In today’s struggling economy, there is one profession in which people can still earn a solid income: freelance writing. There are several ways, in fact, that you can make money writing.
First, gather up the local newspapers and magazines in your community. You might be surprised at how many of them there are. The editors of these publications are constantly looking for content to fill their pages. You might be able to work for them as a stringer, covering nightly board meetings and writing feature stories for anywhere from $20 to $100 a pop.
Of course, many editors, even of the smallest community papers, won’t hire you on if you don’t have a journalism degree or past experience writing for magazines or newspapers. Fortunately, the Internet offers an endless stream of writing opportunities.
There are a countless number of Web sites out there. Someone has to write the content for these sites. Why shouldn’t that person be you?
Check out the online ads at craigslist.org. You might find a host of online writing jobs being advertised. The pay for these jobs often isn’t great. But the stories you’ll be writing might not take much research. If you can write well fast enough, you can make a solid monthly income by writing for online publishers.
There are other companies that will pay you blog for them. In fact, a growing number of freelance writers are working as ghost-bloggers for businesses owners, real estate agents, personal trainers, mortgage loan officers and any other group of professionals who want their own blogs. The reason is simple: Running a blog and filling it with daily content isn’t easy. Not everyone is cut out to be a writer. With some persistence, though, you can find plenty of blog owners who’ll pay you to fill their sites with content.
The best thing about a freelance writing career, is that you’re only limited by how hard you are willing to work. When you first start landing freelance-writing jobs, you’ll probably be making peanuts for your efforts. But these small jobs will give you experience and a byline.
You can take these to land bigger and more lucrative writing jobs. The editors at larger city newspapers are usually more than willing to hire writers with clips from smaller publications. Instead of making $50 a story, you might soon be earning $250, $500 or more for each freelance story you turn in.
Of course, just because there are opportunities, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to make money writing. You do need a talent for stringing words together. You will have to constantly scramble to find assignments. And you have to be able to meet sometimes tight deadlines.
But if you can do all this, the potential income you can earn from writing is unlimited.
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