Desktop Publishing
If you have a passion of your own and are pretty good at writing, you can turn those skills into an income stream. The big key is to select something that not only has a market of readers but also something you are interested in. You wouldn’t want to write about growing grass every day unless you really were interested in how grass grows. Consider your hobbies, interests, passions, or topics that you want to do a lot of research about - or just something you will have a lot to talk about.
Thanks to technology and a series of companies available nowadays, there are a few different methods to turn your words into money in your bank account.
- Blogs - blogs (kinda like this one that you’re reading right now) are a way to make money with just a few hours of work each day. Choose a blog system like Blogger or WordPress and start creating! You don’t need to be a graphic design wizard or a website programmer with these systems. Just choose a template, make some color and text changes, and you’re ready to roll. Successful blogs can be on anything from a journal about raising children to your favorite movies. You’ll need to sign up with some affiliate marketers (some blog program allow Google AdSense ads automatically) to provide advertising that your users click so you get paid.
- eBooks - these are usually directories or how-to guides that people pay you for the right to download. This is going to require some research on your part to collect the information and format it. But once you have something written, you can make it into a PDF and offer it for a small fee. Consider using an eBook service like BookLocker. eBooks can be anything from a how-to guide for choosing colleges (and include step-by-step instructions as well as a listing of resources) to technology guides where you rate brands and products.
- Print-on-Demand books - write a book and get it self-published with no hassle using a POD publisher. That means you don’t have to submit your manuscript to a million publishing houses and wait for someone to bite. You make your own book, and they print a book only when someone orders it. No huge stock of books to sell on your own, and no rejection letters. There are a few great POD publishers out there including CafePress.
Again, your success with any of these will depend on the topic you choose to write about. Talk to your friends and toss out a few ideas to see what they get excited about. Then be diligent about writing and getting your published work out there for others to read!
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