Working from home as a writer can be a dream - it's a perfect way to bring in extra income while you are home with children, or just because your don't want to work in an office every day! There are many ways you can make money writing, probably just as many different ways as there are writers.

The flexibility of working in freelance writing is probably the most attractive aspect of writing for money. Usually, though, freelancers will tell you that the money is not that great, and getting freelance writing jobs can be truly competitive. It seems though that many writers don't take advantage of online wirting opportunities both to find work writing for others, and also using your own writing skills to build your own, personal income stream.

I usually encourage people to think of their writing as a business - not a business as a freelance contractor, but a publishing business. You write articles, web content, blog posts, for pay; then you sell those to other people, such as businesses building an online presence, or webmasters building niche websites. What's to prevent you from using your writing skills to create online "real estate" in the form of your own niche websites that bring you money?

When you're thinking about how to make money whether online or off, Hub Pages is one of the ways you can make moneyonline. Building Hubs requires that you write reasonably well, have interesting content to share, and make your Hub attractive enough to bring back visitors again and again, which leads to you making money with your Hubs. So, if you're starting out as a freelance writer, it can't hurt to build Hubs to add an income stream, but also as a sample of your work that you can use to show clients.

You can also find work writing articles and content for others. Sites like Elance or Guru.com give you an opportunity to search for clients who need writers. Be sure to post a professional profile and references to showcase your work. Some of the jobs available include article writing, e-zine writing, blog post writing, and writing ebooks on a particular topic.

You can also post ads around the Web offering your services. You can list your services at Digitalpoint Forums, Sitepoint Marketplace, and others.

There are also ways to make cash rewriting, which is just putting someone else's writing into your own words. That's right - you don't even need to spend all the time it takes to research and write your own publications!

Build yourself a great looking blog, website or Hub showcasing your work too, and by using smart search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, you can get organic traffic from those looking for writing services.

Start to learn how to build your own websites - Hub Pages are a good start - which will bring visitors and help you make money with your wriitng. A good, inexpensive ebook on the subject of how you can build a profitable writing business is Building An Ebook Empire, by Tiffany Dow. Check it out, and get started making cash from your writing.

Here are quick ideas for ways to make money with your writing:

• Start a blog on a topic you are passionate about. Blogger.com and Wordpress.com are sites where you can start a blog for free. Write useful information for other visitors, and promote your own or others' products online. You earn money by putting AdSense ads on your pages, or selling ebooks or other materials targeting your audience.
• Build HubPages about your favorite topics. As a writer, you probably have topics you love to write on regularly. Put some of this quality content in your Hub pages. You can promote your own or other products as well as receive income from revenue share.
• Offer to help local off-line businesses write a blog. Many business owners just don't have time to post often, even though they know that it benefits them to be online. Write some samples, get some sample blogs up online that they can see as examples of your work. Offer discounts for long-term relationships.
• Write ebooks and resell them to affiliates. Affilites promote your product for you. You can offer your writing prodcts for sale at Clickbank, PayLoadz or E-Junkie. Getting more people to sell for you means you earn money even without having the marketing and sales headaches.
• If you need traffic to bring in visitors to your site, then you need backlinks! Here is a way to get almost free backlinks:  Connect Content helps you connect with other website owners to trade links. Just post your requests for links, and in exchange link to other folks' sites.  For just $12 a month, you can't beat it! You can check it out at ConnectContent.com.