Whenever we read about a money-making opportunity, the "six figures" phrase often pops up, as in "make six figures writing". Why? It's mainly because it's a pretty attractive goal - clearing that income hurdle of $100K per year, when you can make money writing as your primary income. As a writer, is it just fantasy that you can get there? You can do it but you have to think a little differently about your business than the typical freelance writer. Here are the basics:

• You need to do more than write for other people - write and sell your work direct to the consumer.
• Build a network of Hubs, blogs, websites where you sell your products direct.
• Earn income from these sources - selling your work multiple times, diurect to readers, and not just a couple times to publishers (who are profiting from your work themselves!).
• Learn how to build sites and Hubs quickly, and how to market them - or hire someone who can at affordable rates.
  

Just those 4 easy steps can get you started. But, you may be asking, where do you find out more about each of those steps? There are dozens, if not hundreds of Hub pages, web sites and blogs that will tell you what you need to know to start a profitable writing business, including publishing your own websites and blogs to bring in money. I'll focus on some of the details here on this Six Figure Writing hub, as I do on my blog. I'll post Web resources, links, and ideas to get you started and keep you going to build passive income as a writer.

Add your comments, let me know your best tips for making money writing, what works for you, what hasn't worked.

Just to get your creative juices going, here are five things you can do immediately to get your writing career moving toward six figures:

1.  Pick a topic you know well, or would like to know more about, and draft an outline of an ebook you can sell online. Do some Google research to see what the competition is like.

2.  Join an affiliate program such as eBay or Amazon if you haven't already, and incorporate ads into your website, blog and Hubs.

3.  Build a blog page on a topic you've posted on, for example your Hub topics, to add a source of backlinks.  Write several posts and schedule them to post over the next 2 weeks.  Write an article on the same subject, using Ezinearticles or another article site, and include links back to your new blog.  Do the same for each of your Hubs.

4. Join a service like PayDotCom or E-Junkie to have a way to market  your ebook when it's done.  Explore whether there are other products there on your chosen topic which you could market as well.

5.  Network not just on freelance writing sites, but sites where people with your interests post, such as forums and blog networks.  Post comments, get to know people there and let them get to know you. These folks can really help you with ideas for your ebook, and places to announce your work when it's finished.

Whether you're a professional writer or just someone trying to earn some extra money with writing, you can write a profitable eBook.  Your eBook doesn’t need to be written by a pro to make money - you  just need to provide valuable information on your chosen topic to your potential buyers and readers.

You  might think that, because the "real" offline publishing world requires that you have a ton of writing credits before they'll even look at your work, and without that, you  have no chance of being published.  Not online!  In the online world, eBooks are usually written to apepal directly to their consumers - which is not the same as needing what it might take to get your work on a bookstore shelf.

Online readers are used to different styles - they are looking for someone who can talk to them in a personal way, casual and conversational. They're not looking for a textbook or huge literary tome.  They are also looking for FAST answers - and they're looking every day on the Web for those answers.  As a writer, you make them feel comfortable with you enough to buy your informative eBook. 

When it comes to writing eBooks, you don't need to learn a ton about a topic just to start writing.  You can research online for any topic you choose.   If you canf ind your way around the Web, you can find enough good information to build your eBook and write it in your own voice.

Writing and publishing an eBook for sale online can be a lucrative addition to any freelance writer's income stream.  Done right, you can make significant extra cash as an information publisher.

When you  get a great idea for a topic you'd like to write about, why not consider whether it could be a profitable eBook?  visitors to your website looking for this topic are ready and willing to buy.  Why sell it only once to another publisher? Instead, start publishing some of your own work to build your income to the six-figure level.

Check out the Links seciton above for more about How To Build An Ebook empire.