How to Make Money Writing – An Excellent Guide for Wordsmiths

If you are looking for a way to make some extra money, writing could be a great option. We live in the internet era, so writers have many different options to make money writing.

Depending on how much you plan on writing and what type of texts you want to write, you can explore your options and make more money than you do on your regular job — or even turn writing into a full-time job.

We will tell you all about how you can earn from writing and the different options. So, keep reading.

Create Affiliate Content

One way to make money while writing online is by creating affiliate content. Of course, you first need to know what that is.

A good example can be found on YouTube. Have you ever noticed how streamers usually leave affiliate links to the products they use in the description? This is affiliate content.

In other words, you partner with a company to promote their products and drive traffic to their website. The sales they make from people clicking on the link you shared will make you money as well.

Note that the average annual salary of affiliate marketers amounts to about $53,167.

Now, with this type of writing, you’ll need to develop a strategy and reach out to companies that are willing to pay you to promote their products. Once you’re all set up, you’ll have an incredible passive income.

It is also something to consider if you’d like to start an online business, as it can be quite lucrative if you’re successful.

Create Written Content for Social Media

If you want people to notice your services or your product, you need content to attract clients. It is where content creation comes into the picture — and you could earn money writing content for companies.

Large companies nowadays have entire departments dedicated to marketing. But, smaller companies can’t afford this, so they usually hire freelance writers to write their texts for them.

The best Freelancing sites like Upwork, Fiverr, or Flexjobs are a good start. Upwork alone has 12 million registered freelancers.

You can also keep it local if you happen to live in a bigger city or a tourist center. For example, if you have a favorite cafe or restaurant, you can offer them your services. Here, it’s important to point out the upsides of having a well-written post on their channels.

One thing you should do before you pitch your services is research. You need to know the rates for the types of services you offer in your city or country, especially if you decide to do business locally.

Start a Blog

Another way to make money writing online is through blogs. It may take time, consistency, and dedication, but if you succeed, it’s guaranteed to pay off. After all, stats show that 77% of internet users like reading blogs, so blogging is likely to stay in demand.

If you decide to make a profit in this way, you’ll need a “Privacy Policy,”“Terms of Use,” and “About Us” page. Through these pages, you’ll let your readers know how your website functions.

How to start a blog?

Step 1

You need to choose your niche. The topics you choose should be something that you know about and are interested in. After all, you’ll be writing a lot, so you want it to be enjoyable as well.

Step 2

Next, you need to pick your domain and set it up. Knowing how to set up a website can help! Sites like WordPress offer accessible and affordable options to do just this before you start to earn money writing online.

Step 3

Once you have it set up, don’t forget to post regularly. Try not to be repetitive, though, as your posts need to be informative, engaging, and creative.

Step 4

Promote your blog posts on social media. Your social media channels can help you attract more people to your blog.

Guest Blogging

There are tons of sites out there where you can pitch a topic, and if the blog owner accepts it, you can make some money.

Additionally, if you already have a substantial following on Instagram or other social media platforms, you can try reaching out to some of your followers or people you follow.

Some of your fellow bloggers may be eager to pay you to write about your passion in their niche, so you can also make money writing blogs for them.

Getting Paid for Guest Blogging

There are two ways to get paid for guest blogging, so it is essential that you discuss this with the person hiring you.

• Get paid for traffic – This means that you’ll get paid per click on the post, and you should talk about the amount beforehand.
• Get paid for the post – Writers are usually paid by the word, but once again, you should discuss this beforehand with the person hiring you.

Self-Publish A Book

If you are interested in writing, you’ve probably thought about writing a book at least once in your lifetime. Of course, writing a book is no easy feat. You’ll have to take the time to sit down and develop your topic.

If you are writing a novel, it may take you months, even years.

But, once you’re done, you can start editing, choosing the font, and making the cover. Along the way, you may have to hire professional editors or graphic designers. And even if you use free services like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, you’ll have to spend some money on these things.

The idea is that you’ll make money from the book sales, but of course, there are no guarantees.

Self-Publish An Ebook

You can make money writing an ebook. This includes the same processes as a regular book. You’ll still need to pay editors and graphic designers. However, you won’t have to spend money on printing, and you won’t have a limited number of copies.

You can sell your ebook on sites like Amazon, Payhip, Selz, Google Play, Blurb, and more.

Write Emails

Writing emails for specific purposes is easy to learn, and it won’t take you a long time. Companies that sell products and services to other companies need someone to write emails and move along the process once a customer is interested.

These emails speed up the process of answering questions about the service or product until the final sale. So, believe it or not, you can make money writing emails. In fact, there are over 4 billion people worldwide with email accounts.

Here are some types of emails that could help you make money:

1. Content Emails: Some businesses have a great product but don’t know how to approach clients. A great advertorial (another name for content emails) can spike a customer’s interest with excellently-written content that presents the product.
2. Direct Sales Emails: Many companies hire people who write emails selling their products. You are expected to make a direct sale through these types of emails.

Write Reviews

Nowadays, most people prefer researching things online, whether it’s a hotel in the city they want to visit or a hairstylist close to their home. That is why well-written reviews are important, and you can make money writing those reviews.

Here are some websites worth checking out if you want to offer your reviewing services:

• Fiverr – You can get jobs by posting that you can review someone’s essay, CV, ad, product description, or anything else.
• Facebook groups – If you search for “Amazon Review Groups” or just “Review Groups,” you’ll stumble upon many groups that are reserved for this kind of thing. You can get a discount code for their products, free products, or money for your work.
• Gartner Peer Insights – This is a technology review website, so users get paid to review software.
• Capterra – This is one of the largest technology review websites, and you can get paid to review different software. Here, you are required to confirm your identity through your LinkedIn profile.

Try Copywriting

If you are still asking yourself how to make money with freelance writing, copywriting is another career choice.

A copywriter is responsible for texts used in promotional content for services or products. If you are excellent at writing content and you’ve already tried your hand at doing affiliate content, this is a good next step.

Even copywriters with minimum experience can make a solid amount of money, and there are always plenty of companies looking for copywriters on LinkedIn.

Additionally, many online courses offer you free or affordable lessons on copywriting.

Write a Listicle

A listicle is an article that has a list in it. So, if you love ranking movies, and are familiar with popular culture, this might be perfect for you. Numerous sites like Cracked, A List Apart, and Listverse pay for articles like these.

Some of these sites will ask for a rough draft or a ready article before they commit to paying you for their work, but some of them need just a pitch before you start writing your article.

What is great about sites like these is that they let you make money writing articles on any topic. Just find your niche, and look for sites that cover it.

Write Scripts for Video Content

Many YouTubers out there have an excellent camera presence, but not all of them are good at getting their point across. This is why some of them hire professional writers to write their scripts for them.

This might take some learning because you need to know scriptwriting technicalities. And it’s different from writing an article or an essay because it requires a natural-sounding text that is in line with a person’s personality.

In short, you’d need to get to know your client, so you could write scripts that would fit their personality.

Consider Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is another way of making money writing online. You’d be writing for a client who’d get credited for your work, but you’d be paid for it. For that reason, ghostwriting often pays more than regular articles.

Lots of celebrities hire professional ghostwriters to write their books, as do many bloggers and influencers who don’t have the necessary skills or time to write their articles.

Plus, considering there are over 500,000 influencers on Instagram alone, finding somebody to work with should not be too difficult.

Try Transcribing

You could transcribe audio files or videos into written documents, but learning this skill can take a little bit of work. There are different ways that you could earn extra money writing online transcriptions. Here are some:

• Edited transcription –  You get to edit the complete script into a more concise copy. An edited transcription addresses grammatical mistakes, clarity problems, slang, and incomplete sentences.
• Verbatim transcription – This is when everything said is written, word for word. Even sounds like “uh” and laughter are noted in these transcriptions.
• Non-verbatim transcription – Opposite to the above, in this type of transcription, things like background noises, throat clearing, and laughter are omitted.
• Intelligent verbatim transcription – Filler words and other unnecessary repetitions are left out of this type of transcription. The same is true for long sentences. They get split up into smaller, more understandable sentences.
• Phonetic transcription – This type of transcription doesn’t note the letter but rather the sounds made while pronouncing the words and letters.

There are plenty of websites that offer jobs and training in this skill. Sites like TranscribeMe and QuickTate offer different rates for different types of jobs.

Write Personal Essays

Surprisingly, you can also make money writing essays about your life. If you have had interesting life experiences or you have interesting ideas, some sites will pay you to write them!

Different sites pay differently, but nevertheless, you’d be writing about something you know a lot about, and you’d get to tell your story.

Write Technical Manuals

You can try making money online by writing technical manuals.

Technical writing is a skill that takes some time to learn, but it is a skill that pays very well. Technical writers rarely write about more than one field because this skill requires deep and extensive knowledge of the topic you’re writing about.

So, before you decide on technical writing, you’ll need to choose a field. Keep in mind it’s not just about understanding how it works; it’s also about being able to explain things in simple and understandable terms.

It is because manuals will often be read by regular people who don’t have the knowledge you do.

Wrapping Up

Now that you’ve read our thorough guide, we hope that you know how to make money writing online. We listed numerous things that you could explore, so you’re bound to find something that fits you.