How to Make Money Writing Articles Online

Look at all the articles that appear on the many thousands of websites and blogs across the internet. Somebody has to write them all. And in many cases, somebody was paid to write them (actually, many some bodies). Would you like to become one of them?

You can.

Writing on the internet is actually a fairly informal business. You don’t need a specific degree and there are no fiery hoops that you need to jump through. It’s mostly learning from experience, and being willing to do what ever is necessary to make it work.

What do you need to get started?

You need to be able to write coherently if you want to make money writing articles online. This doesn’t mean that you need a degree in journalism, or that you need to have a lot of previous writing experience.

The best way to hone your skills is by visiting the types of sites you’d be interested in writing for and seeing how it’s done. Read as many articles on as many sites as possible and look closely at both content and writing styles. What you’ll find is that there’s a wide variety of both and that’s a good thing for you. You’ll find that the internet accepts many different styles and writing types.

To take it a step further, begin writing comments on the sites you visit. If you find other readers responding to your comments, there’s a very good chance that you will do well writing full blown articles.

What should you write about?

The best topics to write about are the ones where you have the greatest interest and the widest knowledge. Writing on topics you aren’t familiar with is, well, it’s work! Writing about what you feel passionate about tends to just flow.

There can be a fear that you’ll reach the limits of your expertise and not have anything to write about, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Once you start writing articles, continue to be a regular reader of related sites and articles. That will not only expand your knowledge base, but it will also keep the topic ideas flowing. You can write about what others in the same field are writing about, but do so by adding your own take on the topic.

By doing that faithfully, you’ll never run out of topic ideas.

How do you get practice?

After you’ve spent some time writing comments on other people’s articles, you can volunteer to write guest posts for websites. You’ll do this for free, which will make it easier to convince a site owner to let you do it. The sites where you’re a regular commenter will be your best sources.

By guest posting you’ll be doing at least two constructive things. First, you’ll be getting hands on practice, something every new writer needs to have. Second—and equally important—you’ll be building up a portfolio of published work. That will make it much easier for you to get paying assignments.

Once you’ve written and published guest posts on several sites (or several on the same site) you’ll be able to begin pitching your skills to other sites for money.

How do you find clients who will pay you to write for them?

Commenting and guest posting on sites is always a good way to find paying clients. If your articles draw visitors and people respond to them with comments, you may even get invited to come on board as a paid staff writer.

If you want to expand your business to more sites, all you need to do is contact the site owners and ask. If you have a large enough writing portfolio, and already write for three or four sites, this will be even easier.

Most important, be patient. It’s extremely unlikely that you’ll be an overnight success with websites filling up your email with requests for you to write for them. Build your business slowly, steadily but relentlessly, and it will eventually work out for you.

Do you think you can make it writing articles online?

If you are interested in making money online through freelance writing, check out Kevin’s freelance writer’s guide: The Freelance Blog Writer’s Side Hustle.  He goes into detail on how you can make hundreds of dollars a month just by writing articles.

For more information making money with a blog, check out ChristianPF.com.