How Can You Turn the Web into Money for Your Writing?

How Can You Turn the Web into Money for Your Writing?
By Sandy Penny
I got an email from a fellow writer who is desperate for some money using his writing skills and working from home. This is part of my mission in this New Age, to help people do what they want to do, live where they want to live, and market their skills, services, or products online to a world market.

Since I’m still developing my own online writing business, I wanted to give a short and simple answer. Once I started writing though, I found that I have lots more info than I thought I did on the subject. And, now I have to follow up on all these leads for myself too. Hope this is helpful for your writers out there struggling to cross the prairie in this cyber space frontier.

First, search, search search on the Web looking for the right venue for you. Then…
I try to stay in the positive mind flow and not get caught up in the news events about the economy. That keeps the door open to the Law of Attraction factor. In this new age, the Aquarian Age, there will be few jobs as we used to know them. We will all be returning to the Age of Entrepreneurship. After all, this web stuff is the frontier now. You might enjoy my article on that subject. It's posted on my http://writeandmarket.blogspot.com There are several encouraging and instructive articles there, including one I just wrote on creating your own free website. Check mine out: http://writingmuse.com. If you don't have a sample site, you need one. It can be simple, but it needs to have lots of samples, and you can build it yourself. www.synthasite.com is my favorite free service provider and the one I use.

And, here are some other practical resources, sites that employee writers that I've just learned about because I am looking to expand my income in the writing area.

1. http://www.elance.com/ (I have a real estate friend here in Taos who makes a full-time living with them.) You can join for free, but you are limited in your bidding, so bid carefully. Once you make money, you can sign up for the $30 a month or so fee. I think it varies depending on how much you bid.

2. http://www.suite101.com/freelance_writers/ (I just met a woman online who makes some part-time money from this site. I don't know how much yet. We're going to chat about this very thing. Interesting timing, and no accidents.) Here's the link to her blog about the sites she uses: Applying to Demand Sites

3. Email everybody you know in the industry (or any industry) and tell them you need some writing projects. It makes no difference where they are, as long as they will put in a good word for you with a potential client.

4. www.odesk.com is a site that's free to sign up for. You have to download their software, learn how to use it and pass a readiness test to work for them. They take a cut on the work you do, but it is added on to what you charge. They have some really low paying projects, but sometimes anything is better than nothing. They have a range though, so check it out.

5. This site has blogging jobs posted. You can hook up where you have expertise. I haven't used them yet, but a good friend sent the link to me. http://moneyzeal.blogspot.com/2008/09/paid-content-for-your-blog-10-best.html. And more: http://moneyzeal.blogspot.com/2008/09/top-marketplaces-for-freelance-writing.html.

6. Whatever expertise you have, look up companies online in those industries and send a cover letter and resume and link to your sample site to them telling them the kinds of things you can write for them, like managing their company blog, tweeting for them on twitter (if you don't tweet yet, gotta do it).

7. Sign up on twitter; post a 140-character teaser with your sample site included, every day a new tweet. Keep it business, and hook up with other freelancers, follow them and read their blogs if they give info on how to make a living writing. Julie's info above came from following her on Twitter. Check me out on twitter http://twitter.com/sandypenny and see the kind of posts I do... It is starting to get me noticed now.

I use old articles that are easily recycled, and post a link to something different every day. I also post on Spiritual Entrepreneurs and Self Growth and Spiritual Short Stories. I use the same articles whenever possible in many places. If you Google me, Sandy Penny, you'll find lots of them showing up on the search engines. You have to get a reputation for being a good writer, dependable, thorough and creative. If you are, you can parlay that into projects. I also post on Facebook, but it's not as businessy as Linked-In.

My best projects have come from friends that I have helped with their writing projects for free. If you're a writer, I know you've helped those who can't write. Ask them to recommend you to their friends. Ask them to email their list on your behalf, and ask them to envision you getting ongoing projects or to pray for you(more energy out there in the Universe on your behalf is always good).
Hope that's helpful. Now that I've written it, I'm posting it on my writeandmarket blog, tweeting it on twitter and recycling it as I can.

Last, but certainly not least, my inner guidance continually tells me just to keep writing and the pieces will fall into place. That's the best advice I've had over time, and the final piece I have for you is follow the leads when they come your way.

Good luck, joyful writing and happy hunting.

Sandy Penny is a street-smart marketing writer with bootstrap credentials. [That means that I learned many of my skill on the job and at a distance, without a degree.] She specializes in spiritual writing and new age business blog content. 20 years of high-end corporate writing affords you top of the line writing, editing and writing-marketing coaching. Check out her new Web site: http://writingmuse.com/ (nobody uses the www
anymore, you don't need it). Email her at sandypenny@live.com.