“Make $100 per hour in a week or less writing online. Just purchase this ebook telling you how for only $19.99!” Look familiar? Freelance writers, or even just honest folks trying to make a few extra dollars each month during tough economic times, have probably stumbled across multiple scams that look similar to that. The get-rich-quick writing schemes are partially responsible for more than one of these common myths about web content writing.

The tough part is that it IS possible to make a very good income writing online articles, but the truth is that doesn’t happen overnight. So let’s talk about what is possible in terms of making money online, and what is not possible.

Writing Online Won’t Make You Rich Immediately

Writing articles for the web will not make you a million your first week. Chances are you won’t even make a hundred dollars your first week unless you are producing a lot of content that pays upfront. I tend to prefer writing my content for residual or revenue share type of payment set ups because I have found that I can earn more in the long-run for these pieces. But that’s only helpful if you don’t need the money that second. Otherwise you would be better off considering some of the websites that pay you upfront for your work vs creating your blog site or contributing to content sites.

Writing Online Can Pay a Significant Amount of Money

I have written hundreds of articles over the past three years and one thing I can say with certainty: Online content production can most definitely pay off for you and make a stream of income that pays you month after month. That’s why I appreciate the residual pay models so much since I can continue to get paid “forever” for articles I wrote two or three years ago. Mind you, when I began I thought it was great to get $15 for a single article. Now I require $40 minimum for private contract work.

Affiliate Links, Revenue Share and Even Upfront Pay Take Time

Yes, you can make money quickly, especially by taking private contract jobs. But even using affiliate links, smaller upfront pay jobs and revenue share websites take time. However, they often continue to pay out over a long period of time, making you money for an extended period of time. Last September when I took a month off work to have a baby, I was able to have enough coming in from what I’d done in previous years to pay the mortgage! But it didn’t happen overnight.

The Magic Number

Usually it has been my experience at Suite101 that writers begin to see a decent return on their effort at 50-100 articles. Whether that takes you two months (one per day) or a year (one per week) is completely up to you!