Jan 29
Bobwriting for money making money writing online, online writing opportunities, writing for money
Here’s a chance for you to get started writing for money with no experience and no outlay – you don’t even need a blog or website, just access to a computer and the internet.
There’s a website called Constant-Content and it’s where independent authors – or freelance writers if you prefer – can submit work for sale. Some are seasoned pros, some are just getting started. 
That’s actually not important because all that matters is the writing. It’s like a market where people who need articles or blog posts can view work by multiple authors and buy what they need.
All you have to do is submit articles, wait until someone takes up the option on them, then get paid for your writing!
It really is that simple, it’s free to join and money goes straight into your Paypal account. Constant-Content take 35% – which is a fair chunk – but you can price with that in mind and you can still make very good money. What you can charge is considerably higher than sites like e-lance because all articles go through an approval process and buyers are prepared to pay for quality written content.
There is an interesting multiple-pricing scheme too. If a buyer just wants to use your article just once, they pay for “Usage”. If they want to use it multiple times they pay “Unique”. There’s a third option, “Full Rights”, which gives them the option to do more or less anything they like to it. Each option is, of course, a little more expensive than the previous one – in other words you get paid more for the same piece of work!
So basically you can just submit short pieces of writing – 500 to 1,000 words is the norm – and wait until the money rolls in or…
…or you could be much more pro-active. If you have a particular specialty then writing for money in an area you know will be easier for you. However, if you just enjoy writing – and you don’t mind doing a bit of research – you could browse the site and pick those areas which appear most lucrative. Spread your writing around and you’ll find that some markets will pay higher than others. Test and adapt.
Don’t be misled by the fact that a lot of articles show zero downloads – which would suggest that nobody is buying. Articles which are bought “Unique” or “Full Rights” are removed from the site, so you won’t ever see the higher paying articles – the money is already in some writer’s pocket!
There’s an additional writing opportunity here – and one that could prove even more financially rewarding. It’s called “Public Requests”.
Some people searching for writing either can’t find what they’re looking for or want specific, custom-written articles. They submit a “Public Request” (you just need to check your inbox at the site to see these). These can be on virtually any subject you can think of. For instance, yesterday’s were hair care, digital fine art printing, cycling and telecom trends – a pretty broad spectrum!
If you can write for these you stand to get a higher rate than normal, and you’ll frequently find that people are looking to enter into long-term relationships with writers. One of yesterday’s requests wanted 10 articles of 800 words and was prepared to pay $50 to $100 for each. If you could knock out those articles in a couple of days that’s between $500 and $1000 – which is not bad money for a bit of freelance writing!
No it’s not “easy money” and not everyone pays that high (although some do pay more). You need to look at it as an opportunity. Especially if you’re just starting out. It’s also something you can do here and there, on and off. You might want your writing for money to be in a different area but if you can pick up a couple of hundred dollars here and there for submitting a few articles while you are in between jobs it would seem foolish not to!
Full details for Constant-Content Here.
Jan 20
Bobwriting for money making money writing online, online writing opportunities, writing for money
Last post I wrote was about the opportunities to make money writing blogs, or rather the idea that the blog was a great tool for making money from your writing. I said next time we would get into specifics, and I soon will. Before that though I wanted to take a little side-step and have a quick look at “free” versus “investment”.
Lot’s of people want everything free and in essence there’s nothing wrong with that. If I can find free tools for making money writing then I’ll try and take advantage of them. If I find a free report on how to make money writing I’m almost certainly going to get myself a download and read what that person has to say.
You’ll probably have to sign up to a “newsletter” to get your free report. The report author wants to stay in touch with you and will probably offer you chances to buy stuff at some point in the future. That’s fair enough in my book, that’s what this writing business is about. Whether you take up any offer is your choice.
You can learn some valuable lessons from free writing information. You can also fall into a couple of traps.
The first trap is that of learning and learning and learning about making money from writing… but never actually doing anything. It’s called the paralysis of analysis. You never quite learn enough to be absolutely sure something is going to work so you learn a bit more.
Newsflash for you. I don’t know all there is about making money from writing, nor does anyone else. We never will.
There’s some stuff that works, some stuff that doesn’t, but there’s never an absolute, stone cold killer solution. At some point, as soon as possible in fact, you’ve got to stop learning and start doing. You don’t have to stop learning at that point, that would be a bit dumb, but who says you can’t earn while you learn?
Not everything we do will always work. Other times you’ll have an idea and it will just fly around like a mad thing grabbing handfuls of cash!
But nothing happens if all you do is read the next bunch of free stuff you find… and the next… and the next.
The other thing about focusing on free is that you don’t invest in products or services that can really make a difference to your income. Here’s an example.
I recommend blogs as a means of getting your message across. They’re easier to put together than a traditional website and will normally get you in the search engines quicker too. You can get free blogs all over the place. Just go to blogger.com.
But you look cheap. It’s not your domain name, it’s part of blogger or blogspot or whoever. For under $10 a year you can have your own domain name, that is your own dotcom (I use Namecheap) and for $6 or $7 a month you can have your own hosting (I use Hostgator) so it’s not like you’re betting the farm. If you use free blogs people wonder how much confidence you have in what you’re saying. Frankly, any pros who come across you will think you are a bit of an amateur.
What about products?
Most of what you’ll be offered that relates to writing for money will be downloadable – either ebooks or courses. Maybe there will be some DVDs or videos, that’s not really important.
Almost everything offered online has a money-back guarantee so that you have a degree of trust in the author. So why wouldn’t you try a $20 or $40 ebook? If it’s crap, demand a refund.
But what of that $20 ebook says just one thing that makes you look at writing for money in a different way – and suddenly it all clicks? Suddenly you “get it”.
That’s what happened to me – in fact has happened to me on more than one occasion. I’ve read stuff and though “hello, I’ve heard all this before…” then on the next page there has been one of those “light-bulb moments” that has set me off on a new track and brought me many times more profit than the small investment I made.
It doesn’t happen every time, of course, and I have occasionally been ripped off. It happens. For that reason I never invest more than I can afford to loose and that would be my advice to you.
If you see an ebook that appeals to you and you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. This isn’t gambling it’s building a business and making money with your writing ability. Many useful ebooks are “pizza money” – in other words if you skip a take-out pizza you can pay for it. If you’re not prepared to make that kind of investment in your business then perhaps working for yourself and becoming financially independent are not for you.
On the other hand there are courses out there that will cost you hundreds of dollars a month. Are they worth it? Well that depends… but the point here is that I would never invest $500 on a course if it was a stretch. I’ll earn that money with my writing first and then re-invest if I that’s my decision. Never put yourself under pressure to buy this stuff – it ain’t worth it.
Sure the people selling the course might try and give you a bit of a squeeze and make your mind up for you by saying that this is a limited-time and if you miss out now you’ll miss your chance… blah, blah… but I can almost guarantee that course will be back round again in a few months. At least it will be if it was any good and making any money.
You can get lots of very useful free information about writing for money, no doubt. Somewhere along the line though you are going to have to invest. Not thousands of dollars, not the sort of money that you would need to risk in a “bricks and Mortar” business, Just a few bucks here and there to help you grow. It’s an investment in your business and in your future. Why wouldn’t you?
Jan 15
BobMake Money Writing Blogs money writing blogs, writing for money online
There’s a lot of buzz about making money writing blogs. Blogs were initially seen as little more than a way to share information with friends and families but they’ve matured. A blog is a powerful business platform and a way for you to turn your thoughts and opinions into big piles of cash!
So is it that simple to make money writing blogs?
Well yes and no.
Here’s the thing. There’s the usual heavy dose of hype and “get-rich-quick” bull associated with pro blogging. There are scams and cons galore. There are also ordinary folks like you and me earning not just good money but extraordinary money from writing blogs. They are doing stuff they love and getting paid a fortune for it. It’s definitely do-able.
I say “just from writing blogs” but then of course there are tips and tricks. Tactics that are proven to work – and there are others that seldom, if ever, produce results no matter how much effort you put in.
Truth is, effort is required. When you compare it with traditional business models the ‘effort” a bit of a joke, as is the tiny investment required. You don’t need thousands of dollars, you don’t need to invest in premises and stock, you don’t have to be up all hours of the day and night, working all weekend (although obviously if you want to change where you are now, you’re going to have to find some extra time).
Perhaps that’s why so many people fail. Is it too easy to make money writing blogs? If the only effort required is to repeatedly, consistently put in computer time until it pays off, do some people fail because they think it should be tougher?
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s hugely frustrating. Sometimes it’s disappointing. Early on you can wonder why you’re doing it…
Then something works. You earn your first dollar, your first hundred… then you “get it”.
Some people quit before then. Not because “it” doesn’t work, not because you can’t make money from writing blogs, but because it just wasn’t for them. I’m not going to say that people who don’t make it are lazy – or stupid – it’s just that some people aren’t cut out for it. It takes a certain kind of discipline, a kind of determination not to quit, not to let the bastards grind you down. Full-time freedom does have a price.
But let me tell you, it’s definitely worth it!
There are two people who helped me enormously when I started, they are Yaro Starak and Chris Rempel.
Yaro produced an ebook a few years ago called Blog Profits Blueprint which changed a lot of people’s ideas – mine included. If you don’t know Yaro he’s an Australian and full-time blogger, something of a pioneer in fact when blogging was still very new. I think it was the year before last that he set off around the world for six months, blogging as he went, whenever he could get an internet connection. When he got back his business was stronger than ever – because of course you can run a blog from anywhere.
Anyway, Blog Profits Blueprint is an in-depth look at how to build a proper business blog. It doesn’t matter which method you use to make money writing blogs (we’ll look at several) the information in here is gold dust – and it’s free! – so not getting a copy would be dumb!
Second guy is Chris Rempel. AKA The Lazy Marketer. I don’t for one minute believe that he is truly lazy, but like me Chris doesn’t believe in doing more work than is necessary or make things overly complicated. What Chris does, although not always blogging, is particularly relevant to us.
His ground-breaking ebook “Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate” is, unfortunately, not free but it’s more than worth the little money you need to pay and a positive investment in your future. Affiliate marketing is arguably the most profitable method of making money writing blogs and Chris is a master.
Let’s wrap things up for now. In my next post I’m going to look at a few of the alternatives for making money writing blogs. In fact it’s more about making money writing, with the blog being the most effective tool.
Jan 10
BobFree Online Business Ebooks, writing for money free ebook, Writing Ebooks, writing for money
Well I said I would do it and by golly I have! One free ebook, ready for download.
Yea OK, it’s the not the most exciting thing in the world ever – and of itself it’s not going to make you rich – but if you’re looking at ways to make money writing it’s as good a place as any to start. It will give you a bit of insight, a couple of ideas and hopefully we can build on that. See, I told you I was going to be honest. No overnight millions…
So sign up for the (occasional) newsletter over there on the right and download your free writing ebook now.
Go on, go on, what have you got to loose?
Oh please yourself, your choice… 
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