| I am making two assumptions here. First, that you're a | | | | marketing. Your magazine site or sales site has to be |
| writer and second that you are at least vaguely or | | | | something that interests people. You need customers! |
| theoretically interested in making money as a writer | | | | If you choose advertising as your business model, you |
| online. So what do you do next? | | | | need to be sure there are advertisers in your niche. To |
| It's important first to understand business models. | | | | be sure there are advertisers, you need to pick site |
| So many writers are reluctant to think of writing as | | | | topics that relate well to something that people buy |
| anything but a noble art. It's really a business, or at least | | | | online. You could do a site about why you love Fred |
| it can be. Remember this: artists starve and business | | | | Astaire but there are not that many advertisers with |
| people get rich. Think of your writing as a business. So | | | | Fred-Astaire-related merchandise. That would be |
| think of your writing as a business if that's how you | | | | tough to market. |
| want it to support you. | | | | But you could do a site about air purifiers and clean air |
| Online, writers have two main ways to make money, | | | | and allergies. There would likely be dozens of |
| with plenty of variations in between. | | | | advertisers for related products and services and |
| The first way is to build a blog or website and try to | | | | these are things that are frequently sold online. |
| monetize it. The easiest way to monetize a website is | | | | If you want to sell an information product, such as an |
| to think of your website as a magazine and sell | | | | ebook, you need to be sure that there are people who |
| advertising space. | | | | want that information. There are lots of ways to |
| It's basically the magazine model taken into | | | | research this, but it basically involves supply and |
| cyberspace. Your website targets a specific | | | | demand. Does anyone care about your topic? Here's |
| demographic. Advertisers want to be where the | | | | a hint: if it's about making money, dieting, |
| customers are. In the print world, you would have to | | | | self-improvement, investments, love and dating, home |
| find advertisers, sell space, and then get their art work | | | | improvement or spirituality, answer is probably yes. |
| (or help produce it for them) to get into print. | | | | The second step in both models is to get traffic, that is, |
| Online publishing is way easier. You can sign up with | | | | people coming to your site(s). This is a whole subject |
| advertising programs through Google, Yahoo, or other | | | | unto itself. There are several proven ways to |
| services and just set aside some space on your | | | | accomplish this and a few more unproven ways, but |
| website. The search engine finds the appropriate ads, | | | | all of them are going to cost you something. You can |
| plugs them in automatically, and pays you when | | | | get traffic by investing time or money or both. Are |
| somebody clicks on them. It's as easy as it gets. | | | | they tricks to getting traffic? You bet. But there's also |
| Now I would be disingenuous to say that you can | | | | a lot of plain old-fashioned work. |
| easily become a millionaire overnight with this method. | | | | Beyond that, you need to know the mechanics of your |
| That's just the principle and there are a lot of pitfalls. | | | | online business (building and maintaining a site) and |
| What I just described is the general business model. | | | | pricing. |
| Another way to make money online is to sell | | | | It's not easy, but it's not all that hard, either. But now for |
| something yourself. You can sell physical product, but | | | | the really good news. |
| you can also sell digital products (ebooks) or | | | | If you decide to venture into this kind of business, you |
| membership to a website. In this case, you publish a | | | | will be in complete control of your business. You have |
| book or sell a product; you market yourself, get | | | | no censors, no editors, no review committee. You don't |
| customers, sell product, deliver product, and handle | | | | have to change the wording to please somebody else. |
| customer service all online. | | | | You can write as much as you want. You can allow |
| Those are the two main models. They actually don't | | | | your personality to shine through! |
| mix well. Here's why. If you go the magazine model, | | | | If you do this, you get to keep all of the money. Now if |
| you have ads on your site. You only get paid when | | | | you set up business deals where you buy services or |
| somebody clicks on the ad. You are essentially trying | | | | have a partner, obviously, you have to share with |
| to get people to click OFF your site. If you're selling | | | | them. But you own the business and if it takes off, the |
| something on that site, you don't want them to leave. | | | | profits are yours. |
| While both of these models work and work quite well, | | | | Last but not least, it's fun. You'll be on the cutting edge |
| don't mix them. They don't work together. | | | | of a revolutionary new way of writing for a living. |
| There are some pitfalls. First, you have to do some | | | | |