A champagne lifestyle from advertisements around your online writing probably depends on getting very well known just as in conventional publishing.
To begin online writing is easy and even to earn very small amounts of money is also relatively straightforward but to earn a decent income is very difficult and involves solving problems of marketing which are very similar to those faced by writers seeking to earn a living by more conventional publishing means.
Perhaps the easiest way to start online writing is to get a Blogger blog which is free and also comes with an invitation from the providers of your blog to put advertisements on your blog from which you can earn revenues based on the number of times the advertisement is seen and the level of interest from your visitors in the advertisement.
The moment that you start putting articles or stories on your blog, usually called posts, you are potentially earning money but you will quickly find that bringing people to your site instead of them going to the many millions of other competing blog owners is very difficult.
Also, the advertising return from each visitor to your site is usually very low. Typically, to earn significant sums of money in terms of Western standards of living, thousands of visitors are needed each day and the subject matter which your blog discusses must be commercial with advertisers wanting to sell to the type of visitors that come to your blog.
As an online writer, the more stories or articles you write and put on your site, the more likely you are to increase your readership but unless your articles or stories are of high standard, you are unlikely to get people returning to your blog and your readership is unlikely to grow to the levels where you will be earning a significant income. Matching quality to quantity is a constant dilemma for the online writer.
Fortunately these days, or perhaps unfortunately for less popular writers, the search systems that index the web are growing sophisticated enough to be able to gauge people’s reactions to your sites and articles. Sites that entertain and keep their visitors engaged and page turning are probably much more likely to be sent more traffic by the search engines than other sites where visitors leave at the first opportunity. The quality of your articles of stories is therefore hugely important.
Perhaps equally important in the early days of your online writing career is to accurately describe your writing web site or blog in your content. For example, if people are searching for articles about beekeeping, you need to mention the phrase beekeeping on your site. This is particularly important, if you are writing fiction where the content might not make it obvious that your writing is a short story or flash fiction.
Ultimately, however, the secret of your success in the business of online writing, where income is derived purely from advertising, similarly to conventional publishing, is to build up your reputation and fame. If people are pleased with what they find on your site and want to return, they will remember your name and your web site traffic will grow. If visitors to your site see nothing that is not already provided equally by many other sites or blogs, they are far less likely to want to visit you again.
On the other hand, if you are a technical guru in some field providing information that people value greatly or you write stories that are riveting and make compulsive reading day after day and as long as the advertisements that are placed on your pages are of interest to your visitors, you might join the small number of people who are making a living from advertising revenues and online writing.
More soon about online writing.
Bye for now
Rob
Rob Hopcott - online writer
