How can you earn extra cash writing?
Here are a few reasons. Maybe you graduated with an English major degree and can’t find meaningful employment. Maybe you’re looking for work that you can do easily from home in your spare time, or maybe you’re just plain addicted to writing?
It’s possible to earn extra cash writing; there are many options available to you if you’re open to the idea.
From a business standpoint writing is an attractive option because it is low cost; you don’t need to invest in any special software and you don’t have to rent out an office or commercial retail space. All you need is a computer (which most people have these days anyway), some free programs, some writing talent, the desire and discipline to write regularly – at least at the onset.
Your main initial investment will be time. Time to write; time to read these posts, and time to learn how to earn extra cash writing.
Now, I’m not going to kid you that you’re going to write a few posts, and publish them online and be rolling in dough; it doesn’t work like that. You’re going to have to write quite a bit before you have enough traffic to generate even a few dollars worth of income.
The goal of Earn Extra Cash Writing is to show you how to do this in a smart way – so you don’t have to work as hard to make a greater impact with your words. We’ll touch on topics like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), keywords, Google Page Ranking and Relevance and how (if used correctly) they increase your opportunities to earn extra income writing.
While the tips you get on this site to earn extra cash writing will work for anyone, it will work the best for those that truly enjoy writing, and write about topics they know about and enjoy. Otherwise, the payback for the time invested will probably not be worth it to you. Initially you’ll earn nothing and have little or no traffic; if you don’t have a passion for writing you’ll be tempted to call it quits and lose out on all the initial time you invested. It often takes anywhere from 6 to 12 months to start seeing a definite effect of all your hard work – to actually start to earn extra cash writing.
Have I scared you off yet? If not…read on.
Maybe you’re like me; you enjoyed writing but never thought that you could use it to earn extra cash. I would visit forums and start or reply to other peoples threads, sometimes spending a few hours a week doing this. I felt great each time I posted something that I wrote because I was either helping someone or just writing something that I knew a lot about and enjoyed immensely.
What I didn’t realize is that while I was indulging my writing urge, my words were being used to help someone else profit. The next time you visit a forum, take a minute to look around at the ads that are scattered around the top and sometimes even between posts – who do you think is getting paid for them to be there? Why would someone pay to advertise on a forum? Usually because there’s a lot of traffic, a large community that fits the right demographic for the advertiser. This community is busy posting and replying (just like I used to do) which is content for the search engines, bringing still more people to the community.
I’m not suggesting that you never post on a forum again – they are great to visit in your spare time and learn a thing or two, not to mention great sources for doing certain types of research – but why not get paid to write? Making money writing means that you’re now going to be an owner instead of a free content provider.
There’s a word for you to consider – content - everything that you write is considered content, and if there’s one thing you’re going to learn from me it’s the saying that content is king. People are searching all over the internet for whatever they want using search engines like Google. Every single webpage out there has some writing on it, and someone has to write it. The content that you provide is the way to earn extra cash writing.
Many people are paid for what they write, either by being a staff writer, or by doing free lance articles. I work for a company that is in the online publishing industry – they often have to farm work out to freelancers because they need content fast, far too much content then the editorial department could handle.
So don’t sell yourself short thinking that all you can do is write, that nobody will earn extra cash writing unless you’re Stephen King or work for a famous magazine – think again. Blogging is just one way that is available for you to get paid to write. As I said at the start of this article, you can earn extra money this way - it will take some time - but it is possible. Thousands of people are being paid handsomely for their words, they get paid to write and they don’t have an English degree. They also aren’t going to win any special literary awards either.
They earn extra cash by generating the type of content that people are searching for online. They answer the questions that people have, they write with a clear focus – with certain keywords that people are looking for. By writing this way, search engines like Google and Yahoo understand exactly what their page is all about and can list them in their search pages quickly. How does money factor into this?
Google and Yahoo both have ads that are displayed on sites all over the internet. Go to Google for a second and type in bass guitars and click on the Google search button. Now look at the right hand side – see all those blocks of ads there? You can have ads like that up on your own web page, and each time someone clicks on it you’ll be paid, anywhere from 1 cent to a couple of dollars for each click.
Unimpressed? Earning extra cash a few cents at a time doesn’t sound like a way to bring home real money does it? Well those clicks add up if you have the right content. With laser focused content optimized around a particular key word, you’ll generate ads on your site based on what the content is about. So if you write about bass guitars and say the word bass guitars often enough the ads on your page will display ads for (you guessed it) bass guitars. Since people came to your site to read about bass guitars, they are viewing ads that are geared to them, with a higher chance of them actually clicking on the ads – when they do, you get paid.
The more relevant the ad is to your content (i.e. the more optimized the content is) the better paying the clicks will be. The higher you rank on search engines for the word (in the above example) bass guitars the better the ads will be that appear on your site, the more you get paid per click. The more relevant your content is to bass guitars, the better the chance you’ll have of being ranked highly for your keyword.
Being highly ranked means that thousands or tens of thousands of people will find your content; a certain amount of people will click on your ads and you will earn extra cash. Fifty cents isn’t a lot of money but, fifty cents x 1,000 is good money…especially if that’s what you’re making every day, while you’re sleeping, at work or on vacation.
There is more to it than this, but I think this gives you an idea of how you can earn extra cash writing. The good news is you can own your work, get paid and you don’t have to be a fabulously talented celebrity writer to do it. You just need to write with a clear focus on the specific keywords you know about and have a passion for, and ensure that you sprinkle them throughout your text with a conscious effort. Having a passion for writing will take you farther, making it easier for you to earn extra cash writing.
Thanks for reading Earn Extra Cash Writing, stay tuned for more tips on how to get paid to write.
