How to Become a Full Time Web Content Producer in One Year or Less

Before you read one more line of this article, understand that this is not a "quit your day job today" manual. Most web content writers are already too aware of the dangers of such a notion. After three years of experience in web content production, I have learned the hard way, as many of you out there have, that this is a difficult field to break into on a full time basis. However, if you are determined to work from home and are willing to work hard for that privilege, there are realistic steps that can be taken to make that happen.

First, start saving now to buffer your monthly income. While you can hypothetically write enough web content each day to make a full time income, that full time income will likely come with twelve hours a day of work, six to seven days a week. If you would prefer to work a normal work day, as most of us would, then be patient and save your money first. Place funds in a high yield savings account (a safe option for those who cannot take risks), and try to accumulate enough of a principle balance to generate interest that will cover a bill or two each month. Just being able to cover your power and water bills each month before writing a word will make a tremendous difference in your web writing career's potential for success.

Next, understand your role as a web content producer, and use that to your advantage at all times. Your role is not to write touching, heartfelt stories filled with your personal opinions and philosophies. Save your creative writing for your free time. You are a technical writer, and while you are given a great deal of creative freedom, your job is to generate profits for websites. You must not only bring visitors to your clients' web pages, but you must also subtly inspire them to stay long enough to consider clicking on an add (which, of course, is how your clients earn profits from your work). Fortunately, many websites will share profits that you generate from Google or other pay per click advertisements. This brings us to our next point.

Once you understand how you are to create profits for your web clients, you can use that to your advantage. Bonus payments are paid out each month by almost every website that accepts content submissions. Make these bonus payments a large part of your monthly income before you quit your day job. Craft your articles to generate as many quality page views as possible ("quality" meaning that viewers will actually get what they want from your work and stay on your pages for a while). Websites such as Associated Content, Ehow, and Helium pay their writers every month out of what they receive themselves from advertising revenues. If you haven't quite caught on yet, the point is that the better you are at creating profits for websites, utilizing your skills at SEO and formatting online articles correctly, the more passive income you will create for yourself. In other words, your articles will continue making money long after you submit them. This will, much like your backup savings account, provide peace of mind when the work you create isn't paying as much up front as you'd hoped every now and then.

Next, make the most of every single writing opportunity on the web, including freelance writing assignments. Never depend upon one single website for constant writing work. Expand yourself into writing for websites, blog, and forums, but also take on freelance assignments each week. Why? Because freelance work that appears to be of a short term nature often leads to regular work from those same clients from that point on. Create a website advertising your published work, your skills, and your professional portfolio online, and be sure to include a professional-looking picture of yourself. Your self-promotional website is more for reference when you are applying for work, and not for use as a marketing tool, so be sure to keep it neat and clean. Take on as much work as you can to supplement payments from free-submission sites, and you will greatly boost your income potential as a web content producer.

Next, be wary about competing with yourself online. While it is true that in the print publishing world it is often a good idea to keep partial rights to your work so that it can be submitted again elsewhere, submitting work for non-exclusive rights and publishing that same exact piece elsewhere on the Web can deprive you of maximum payment potential. First, you are not likely to receive high initial offers for non-exclusive work, and secondly, search engines might show your article often, but advertise ones written for low-paying sites more than those submitted to high-paying sites. If your article is unique and submitted to a site that pays well for clicks, it may generate more profits there alone than it would if it were sprinkled all over the web on low-paying sites.

Finally, and most importantly, begin setting up regular work for yourself that you know will create profits online before quitting your day job. Yes, this process can take up to a year, but being truly prepared for and experienced in the web content production field before writing online full time can keep a potentially liberating career move from becoming a financial disaster. Save your money, create a good bonus payment income, use every part of the online writing world, and treat yourself as a business owner. Writing online full time provides flexibility, creative fulfillment, and eases stress tremendously, but only when done right. Plan carefully, and make your move.