by Jo Linsdell

Created on: March 02, 2010

Becoming a stay at home mum or dad is not the easy option. You will have your hands full with looking after the kids, cleaning the house, food shopping, bill paying and all those other tasks that take up the most part of your day. You may also have trouble explaining to people who don't work at home that you are in fact working despite being at home.They see you at home and for some strange reason think you're doing nothing.

There are many ways to earn extra income from the comfort of your own home. One of the most popular methods is article writing and can earn you a good extra income.

In order to be able to successfully be able to earn an income from writing articles you should make sure people realise you're working and let you concentrate on your writing. You want to put your best foot, or in this case words, forward.

There are several options available to you when deciding where to send your articles or who to write for.

-CONTENT WEBSITES

There are many websites on the web searching for writers to contribute articles on a variety of topics. Most of these content sites pay on a per click basis. Pay is low but if you build a portfolio of several articles, promote them well on other social media sites like twitter, facebook or blogs you can earn a nice extra income. Examples of such sites are helium.com, demandstudios.com and ezinearticles.com

- SUBMIT ARTICLES

By searching on the Internet you can find lots of paying markets for articles. Search by the topic you wish to write about and not just by paying writers markets. This will help you find the publications that are looking for your area of expertise.

The length of the article will depend on the publication. Some require short pieces of 400 words, others a full feature piece that may cover numerous pages.

It's important to read the submission guidelines for the publication well and make sure your article fits the bill. Not doing so may mean your article gets rejected.

Pay can be very good for larger publications.

You might be able to build a relationship with a publication and get a regular column if they like your work.

- SUBMIT FILLERS

Much like with regular articles, although fillers are much shorter. A filler is normally anywhere between 50 and 200 words. These are easier to write as take less time and also easier to get published as magazines often have small spaces that need filling. Turn around time is also usually much shorter with fillers than with full articles too which means you get paid quicker.

To make the most money you should probably consider doing a mix of all three. Which ever type of article you write, make sure you check your spelling and grammar and follow submission guidelines.

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