How could I monetize this?

[mercuryrising]

I visited an old blog of mine and was surprised to see that one of my posts was still getting a lot of hits. It was a post I did on how to write an essay in an hour. I reflected on how many of the posts I did on writing were the ones that got responses and hits.

Then someone emailed me from Yahoo Answers. I had gone on there three or four months back, helping students with their essay homework. This person wanted me to proofread one of his essays for school. That was a bit of a surprise considering it had been so long since I was on their.

I can see some potential in teaching writing and I considered going back to school for an Enlgish degree.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how I might make money blogging on writing and editting other people's writing. There are two hang-ups I have with doing that:

1. I am not a published author. I've been a writer for many years, just not a published one. Nor do I have a college education. I'm not sure what to use as credentials.

2. I don't know if people will pay me for advice on how to write or for editting their writing.

Any thoughts?

[Orange]

Write articles like you did on this blog, make a website and publish them. put adsense ads on each page. Also offer a personal service that you will read what somone has written and make suggestions.

[AlexG]

Start with what you know and currently have right now. Opportunities will start to present themselves to you.

Make sure you start doing something. Orange's suggestion is very good.

[mercuryrising]

Both sensible answers. Perhaps I just needed someone else to say it to me.

[Stu]

You could even market it as a service for new bloggers. I think one of the things that really sinks a lot of blogs is that people new to writing and blogging just don't know how to get their ideas across in an effective way.

[BenThere]

Steve's got a whole dandy site that is chock full of articles about how he makes a living as an online writer, despite not having a writing degree (if I recall correctly).

If you put posts on a blog, that blog is then your credentials for writing a blog. If you write some articles and ebooks and post them online, those articles and ebooks demonstrate your ability to write articles and ebooks worth reading. Beyond some nominal technical costs, the only cost of entry is your time.

Some other ways to monetize writing and editing skills:

Learn how to become a business copywriter. Bob Bly's books are an excellent start.

Put up flyers at colleges advertising term paper editing and typing services.

Write how-to-write articles and submit the articles to magazines like Writer's Market for publication.

Join Toastmasters and learn to present what you write in a compelling way. Then give talks for free to local nonprofits, and work your way up to getting paid as a public speaker.

[uberinquisitive]

Originally Posted by mercuryrising

1. I am not a published author. I've been a writer for many years, just not a published one. Nor do I have a college education. I'm not sure what to use as credentials.

As a writer myself, I care just as much about testimonials and samples.

[mercuryrising]

You could even market it as a service for new bloggers. I think one of the things that really sinks a lot of blogs is that people new to writing and blogging just don't know how to get their ideas across in an effective way.

I really like this idea. Some of my comments on past articles were from people who had started blogs for the social networking aspect, but weren't writers themselves.

Steve's got a whole dandy site that is chock full of articles about how he makes a living as an online writer, despite not having a writing degree (if I recall correctly).

Good point

If you put posts on a blog, that blog is then your credentials for writing a blog. If you write some articles and ebooks and post them online, those articles and ebooks demonstrate your ability to write articles and ebooks worth reading. Beyond some nominal technical costs, the only cost of entry is your time.

I have a blog that I've been keeping up since March. It's needs to be re-vamped and lacks direction. With some remodeling though, I think it could be used as a basis of comparison for other people. I've also considered (based on the above comments) of just starting over with a different domain and writing articles specific to writing and related subjects. That might be the easier way.

Some other ways to monetize writing and editing skills:

Learn how to become a business copywriter. Bob Bly's books are an excellent start.

Put up flyers at colleges advertising term paper editing and typing services.

Write how-to-write articles and submit the articles to magazines like Writer's Market for publication.

Join Toastmasters and learn to present what you write in a compelling way. Then give talks for free to local nonprofits, and work your way up to getting paid as a public speaker.

All good suggestions. Thanks.

As a writer myself, I care just as much about testimonials and samples.

That's a good idea. I think part of this is a limiting belief about how good I am as a writer, so I'll put something insurmountable in front of writing to keep me from going through with it.


Thanks to all of you.