by Rena Sherwood

Created on: December 12, 2009   Last Updated: December 13, 2009

If you read one issue of a publication like "Writer's Digest," you may be alarmed to see that writing for websites is not considered the activity of a "real" writer.  Writing for websites is usually dismissed as "cheapening the whole profession" or such nonsense like that.  Don’t let them discourage you from writing web content for money.  You can earn a substantial amount of money on the web as a freelance writer.

For example, this writer pulls in enough to pay her bills from web content writing.  I can even buy my own health insurance.  I also earn enough to contribute regularly to charities, take care of my pets and hire an accountant.  And yet, I'm not considered to have a "real" writing job.  But I do make real money writing web content.

Get Several Clients

If you are going to make reliable money writing web content, then you need to have several clients at all times.  That doesn’t mean you have to work every day for each client – just have them on your roster.  For example, if you work for content brokers like Textbroker or content aggregators like Helium, you will soon learn that spending eight hours a day every day on just one site will not pay your bills.

You need to keep looking for higher paying clients.  These are usually temporary jobs but can become quite lucrative.  Keep cruising Internet writer job boards such as Problogger, Freelance Writing Jobs or even craigslist.  Ignore freelance bidding sites because they are so last century.  You should never have to pay for the privilege of bidding on a job.  The lower paying clients can keep you going in between higher paying clients.

Write Every Day

If you want to write on the web for money, you need to take this seriously.  You have to turn off the TV, tell the family to not bother you while you are working and need to keep on writing.  When you start out, expect to spend at least eight hours a day writing for a couple of hundred dollars a week.  If you can start out part time and then build up a client base before going full-time, great.

Even when you get started with reliable, lucrative clients, don’t get in the habit of taking a couple of days off because you think you can afford to.  Even if you just write emails, shopping lists and posts on your blog, you need to write every day.  Writing gets better with practice.

Be Willing To Stretch

When you start out writing web content, write about any subject that will pay you money.  You will then learn the Internet research skills to find just the right sources on everything from the alphabet soup to zinc overdosing.  As you get more familiar with these topics, you become able to quickly churn out articles about these subjects.

Later on, you'll get to pick and choose your assignments and decide which areas you want to center on.  But in the beginning, be willing to write about anything.

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