Whether you want to earn money directly for the articles you write or use your articles to help sell a product or drive traffic to your website, there will always be a market for well written and informative copy.

Ideally, you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. Try to build up a good working relationship with a couple of clients who can give you regular article writing work and pay you per article. What's the best way to do this? I recommed the Guru freelance job site. There are a lot of freelance work sites but not all will pay well. If you can write decent copy fairly quickly, you shouldn't have any problem getting clients.

However, if you are capable of writing good editorial copy you should also use this to create and sell your own information products such as ebooks, tutorials, articles or tip sheets and sell them directly through your own website. I recommend keeping a log of everything you write during one week. After a week, sit down and figure out how you can put together multiple articles to sell as a report.

You can also use your website to market your skills as a writer to prospective clients. But you may ask, how do I drive traffic to my website and boost sales of my information product?

Once again, you can use your writing skills to achieve this. You can submit your articles to article directories to help create links to your website which will boost your site's popularity among the various search engines and should increase your exposure. The more you write, the more your traffic will build over time. Don't give up if traffic is small at first. Consider each article a salesman that goes out and knocks on doors. Eventually, someone will open a door.

When you submit an article to an article directory, webmasters and editors can use your content for free but the article must include your profile and a backlink to your website. This is how you get quality backlinks to your site. Out of every marketing method I've tried (i.e. link exchanges, directory submissions, PPC), article marketing has brought me the best backlinks and the most traffic.

Another option is to find an affiliate product that you like and believe in, write articles to promote it, and get a commission for each sale that results from your articles.

The beauty of article writing is that you can write about any subject you want, no matter how specific. In fact, niche areas are often where you will find the most success.

You can also use your article to promote your products while driving traffic to your website. If you are selling an ebook on flower arranging, a number of well written articles on the subject linking to your website will increase the chances of sales.