Just a few days ago I wrote about freelance writing opportunities and how blog writing is becoming quite a popular job for service providers. Well ironically, I was just asked by one of my clients to ghostwrite articles for their blog.

Talk about good timing. I honestly didn’t know this would happen at the time of writing my post, but it proves the fact that there are people out there looking for blog writers. You just have to get yourself in front of potential clients.

Being a current client of mine, and knowing the subject matter of which they need articles written for, it just makes sense. It’s not my normal proofreading work, but having done this type of work before as well as a bit of re-writing work, I figure, why not?

It’s always a good idea to have multiple streams of income, so capitalizing on every opportunity is a no-brainer. I’m not going to lie… I need money. Who doesn’t?

That’s what my blog is all about. Presenting ideas and showing you different ways you can earn extra money on the internet. There’s many different avenues to take, and freelance blog writing is one of those, and it can pay off.

Following up with my previous post on finding freelance work from home, I wanted to share about another freelance opportunity. Freelance writing opportunities are in high demand. If you’re a writer, or aspiring writer, then this post is for you. Heck, even if you’re not that great at writing but are knowledgeable in a certain area or niche, then pay close attention.

There are numerous amounts of people that constantly require article writers on a wide variety of subjects. Just go to my previous post, linked above, and sign up with those sites as a service provider. You’ll be able to see firsthand at how many writing jobs are available.

Other freelance writing opportunities, and one that is very similar to the above, is blog writing. The same principal applies, but this time you’re writing an article or blog post for the owner of a blog. There are millions of blogs ran by webmasters, and many webmasters don’t have the time to keep up with their blogs.

The fact is that it’s hard keeping up with a blog, and I should know. . It takes time to research a topic and then write about it. It’s very time consuming to keep a blog updated on a consistent basis. And as we all know, Google loves new, fresh content that’s added regularly to sites. This is where you, a freelance blog writer, can help.

Many blog owners would like to keep their blog up to date and provide valuable content to their readers. The problem is that many just don’t have the time due to other interests or obligations. Many blog owners would be willing to hire a blog writer to post content on their blog.

It will take a little effort and time on your part, but if you run across a quality blog that doesn’t get updated very often, or seems to have been neglected, you could simply contact the owner and offer your writing services to them. Many will be so happy that you contacted them that they’ll jump on the idea.

The price you get paid per post for blog writing will vary and has many factors. Some factors include the niche, length of the posts and your writing experience. With a little effort there’s no reason why you can’t find a blog writing job.

So there you have it… two examples of freelance writing opportunities that are available to you. I’m sure with some creativity and strong will, you’ll be able to find other avenues as well.

Freelance work from home isn’t a new concept by any means. There are many freelancers that enjoy spending the day at home doing various work for different clients. The internet has made this possibility even more of a reality for many people.

Basically, if you have  a specific skill or skill set, there’s no reason why you can’t find freelance work from home. If you have a particular interest or are very knowledgeable in a specific area, chances are that you can get paid to render your services in that area.

You might be saying you don’t have any skills or aren’t qualified in any specific area, so finding freelance work from home is out of the question. Well, the fact that you’re reading this proves that theory wrong. Even if you have basic computer skills, which I’m assuming you do, you may just find someone that is need of your knowledge.

Even so, there’s quick ways to learn and get the knowledge necessary to render services for others in a specific area. You could take an online course for an area of interest and get certified. This is what I did after I lost my job over a year ago. It has paid off very well and is well worth it.

One website where you can get such training and take an online course is UniversalClass.com. Here they offer classes for just about any subject, and after completion, you’ll be certified and have the knowledge necessary. The next step after that will be to get some experience.

To get your feet wet and eventually do freelance work from home full-time, you’ll need to find a constant stream of work. This can be a bit challenging to say the least. Fortunately, there are websites that connect freelance service providers with people looking for freelancers.

List of freelance sites to check out:

• GetAFeelancer.com
• IFreelance.com
• ODesk.com
• Elance.com
• RentaCoder.com

This isn’t an all-inclusive list of feelance sites, but this will give you a good start to find freelance work. I’m a member of a few, but I’ll be honest, I have yet to get any work through these sites. I get most of my work through forums.

Forums can be a great place to find freelance work from home. It might be a little unorthodox or different than what you’re used to, but this is how I get all of my freelance work. There are many benefits to this avenue.

With forums, you don’t have to spend time bidding on projects that appeal to you. This can be time-consuming, and with a hundred other competitors all bidding on the same project, the chances of winning the project aren’t very good.

If you already have the experience then being seen as an expert in your field won’t be difficult. Just back up your claims with real testimonials from satisfied customers/clients. Notice I said “real” testimonials… that’s very important. You never want to fake testimonials for any reason.

Forums usually have an area to advertise for a product or service. Use this to your advantage to get your name out there. If you have to, do some work for free in exchange for some testimonials. You may just gain a regular client from it in the process.

Adding a link in your forum signature to a web page that describes what you do and the services you offer is another benefit to take advantage of. This can get you good exposure, and anyone interested will click on the link and may just become a new client.

For me, the services I offer are appealing to the members of the various forums I’m a member of. So for me, this strategy is very advantageous.

Regardless of how you find freelance work from home, online or offline, just know that it’s a great way to earn money and work from home.

What are some ways you go about finding freelance work, whether it’s online or offline?

A week ago I posted about the new Contextual Link Partnership WordPress Plugin and how it allows you to earn free and unlimited one way backlinks to your blog.

Since the plugin was new and I just installed it on my blog, I didn’t have any results to share with you. Of course my hopes were high as this looked like the ideal setup in getting relevant backlinks.

Well, I just received an email from the owners yesterday that pretty much fortifies what I’ve already been saying about this plugin. So far they are seeing tremendous growth in the network and have started distributing backlinks.

I still have high hopes and look forward to the potential that this neat little plugin will have for my blogs, including this one.

If you would like to learn more and read up on what’s been going on just head here: http://www.contextualpartnership.com/news/over-54000-places-for-your-links/.

I would recommend grabbing this plugin and utilizing it on your blogs. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. And don’t worry, I’m not getting paid or anything to promote it. I just see a lot of value in this and hope all of you will too.

I’ve been wanting to be a guest blogger for quite some time now but just haven’t gotten around to it. While I was browsing the CYN forums I had responded to a question that someone was asking about how to build up a list of subscribers.

That response prompted another member to ask if I would be interested in doing a guest post for their blog. I’ve been putting off, so since I was asked about it, I decided to finally take action. I wrote up the article yesterday, and after realizing how long it was turning out to be, decided to chop it up into three parts.

If you’d like to check out part one of my article on how to build up your newsletter list, then head on over to Michael Burke’s Project Little Fish blog and read my article titled: Ways To Build Your Email Mailing List – Using a Lead Capture Form.

Michael has a good thing going on, and I’m excited to be a part of it. So head on over and show Michael some love, and be sure to leave a comment or two.

You’ll notice that there will be two more parts to the article that you don’t want to miss. You’ll have to stay tuned to Michael’s blog in order to catch them.

Guest posting on other blogs is a great way to get yourself noticed and build up your online brand. I highly recommend you go out and find other blogs in your niche that have built up a large readership. Most bloggers allow others to post articles to their blog, or you can contact them directly and ask.

This is just the beginning of my guest blog posting quest. I’ll keep you informed of any and all new guest posts in the future, but make sure you’re subscribed to my RSS feed so you don’t miss out.

Oh… I almost forgot. For any of you interested in being a guest post on this blog, just contact me, and I’d be happy to have your article on here. Just make sure it’s relevant to my blog.

Here’s a really cool plugin for all of you WordPress users out there. If the idea of building relevant and natural backlinks to your blog appeals to you, which it should, then this plugin is for you. It’s called the Contextual Partnership Plugin.

The basic gist behind the plugin is that you do nothing different from just blogging as you always do. For each post you have, past and present, you can build backlinks with your chosen keywords on other relevant blogs in the network.

Notice I said network. This means that there is a network of bloggers who all have this plugin. As the network grows, there will be more and more blogs available to earn backlinks from. So, this is important as you need to spread the word to everyone you know about this plugin and have them install it on their blogs.

There’s an approval process before your blog will be available in the network. It took my blog about an hour to get approved, so you shouldn’t have any trouble either. You can install this on as many blogs as you own, which I would recommend.

The only guidelines is that you have at least five posts, have contact information readily available, and provide value in your posts.

I just installed this yesterday, and it could take a few weeks before I start seeing backlinks. I’ll keep you updated on the results.

This is one very easy and automated way of building more links to your blog. Another free method that is similar to this is the Free Taffic System. I’ve been using the Free Traffic System for quite some time now and have seen excellent results. With both of these at my disposal, I’ll be able to work less to build high quality, one way backlinks.

I recommend you take a look at the Free Traffic System and also download this free plugin so that you can start to experience the same awesome results I’m getting.

This is a subject that I don’t think gets covered enough. If you run a blog, it’s important to keep it up to date, and having the time to write all of that content can be tough. It’s oftentimes much easier just to use someone elses article on your own blog.

This is perfectly acceptable, but there’s some guidelines you need to follow.

First, you need to consider the source of the content. Depending on where you’re getting the content from, there can be specific rules regarding duplicating the content and using it for your own use. Most article directories have this spelled out for you. However, if you decide to pull the content from a personal/business website, you may want to contact the owner to make sure they allow you to use it.

Most content owners are more than happy to allow you to use their content on your blog, but this comes with stipulations. For the most part, you’ll be required to cite the name of the author with a link back to the original source where you got the content from. With article directories, there’s usually code you can copy and paste that already includes this information.

If there are links within the content body, they usually have to stay intact. With article directories, there’s almost always an author resource box, and this will have to accompany the article on your site, otherwise you violate the copyright.

Now, I happen to know of some people who are very adament against people using their articles on other sites. That’s understandable as they put in a lot of time and effort to write high quality content for their site. It’s rightfully there’s, and they have the right to reject anyone from duplicating it.

I personally don’t have a problem with other people using my content as long as they keep all links intact and cite the reference from which they got the content from. That’s all I ask. I have had some problems with this in the past, as you can read from this post: I Hate Thieves! Blogger Steals My Content!

What actually prompted me to write about this is not from that post I just mentioned; although, it’s the same circumstance. You see, I was just made aware of another blog that published one of my articles and disregarded my policy and proper etiquette of content duplication.

I have already contacted the owner, and hopefully we can get this resolved without any legal action.

I just want to make everyone aware that it is a copyright violation to use someone elses content without proper citation, and in some cases, without the content owners approval. You can face legal action for disregarding this.

Of course, I’m not an attorney or anything, so use your own discretion in this matter. Regardless, there’s always going to be people who don’t follow the “rules” of the internet. Luckily for us they’re the minority. Don’t let this discourage you in any way from using other people’s content when you think your readers could find value in it. And, don’t let this deter you from creating high quality content of your own.

I’ve decided to start doing a roundup of all of last month’s posts. This is in case you happened to miss one along the way for whatever reason, and it never hurts to refresh your memory with an idea.

I’ll start from the beginning of the month and move to the most recent. So here goes…

Twitter TweetMe Plugin Installed – ReTweet My Posts

This cool Twitter plugin is for all my readers to share my posts with their followers if they feel what I have to say is worthy of being ReTweeted.

Free Traffic Getting SEO Blog Software from Jeff Johnson

If you’re starting up a new blog, or you have a blog that could use more traffic, then you have to get this plugin. It’s free to download and will optimize your blog for the search engines and pull in laster targeted traffic.

List of 31 High Quality Article Directores to Submit Your Articles To

Here’s my personal list of article directories I use. There’s certainly more out there, so don’t feel that this is an all-inclusive list.

HostGator – Cheap CPanel Web Hosting – Host Unlimited Domains

Learn about my experience of switching web hosts and why Host Gator was my preferred choice. If you’re looking for reliable hosting at a super affordable rate, then this is a post you don’t want to miss.

Advertise Your Website on Leading Make Money Online Blog

If you’re looking for big-time exposure for your make money online site, then you must check this out. Learn how to get your site seen by thousands of targeted visitors and make more sales.

GetResponse – My Preferred Email Autoresponder Service

An online marketer knows the importance of using an autoresponder. It’s necessary if you’re going to use email marketing to bring in more sales, and you should be. Learn more about GetResponse and why I chose them.

Need Help with Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing?

If you’re struggling to do all the necessary tasks of marketing your website or just don’t have the time, leave it up to professionals. Learn more about my partnership with a proven company that can handle all of your internet marketing needs.

Free Directory Submission – Obtain High PR Backlinks

A huge source of high PR web directories that you can submit your site to for free. Get more backlinks, higher search engine rankings and more sales.

Online Branding

Branding is essential in the online world. Learn more about you and your business and why it’s beneficial.

That concludes the month of June posts. Feel free to browse older posts by clicking on a particular month in the Archives section on the left sidebar.

Also, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date with all of my latest posts.

If you happened to stumble onto my blog last evening and early this morning, you probably noticed that it looked very weird. No, it wasn’t your computer or browser. The design was messed up.

What happened was I trying to fix a simple write error by changing the permission settings for a particular directory. Instead of fixing the simple problem, I inadvertently created a much bigger problem. The main functions of the blog still worked and navigation shouldn’t have been a problem, though.

Without trying to sound too “techie,” the read/write permissions that I screwed up caused my WordPress theme to not show up. So, you saw my blog, but without the header and other graphics. The layout was also messed up as a result.

I’m just happy everything is working properly again. I have folks from the Warrior Forum and my web tech guru from Niche Power Group to thank for helping me resolve this issue.

This is a good lesson to remember that if you plan on making changes to your blog, no matter how small, to first make a backup of your blog in case something terrible goes wrong. All I can say is… lesson learned!

The PIPS Power Group (PPG), a group of mentors established to help Plug-In Profit Site members excel with their home business, is holding their 2nd annual summer marketing contest.

For whatever reason, I didn’t participate in last year’s contest. This year, however, I decided it would be a good idea for me to participate as it can only help my work from home business. Getting motivated and staying focused on daily tasks can be hard, so this contest is a way to keep me on track with what I need to do.

I just wanted to share with you all what requirements were included with this contest, so you can get somewhat of an idea of what it takes to market your online business and that it takes a daily and consistent effort on your part.

Here’s what we are required to do each day:

• Post at least once to our blog
• Post at least 4 comments on other blogs
• Post at least 4 forum posts, on 4 different forums
• Make at least one post in the PPG forum
• Write at least 2 articles per week

After that, we have to post our daily activity of what we did, including posting the links to all the posts we made in forums and blogs, a link to our blog post, etc.

Now before the marketing contest began, we posted how many inbound links we had to our site as well current Alexa ranking. The winner of the contest is the one who has the biggest positive difference of those numbers and what those numbers are at the end of the contest.

The PPG marketing contest runs for 6 weeks, and this is day 2 of the contest. So far I’ve been able to manage to meet the requirements for yesterday, and I’m on a good track to meet them for today.

Doing these tasks everyday will make a positive impact on my business. Looking at this, this should give YOU a good idea of what is needed to take your online business to the next level.

If you’re struggling with your business or just want to take it to that next step, but feel like you just keep hitting roadblock after roadblock, I highly recommend checking out the PIPS Power Group and see what they can do for you.