copyright 2007 Angela Booth. All Rights Reserved.
The Web is a writer's medium. If you're looking for your next writing gig, look on the Web. Hundreds of thousands of Web sites are only too eager to pay writers to write for them, so finding buyers for your writing is easy.
One point: while there are many paying gigs for writers online, and you should (usually) aim to be paid for your writing, there are also many sites which will ask you to write for "exposure". In some circumstances, this can work - perhaps you're promoting a Web site or a book, and want to be published by a particular site because it's a great credit.
In general though, if you want to be paid for writing for the Web, ignore those who want you to write for free. There's an easy way to find paying gigs. Just type "pay" into the search query field in any search engine (Yahoo, Google, MSN), with the kind of writing you want to do. For example, if you want to be paid for writing reviews, enter "paid reviews" with quotes, into your favorite search engine. Let's look at ten EASY ways to make money writing for the Web:
One: Articles And Essays
Whatever your interests, you can get paid to write articles and essays about those interests online. When you write an article for the online world, remember that you're writing for the Web, so your writing should be less dense than it would be for print.
Two: Reviews
You can review books, DVDs, services, electronics, vacations - whatever your interests, you'll find sites which will happily pay you for reviews.
Three: Blogs
If you haven't yet discovered the wonderful world of instant publishing, get acquainted with blogs. Some blogging gigs pay very well. Freelance bloggers, also known as pro bloggers, make great incomes blogging for a variety of sites - I've heard of a couple of bloggers with 30 blogs for which they write. Their income? Excellent.
Four: Ebooks
From a slow start in around 2000, ebooks have become a commodity that's in high demand in 2007. Most ebooks are short, around 30 pages, although some can be 150 pages. In word length, they vary between 5000 and 25,000 words.
Everyone wants ebooks - companies, marketers, Web site owners... If you enjoy writing longer projects, get into the ebook writing marketplace.
Five: Reports
Reports are baby cousins to ebooks. They're shorter, usually only two to three thousand words in length, and are easy to write. As with ebooks, reports are in high demand.
Six: Short Stories
A variety of sites publish short stories for their site visitors. If you like writing fiction, you can write stories which are published in full, or stories which run as episodes, and which will be sent out to readers.
Seven: Tutorials
What do you know how to do? Whatever your skills, you can teach them to others by creating tutorials. The sky's the limit here, so let your inspiration be your guide.
Eight: Tips
Some sites publish thousands of tips, others send out tips as email messages. As with tutorials, whatever your skills, package them as tips and sell them to eager buyers.
Nine: Affiliate Sales Materials
Affiliate marketing is big online. (Google the term if it's new to you.) Because it's such a big industry, Internet marketers hire writers to write marketing materials, ebooks and reports.
Ten: Opinions
Got an opinion about something? You can express your opinions online and be paid for the privilege.
There you have it - ten EASY ways you can make money writing for the Web. I've only scratched the surface here. I haven't touched on those Web writing gigs which require copywriting expertise, like writing Web site content and Web sales pages. The above are gigs that any writer can scoop up.
The gigs are out there. Go get them.
About the Author
Angela Booth is a veteran freelance writer and copywriter. She also teaches writing. Visit her blogs - Angela Booth's Writing Blog at http://copywriter.typepad.com/ and Fab Freelance Writing at http://fabfreelancewriting.com/blog/ for daily writing inspiration and motivation. Subscribe to the Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at http://fabfreelancewriting.com/ezine/fab-freelance-writing-ezine.html to receive "Write And Sell Your Writi
