Well, being as active as possible is a start.  Having no internet identity can be just as bad as having a negative one.  Employers want to see positive extra curricular activity, and work history.  These are cues to what sort of employee you are, so make sure an interviewer can easily find them.  Be active in professional forums, maintain a personal blog, and keep a professionally oriented social networking page.

Make sure that everything you put out there puts you into a positive light.  Anything you want an employer to see needs to be about creativity, positive, and showcasing commitment and hard work.  Don’t bash old employers and bosses, because that’s a big turn off to anybody interested in you.  In fact, don’t bash anybody, or have anything negative on a page that’s intended to be professional, because it will only show you in a bad light.

But don’t forget, what you put out there is only half the battle.  You need to search your name to see what other people are putting out in relation to your name.  Do a search, see if anything comes up from past employers, or if anything you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see pops up.  Takes steps to correct these, or have them removed from search engines if you’re uncomfortable with the material.  Most of the time places like Google are more than willing to work with you, so long as you’re polite and patient.

A residual income keeps a steady sum of money flowing into your account.  This you can save for a rainy day, or spend as you need to, to keep the career going.  Residual income’s usually don’t earn as much as your mainstay, but they are a good supplement.

Think about the opportunities before you.  If you haven’t created a personal blog, you really should consider doing so.  It’s a good way to speak your mind, get noticed, and sell some ad space to make a little extra money.  Every writer should have a personal blog, and even if you don’t have the full time to invest, at least a simple blogspot.com one would suffice.  Combined with Google’s Adsense program, you can make yourself a nice little cash cow.

Try some seasonal opportunities.  There’s always someone out there looking for writers to write copy for season specific events, or advertisements.  Those are decent jobs that are fairly easy to complete, and they pay pretty well most of the time.  It’s a nice easy job that won’t detract from your main projects, but that keeps you writing, as well as earning.

If you have the sort of degree necessary, you could consider teaching other writers.  Many universities offer opportunities for independent teachers.  As long as you have the credentials, you can get paid for your time.  Plus you get exposed to new styles, and have a chance to communicate with other writers.  Now you’re not only earning some side money, but also helping your own writing to grow.

Something that people are usually able to write about at any time, is an issue that bothers them.  Whether a story in the news, or in your personal life, write about something you dislike.  This can be a useful exercise, as it’s easy to let yourself rant.  Once the words start flowing about something, they’ll start flowing about everything.

If you have a personal blog, which all writers should have, try writing about something different.  If you mostly focus on your current daily life, try writing about your past.  Think about the way things were before you are now.  Confront some hardships, or an aspect of your life that you miss.  Anything that moves you, to get those creative parts of your brain moving and working.

Try to challenge yourself.  Write outside of your comfort zone.  Anything that forces you to think outside of your normal box.  That’s a useful activity to help you constantly see scenarios in different ways, so that you’ll always have new ideas.

The more you can force yourself to write about different things, the  more you’ll be able to write.  Part of writing is letting yourself write content that you aren’t confident about.  You don’t always have to submit that work for someone else’s approval, but progress is progress.  At least getting something out will make you feel better, and less stressed for the next time.

But if you want to be a writer, the first step is making sure you have the skills.  I’m not necessarily talking about the degrees you think you need, but rather the knowledge.  If you want to be a freelancer you absolutely need the Associated Press Stylebook.  It’s a listing of everything you need to know for journalism trends concerning grammar, spelling, and how you should write a journalistic article for any topic.  It’s your writing bible, so keep it with you while you write until you know the facts inside and out.

Start up a personal blog.  This will serve for a resume of sorts, where you can continually update your personal accomplishments and day to day musings.  Your blog will serve as a good introduction to employers, and could even earn you extra money in the process, from advertising.  Not to mention it’s a free and easy way to hone your writing techniques, something you desperately need to do at all times.

Keep a list of your goals around your work area, so that you can keep sight of your target.  That way whenever you’re feeling less than motivated to be a successful writer, you have constant motivation.  Never stop working toward those goals, and keep them close to your heart.  Anything is possible if you’re willing to work for what you want.

Finally, now that you’re set to really get started, look for work.  Submit your writing to websites, there are a plethora available for freelance writers.  In the beginning be prepared to work for low money to develop a good work history, or even free at times.  But once your history is more reputable, the better jobs will consider you.  The more of a name you can make for yourself, the more valuable and expensive your services will become.

In short, a brilliant way to showcase your talents, and create interest in the unique services you can provide.  And in fact, a successful blog can even get contractors to approach you for consultations or even jobs.  But how do you get to that stage, where your blog can be found among the helpless rabble of a million pointless blog entries on the entirety of the internet’s blogosphere?

First off, your professional personal blog needs one thing more importantly than anything else, to be taken absolutely seriously.  This is a facet of your job, a way to sell yourself, and nothing will turn off a potential buyer like wasting blog space on your latest theory as to what’s going to happen in the final episode of Lost.  You want to stick to work related topics, and something that demonstrates your talents, and experience, or for lack of experience, then the educational experiences that make you a worthy professional.

And don’t forget, as with any blog, you don’t want to sound stiff or boring.  You want to take an appropriately humorous tone to educate as well as titillate.  This isn’t a resume, just your writings about the industry and your experiences therein.

Which brings me to another glaring error a ton of people make.  Never bash colleagues or companies you’ve worked with, as that also is a great way to make yourself undesirable as a worker.

Also, take advantage of putting yourself out into the Blogosphere by making contact with other bloggers in your niche.  Network yourself, read other blogs, learn from them to develop your unique blogging voice, and in turn see if you can exchange links by linking back to their site.  Linking is probably still the best way to grow you blog’s audience, and remains one of the most important aspects of building a successful site.

Follow those pointers and you’ll be off to a rollicking start by making yourself look like an excellent future employee to any hiring company surfing the net.  And they do that a lot more often than you’d think.

First and foremost, target your audience.  Go through Google’s Adsense options and choose categories that have something in common with your blog.  So obviously if you’re here reading this, you’re either an IT professional or in the field, so you want computer/internet products and services first and foremost.   After which, make sure you pay close attention to which sorts of ads are receiving the most attention, as you can use that to your advantage by replacing any banners that nobody pays attention to, instead adding ads that are more likely to get clicked.

There’s no point in wasting ad space on something that’s not doing anything positive for you.

Be careful in picking your Adsense banner colors also, as there’s a huge mistake that most people make when formatting Adsense content for their blogs.  And that huge mistake is, you do not want your ad banner to match your blog’s background color scheme.  It’s a proven fact that a contrasting vibrant color will attract more attention to the advertisement, increasing the likelihood that Dave Websurfer will click on the banner, netting you some money for your trouble.

But the main attraction, as I always say it, is writing relevant intriguing content.  That’s your blog or website’s lifeblood.  The longer that Billy Interweb-Browser stays on your site, reading whatever it is you choose to write about, the more likely he is to notice an advertisement.  And that’s the whole purpose of using your blog to generate any sort of cash flow.