Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog but it’s a new year and a new me. 2010 was a very busy year for me as I attempted to grow my online income to replace my offline income. I didn’t quite achieve that goal but I’m getting pretty close.

I can visualize a time, hopefully this year, where I will derive the majority of my income from my work online. It really is work and it takes many hours, sometimes 16 hour days, to complete all the goals I set as well as maintain my offline business.

It’s not about working for myself, I already do that by providing Chicago permit services to clients from all over the country. It’s about securing a future using the only gift I was born with. Writing has been my dream job since I was 9 and though I have had little success with my creative fiction writing, my commercial writing gigs are turning out to be more than I ever expected.

Freelance writing opportunities are opening doors that I never dreamed would open. Over the past year I have honed my SEO skills as well as worked on some of my writing flaws and I realized a great increase in the demand for my work. Having a couple hundred articles published, close to 900 followers and over half a million page views on Hubpages.com, just one of my writing outlets, is testimony to the hard work that has brought me to this point.

What I have achieved is achievable by just about anyone that has the writing bug. There are nearly limitless freelance writing opportunities online. Just think about how many web site owners, editors, and publishers there are. Now think about how many brick and mortar businesses there are around your town that would desperately love to have a presence online.

You can provide that presence for those businesses as well as provide content for site owners and publishers. If you’ve been following my advice in previous posts then you already have your own blog. If you don’t have your own blog you should have a small sampling of your writing where you can point potential clients to and act as your online portfolio. If you’re confident with your writing skills then all you need to do is offer your services to as many places you can find an audience.

Here is a list of free sites I use on a regular basis that get me several writing gigs each week:

http://craigslist.org
http://kijiji.com
http://backpage.com
http://oodle.com
http://adpost.com

If you post to these sites you will find just how many freelance writing opportunities open up for you.

Writing SEO content is just one source of income that will replace my offline income. In my next post I will discuss how affiliate marketing is providing me multiple streams of income.