Make Money with Your Own Website

Be your own boss. Image by FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The whole point of becoming a freelance writer is to be your own boss. The problem is that the tradition relationship between clients and writers leads to the client being the boss. The client chooses when the work needs to be completed by, the topic of the work and any keywords used. This limits you as a writer. To really become your own boss, run your own website!

Single- or Multi-Author Websites

The decision you need to make is whether you create a single-author or a multi-author website. There are pros and cons to both of these. With a single-author site, you control all of the content that is placed, you write what you want and can arrange your own schedule. However, you will have to do the tech side, the writing and the management of the website. It becomes a lot of work for something that will take time to get off the ground.

Multi-author websites means that other writers will supply content for you so you can concentrate on the behind-the-scenes work. While this takes some pressure off you, you will need to decide how you will pay the writers and how to stop duplicate content being placed on the website. This can take too much time for some people but once you have a method, you will find it easier than doing everything yourself.

Do Some Research into Niches

Finding a niche is extremely important. You may decide to work on a technology site, a history one or a travel one. However, you will need to do some research into that niche before you even think about doing the design work or the type of content that you will share. This helps you find out more about the type of content people search for, the best layout and how you will monetise your website.

Design and Produce Content

Make sure you do the design work and have some content ready to go before you get your website up. This will help you rank better in search engines – you will have content for people to read, which will reduce your bounce rate. I am currently working on a couple of websites and will make sure that I have a handful of content for each page before it is made public.

Learn SEO

Search engine optimisation is important if you want to rank well but there are so many different tactics – good and bad. You need to learn more about SEO and implement it on your website and pages. This does take time and effort and can take years to learn everything – and it changes regularly! – there are people out there who will help you and have written eBooks that explain SEO step-by-step.

Websites are definitely useful to really be your own boss. I’m working towards that with Student Survival Tips and my blogs. You don’t need to worry about anything clients want and can really write what you want and when you want!