Lend A Hand

Dear Moxie Maven

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting you on my screen. You helped me set up a blog but I haven’t done much with it. My real concern is making money off my writing (not a new concept.) I have had freelance writing on my mind for some time. In your article titled “Started a blog, now what should you write about?” you mentioned in the article a business should go to an online space to find a writer. I’m hoping that would be me. But how do I get into the field? Do you know any web sites I can be on? I just really would like to be writing! Thank you for any information you can give me. Have a good day.

Lend A. Hand

Dear Lend A. Hand,

Thank you for asking. There are actually several sources for you if you would like to make money with your writing, and off of your blog.

You want to make money freelance writing, and you know from experience it is not an easy task, but here are a few resources that will help you on your journey.

1. Elance is a wonderful place to set up a portfolio and begin to bid on freelance writing jobs. There are even jobs available if you can translate material from language to another. This is great place to get your feet wet in the online marketplace of freelance writers.
2. Guru will also provide occasional work for a freelance writer, it is a little more geared for technology and administrative support, but every once in a while you can find a project there.
3. Freelance Writing Gigs this is a site where you can get paid to write blog posts, or get other writing jobs.
4. Rent a Coder is traditionally a site for those that write code, however there are several freelance writing jobs that get posted, while it is not the first place I look it is a place to get some jobs from.

For those that are not looking to make money with freelance writing, these sources are valuable as resources of where to find freelance writers.

In many cases if you blog and just tend to have problems keeping up with all the writing required it may make sense to pay someone to ghost write some blog posts for you. A blog post in general can run anywhere from $10 to $50 a post, depending on the research required and the length.

Making money on your blog takes time. There are link ads and banner ads that you can put on the sidebar or in your actual blog posts, but for any of that to matter you need a consistent readership coming to your blog.

In general, I would recommend picking you freelance writing jobs to supply the income and write really good content on your own blog. Then go out there and comment on other people’s blogs, answer questions, and direct people back to your own blog as an authoritative source for information. In the end that will build your readership, then you will be ready to make money off the blog itself.

Lend A. Hand, thank you for your question. I’m sure there were other readers wondering the same thing. I also hope that with the resources given it will help those that might have been timid about writing for their own business, and help them recognize that there are options.

Published on October 26, 2009 in the Grand Junction Free Press.