Professional writing is the future -- start NOW.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor foretells a 28% augmentation in writing jobs by the year 2010. Professional writers work online, in print (magazines, newspapers), for advertising agencies and publishers -- and these are just a few writing jobs now available.

To write professionally, you should be able to market your work. A superb way of doing so is by writing a column you are sincerely passionate about. Your column should follow one or both of two rules:

• It should be read by a large audience
  
  Online databases like Suite101.com, About.com and iVillage.com that attract some two million visitors per month are the first choices selected and displayed by search engines. Evidence of this is Suite101.com's ranking: 3,000 of all websites. So, it is a wise writer that chooses a site like this to show off his/her column and article writing skills.
  
  
  
• It should pay well
  
  In the July 2003 issue of Writer's Digest Robert W. Bly, a high-income writer wrote an article on "10 Ways to a Six-Figure Income." I was amazed at how easy it was to pull in the bucks for doing what you love. Basically, he tells writers to decide how much money per hour our time is worth. (He decided on 35-50 dollars per hour) It is crucial to target high-paying markets like Fortune-500 companies, develop our productivity by using email and telephone instead of in-person meetings wherever possible, and take advantage of royalty-producing projects.