This is targeted toward those relatively new to writing content to sell online via content writing, something that I see as a subtype of traditional and professional copywriting. Others may get something out of this, though, so feel free to read even if you've been at this for years. This piece is all about time. Specifically, it's about writing for the long term and writing for the short term. By adding both to your online income basket, you'll be more financially stable and slowly begin to build enough online real estate of your own to make a living and then some. If all goes well, someday you'll be able to hire others to do the work and, hopefully, continue to grow. Writing for the long term If your goal is to make your living online, this step could be thought of as planting your online garden. You know how to write great content. Good. These days, it's really simple to set-up websites, even interactive ones that allow communities to form (goldmines found on your online real estate and worth a lot of money for their stickiness.) Over time, your websites, if the content is one step ahead of the sea of other mediocre content out there, you'll begin to attract readers and links. Both are important for any good long term plan. The problem with this method, though, is that it takes a lot of time. Success with content online doesn't happen overnight. Not in my experience anyway. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. While you plant a few seeds of your own on servers you control, there are other ways to make money online as a writer. Writing for the short term Unless you have a day job or are independently wealthy, following the plan above will require that you have a source of income. To help with this, you can write for the short term by spending time developing content but selling it instead of keeping it for yourself. Depending on the content, there's no real way to tell which way is worth more, although I imagine the long term philosophy, because it continues to increase in value with age (like a fine wine) and goes on til the end of the Internet or a more minor problem takes the site down. While writing for the short term, you want to make sure you don't sell yourself short. Your time, especially if you're creative and can craft content in your dreams while you sleep at night, is valuable. Don't ever forget that. As your reputation spreads and your network of people and contacts around the world expands, you'll soon, if you're good, have more work than available time to safely work. At that point, raise your rates, trying to keep the clients and work you enjoy working with most. A Holistic Approach to Time Travel If you're new to content writing, remember that it's a wide, wide web out there beyond the borders of DP. Another thing to remember is that if you have any other skills - design, programming, photography - you might have even more ways to have money to live and invest in your online real estate, steadily growing it to a big level. This even helps with content buyers you may run into while trying to sell your services as a content writer. If you can show them you have value to their business above and beyond just throwing halfway decent copy to them, you make yourself valuable in their eyes. If you're valuable in their eyes, it's easier to set a price that values your time as a human being. A Wrinkle in Time All that said, in my humble opinion, having a mix of both strategies is the best way to success - both in the short term and the long term. You want to plant an online garden and water it with revenue from other online ventures like writing content for other webmasters. One of the neat things is that even while selling content and writing for the short term, you're gaining valuable experience at crafting top notch content for websites - knowledge you can use to help your own online garden bloom. Thanks for reading.
I would like to state that writing for the long term is an extremely good idea. Do it as much as possible, and you will never regret it. Back when I was debating working short term vs long term, I thought I was wasting my time because none of my content was earning money. Now I haven't updated one of my blogs in almost a year, and it's earning $100/m on auto-pilot. That has definitely paid off my time spent writing over the last year