The following is a guest post by Kyle who writes for Medical Coding Certification.

Writing can be both difficult and rewarding.  It is certainly a creative outlet, but there is also a technical aspect involved in any linguistic pursuit.  So it takes a particular type of mind to really make a career out of writing.  It can bring about feelings of euphoria (when you’re on a roll) or total depression (as the nefarious writer’s block strikes at random), but it is almost never boring.  However, freelance writing, in particular, has its own special challenges and benefits.  So before you leap at the chance to be your own boss (to an extent), examine some of the pros and cons associated with becoming a writer for hire.

1. Work from home.  PRO:  The major benefit of contract writing is that you can do it from the comfort of your cozy office.  You can formulate a routine that works with your lifestyle and avoid the constant interruptions inherent in an office setting.  Bonus: appropriate attire includes pajamas and you’ll avoid the morning commute!  CON:  You will literally have only your cat for companionship.  Freelance writers can become very isolated if they don’t make an effort to get out of the house once in awhile.  You also face constant distractions like pets that need attention, a house that could stand a little cleaning, and your evil arch-nemesis, daytime television.
2. Set your own schedule.  PRO: If you want to go to lunch with friends, sneak in some time at the gym, or take in an afternoon movie, there is absolutely no reason you can’t schedule it in.  The flexibility is what draws most people to at-home work.  CON: You are solely responsible for how your time is allocated.  That means you have to be diligent when it comes to setting work hours and sticking to them.  If you thought you could earn a living by rising at the crack of noon and working for a couple of hours in the afternoon, you were dreaming.  And there is no one to blame but yourself if you can’t pay the bills.
3. Variety.  PRO:  The great thing about freelance writing (as opposed to other types) is that you will enjoy a constantly changing palette of subject matter.  This means that you will most likely be learning new things all the time and you can avoid the boredom of expounding upon the same topics all the time.  CON:  Freelance writing requires you to be a sort of pen-slinging jack of all trades since at any given time you might have to tackle a vast array of topics from computer technology to nursing degrees to eco-friendly home-building to shopping for wedding dresses.  It all depends on the work that comes your way.  For an individual who is not comfortable with research or has a hard time elucidating subjects on which they lack expert knowledge, this can be an extremely challenging and stressful aspect of the job.
4. Multiple clients.  PRO:  Since you are basically your own boss, you can take on as few or as many clients as you wish, and only accept repeat business from the ones you like, ensuring less stress and good working relationships.  CON:  One problem with taking on several clients is that you are bound to get some bad apples.  You will have to deal with people who are demanding, irrational, and disrespectful, and you must remain professional throughout if you don’t want to risk a negative review.
5. Freedom.  PRO:  This is the absolute best reason to pursue a career in freelance writing.  If you want to work 20 hours a week you are free to do so.  Planning a vacation does not require anyone’s consent or the rearranging of a schedule.  And once you are established, you can virtually pick and choose which jobs to take.  In essence, you are in full control of your life and your time.  CON:  As much as this can be a blessing, it can also be a curse.  Freedom, in many cases, equates to personal responsibility, so if you find yourself spending all day at the beach only to realize that you’ve missed a deadline, you may not have self-discipline required to make a living as a freelance writer.

Kyle Simpson writes for Medical Coding Certification where you can find more information about a career and training in the medical field.

The following is a guest post by Jelena from Associated Content.

I’m currently on a massive health kick – brought on by the fact that I was recently weighing in at 260lbs and got out of breathe and broke a major sweat walking up a few flights of stairs…

The resulting side effect is that as well as still working a full-time job (with full-time working from home still eluding me!), 3 kids, voluntary work and now a nightly gym session (not counting a few other blogs that I’m currently neglecting!) – I have little time for blogging here.

Rather than let the blog die as most other neglected blogs do – I thought that I’d open the site up a little…   I know that there is a wealth of wisdom out there, heck I read plenty of blogs that have some amazing articles on – so I thought I’d see if anyone fancied offering a guest post or two…  This isn’t just a one way street with me getting all of the benefit, as obviously the author would be able to post a link back to their own site.   The only provisos are that the article be relevant to working from home, or making money online and that the article be of reasonable quality – I can (and probably will) help with editing so that it fits in with my style – but the article will be (mostly!) yours…

If you’re interested then drop me a line using the contact form and we’ll see what we can work out…

I’ve got a great series of posts under development that I want to release as a series, but in the mean time, should you feel the need to read then pop along to another of my sites that is also fairly new and upcoming - Work From Home Forums!

It is undergoing a bit of a facelift at the moment, so things are going to get better – improvements like ad revenue sharing with members, an integrated blog platform and more are planned…  I’ve also got a competition lined up for the summer with (hopefully) a brand new Sony Vaio laptop amongst the prizes, so what are you waiting for – pop along and signup now before all the good usernames are taken

Are you a Work from Home Dad? An Internet Entrepreneur? An Affiliate Marketer? Or perhaps a Mommy Enterprise? Or none of the above???

If you were looking to break out of the 9-5 job which of these work from home blogs might you be tempted to look at? I’d probably take a look at the first two or three but to be honest Mommy Enterprises wouldn’t really interest me, where as my wife would probably ignore the first three chose and plough ahead with Mommy Enterprises.

These blogs all have different target markets and demographics and that’s a good thing as far as getting relevant information is concerned for the reader, but in the case of the “Working at Home” niche there is more of a cross-over than perhaps any other industry. They have information relevant to their niche, but much of the content could be interchangeable.

So, whichever niche you put yourself into, why not take ten minutes to take a look to see what the other half is doing, you never know what you might learn.

Working from home can give you amazing freedom to spend time with your family, it can also give you more free quality time to spend as you please, but the one thing that working from home doesn’t give you is a work based support network.

What is a work based support network? And why do I need one?

When your working for someone else and you’re having a bad day there would usually be someone that you can turn to either for help or to blow off a little steam, but when your working from home, alone, who do you turn to?

Again, working from home, alone is, as the name suggests lonely – there is no social interaction with other co-workers, no leaving parties, Christmas parties etc.. – so if this website is here to promote working from home, why am I being so negative??

The answer is that I’m not, I’m here to try to help anyone who feels that way from time to time. I’m sure that we’ve all felt a little lonely or frustrated occasionally and the answer is as simple as if you were working in an office with 100 other people. Whether people are sat at the next cubicle or at the opposite end of the planet they can still make a big difference to your day and there’s plenty of ways to find them as well.

The first obvious choice would be to find a forum specific to your niche, i.e. if your a webdesigner then somewhere like DesignersTalk would be perfect, if you make scale models to resell then somewhere like Scale-Models might be a good place to start, you get the idea! Failing niche forums you could find yourself a nice general Work From Home Forum!

Also don’t overlook local support – almost every part of every developed nation now has business clubs, Chambers of Commerce, small business assistance groups all of which are excellent places to make new industry friends and contacts, go to as many events as you can – be sure to have loads of high quality business cards to give out and make sure to get as many back in return as you can – you never know where that next big sale will come from!

If like me, you’ve ever had writers block (or domainers block!) when trying to find a good, available domain name you’ll know how frustrating it can be.

Enter PickyDomains. PickyDomains offer to help you in finding your perfect domain name. They not only find you great, available domain names matching your criteria but offer a full money back guarantee should they fail to deliver. Their website describes their service in more detail:

If you need a great, memorable, easy to pronounce domain name that EXACTLY describes what your website is all about – you are in the right place. This is what we do. We find available domain names that are descriptive, concise and are easily remembered. And if we can’t find one, or you don’t like any available domain names we suggest – you don’t pay anything. PickyDomains.Com is completely RISK FREE.

The fee for this service is just $50 – with a complete money back guarantee should you be unhappy with the results. If you are a blogger with real traffic then PickyDomains will (at the time of this post) work with you for free, simply write a post about their service and drop them an email. Just as I’m trying to reduce the number of sites that I own as well!!!!!

Not only do PickyDomains offer the obvious but they also offer a way to earn money by suggesting domains for others. They’ve got a nice interface that checks your suggestions against certain criteria, availability amongst them and once moderated you can get feedback as to whether your suggestions were liked or not.

Should you pick that winning domain name they will pay you 50% of the fee (currently $25) – I’ve got a handful of suggestions currently pending so hopefully I’ll make a buck or two.

Following on from our article on making an income from blogging, we take the post one step further and teach you how to give yourself arguably the most powerful blogging platform from which to build your blogging empire!

WordPress is arguably one of the most popular online content management systems, and is a great tool with which to build your first online web journal or Blog. It is free to use, easy to set up thanks to the online wizard and so user friendly and simple, that even a novice user will find it a simple matter to get their blog up and running in a matter of minutes.

There are two main methods of starting the process of building a WordPress blog. You can choose to have the blog hosted on one of the WordPress servers, which is completely free of charge, or alternatively, you can buy your own hosting and domain name, and install the WordPress system on it, and then have a dedicated presence online.

The main advantage of investing in your own domain name is that it looks a lot more professional, and if you are planning to make money from blogging, having your own easy to remember domain will allow users to find you much more easily. Advanced users will find that they can configure the look and feel of a WordPress blog much more easily if it is hosted on their own server, and include advertising and affiliate links much more simply.

The advantage of using the free WordPress hosting service is that it is completely free, is very reliable thanks to the resources of the company providing it, and is much more simple to set up and administer. Blogs hosted on the WordPress server are automatically updated to the latest version of the software, and many of the processes of publicizing a blog are automatic thanks to the way that it is configured.

Once you have set up your account, and chosen a name for your blog, you can use the selection of templates in order to choose a distinctive look and feel that suits your taste, and then you can start writing. It is as simple as that!

WordPress has a simple interface for bloggers that means that you do not even need to know how to create html in order to publish your blog on the internet. You can simply type what you want to write into the editor, and then it will all be formatted for you, leaving you to concentrate on the actual writing and creativity that marks out your blog as individual and worthwhile.

Including links to other web sites and adding pictures to your blog is also a breeze, and is as simple as clicking on a button on the screen. WordPress also offers a range of tools to help you to promote your blog to interested parties, and is flexible enough and powerful enough to allow you to adapt and evolve your blog to your audience. You can tag articles into categories, and organize your writing to make it easy for users to find a particular post that they are interested in, and there is a large and helpful community of other users on hand to give you hints and tips about any problems that you might get stuck with, all of which makes building a WordPress blog a pleasure and a very rewarding experience.

If, like most people, you are passionate about a hobby, you may have dreams of turning it into a business, and making a living from it. There are few more satisfying ways of making a living than from a niche that you enjoy, and indeed, many of the most successful business people in the world are those who are able to invest their time and passions in their work.

The chances are, that no matter what your hobby is, there are other people around the world who share your passion, and these people are your primary market. Whether you are a collector who wants to sell the things that you collect, or an expert in a particular subject able to sell that expertise as a consultant and advisor, there are many ways that a person can turn a hobby into a business.

Before starting a business, you need to be realistic about the time and money that you are going to be able to invest in it. It is no good having all the passion in the world for your new enterprise without having the time and capital to back it up. If you cannot afford to set up a business on your own, but you are certain that it can be successful after doing your research, there are many sources to approach for seed capital for initial expenses.

Banks will provide business loans and there are always investors around the world who will be keen to take a stake in your business in return for an injection of cash at the start up phase.

You should consider how you are going to actually make money from your business. Are you planning to sell a tangible product, or charge people for advice? Either way, you need to establish the market, and find out what kind of prices you can charge for your service.

The great thing about a hobby is that your target consumers are already passionate about it, and will be happy to buy a service that helps them to get more out of their own enjoyment of the subject. Collectors will pay for items to boost their collections, as well as appreciating it if you are going to act as a marketplace for objects that they no longer need.

eBay is one of the best examples of a business that was born of a hobby. It was initially started as a place where a TY Beanie Bear collector could sell items from their collection that they no longer needed, and has since developed into a billion dollar business that is one of the world’s most successful web sites.

While your business may never reach the heights of eBay, the one thing that is for certain is that because you are already passionate about the subject, you will find turning it into a business a real adventure and enjoy every step as you share your pleasure with other interested people.

They say that everyone has a unique skill, and thanks to the unique nature of the Internet in allowing people form all over the world to share their ideas and expertise, it has opened up a huge global market for information on almost any subject that you care to mention, If you are willing to put the time and effort into getting your ideas written down in an easy to follow form, you can start a career in writing eBooks for profit that will prove to be very rewarding and satisfying, as well as offering an excellent source of income.

The first stage in writing an eBook that you intend to sell is to ensure that there is a market for it. There are a huge number of online forums that cater to all groups of people, from advertisers to zoology, and these are the perfect places to find a market for your ideas.

Once you have established that there is a market for your eBook, it is time to start writing it. You should start by writing an outline of what you plan to include, and then do your research to ensure that you are able to answer all the questions that you will ask through your writing. Plan the eBook as you would expect the ideas to be read, tackle the basics of the concept first and explain what you are going to explain through the rest of the book, and introduce the subject at the beginning.

A good eBook will be divided into chapters to make it easier to follow and understand. The simplest ideas will be tackled first and then build up to more complex ideas so that your readership will be ready for the most difficult ideas when they get to them.

The style of an eBook will vary depending on the subject and the level of readership expertise that it is aimed at. Many eBooks are for teaching purposes, so write in a way that encourages readers to delve further into the subject by making it interesting.

Once you have finished the actual writing of your eBook, go back through it and edit and proofread it to avoid any errors, and then get a person who understands the subject to make sure you have not made any glaring mistakes. Finally, get a person who is a novice to read the work to ensure that it can be easily understood.

It is now time to start selling your eBook to the general public. You can either do this through an online publisher like Lulu, or through the specialist forums that you visited earlier. You may want to set up a website that sells the book, or offer other people a slice of the cost in order to sell it on your behalf.

As long as you have established that there is an audience for what you want to write, and written in a way that it makes the subject accessible, you should have no problem in finding people to buy your book, and help you to earn a living from it, and other books that you may write later.