I decided to do some research today in regards to making money writing with freelance jobs or blogging. With blogging vastly picking up popularity, there are more sites opening up to the public who would like to cash in on making money from blogging.

I have talked to numerous writers who have divulged their secrets to how much money they are making on freelance sites such as Elance.com or Scriptlance.com. These writers have spent years building up their clientele and reputation. The one main comment most of them seemed to make about finding work from freelance job sites such as these, is the competition factor.

There is a lot of competition on these types of sites from countries all over the world. In some countries, the cost of living is a lot less expensive than places such as Canada, U.S.A. and Europe. These countries can afford to offer lower bids, thus increasing their chances to be accepted for the job, providing all other necessary criteria is met.

Upon further look into Elance I found that it costs you money to place a bid for a job, costs you money to get the job and be paid through Elance, and you are limited to only one area of job postings unless to buy into a paid subscription for the month which then allows you to be able to bid for more jobs in various fields. I realize you are paying for a service, where they are bringing prospective clients to you without you having to search them out on your own but if your final job only nets you $2hr when all is said and done, is it really worth your time?

I went and researched a few sites such as ReviewMe.com, and Pay Per Post.com looking for bloggers who would post reviews and related content for various niche topics. The average income it seemed for payment on an accepted post was $5. The posts range in lengths from 200 words to 1000 words. I know when I write a 300 word post or article it takes approximately 30-45 minutes to post providing I have all the related research and facts at hand. If I do have to research a topic, depending on what aspects and details I am looking into for discussion, the time spent could be from an hour to four hours. To some this may seem like a poor way to spend your time for a limited amount of payout as well. The way I see it, from most of the sites looking for bloggers, you have the option to choose what subjects and area of expertise or interest you would like to write on.

If you would normally be researching for your own interest, then why not take the time to write up a quick review of your findings and make a few dollars off of it. If you are like me, you probably have already compiled a bunch of files with information you can easily put into an article or review.

The requirements for most of these blog posting opportunities are you must have a blog that is older than 90 days. It must have regular postings of 3- 5 posts a week. You must submit your blog for review before you are accepted for posting jobs. If your blog is found to have a good link popularity rating, good standing in Alexa or other search engines, and an estimated RSS Subscriber rating, you will be offered jobs in the area that you specify.

If you have been posting to a blog on a continuous basis for at least a year, you should know if you have a consistently high visitor ranking. There are many services in which for you to track your visitor stats such as Google Analytics. With a simple javascript code embedded in your index file, you will know how well your blog is doing.

You may not be able to earn a huge full time living off of freelance work or blogging alone, but if you love to write and have been doing it for free, you may as well check into making a few bucks while you can. You may not be able to decide on whether you would choose freelance work or blogging alone. There is no saying you couldn’t do both and double your income potential. If you really want to make a living writing, there are opportunities out there on the web for you to find to make your dream come true.