If you randomly stopped a load of strangers on the street and asked them what their dream job would be, chances are that writing would crop up again and again. And it's no surprise really. I mean, it's a creative job that often allows you to be your own boss, work from home (or anywhere else really. What about a beach in the Caribbean?), and work flexible hours. Also age is no barrier, stay-at-home mums (or dads) can earn whilst being around for their kids, and students can make a bit of extra cash to help with all those tuition fees.
However, as the saying goes, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. As every aspiring writer finds out, it can be frustratingly hard to make their passion into a viable income. You can labour for thousands of hours over a book only to have it rejected by publisher after publisher (although this is not necessarily a reason to give up - Gone With The Wind was rejected a staggering 38 times before it finally found a publisher). But it's not impossible. Below are a few tips as to how you can make it in this competitive field. It probably won't be easy, but if you succeed it can certainly be worth it.
Freelancing
This is where you take on writing projects in return for a fee. You are technically classed as being self-employed, and can generally choose the hours you work, as long as you get the project completed before any deadlines.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways to go about getting freelance writing jobs. Firstly, you could register with one of the many freelance websites, such as freelance.com, Elance, textbroker, and oDesk. These help to connect freelancers with people who want jobs done. You don't need to design or maintain your own website, you just sign up and start searching for jobs. On the down side, they can be very competitive and some people seem to be willing to work for very little. But a lot of the people on those sites have a less than brilliant grasp of the English language. If you can write well and keep to deadlines, you could find yourself earning a healthy income.
The second way to earn money as a freelance writer is to set up your own website promoting your skills. This requires a bit of initial effort on your part, but you can attract quality clients who are willing to pay that bit extra than you would get on sites like oDesk. Some of these may also offer regular gigs. If you decide to go this route, then there are a variety of website building packages on sale that can enable you to build a site with little to no programming knowledge. Or you could promote yourself via a blog. Blogs can literally be set up in a matter of minutes on sites like blogger.com or wordpress.com, without having to spend a dime.
Finally, the third way is to approach your local newspaper and see if you can get a few writing gigs. It may be a bit of a long shot, but maybe not as unlikely as you think. Local newspapers are often short on interesting stories and may be willing to pay for yours.
Write an eBook
Generally considered the holy grail of writing, writing a book was also considered the most unlikely way to make it - until recently, that is. These days just about anyone can write a book and upload it to Amazon, Smashwords, Payhip etc. But there's no guarantee it will sell.
In order to make a living from eBooks, you need to be able to write. It's as simple as that. Most eBook authors make very little; the really good ones can make a fortune. You might want to experiment with writing short stories first, in order to perfect your skills with less time investment.
Of course, as an independent eBook author, you are also responsible for marketing your books. You can do this using Twitter or Facebook, or you can set up a website for the book, blog about it, write articles promoting it and so on. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into this further.
Write Articles
There are numerous sites on the web that allow you to write and publish articles. For example, Squidoo allows users to write articles (they call them 'lenses'), which can then be monetized using adverts and affiliate links. You might also want to try selling your articles to magazines and newspapers.
Did I miss anything out? Feel free to add your comments below
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