3 Residual Income Streams For Freelance Writers

by Jennifer Mattern

Residual income streams help a freelance writers diversify revenue sources - the more income sources, the more secure someone's writing career really is if they should lose one of them. Here are three examples of residual income streams that are ideal for freelance Web writers in building extra income:
Examples of Residual Income Streams for Web Writers

• E-books - E-books are a wonderful residual income stream to help freelance writers make money online outside of their client work. The e-book generally only has to be written once, and can be of any length. They set the price, and the work after that is simply a matter of marketing (or having affiliates do the bulk of the marketing for them). E-books can continue to bring in income as long as the subject matter is valid to the audience. E-books do need to be marketed to continue bringing in sales, just like in our book example.
  
  
• Blogs and Content Sites - Advertising can also be a form of residual income (think of a private banner ad sale at $25 per month as an example - the writer owning the site knows what to expect each month as extra income while that account is live). Blogs can take significantly more time to monetize successfully than more static content sites, because you have to continually update them to keep readers (small static sites, on the other hand, might be a small collection of deep niche articles specifically targeting search engine traffic and converting that to income with contextual advertising). Both involve marketing work.
  
  
• Reprint Rights- If you run a successful authority site or blog of your own, chances are that other sites would love to use some of your content. Consider charging small reprint fees for your best work (if you're willing to let it be published elsewhere as all). In this case you don't even really need to actively market them. Just include a link with details below each article on the site with your reprint prices and information.

There are plenty of other residual income stream options out there for freelance writers. In many cases, the basic idea is to think about how you can turn your service into products that can be sold again and again. Make your own list of potential residual income streams, find one that appeals to you, and add it to your income mix to enjoy a little extra security as a writer. Residual income gives you back more control in your own freelance writing career.

Jennifer Mattern is a freelance business writer / Web content writer, blogger, and author of the Web Writer's Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career e-book. The e-book is designed to help new freelance Web writers launch their online career, set their writing rates, build a portfolio, build a network, and learn how to effective marketing their services to bring in new clients.

Find out more at the Web Writer's Guide blog at WebWritersGuide.com