I’m often asked if writing for a living is as easy as it sounds or is it simply one of those hyped up methods of making money that looks good when it is being described on a business opportunity sales page but when it comes to reality you will be literally banging your head against a brick wall.

Well, if you are interested in earning money in this way you actually have to work. No getting away from that fact so if you are one of those people who are looking for a way to make money which involves not actually doing anything then you would be well advised to look elsewhere.

Now that we have got that out of the way let’s look at the writing opportunity itself. To start with, many people feel intimidated and think that their writing skills will not be good enough to be able to sell their services so let’s put that into perspective before we go any further.

Let’s say that you begin to offer a writing service and you charge $10 for a 500 word article. I always recommend that you start off by writing about subjects that you are familiar with and please don’t tell me that you are not familiar with any subject well enough so you can write about it because you are.

Think of your job if you have one, your interests, your favorite TV programs, football team, etc, etc. There is a massive demand for all types of writing and it would be a safe bet that you will be able to write about various subjects with ease. By writing about subjects such as this you will cut down on any research time which will equate to you earning more money.

Now, at $10 per 500 words you are not expected to write a literary masterpiece but as long as the article is spelt correctly and is correctly formatted you will find that the service that you offer will be in great demand.

The main thing to remember when you offer your services as a writer, apart from checking that your work is OK, is to always deliver on time and keep in contact with your clients. Something might happen which will cause a delay, family problems for instance, but instead of hoping that your client will not notice that you are late with the order, let them know what is happening. You will find that the vast majority will be grateful that you have told them what is going on and will not have a problem with it.

So, now all of that is out of the way, is writing for a living as good as it sounds. The answer to that question is a resounding ‘Yes’. You do a job and you get paid for it, as simple as that. If you are writing about a subject you are familiar with you can easily earn $100 before lunchtime.

With a little practice you can push that up to $200, five days a week with the afternoons off and you have earned $1000. What’s more, as long as you have an Internet connection you can work from anywhere in the world and you will be truly living the ‘Internet lifestyle’

This is a guest post written by Gary Tomlinson, creator of Writing For a Living

If you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.