4 Online Freelance Writing Options For New Writers Who Want To Start Earning Money Online!
If you have been searching for an opportunity that will allow you to capitalize on your writing skills and have read far and wide on the best way to start earning money online, then welcome to my hub! I'm going to share with you how I finally signed up for HubPages after weeks of mind-numbing research on the best way to start my freelance writing career.
In the course of my research, I have found there are actually several ways to make money with online freelance writing. When beginning your writing career, you cannot expect to make big bucks overnight. But with time, earning a 4 or 5-digit monthly income from your online freelance writing jobs is certainly possible.
So, here are some ways you can consider making money online:
1. Writing academic papers
A lot of people make money online by writing academic essays, reports, dissertations, and assignments. Many people probably view this as being unethical but there is a large market for this sort of service. Some companies have strict guidelines on how your work should be used, i.e. your client cannot submit the work as it is, so you should do some research and only apply to companies that have this clause in the contract.
Custom essay writing is a lucrative business and if you have the requisite academic background then this may very well be the opportunity you are searching for. Be warned though of companies who pay too cheaply. Remember, academic writing takes an entirely different set of writing skills hence you must go for companies who value your education and expertise in the subject are writing for.
2. Freelance writing jobs / ghostwriting
A simple google search would reveal the number of opportunities that exist for freelance writing jobs. So how do you weed out the scam from the legitimate employers?
If the pay is too good to be true, then back off. There are too many get-rich-quick schemes nowadays and too many people who just can’t tell the difference between real and scam gigs.
Where do you find real freelance writing gigs? There are many websites that offer legitimate online writing jobs, like odesk.com and elance.com. Only problem is these sites are competitive so a newcomer would most probably have a hard time breaking in to this market and getting paid a fair rate for their efforts. Not to mention that these “ghostwriting” gigs are credited to the person who have employed your services. If this is not your thing then read on to option 3.
3. Publish your original articles on websites like Hubpages, Squidoo and Triond
So, here’s the plan:
Build an online portfolio by writing articles that can be credited to our names. HubPages is a start. Similar sites like squidoo.com, infobarrel.com and triond.com should also be considered.
This is where options #1 and #2 gets tricky. You just cannot publish work you have done for other people unless they have actually not gotten around to paying you for some reason. If this happens to you then I believe you are perfectly within your right to publish your work in your own name.
Now back to option #3. Once you have built an online “reputation” (hopefully a good one), then you can branch out and try to apply for online writing jobs. Samples should be easy enough to provide thanks to the legwork you have already done.
4. Blogging
There are so many successful bloggers on the net that I have initially thought of going down this route. Detailed tips and advice can be found on many a website and can be quite overwhelming (at least for me!). If you plan on establishing a blogging career then I suggest you read this extremely helpful blog (christianpf.com). This is the most informative blog on this subject that I’ve come across and if you are seriously considering this option, then read the entire article.
Some of you are probably wondering why I chose option 3 (if you’re not, then okay you can skip this part). :-)
Well, for now, it is my opinion that this is the easiest way for me to get my content out there. As I’ve said previously, I have considered doing option 4 (blogging) but this is too time consuming for me. Some would probably argue that this is the best option in the long run but for now I just want to get my feet wet, so to speak, so I’ve started with option 3. I will get around to option 4 sooner or later and will definitely be updating this hub once I’ve done so!
