by Bianca Raven

Created on: December 18, 2008

So many writers ask how they can turn a writing hobby into a full time freelance work at home business. They struggle along on the low-paying sites and earn a few cents here and there and then wonder why they're not getting anywhere.

With the right tools and knowledge it really is possible to turn a love of writing into a very lucrative full time income - all from the comfort of your own living room.

Let's get into finding some freelance writing work:

1) Create a Web Presence

Take your pick of free blog accounts (WordPress, Blogger etc) and set up your own blog. This is a quick, cheap way to get yourself a place on the net where people can find you. Introduce yourself. Chat. Get used to playing around on your online place.

Ask other like-minded people to link to your new blog so other writers can find you too. This is how search engines find your site quickly. It's important to keep links on similar topics to your own otherwise the link-bank importance drops in the eyes of search engines.

Then get some serious writing samples going and put them on there too. These will become reference links for future clients, so take care when creating them.

2) Finding Freelance Work

The type of freelance work you choose to accept is 100% up to you. You're the boss remember?

There are quite a lot of freelance job bidding sites around where you can sign up and bid for work against other writers. Places like http://www.guru.com/ or http://www.getafreelancer.com/ have thousands of job listings every day.

I don't like bidding sites at all - even though they are where I began when I first got online. I've learned that writers are silly about under-cutting everyone else's prices just to get the job. Under-cutting is insane because you're selling yourself short when you could be earning much better rates.

There are also plenty of job-boards around filled with people searching for freelance writers. Careful with these - they often want to pay ridiculously low rates so the work isn't always great.

Here's a link to a previous article outlining where to find high-paying freelance assignments:
http://www.helium.com/knowledge/183739-how-to-find-h igh-paying-writing-markets

3) Odd Markets

Who says writers can only write articles for websites or magazines?

What's wrong with writing jokes for magazines? Or recipes? Or naughty confessions stories? Or creating puzzles? Or getting paid to blog? Or writing fiction stories for periodicals or anthologies? Or podcasts?

You're a writer - be creative!

Go and browse

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