5 Tips for Freelance Writing Online

This is a big one.  While you definitely want to do your research to make sure you're not getting roped into a scam or one of the shady "slave writing" sites, the single biggest thing stopping individuals from making it as full time freelance writers is their own fear and inability to get over it.  Sometimes this comes in the form of "I'll do it later" or in finding you've researched sites for 9 months but haven't made any moves.  That last one was the trap I fell into at the very beginning back in 2005 when I was getting started freelance writing online.

Fear comes in a thousand different forms, but at the end of the day the best education is doing.  You'll make some mistakes, you'll learn, and you'll get better and better as a writer over time.  That's how great freelance writing careers are built.

If you're starting out as a true writer, you might not be aware that there are actually two forms of income.  There's the pay per article or pay per job model which is traditional for the old school writers.  However the proliferation of the Internet and online websites and advertising means that passive or residual income is more a part of an online freelance writer's life than ever before - and it's worth developing both.  Early on, it's easier to freelance on a per assignment or per article basis.  This gets you income, it builds confidence, and it helps pay the bills quickly.  Over time, you'll want to make sure to put in the work to develop a long term source of passive income.  Even if it happens slowly, being able to eventually make hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month on work you've already done in the past.  It's a great safety net, and it's a goal worth going after.  So don't forgo one in favor of the other: beginners need to make time for both.

This writing tip is one that really helps get the ball moving and is all about momentum.  You need to do the research, and you need to do a lot of work, but once you see an opportunity, ride it.  Writers who poured their efforts out on eHow and HubPages might have eventually lost a lot, but they also in a very short time could make a small fortune.  At their peak, eHow articles and HubPages ranked first page almost instantly, and if you poured your efforts into them you could make a lot of income quickly.  The writers doing well now are the ones who put in the effort to take advantage of what these two platforms had to offer, and then once they had the money coming in they diversified.  The point is, if you see a great opportunity, seize it, make the most from it, and then as you're profiting spend some time to diversify and build yourself a safety net.  This is the way to really make it as a freelance writer and how to get the most out of your time.