Making A Living Writing Articles Online, Some Tips.

I suppose that I don't really fit the mold of the typical "work at home writer". Almost a year ago I quit my full time job working on an oil rig to stay at home and write articles. I'm now one of thousands of people who are earning a living from content that they have published online. The articles and websites that I earn income from are related to my former job, my hobbies and new subjects that I research and then write about. I've had a fair amount of success earning money from articles such as this one, How To Pick Up Free WiFi With High Power Adapters For Your Laptop, after I bought and reviewed such a device. My product reviews don't always pay for the things that I buy, but more often than not earn enough to justify my "gadget spending" to my wife, who has grown accustomed to seeing the Fedex man bringing new "toys" every few days. The money I earn from articles online pays my mortgage, car payment, etc, with some left after all the bills for spending money. I've been successful beyond what I ever imagined three years ago when I wrote my first article for a "how to" site.

How Easy Is It To Make A Living Writing Articles?

To say that it takes a lot of work to actually get to the point where you are earning a living from online articles is an understatement. It takes literally hundreds of quality online articles to earn enough money to make a living. In addition, it helps if you can find a niche topic that is not well covered. If you have a lot of inside knowledge about a hobby, profession, place, etc., you may be able to turn that knowledge into income. Here on sites like this one, there are many people doing just that. One of the keys to earning a living from articles online is to write content that others find interesting, and which relates to high - value advertising. In the early days of the game, many writers attempted to chase subjects such as "asbestos related diseases", in order to capture those high - dollar keywords. That strategy no longer works very well, due to a complete over - saturation of those topics. The strategy that has worked best for me is to write detailed and informative, (and hopefully interesting) articles about subjects that draw advertising, or feature products, that cost more than average consumer goods do. For example, it can be very hard to earn any significant advertising revenue from articles about food, since the ads placed next to those articles automatically by advertisers like Google are typically not worth very much per click. To find those high value keywords and topics that are not overdone often takes some time. To earn a living writing articles online often requires a long "trial period" where you write about very diverse subjects you know about, and then decide what the most profitable ones are.

To Earn A Living Writing Articles Avoid Gimmicks

If you are trying to write articles for a living on sites such as Hubpages, your own blog, etc, it's important that you don't use gimmicks or "black hat SEO" tactics. For example, you may be tempted to try programs that "spin your article", or replace common words with synonyms, and make your article appear different enough to be placed on other websites. Even the best "article spinner" programs can be detected. There's nothing wrong with writing variations of the same article on other sites, as long as the content is significantly different. "Article spinning" and copying and pasting duplicate articles around the web will get you banned from most sites. In addition, search engines can spot most "article spinner" generated content, and just ignore it. Also, avoid "link building" sites which promise to promote your content across thousands of sites for a few bucks. This too will ultimately hurt you in terms of search engine ranking.

Another thing to avoid is writing articles about any kind of "get rich quick" affiliate programs, with the aim of selling some kind of "system" or e-book, unless you are completely sure it works. There's nothing wrong with selling Amazon Associates or eBay Partner related products, and earning income from Adsense, but do you really want to put your good name behind something like an "automatic income machine", etc, that does little but lighten your reader's wallets?

One of the keys to earning income from articles is to publish content that is revisited again and again by readers. Try to write the occasional article that includes links or resources that some readers may find so useful as to bookmark. For example, A Hub about "Converting European Recipes To U.S. Measurements" might include a table showing how to convert Celsius temperature to Fahrenheit.

To Earn A Living From Articles, Write About What You Believe In

Most readers can spot a writer who is just creating junk content after reading only a few sentences of an online article. To be successful at earning a living from articles online you should try and create trust with the reader. To do this, offer good advice that does not relate directly to a product offered in your article, add in links to non - commercial websites that offer additional information, and invite your readers to submit feedback and suggestions on your article. Also, participate in the "community" of the sites that you write on to attract more loyal readers, fans, and create trust in you as an author. A little Karma, in the form of helping other writers by commenting on their articles, etc., goes a long way.

How Many Online Articles Does It Take To Make A Living?

One of the topics that comes up frequently in some of the message boards is "how many articles does it take to make a living?". The answer to this question depends on a number of factors, such as the popularity of your subject, traffic to your articles, advertising value, etc. Most writers who earn a living from articles published online are writing for multiple sites, have their own blogs and websites, and have literally hundreds, if not thousands of articles published online. In my own case, I've lost track on how much online content that I have actually created. Once you have a couple hundred articles published online, you can get a good idea what your monthly income might look like if you multiplied that amount by ten, a hundred, etc.

The most important thing to remember when trying to earn a living from articles online is to never give up. If the topics you have chosen to write about are not earning what you expected, switch gears and find new subjects. If you don't have enough content online, increase it by writing more articles.

The Key To Earning A Living From Articles Online: Keywords and Titles.

If you have been paying attention, you probably noticed that I have used the phrase "earn a living from articles online", multiple times in this article. This was done to help search engines like Google "see" this piece as one about making money from articles. Along with the title of this piece, which was also intentionally chosen so that the article would appear in the top search results for the search phrase "Earn A Living Writing Articles", the two together should help it rank in the top results. The formula doesn't always work though. I suspect that the title that I chose may have too many rivals, or other articles with the same name.

Other Ways To Earn From Writing Online

I've had some success with answering questions on the site Webanswers. There is a lot of competition now on the site, so you will need to answer a lot of questions in order to see any real revenue. I've answered around 1000 questions, had 89 awarded as "best answer" and earn about ten to fifteen bucks a month. It's worth adding to your mix, especially if you want somewhere to direct your energy when you are having "writer's block". See Webanswers.com for more info.

(Update)

Two days after publishing this Hub, my article appears as search result number four, under the search term "Make A Living Writing Articles Online". That shows both the power of using keywords effectively, and the benefits of a site like Hubpages that has a good Google page ranking. It may not be there in the future, or when you check it, but your chances of getting in the top search results are enhanced by using keywords effectively. Just a note of caution: Don't over use keywords in your article. I don't know the definition of "over using keywords", but I'd suspect that search engine algorithms recognize using a key phrase more than a ten or so times as "spammy".

After you write your article make sure that you use tools such as social bookmarking sites to promote it.

A final piece of advice that I would like to offer to online article writers is that you should learn all that you can about SEO, or search engine optimization. Here on Hubpages you can find dozens of articles about that topic, as well as good information in the user forums.

Good luck and happy earning!

(Update: 03/03/2011)

Google's new algorithm change has affected how many articles rank in search results, and thus affected the earnings of some of those who write articles for residual income. Though nobody is really fully understands it yet, it seems that it is targeted at "junk articles" which seek to sell a product, and which lack real information for searchers. Google's goal in implementing this new algorithm is to provide more relevant search results for users. The result of all this is that many article sites are now having to enforce quality rules. People who want to stay home and earn a living online from writing articles should see this as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle. My own personal goal from this point on is to write longer articles that contain more useful information for readers. More recently this article now appears as search result number 15 under the phrase "how to make a living writing articles online", down a bit since the big changes.

Still interested in writing articles for a living? Hubpages is a great place to start. Click Here To join me then click on "join" in the upper right hand corner of the page.