Making money as a freelance writer is a perfect fit for a work at home mom and is definitely one of the most popular work at home ideas in general.  The great thing about being a freelance writer nowadays is that the Internet allows you to work for companies and individuals all over the world who need writing services on a regular basis. If you are willing to provide writing services at a competitive price and have a good command of the English language, you will never be out of work.

One spectacular benefit of being a freelancer writer and a work at home mom is that getting started is as easy as doing a little research online and then applying for a position or project. The only other things you really need are a PayPal account and a computer.

As with any business idea or career change, there are some things you’ll need to know and consider before you decide to take the leap.

Writing For Money
If you want to write as a way to make a consistent income, then you are most likely going to have to write non-fiction.  While you may find a job here and there that requires a different genre, steady income in other areas will be hard to find.

The upside is, if you are enthusiastic about writing non-fiction and finding work online, then you will have a ton of opportunities at your fingertips.

You can break it down your options into two basic forms of non fiction writing: writing for print and writing for the web.

Writing for print is what most people will still  think of when you tell them that you’re a freelance writer.  This is when you write articles for print publications like magazines and newspapers. Most writers begin by submitting queries (basically a resume and a pitch for a story idea) to smaller, local publications that have limited applicants and less competition to new writers to deal with. The smaller ones are  also more willing to give new writers a chance.

The downside to writing for print is that you often have to submit several queries, if not dozens, before you even get a response. Also, actually seeing a paycheck can take months.  For most work at home moms, this situation just isn’t feasible and so they turn to the Internet to get started.

Writing online is much different. There are ample opportunities to get started and you can start seeing payments soon after you decide that writing is what you want to do.

Here are just a few different types of writing you can do online:

• Ebooks (on various topics)
• Articles
• Blog Posts
• Sales Copy (copywriting)
• Press Releases

There are numerous freelance sites online, many which are free to join and have tons of job postiings daily. Here are just a few of the popular ones:

• Elance
• GetAFreelancer
• Scriptlance
• oDesk