There is no doubt that the “I need money” crowd is expanding in this prolonged bad economy. 2012 is almost here and there is no sign that anything is getting better. Unemployment and underemployment remains high and many people are becoming desperate.

Making money online is possible but it requires work. If you aren’t willing to do work then stop reading and don’t even try because you are wasting your time. However, if you are willing to get busy learning how to do it, read on.

Are You For Hire?

The fact is that you can make money by offering services to other people and you don’t even need a website to be successful. Having a website is useful but not necessary when you set up shop in one of the many forums that cater to Internet marketers.

Internet marketers have money to spend on writing jobs, graphic design jobs, and all sorts of other tasks that they need done. Fiverr.com is a good place to go to see what services people are offering and buying. But at Fiverr.com you don’t make very much per gig so that may not be the best place to offer your skills. Forums are a much better place.

Which Internet Marketing Forums?

Forums are where like minded people hang out and exchange ideas. It is also where they exchange services. Some Internet marketing forums are free and some require a monthly fee to join so it is a good idea to sign up to a few of the free ones first and take a pulse of each place. Some are more receptive than others to having people sell services and some you have to pay to be listed. Then there are forums that won’t let you sell anything on them at all so you have to search for ones that will.

Digital Point and the Warrior forum are the two biggest that cater to Internet marketers. Because they are so big they can be overwhelming and it will take time to figure things out. The fact is that there are people who make lots of money on those two forums so they are worth checking out. Wicked Fire and IM4Newbies are two that are a bit smaller. There are dozens of similar forums where you can start your own thread advertising your writing service or whatever else you have to offer.

Paid Forums Can Be Best

Some forums cost $10 or so per month to join and because they cost, they are usually a bit smaller. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing as they are comprised of a tighter community and you can become known much more easily. The more people who know who you are (because of your participation etc.) the easier it is to get people to pay for your outstanding skills. Getting known and participating is key because you need to get those initial orders which will hopefully turn around and give you good reviews.

Getting business/clients on forums is often through word of mouth and if you provide a great service at a competitive price, people will go out of their way to recommend you. I am familiar with many people who make money writing articles and they get all their business from forums. They don’t even have a website!

Forums are great because they are communities of people who all talk to each other and if you have something valuable to offer that people need, word will get around. Usually I always recommend having your own website but if this type of scenario sounds appealing to you, it is one way that you can make money online without having one.

This is my opinion so please take that into mind while you read this. Also you should know that I have never used iWriter.com but am basing this opinion on an email I (and thousands of other people) got from Brad Callen who owns iWriter.

First of all, you can make money online by writing for others. It is one of the legitimate ways that anyone can start online from nothing and slowly build up a business. The better you are and the more you work at establishing contacts and customers, the more you can make. (see how to make money writing PLR articles and writing for money) Most importantly, you can and SHOULD make a lot more than the 50 cents per 100 words or so you will make from iWriter. Even as a total beginner, you should be making AT LEAST double that amount.

This is part of the email that was sent to Brad’s email list the other day. He is trying to get business for his iWriter site and bragging about how cheap each article is:

Getting a good deal is great for the buyer but not for the seller. And in the case of iWriter, you as a writer would be the seller. At 67 cents per 100 words, that doesn’t leave much profit for a writer and certainly you will be making much less than minimum wage. If done correctly, a good writer can slowly build up clientele and make $2 to $5 per 100 words or maybe even more if you are successful building a PLR business.

So, you definitely should never settle for the pitiful wages you will get with iWriter.

In addition to the low price, the email states how utterly easy it is for the buyer to reject work. In fact, he advertises that as a selling point, almost encouraging prospective clients to be picky and reject. That is not a good thing for writers and lots of buyers will take advantage of that and you. They will reject your hard work and then try to steal it and use it for free.

I do know that there are different levels of writers at iWriter and you can work your way up the ladder and make more as your writer score increases. So you might be wondering whether it is a good place to start out as a novice and learn the article writing ropes? Perhaps you could do that but it is important for you to realize that good writers should be charging more for their work than what you will start out making at iWriter. If you choose to write for iWriter, you are being underpaid!

There is a perception online that good deals are everywhere and everything is cheap. But good quality content is not cheap and should have an appropriate price tag. If you are a good writer, you DO NOT have to be charging pennies for your work.

There are lots of free forums (and ones you have to pay to belong to) where you can start making contacts with people who need writers. This is a business where word of mouth will make you more money than anything else. Start by finding a couple of people who need articles written and if you can deliver quality content that they are happy with, ask them to recommend you. You can slowly raise your prices and build up a loyal base of people willing to pay for your hard work. It is totally possible to make $100 or more per day writing content for website owners and all it takes is some patience getting your first clients and some consistent marketing on forums where Internet marketers hang out.