Have you ever thought
about
freelance writing as a means to earn extra money, or had an interest
to learn? Even for people
who have never written anything prior, this can be a viable
option. It is also a great way to learn new skills, develop interests
that you possibly haven't explored before, and share your
experiences and knowledge with the world. A person can write about any subject they are interested
in, have knowledge of, or willing to research.
There’s a fantastic
freelance writing site called
Hub Pages I would highly recommend
checking out. It’s free to join and user
friendly, with great tutorials and forums to help beginners learn. The community is very friendly, supportive and
engaging. Be sure to check out their 'success stories'.
A person simply goes to the site at Hub Pages and creates
an account, then follow the tutorials, I found creating “hubs” to be
an enjoyable, yet fairly simply process. The hardest part is
getting through the first one, after that, it’s a piece of cake.
You can add photos, video clips, and more to really customize your
work and convey the messages you want. If you would like to
view a couple of my hubs, here they are:
Travel Destination – Molson, Washington, A Ghost Town
Fun and Inspiring Program Encourages Science and Technology for
Teens and Children
Strategies to Use Groupon to Get the Maximum Savings
Care for Your Pet Bunny Rabbit
Hub pages set up their
business model to encourage members to link hubs (your article
pages) with each other, which also improves page rank. That
translates to visitors, and your bottom line, extra income to take
home.
So, how does one get paid
writing for Hub Pages? There are two main sources of income,
Google adsense and Amazon affiliates, and their new hub pages ad
network recently was released as a third income stream. All
are simple to implement and full instructions are in the tutorials.
The writing you do, will continue to pay month after month
(providing people are visiting your hubs), and can create a nice
passive monthly income in time.
Google adsense – if you
don’t already have an account simply go over there and sign up.
It’s free to do. When you write articles for
Hub Pages, you will link your Google adsense account to your Hub
Pages account, which is a very simple and fast process that Hub
Pages will walk you through. You keep 100% of your earnings. It’s
literally like a push of one button. Google ads that are related to
the subject you wrote about will be placed within your hub
(article), and every time a visitor clicks on one of these ads, you
get paid. You also get a certain percentage for impressions –
that’s simply the number of visitors reading your article. Google
sends you a check every month whenever your earnings pass the
minimum threshold amount of $100.00. The months the earnings are
below that figure, those commissions roll over into the following
month’s totals.
Amazon has an affiliate
program that whenever people make a purchase on any Amazon product
through a link on your
Hub Page, you’ll receive a commission of that sale. Hub Pages
also makes this a very simple process, and your Amazon ads will be
related to the subject you wrote about. You have the option to use
an auto keyword search for related products, or you can search
Amazon yourself to put in specific products, your choice. There’s a
full tutorial describing the exact process.
The beauty of it is that
it’s passive and residual income. This allows for great flexibility
in your schedule. You can write diligently while you have free
time, and if you decide to take a few weeks or months off, those
articles will still be earning you money. Drop over there are take
a look at some of their success stories for ideas and inspiration.
A person can also add
video and photos to their
Hub Pages, to make the site more interesting and interactive
with readers. The more interest you can provide people, the more
popular your writing will be, the longer people will stay on your
page, again all this translates your bottom line income you take
home. There is also the reward of sharing your knowledge with
others and getting feedback from them. When they like
your content, they will share it with friends.
If you don’t take your own
photos, here are some resources you can use to get good quality
images (some are free, some you purchase, but they are very
reasonable in cost). Be sure to check each site’s terms of
service, so you are following copyright laws.
Free Digital Photos
Shutterstock
Dreamstime
CanStock
123RF
Big Stock
Fotolia
There is also another freelance writing site a
person might be interested in writing for, called
ODesk. Employers post specific jobs and writers bid for these
jobs. They also offering freelance opportunities for many other
types of work such as administrative, technical writing, software
and web development, sales, marketing and other business services.
You may also want to brush
up on some of your writing skills through study, reading lots of
material in general. Here is some
Tips to Help New Authors Write.
By Valerie Garner
