Man typing on a laptop

Are you looking to earn money writing from home? Maybe you’re looking at freelance writing as a way of bringing in a second income, or perhaps you have higher ambitions of writing full-time for a living. Did you know there are companies actively looking for people like you to write content for them, to produce blogs, articles, press releases, features and news for their websites? Thousands of people make money from home writing for the web, and you can too.

At the Online Learning Academy, we take a no-nonsense approach to improving your abilities as a writer. With the help and support of a team of experienced online tutors and editors, you’ll discover exactly how you can find success writing online.

Our approach to learning

Whether you want to write about your passion, or produce content such as news and press releases for a client, we believe that anyone can develop their skills enough to capture and keep an audience.

We focus not only on the nuts and bolts of writing, such as grammar, punctuation and news writing, but also why it’s important and how to use different writing styles to attract the right audience. At every step of the way, you’ll receive support from our tutors and have a chance to test what you know before moving on. We believe that you should learn at a rate that you’re comfortable with.

Real world examples

Nothing prepares you for writing like being placed in a real-world situation. That’s why we make How to Earn Money Writing for the Web as authentic as possible, using exactly the type of writing briefs you’ll see all the time as a freelancer or blogger.

It’s not just about the writing

There’s much more to writing articles online than haphazardly throwing together 300 words on your chosen subject. We’ll show you how you can optimise your writing to capture interest, and how to make sure that search engines expose you to a wider audience.

Who this course is for

This course is aimed primarily at those who want to write for a multitude of clients and be paid for their work, or those looking to gain employment in a content writing-based role. No previous writing experience is required, but you should have a good grasp of the English language as a starting point. If you’re a business owner looking to create blogs, press releases, and articles for your own company, then our course titled Blogging for Beginners Diploma Course may be more useful. The two courses contain a lot of similar material, but are tailored slightly differently for the appropriate student.

Here’s what you can expect to learn during this course:

  • Build a picture of your audience
  • Develop a writing strategy
  • Understand what blogs search engines love
  • Learn to write in different styles
  • Evaluate how successful your online content is
  • Tips for finding genuine, paid writing assignments for real clients!

 

Modules

  • Introduction
  • How to use this Course
  1. How Writing for the Web Differs From Print
    • “Supporting Their Personal Story”
    • Different People, Different Stories
      • Web Copy
      • Press Release
      • Investor Materials
    • Does This Mean That I Shouldn’t use Longer Pieces?
    • Other Opportunities Offered by Subheadings
    • Above or Below the Fold?
    • Drawing Your Readers In
  2. Tips for Writing for the Web
    • Nominalisation
    • Avoiding Nominalisations
    • Examples of Nominalisations:
    • Contractions
    • Making use of Acronyms and Initialisms
    • Acronyms
    • Initialisms
    • Don’t Forget Your Articles
    • Subheadings, Lists and Numbers
      • Subheadings
      • Tips and Tricks
      • Writing Lists
    • Writing Numbers
      • The Exception to Rule Number One
    • Using a Positive Tone in Your Writing
      • Positive Phrasing
      • Active Voice Versus Passive Voice
    • Interactivity
      • Interactivity and its Impact on Marketing
    • Is the Written Word Enough?
  3. Spelling and Grammar
    • Apostrophes
      • Possessive Apostrophes
      • Contractions
      • When Not to use an Apostrophe
      • Common Confusion Over Apostrophes
      • Breaking the Rules
    • Punctuation and Hyphenation
    • The Oxford Comma
    • Localisation, or Localization
  4. Knowing Your Target Audience
    • Using Personas to Build a Picture
    • Titles, and How They Can Draw in Your Audience
      • Using a Trigger Word
      • Use a Number
      • Use an Interesting Adjective
      • Use a Rationale Instead of “Things”
      • Making a Promise
    • Abstract Language Vs. Precision
      • Navigating Jargon
      • Slang
      • Speaking of Location…
    • Corporate Voice
    • House Style
  5. SEO – Exactly How Important Is It?
    • A Brief History of Search Engine Optimisation
    • What do Search Engines Like?
      • Tell Me More of These… Keywords
      • Google’s Keyword Tool
      • Google Suggest
      • Google Trends
      • Moz
    • How Should I use Keywords?
      • Less can be More
      • Spelling and Grammar
      • Geographical Keywords
      • Inserting a Keyword Naturally
  6. News Structure
    • The Five Ws
    • Human Interest
      • Be Objective
      • What’s Libel?
    • How to Structure a News Story
      • Headline
      • The Opening Paragraph
      • Code of Conduct
      • Wordiness
      • Rewriting news articles
      • Using quotes
      • Time Sensitivity
    • Example of Deconstructing a Source
      • Breaking it down
      • The Headline and Opening Paragraph:
    • How NOT to write news:
  7. Web Copy
    • Using Links
    • What’s a Call to Action?
    • Bridging Words
    • Points to Bear in Mind
  8. Press Releases
    • Boilerplate
  9. The Writing journey
    • Marketing Content
    • Daily Content
    • Finding Material
      • Avoiding Writer’s Block
    • Proofreading
    • Plagiarism
    • A Last Word About the Writing Process
    • Lose Your Ego
  10. What Makes Great Content?
    • How to Measure the Success of Your Writing
  11. Once it’s Out There…
    • Interacting with Social Media Commenters
    • A Checklist for Dealing with Negative Comments
  12. Where to Find Writing Work
  • End of Course Assessment
  • Appendix
  • Stop Words
  • Exercise Answers
  • Sources

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