How to Make Money by Writing

With access to the Internet, anyone can get paid money for writing. Whether you're looking for a little extra pocket change, a reliable part-time income, or the opportunity to quit your day job and earn a healthy living, there are plenty of opportunities.

Earning money by writing can be as simple and basic as writing short reviews, or writing longer articles, authoring ebooks, and everything in between.

You don't need to be a great writer to get paid for writing; you don't even need to be a good speller or touch-typist. And there are opportunities to write on nearly any subject imaginable. There is an astonishingly huge need for "content". Just browse around the Internet - there are literally billions of pages and millions of websites. A large number of them "outsource" their content, meaning people are paid money for writing it.

Specific opportunities include writing instructional, "how-to" guides; product or service reviews; articles on nearly any imaginable subject; copywriting or writing copy for advertisements; catalogs; marketing pieces; and websites. A huge market also exists for "short writing" and "creative writing" - think greeting cards, poems, lyrics, jingles, speeches, cover letters, resumes, etc. Yet another gigantic market is for news reporting, and editorial content such as "opinion" pieces.

There is also an entire field of freelance work, or "writing-for-hire" where people hire you on a project by project basis to write a specific piece such as an article, about a particular topic. There are literally thousands of people earning their full-time income as freelancers.

With the economy still in the doldrums, more and more people are looking to supplement their incomes, and increasingly to replace the earnings from a job that was lost. Beyond the financial need, many people dream of the chance to be able to earn money from home, but aren't in a position - or don't want - to start their own business. Now, anyone can get paid for writing without having to start a business, and can do so from the comfort of their home.

And of course there is the tremendous benefit of being able to work whenever you want. It's one of those rare opportunities that can be done without interfering with your schedule or a 'regular' job, and can be done in your bathrobe or pajamas and slippers. You can devote as much or as little time as you like, which also means you can earn more simply by putting in more time.