How to Begin Writing Online and Earning Money
You have heard that you can make money writing on the internet, and I promise you, you can. But how do you start? It can be a little intimidating at first, but once you get started you will become addicted to not only the writing, but the money.
First, you must decide if writing is for you. If you love to write, if you don’t see it as work, then writing online would be a fit for you. If you are the type of person that would rather scoop dog poop from your back yard than write, then this will not be a good choice for you.
1. Get a PayPal account. You want to get paid and most writing websites are paying that way. You need a brick and motor bank account, too, so that you can verify who you are. Also, PayPal gives you an ATM card so, you can get your money whenever you need it. 
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2. Choose one site to begin. There are a lot of writing sites out there and I will name some of the most common. Examiner, Triond, Associated Content, Xomba, Demand Media, Squidoo, HubPages, and Suite 101. I may have forgotten some, but if you are wondering about one, just email me.
3. Pick one place to sign up. If you are a beginning writer, I would suggest Triond, Squidoo, HubPages, or Xomba. They allow you to write on any subject. If you are a journalist or have a degree in English, or have been published, then you can go directly to Examiner, About or Demand Media.
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4. When you begin to write, you can get ideas by checking on hot trends but it’s best to write about what you know. You want to get a following, so if you know about air soft guns thens write about the best air soft gun to buy. If you love to collect glass jewelry, then write about that. If you love Hollywood, then write about upcoming movies. You are not locked into just one theme, but it is a good place to start for now.
5. Evergreen writing is when you write an article that is current a long time. For example, if you write about Adam Sandler’s new movie, in a couple of weeks that article will not interest anyone anymore, so you will constantly need to keep writing, BUT, if you write on how to eat a jellyfish, that article is evergreen as it will always be current. I have two sites I write for. One is evergreen articles and the other is news articles. The evergreen articles continue to make me money without me doing a thing, where I have to continually write articles at the other site, because news gets stale. Once you pick what website you want to write on, then write a 300 word document on your subject with your text program on your computer. It can be easily cut and pasted on to the website after you write it and you can keep a copy for yourself.
6. Once your article is accepted and posted online, then you want to start your social networking, which means, you want to let everyone know you have written an article. First start with Facebook, then Twitter. Other sites are StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, and Delicious. There are 100’s more, but these are the most popular. Sign up for these sites using a name other than your writing name. You can use the same “other name” on all the sites, though.
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7. Become friends with people on the site you chose to write on. Get to know then and network their articles, too. “Like” an article, “Stumble” an article and they will reciprocate. Before you know it, you will have a wonderful collection of online friends that you will begin to know.
8. Set goals for yourself. Try writing 75 articles in a month. Pace yourself so that you are writing about 3 a day. Sound like too much? Then maybe online writing is not for you. The point of doing this is to help you get jump started and also to help get you out there on the world wide web. Once you see the money start trickling in, it will help you stay motivated.
9. When I first started I wrote 5 articles and forgot about it, a month later when I realized I had made a couple of dollars, I realized if I had written twice a much I would have made twice as much money. 3 times as much, 5 times as much…you get the idea. It will take you a while to go from earning money for lunch to a 2-week vacation for the family, just be patient. Know that it may be 6 months before you see a steady income coming from your earnings.
10. Start your own blog. My suggestion is blogger.com as it is easy to put in Google Ad Sense ads and Amazon ads which is one way you earn money on your blog. Post a link to your articles from your blog and also write posts on your blog. Then put your blog name on the bottom of your articles.
Consistent writing is a major key in earning money online. So, get going and let me know how you are doing.
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