With a wave of impending plans and the world as my oyster, I set out on my adventure as a writer. Inevitably, concern rolls in.

Apparently it is not enough for one to be a writer. One must make money as well. Fair enough. I am sure that in the long run my writing will earn me a decent living. And I am aware that in the mean time a day may very soon come when I have to do other things to facilitate my writing career. I may need to wait tables or bartend, I may need to be an attorney part-time, or, preferably, I may do something else within the realm of my passion such as teaching writing classes or working in publishing.

OK, so my immediate plan is set, I have back burner ideas in place if and when needed, but there is something else. ... What was it? ...

Oh, yes. How does one actually make money as a writer?

Being successfully published is the easiest answer. There are superstars like J.K. Rowling (it took her five years to finish the first Harry Potter book, by the way). There are a plethora of others making less than Oprah but still earning a decent-to-awesome wage with their published books. And then of course there are those who complete novels but don't publish, and those who do get published but whose books don't sell. So even within the arena of published authors there is a sliding scale of pay range.

So there is the writing and sale of books. What else? Well, there's bloggers, newspaper columnists, magazine columnists, etc. How do these writers make money?

I've got a girlfriend in New York who falls into this category. She has her own blog that was opted for a book. She's technically making it. In the time she's been a writer in New York she's had a number of jobs in the writing arena, including working in a publishing house and for a magazine. So I know at least one person who is making it as a writer, and her path has inevitably required a significant amount of work other than writing.

I've got another girlfriend who is a professional blogger, employed for all intents and purposes by a blog. I don't know exactly what this entails, but I know she pays her rent and does not appear to be starving. I have no idea how she got that job or what her background was before being a blogger. I'll have to follow up on that one.

So of my two successful writer friends, both have some hand in blogging. I, of course, have this blog and another blog of my own, but these are strictly projects of passion. That is, I have no advertisers and make no money from my own blogs. But I am all for the idea of blogging elsewhere and earning my living as a writer doing so.

So how does one earn money as a blogger? Well I can tell you how one does not earn money as a blogger. My search today on this subject took me to a number of online blogging communities that have a hit-based commission structure. I'm not going to take too much time to explain it here. The bottom line is that most of these writers appear to earn a few cents or maybe a few dollars per article. They have to get millions of hits on a particular article if they want to earn any substantial amount of money for writing it. Oh, and a number of these sites require the writers to do their own marketing, seek out advertisers, etc. to increase the amount of money they can make per article.

If I wanted to go into sales and marketing, I would have gone into sales and marketing. I want to write. Can't I just write?!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the answer for today appears to be no, or, rather, not yet. One day I will earn my living solely from writing. I can't tell you what I'll do along the way or what opportunities and adventures will unfold for me. But I can tell you this: I'm more excited at the thought of working in a coffee shop to facilitate my writing career than I am at the thought of selling out my dreams for the idea of "security."