You could barely get through a week in 2005 without news of how ad money was being siphoned from traditional media and onto the web. Google earned millions with simple text ads for smaller companies, and innovative display ads and sponsored sections for the bigger firms. The Ford Motor Company moved 30 percent of its estimated ad budget of $1 billion per year to non-traditional media, with 15 percent going to the web. Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Heath Terry projected recently that the online ad market will increase 32 percent this year to a whopping $16.6 billion.

Meanwhile, magazines saw ad pages rise a negligible 0.5 percent in 2005 according to the Magazine Publishers of America. Newspapers lost ads and slashed edit staff while old-media giants like News Corp. scrambled to buy their way onto the new online boom. As CEO Rupert Murdoch took every opportunity he could to crow about the importance of switching to new media, News Corp. acquired community site MySpace.com.

Breaking in as a writer no longer means you have to slave away as a Condé Nast editorial assistant in order to work your way up to someday landing a byline on a 50-word blurb. With more ad dollars moving online, the market for online content is also growing, and for writers there are expanding opportunities and more money to be made online than ever before. Increasing numbers of writers are finding that they can score solid bylines on the web and get paid on the same level as their print counterparts. While the nature of web writing lends itself to shorter pieces (and not to the kind of long-form investigative journalism that can snag $3+ per word at the high-end mags), online writers can still net anywhere from $.25 to $1.50 per word and make a reasonable living.

Rafe Needleman, a top editor at CNET.com, says that the pay scale has pretty much leveled between print and online content. "There's certainly more money to be made on web writing now that the advertising is increasing," says Needleman. "For writers it's really an interesting time, because the opportunities are out there. I pay just about what I do for writers online as I would for print content. The fees are more or less the same."

Faran Alexis Krentcil, 24, a staff writer at FashionWeekDaily.com (and its corresponding print publication The Daily) as well as a regular contributor to New York magazine's website also believes that the pay no longer differs much between print and online. Also, she likes the quick pace of online writing and the opportunity to write more frequently on the web.

"It's exciting for a young writer to have a byline every day, especially on a site as visible as The Daily," says Krentcil. "There's something about the instant gratification of writing online. We post stories very fast at The Daily; sometimes within an hour of filing them. The speed of the Internet makes it very alluring. Our readers feel the same way; they get their fashion news and gossip almost as soon as it happens. Sometimes it means you have to write at warp speed if you get a huge scoop and need to post it immediately, but that's not a bad skill to hone."

Web writing has a few obvious advantages over print. Aside from interactivity—instant feedback and comments from readers—web content has a lot of staying power. Where a short magazine article may fade into the ether a few months later, an article on the web will pretty much always available on search engines, with your name attached.

Articles on the web also get distribution to a wider audience than might normally read your work in print. Writing about a charged topic in a women's mag, for example, won't be read by most men (who would be unlikely to buy the title), but on the web the same article can circulate among blogs and get linked all over the web, creating a much larger forum. "Bloggers can triple the traffic to your article," notes Slate columnist and NYU journalism professor Adam Penenberg. "Sure, the web and particularly bloggers can be a highly vitriolic culture, but if your ideas are good, your work can endure in a way that it never could in the past."

Darragh Worland, 32, an associate producer for NY1.com who freelances for FoxNews.com and a wide variety of other websites and publications, likes writing for the web because her articles aren't necessarily constrained by the layout issues that bind her print pieces. "I've actually had a great deal of freedom writing for the web, because there aren't the space constraints you see in the print world where a piece can get hacked in half because of advertising issues" that limit space, says Worland.

But what about prestige or a stigma? Should your ultimate goal be the magazine, so you have a "real" clip?

"I think there is actually a stigma of print in my world," says Needleman at CNET, who has worked for over a decade in online publishing after years in print journalism. "We have timeliness, searchabilty, community feedback, direct links to relevant resources, video, a very low cost of distribution, etc.—all things you can't do with print." But online has not replaced the magazine experience, he notes, as magazines are easier to read, more reliable (they don't crash, and you don't need an Internet connection to consume them), and better for long-form or design-driven journalism.

Krentcil agrees that any stigma regarding online writing is disappearing. "I've discussed this with lots of editors, even a few editors-in-chief. What I've heard from them is: good writing is good writing, regardless of where it happens," she says. "I've never had an editor say, 'I'd like to work with you, but you need more print clips first.'"

More than anything, both Krentcil and Worland say, writers must be fluent in all kinds of media. Content comes in all forms—online, print, and video—and the successful freelancer is the one who can maximize their markets.

"I work in TV, print, and new media (I hate that term, frankly), and I think it's important for journalists to be active in all three areas these days," says Worland. "I graduated from NYU with that in mind—wanting to have the flexibility to work in all areas of the media. This is increasingly important for journalists who want to remain employed."

David S. Hirschman is the news editor of mediabistro.com and a freelance writer.