by Susan Kristoff

Created on: October 02, 2008

Can you write? If the answer is yes, then you can earn money writing. Businesses and individuals are clamoring for quality written content for their websites, newsletters, blogs, and forums. There are a variety of ways to earn money writing articles, and all are either free or very low cost.

There are two approaches to selling articles: selling articles that you have already written, and writing articles specfically for a customer.

If you are a regular writer, you may have a stockpile of articles or article ideas that need a bit of polishing. You can earn money for these articles in a variety of ways. One online resource is Suite101, where you can post articles and earn ad revenue from ads that appear with your article. The benefit of sites like Suite101 is that you retain ownership of your articles, and you will continue to earn money on these articles indefinitely. The payouts are small, but can add up over time as you build your article base. Another option is sites like Constant Content, where you can post your articles for people to purchase. In this case, the customers can either purchase the rights to the article outright, or purchase the usage rights to the article. You set the prices for your articles.

The other option for selling articles is to find people who are looking to have articles written. Constant Content and Helium both have marketplaces where customers can request specfic article topics, and select from writers who submit articles in response to the requests.

To this point, all of the options presented have been free. There is no charge to join any of these web sites. However, the most profitable sources for selling articles are freelancing websites. These websites, such as Elance and Guru, allow customers to post job descriptions and allow writers to present proposals for their project. The customer selects a provider, and then the job moves forward. Although these sites do have free membership options, they are limited, and it is more cost-effective to obtain at least a basic membership, which is still not very much money, and can easily be repaid with your first project. These sites can be competative, so it is important to put together quality proposals that show how you are the best candidate for the job. The people that are most successful at these sites have chosen a specific niche, and have built a customer base around that niche.

Writing articles will not make you a millionaire overnight. However, there is the potential to earn significant income if you find the right buyers.

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