The Web is hungry for words, specifically in the form of articles. This means that if you have any writing ability at all, you can make a great income writing for the Web - it's a great home business, whether you're writing for a second income, or because you're a stay at home mom, or because you're a retiree, or because you want to develop a full time business.

In this article, we'll discuss three primary ways you can make an income writing articles of around 600 words; there are many more.

1. Use articles on your Web site to earn affiliate and advertising income

This first method is the most effective. You simply write articles on a topic which interests you, anything from AA Route Planners to Zip codes, and post the articles on a Web site devoted to that topic.

Most Web writers create a portfolio of many sites, devoted to their enthusiasms, whether these happen to be gadgets, cars, photography, or travel, building the sites by adding articles.

If you intend creating a site for a passion of yours, make sure that there are advertisers for the topic first, especially if you intend to use the Google AdSense advertising system as one of your methods for generating income. The more advertisers, the more income you'll make.

You'll find that as a particular site grows in size, and as the pages you create are indexed by the search engines, your advertising and other revenue from the site will grow.

2. Ghostwrite articles for others

The next way you can turn articles into cash is by writing articles for others. Thousands of Web site owners buy articles - sometimes in the hundreds - for their sites.

You do need to develop a good workflow, because the more articles you can write each day, the more income you will make.

Generally you'll be asked to write articles of between 400 and 600 words in length. Web articles are shorter than print articles; the information is more compressed because Web surfers don't read: they skim.

The easiest way to find clients for your article writing services is by creating a Web site to promote the service. This means that your buyers will find you.

You can also find buyers on forums, by advertising on classified sites, and by sending out news releases. How you promote your article writing services is up to you. Most writers find that they develop a steady clientele of five to ten clients, who send them all the article writing business they can handle.

3. Turn articles into valuable ebooks

The third way to turn your words into money with articles is by turning articles into ebooks. Information is valuable online, and ebooks sell well.

However, before you write a series of articles for an ebook, do a little research to see whether your ebook will sell. You can do this by... yes, you guessed it, by writing articles on the topic.

Write five articles on the topic, and post the articles to article directories. Then track the articles to see how much interest they generate. If the articles are popular, the topic may be a great one for an ebook, but you'll need to do other research to ensure that it is.

So there you have it - three ways you can turn your words into money. Have fun writing your articles. If you enjoy writing, this is the easiest income you will ever make.