School Leavers can Earn a Living Writing Online

School leavers or matriculants can earn a living writing online and the only costs involved are having a computer and Internet connection.

Anyone who has a computer and Internet connection, and who can write at least a legible email to a friend, can earn an extra income online through writing online, but, here and now, I’m discussing how school leavers can earn a living writing online.

Writing online to earn a living is not for everyone – it’s hard work. Many people do just a bit and earn an extra income to add to what income they’re earning elsewhere or from other methods. This is what I’m doing at the moment, but I hope to write more and more, until writing online could possibly be my primary source of income.

If it’s hard work, and not yet earning me all that much, why do I bother?

You see, the beauty of it is that it grows. I can write an article (roughly minimum 400 words,) publish it online, and the longer it’s there online the more it earns me. This is called passive income. (I can sleep and still earn from work already done.)

Once again, I’ll say it’s hard work, and I wish I had started something like this while I was younger, perhaps even still in school, and while all my living expenses were being taken care of (but then again I wasn’t even computer literate then.) For now (at the age of 41,) I’m using quicker methods of making money from home (web design, writing for clients, a bit of photography and photo editing, SEO (Search Engine Optimization,) and web research.) Whenever I find the time to do my online writing, I do it. I am excited to continue with online writing whenever I get the chance, because of how the earnings grow the more I do it.

SCHOOL LEAVERS USUALLY DO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS:

Join the business their parents or older siblings own and are running;

Take a year’s break while their parents support them, but they may add to that by doing some small odd jobs like waiting tables;

Leave their own country and get a job more easily in another country;

Never work because family, friends, or a husband or wife supports them;

Start their own business, whether it be from home, or at a premises away from home;

Become an apprentice (if they are able to find available and suitable apprentice programs.)

Look for, and find a job;

Study and get a certificate, a diploma, or a degree

Now, although all of those mentioned above have their problems, the last two can be particularly tricky:

There are not that many good paying jobs around for school leavers, and it may take quite a while to find a job that will bring in enough income to cover living expenses.

Studying is expensive, not everyone who starts out studying finishes studying, and not everyone with a degree finds work.

Earning from writing online is a sure thing, but in turn, also has it’s problems:

At first, the earnings are very small;

One needs to have at least fairly decent writing, spelling and grammar skills – or be prepared to work on these skills first, or use tools to improve writing skills – just using Spell Check on Microsoft Word helps a lot;

Only people who do not give up easily should attempt it;

Only people who are prepared to work hard should attempt it;

Only people who understand that they are not going to make a fortune overnight, and who understand that the earnings grow over time, should attempt it;

One must have a computer that is in good condition, one must have Internet connection, and one must be at least a little computer literate;

One must be prepared to spend a good few hours doing research (READING) – of a topic one is going to write about, and of any writing sites one plans to join;

One needs to spend a bit of time doing online marketing of articles one writes to get more traffic (visitors) to those articles (more page views of articles you write equals more earnings.)

If wanting to earn more, one must be prepared to learn a bit about optimizing articles for Search Engines like Google;

One must be prepared to spend a bit of time within the community of writing sites, adding ‘friends”, visiting their articles, commenting on their articles, visiting their blogs, or, generally, visit blogs that are related to your articles, and leave comments (with a link back to your articles or blogs, of course);

To increase earnings, and to allow room for less rules (that writing sites have) it is advisable to get a self-hosted blog (self hosting and domain registration of a unique website or blog address is not free, and is renewable, usually yearly), preferably a WordPress blog (there are many free themes to choose from, but hosting and domain registration is not free, and is renewable, usually yearly.)

One needs a PayPal account for some of the writing sites, and a bank account if one does not yet have one.

Depending on where you live and how much you earn, you may have to register to pay taxes.

You need to keep records or files of everything related to the work you’re doing, especially when earnings increase.

SO, WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE WRITING THEN?

It’s a sure thing: Online writing can earn school leavers (and lots of other people) an income;

The more one writes, and the longer one keeps writing for, the more one earns;

Work can be done just once, and you can keep earning from that work already done;

One does not need a self-hosted (and paid for) website or blog, although it is advisable to have one;

One can get a free Blogger blog, but it seems (in my experience) that Blogger blogs need more marketing than WordPress blogs, and good marketing can take quite a bit of time;

One makes new friends who can give advice on earning more, and who visit your articles (providing traffic and greater earnings.)

One learns an incredible amount about all sorts of topics;

As your knowledge, skills and experience grow, you can branch out into other methods to earn an income from home, like offering writing services to anyone in the world, web research services, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services (just doing all the writing work and everything that goes with it is, basically, free studies.)

You can work when you please – if you want to take some time off in the middle of the morning, you can. You can sleep all day and work all night if that’s what suits you best. You can take two days off during the week and work all weekend if that suits you best. The more you work though (if that’s what you are prepared to do) the more you will earn.

“Studies” are free. You learn as you go along, and learn from everything you read on the Internet about writing online and marketing your online writing. Once you know a lot about this, you can even write some articles about it – a lot of people are looking for information on online writing or how to earn a living online.

There are no transport costs involved in getting yourself to a workplace and back home again every day.

You don’t have to work with people you don’t get along with.

You don’t have to buy a lot of expensive work clothes and can work in what you slept in if you want.

You’re creating a passive income. Once you get to a monthly income you’re happy with, even if it takes a few years, you can stop writing new articles, and those articles still earn you money every day. At that point it is a good idea to still spend 5 to 10 hours a week visiting the sites your articles are on, to remain active on those sites, comment on the articles of other writers, give advice in the forums of those sites, or find new sites you can link to your articles from, perhaps go back and check through your articles from time to time to see if you can improve them in any way, especially if you see that some are not getting as much traffic as some of the others.

Once you have children, you get to spend more time with them during school holidays (instead of being at a workplace away from your home), and you get to spend more time supporting them at their school activities.

Where does one advertise and offer writing services if one gets to that point (having confidence and experience to do more than write for only one’s own sites or blogs or on online writing sites.)?

On your own website or blog;
On the profiles of some of the social sites you belong to;
On the profiles of some forums you belong to;
On the profiles of some writing sites you belong to;
On the profiles of freelance job sites you belong to.

If not selling articles or writing articles for clients, exactly how does one earn an extra income (or make a living) from having articles online?

These three articles should help you understand how one can make money from writing articles and publishing them online:

14 ways to make money from just one article
Different ways to make money from just one article
Write ten short articles a day to earn R10 000 (currently about $1 463) per month in 3 years’ time

Exactly how much can I earn from writing online?

There is no exact amount.

You can earn more the more you do it and the more time and effort you put into it.

Is there not an example of how much others are earning?

READ – there’s information all over the Internet that’s free to study. Reading, and learning from what you read, is just as important as spending a lot of time writing articles and marketing your articles.

The more you read, the more you learn, the more you do, the more you earn.

Just one or two examples of earnings, PLEASE?

I write an article just once, publish it just once, and I keep earning R1 per month from it after that.

Okay, each article I write and publish online in just one place for example on my own blog, earns me, on average, about R1 (currently about $0.14) per month. And it sometimes take a month or even two, before I earn that very first R1 for a written article. I cannot say you will earn as much as I do. I also cannot say that you may earn more. You may. I do know I can (and do) increase my R1 per article per month earnings in a variety of ways.

Is that all you earn from writing online? Gosh, I can’t do this for such a little bit of income! Even if I managed to write 5 articles a day, every day, that’s only R150 per month

Yeah, maybe only R150 at the end of the first one or two months, but, you keep earning from those articles, so at the end of the third month, if continuing to write 5 articles a day, that’s R300 per month, at the end of the fourth month, that’s R450 per month, at the end of the fifth month, that’s R600 per month, at the end of the sixth month, that’s R750 per month, etc etc.

AND, there are ways to increase that monthly R1 per article written:

If I republish that same article in other places (that allow previously published articles) I earn more for just that one article, and each month after that.

If I work on marketing that article (getting traffic (visitors) to it), I earn more for just that one article, and each month after that.

If I sell that article to people who don’t mind buying previously published articles, I earn more for just that one article.

If I spend time learning how to optimize that article for Search Engines, before I write it, I earn more for just that one article, and each month after that.

If I spend time checking spelling and grammar, and sentence and paragraph structure, I earn more from just that one article, and each month after that.

If I write about interesting or popular topics, I earn more from just that one article, and each month after that. (More people search for and read interesting, popular, and informative articles than people who read boring and poor quality articles.)

If I spend some extra time marketing that same article on new sites I’ve just joined, or on the same pages of new articles I’ve written, I earn more from just that one article, and each month after that.

When that article is a few months old, and I go back to it and see how I can edit or impove it, or link to it from more places (marketing it), I earn more from just that one article, and each month after that.

I repeat, it’s hard work (long hours and dedication), but it’s not difficult work, and it is a sure thing, and can pay off. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

School leavers, or those who are thinking about what to do after school: If you find no other way to make money, come back to this article, articles it links to, AND articles those articles link to, and read. Read, Learn, Do, Earn.

Online writing is not just for school leavers; just about anyone can make money writing online.

TIP:
Parents who have primary school children and are concerned that they cannot afford to invest in the future education of their children through a savings plan or education plan, but who have the time to write a few articles, can write online, and can save the monies earned towards the costs of the future education of their children. If it is decided later that your children will not be doing further studies, and your children are struggling to find work, you can teach them how to earn money writing online, because you’ve already been doing it yourself.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010

Some online writing and bookmarking sites, free to join:

Xomba

HubPages

Factoidz

RedGage

Constant Content

Best-Reviewer

Bukisa

You can see a complete list of online writing sites I’m currently earning from, and how much I’m earning from them, on my Make Money Writing Online site.

Last word: I would think that school leavers stand a greater chance at earning a living online from writing online than people who are older, since school leavers are already used to learning and doing assignments. They just continue doing something similar to what they are familiar with, except that now they can earn from it. Their parents are also most likely to support them for a year or two while they start out. Older people often start out writing online, but are impatient, don’t want to read and learn, and don’t have young parents willing to support them for a year or two while their freelance writing home business takes time to take off (and these older people end up giving up.)