Just because stay-at-home parents have committed to looking after their children as their career doesn't mean that they don't want (or need) to earn a buck or two at home to pay the bills. In fact, the stay at home parent or homemaker is usually the target audience of many work at home job sites. Out of the many work at home job sites that exist, many involve unfortunate scams offering data entry work or paid survey taking. One of the best, safest, personally rewarding and decently paying jobs involves article writing.

Why Should I Write Articles?

Stay at home parents have lots of patience and inspiration to share and, engaging with their children on a regular basis, possibly even have a creative interpretation of events that is useful in some types of writing. Article writing allows a parent to write about a vast variety of topics he or she feels passionate about. It also gives a stay at home parent an intellectual challenge or stimulation, as well as a break away from the demands of parenthood. It is like an escape that requires thought and intellect and can also be financially rewarding.

Where Do I Post Articles?

Helium is one excellent writing platform. It has a supportive online community, pre-prepared titles that encourage ideas, flexible submission guidelines and a marketplace and a contest channel that lets you compete for extra earnings. Other paid writing sites include Associated Content and Demand Studios, both of which promise high google page rankings and up front payments. Suite 101, Hub pages, blogs and Triond all offer ad sharing that provides residual income, especially for many articles.

For more lucrative work, freelance writing gigs are constantly posted on freelance job sites like Get A Freelancer, ODesk and EU Freelancer. Freelance work is paid by the piece, but long term writing relationships between publishers and writers often evolve.

And the biggest question:

How Much Can I Earn?

Like all things, your earning potential depends on several factors:

1) Your topics. Some topics generate more traffic then others and hence have a larger reader base. The more popular and contemporary the topic, the more people will read your work and find it valuable.

2) Where you post. If you post your work on web pages that end up on page 32 of a google search, no one will read them. Keyword density, non-competitive long tail keywords and search engine optimization are crucial considerations when writing online articles and doing copywriting.

3) How much you write. 50 articles will naturally earn more than 10, so the more time you devote, the greater the income.

4) How well you write. Quantity, time, search engine optimization and keywords can't make up for a poorly written article. Engaging, well-written, thought provoking work earns talented writers higher paying freelance jobs and respect in the online writing world.

How Can I Earn Extra Income from Article Writing?

Online writing can become very lucrative when simple articles are linked to blogs, portfolios or website domains you or your spouse may own and affiliate links. Writing specific content and pieces to endorse or support other business activities or products is called article marketing and is an incredibly profitable way to increase your earnings.

Simply look for affiliate links about products and services on sites like Link Share, Commission Junction, Paydotcom and Clickbank. Make sure that they are products you support or endorse and relate to your content in some way. Write a review of the product or offer your reader a link to a product, if it is pertinent to the written topic. It's an extra way to cash in on some commission and promote your own business or products.

Learn more about this author, Paola Fanutti.
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