The very thought of dragging myself out of bed at 5 in the morning to drive across a traffic-congested city made me dread waking up, as my dead-end job with a poor salary left me lacking inspiration. However, when I suddenly took on the role of being a stepfather of four, it was time to get my act together.

I was searching for an online job when I happened to stumble onto probably the lowest-paying content mill on the internet. I was paid roughly $2 for a 400 word article, but the good thing about it was that there were thousands of topics to choose from. At the end of my first month, I managed to pull in $80. By the end of the third month, I had actually made $200 that month from writing articles alone.

Surprisingly, it was those short, poorly paid articles that gave me the confidence to try when I lucked out on a larger content mill. I accidentally clicked on the link in a marketing email I was sent, and it led me to a content creation website that was hiring writers. I had written about two or three hundred poorly paid articles, so I knew that I could write. Though I had no formal training in the world of writing, I applied for a position ñ and surprisingly, I got it!

That was two years ago, and to this day I am supporting my family by writing no more than 5 hours a day. I can’t claim to have a get-rich-quick story, but it’s definitely a success story. By starting out small and earning just a few cents, I had to force myself to work hard and put in the hours of writing. By the time I was earning more per article, I had the work ethic to spend 6 to 8 hours of solid writing time per day. To this day, it’s not uncommon for me to produce about 16,000 words per day, and it’s all thanks to the small, poorly paid articles that I started writing.

$2 per article doesn’t seem like a lot, but put in the hours, and it will add up! Once you get confidence and experience, the pay per article increases. Put in the same amount of hours, and you have what it takes to be a full-time professional writer that earns more than enough to support your family.

Andy Peloquin is a 25-year old writer with no formal training in the world of writing, but has already written over 5,000 articles, press releases, blog posts, e-books, and magazine articles in his two years of working. He contributes to the Healthier Post and Healthy Ambition blogs, and he loves anything and everything related to writing! Health, fitness, dieting, and exercise are his specialties, but he’ll write on just about any topic thanks to his thirst for knowledge.