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Being paid to write online is a simple way to work from home and earn a few dollars on the side, while still being able to keep your day job or pursue other goals.

To get started, there are two main areas a new online writer should consider. One is where to write, and the other is how to write. So that will be the focus here.

Where To Write

As many writers online have learned, there are numerous websites that allow a person to get paid for writing articles and/or blogs. eHow.com, for instance, is a great place to write how-to articles in a very simple format. Once you’ve joined, sign up with their Writer’s Compensation program (currently limited to U.S. citizens only), and start writing. It helps to have an area of expertise, but even if you don’t, there’s bound to be something you know how to do that others don’t. With eHow, you keep sole rights to your articles, and although they don’t come out and say how you’re paid, it’s basically by ad clicks, which might start out slow, but can grow substantially over time.

If you don’t care for how-to articles, another good place to write is AssociatedContent.com. With AC, you have three rights options. Exclusive, Non-exclusive, and Display Only. Exclusive obviously gives them full rights to your articles, which could possibly pay more in the long run; however, you are unable to resubmit the articles to other places. Non-exclusive, you can submit the article to other places, but they control the time span of the article, meaning you can’t edit or delete the article if you wanted at a later date. Display Only means you keep sole rights and editing ability. For each, you are paid by performance clicks, as well as upfront payments for some articles.

Triond.com is another good one. From all that I’ve read, it is similar to Associated Content, in that you’re able to write about a wide variety of subjects. It’s advertised that the pay scale is 50% of the revenue earned from individual articles, with guaranteed payments for all earnings above .50 cents per month. Articles are published on Triond affiliate websites, rather than on Triond itself, which you can keep track of in the account section of the site.

A few more worth looking into are: Bukisa.com, Helium.com, Squidoo.com, and HubPages.com (via Google Adsense or other affiliates).

How To Write

This isn’t going to be a deep lesson in grammar and spelling, but I will say that learning to use proper English and punctuation can take a writer a long way in keeping readers interested. Some people might be willing to overlook a typo here or there, but most will click out of an article that includes too many misspelled words and incomplete sentences. When in doubt, have a friend read over your work, and become very acquainted with the spell check in your word processing program.

Speaking of word processing programs, if you don’t already use one, you should. Always keep a copy of your writing in a personal file, and never write an article on the website itself. If there is a glitch in the site’s publishing tools, you don’t get a do-over. Unless you have a photographic memory, you will have to re-write the entire article from scratch, or scratch it altogether. Save yourself unnecessary misery and learn to copy and paste.

They say if you want to stop being a garage band, you have to get out of the garage. The same is true with writing. If you want to be a writer, you have to get out there and just do it. The more you write, the more you get paid, so make writing a new priority in your life and write something everyday.

It isn’t the fastest way to make money online, but if you stick with it long enough and pick your topics carefully, you might be surprised with the results.