If you’d love to know how to put your talents to good use and make money writing online, this post is for you!
The biggest challenge being a writer is that no matter how talented you are, you’re never guaranteed to monetize your art.
Unless you’ve built a big audience of people interested in your work, or are an ace at self promotion, your amazing wordsmithing could forever be hidden behind a bushel.
However, in this day and age of global reach online it’s easier than ever to make money writing online without ever having to become the next Pulitzer prize winner.
Here are 21 fun and actionable ways for you exercise your creativity and start to make money writing online.
1. Become a Blogger
If you love writing, you’ll love blogging!
Once you’ve created amazing content and google starts to rank you for it, many of your rankings will last for years, provided you consistently create new and valuable content around your topic, update your existing content and remain relevant in your niche.
However, it has become much harder to generate organic traffic in the last couple of years so you need to be prepared to drive traffic to your posts from a diverse range of traffic sources, such as Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc.
Plus you’ll need to be happy putting in a solid amount of effort up front, without instant reward. In fact it may take 6 – 12 months before you start to see any real traffic depending on the niche you’re in.
However, once that traffic starts rolling in, the only way is up!
Many bloggers make upwards of $10k, $50, $100k a month by creating consistent, valuable and relevant content.
To get started, choose your niche, create a simple wordpress site and start publishing! Focus on mastering keyword research, writing articles daily if possible and away you go.
2. Write on Medium
If you don’t fancy the thought of having to purchase a domain, hosting and starting a blog (although it’s super easy these days), start writing on Medium.
When you sign up for Medium’s partnership program, you have two options to get paid. As more Medium members spend more time reading your Medium articles you receive a share of their membership fee based on how long they spend reading your article.
So for example, if a member spends 10% of their time reading your article you get 10% of their monthly member fee.
The second route to make money writing online on Medium is to refer the app to others and get 50% for every person who becomes a Medium member. Currently, the membership fees are $50 for a year or $5 a month.
With both these opportunities you can see it’s a numbers game as membership fees are low, so my recommendation is to become a prolific writer on Medium (the same if you’re growing a blog) and really specialize in a specific niche so people know you for something and look forward to reading your articles.
3. Create and Sell Digital Products
Are you an expert in a specific field?
If so, you’re in a great position to create and sell educational resources to capitalize on your expertise.
Perhaps you love writing about cooking, gardening, cars or sports. Maybe you want to teach others how to make money writing online, help students with their writing processes, or create ultimate guides on fitness and health.
The world is your oyster, and your knowledge could be presented as an ebook, a PDF, online guides, even a scripted video course.
Information marketing is as old as the hills and the overheads are low. Simply package up your knowledge as a saleable PDF, ebook or newsletter and use a free sales site such as Gumroad or Substack to promote it.
Social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn are amazing for building an audience who will happily pay for your expertise.
4. Produce Scripts for Videos
Fancy yourself a scriptwriter?
Collaborate with video creators and write their scripts for them. So many great on screen talents know how to deliver a line but aren’t great at writing their own scripts.
Video content is growing year on year at an astonishing rate so this is an excellent opportunity to make money writing online.
You will find hundreds (if not thousands) of video creators seeking your talent on freelance sites such as Upwork or Fiverr, or you can simply contact video creators whose work you admire and ask if they require any assistance with their scriptwriting.
5. Start Website Copywriting
Copywriting is big business and is a great way to make money online for a beginner.
If you’re a good copywriter you can get paid very handsomely for sales pages, landing pages, video scripts, emails, even copyrighted blog posts. As a beginner, you can use AI to help you write compelling copy.
Because copywriting is a skill in its own right the competition for great copywriters is less than for blog writers or ghost-writers for example.
Copywriting is about persuasive writing that leads the consumer to take action on your words.
You can get started by looking for contracts on sites such as Upwork or Freelancer (copywriting site), however as you start to build a reputation, word of mouth is huge in this market.
6. Write Long-Form Content for Websites
Long-form content includes blog posts or articles with word counts of 2k and above.
Many website owners and online businesses don’t want to create their own content. Even the best blogs sometimes use ghostwriters or contractors, alongside their in-house writing team to increase the amount of content they can publish.
If you can demonstrate that you also have SEO knowledge and can target specific keywords and write both for humans and the search engines, your skills are even more valuable.
Find contracts on Upwork, or sign up to a dedicated writing site like Writers Access to get regular writing jobs.
7. Publish Your Book
Someone once said ‘we all have a book in us’. (Not sure who said it so I may just have to take the credit).
If you’d love to write and publish your own book, there’s never been a better time to become a self published author.
Who needs traditional publishing houses?
Once you’ve created your masterpiece simply use the Amazon KDP program to upload your work and create a book for Kindle or a paperback. You’ll then be able to expand onto other platforms like IngramSpark which could see your book in traditional bookstores.
You can even make a lot of money by recording your book and uploading it to Audible.
The world is your oyster whether you’re a fiction or non-fiction author so what are you waiting for?!
8. Turn Your Writing Into Print on Demand Products
Do you love to come up with funny memes, or inspirational quotes?
Perhaps you write jokes, riddles or informational one liners.
If so, why not turn your writing into a T-shirt, mug or branded hat?
Print on demand gives you the opportunity to add your design to a multitude of blank products, provided by the print on demand company.
Most suppliers offer everything from iphone cases, yoga mats, shoes, socks, notebooks, cushions, you name it!
What started as primarily a t-shirt business has expanded into a wonderland of products!
A unique way to make money writing online is to simply design your one liners using a platform such as Canva and adding them to products that people would love to wear, drink out of, or display in their house.
Here’s a great example of a framed print with a simple but inspiring message for sale on Etsy.
9. Create Notes for Podcasts
Most podcast shows are accompanied by show notes and written articles, summarizing the episode, highlighting important parts and linking to mentioned resources.
Most podcast hosts do not want to write those notes themselves.
You could become a specialist at listening to and summarizing podcasts into fantastic notes which are super useful to listeners/readers.
Look for contracts on sites such as Upwork or approach podcast hosts directly and ask if you can work with them to improve their current podcast articles.
Not only do you get a chance to make money writing online, but you’ll also learn a ton by listening to podcasts you love!
10. Craft E-Commerce Content
A great way to make money writing online is to become a specialist in writing content for ecommerce sites.
With almost 70% of visitors to ecommerce websites abandoning a purchase at the cart stage, your job would be to create vivid product descriptions, clever upsell copy, and engaging, action led, cart abandonment emails.
With more and more online ecommerce stores being created and launched every day, store owners are increasingly looking for writers and copywriters to help them maximize sales.
Look on sites such as Upwork or Freelancer for ecommerce writing opportunities.
11. Work as a Translator
If you’re fluent in more than one language, a great method for making money online as a writer, is to work as a translator.
When we ran our 7 figure Amazon business, we hired writers from France, Italy & Germany to translate our product listings and follow up emails.
If English is your second language or you’re multilingual, consider becoming a translator for Amazon businesses, ecommerce stores, blogs and any online asset that could or should be translated.
12. Write Press Releases
Many traditional businesses still rely on the good old press release to distribute news about their company.
There’s an art to writing a press release and creating contacts in the news industry.
If you become a specialist in this area, you could potentially attract the attention of thousands of news outlets for your clients, helping them to spread important updates about their business, and generate leads, backlinks and profitable partnerships.
13. Become a HARO Specialist
Along the same lines as a press release writer but focusing more on short form content is writing responses for HARO (helpareporterout.com).
Many online businesses and blogs use HARO to distribute important news/facts and generate backlinks for their site.
Once again knowledge of how the news industry works and some contacts, plus the ability to write engaging information in just a couple of paragraphs are the key skills for this online writing opportunity.
A friend of mine has built a massive business as a HARO specialist. This is a very lucrative, sought after service.
14. Become an Influencer
You may believe that to become an influencer you need to be an amazing photographer or videographer. However, sites like Twitter and LinkedIn rely mainly on the written form of content creation.
If there’s a subject you love to immerse yourself in, consider writing about it in public. Love to travel, offer insights about traveling the world; love to read, write book summaries and highlights; love learning about web 3.0 and crypto etc, share your learnings with the world.
As you start to build an audience and community around your favorite subject, you can monetize by recommending others books or products, creating your own educational resources or simply getting paid by brands to advertise to your audience.
Another way to use your social media influence to make money writing online is to…
15. Become an Amazon Influencer
The main premise for becoming an Amazon Influencer is to write engaging product reviews that encourage visitors to make a purchase.
If you have a compelling and engaging writing style and are happy to review lots of products, this could be a good model for you.
Ideally you’ll already have an engaged audience on social media. If so you can can apply to become an Amazon Influencer and promote products via Amazon’s affiliate program
Once accepted you’ll be able to create your own storefront, review relevant products and promote them to your audience.
Yet another way to use your social media influence to make money writing online is to…
16. Start a Paid Newsletter
There was a time a few years back when it seemed email newsletters were dead. That was until the rise of Medium, followed by specialist newsletter apps like Substack and Beehiiv.
If you’ve done the hard work of building a social media audience, a great way to monetize it is to offer a paid newsletter.
As a writer you get to write articles every week (or every day) discussing your favorite topic and your subscribers get valuable information they’re happy to pay for.
You can start your newsletter for free and encourage subscribers to sign up to your paid plan for more exclusive content.
17. Become a Social Media Consultant
If you enjoy writing for social media but aren’t too interested in building your own audience, consider becoming a social media consultant/content creator for other brands and businesses.
Many companies know they need a bigger presence on social media, but don’t have the time or inclination to start posting themselves.
You might be responsible for creating Facebook posts, building and maintaining a presence on Twitter or LinkedIn, responding to comments or engaging with other accounts on Instagram, or even creating scripts for TikTok or YouTube videos.
You can charge per post, per hour or per month for your services and build up a regular client base to generate a reliable monthly return on your time.
18. Become a Professional Affiliate Marketer
In the very first point of this article I talked about becoming a blogger. Once you’ve started to generate a lot of traffic to your blog, you can make a lot of money by recommending other people’s products on your site and getting paid a commission every time you make a sale.
However, did you know there’s also a huge world out there of professional affiliates who make millions by promoting CPA (cost per action) offers for huge companies like sports betting apps, dating sites, travel apps etc.
If you’re awesome at persuasive copywriting and are willing to learn how FB Ads, TikTok ads etc work, you could make money writing online by specializing in creating ad copy for affiliate campaigns.
This kind of money making enterprise doesn’t just require great writing skills but also insights into human behavior, data analysis skills and good relationship building skills.
19. Get Paid to Write Guest Posts
One of the best ways for a blog to grow its authority online is to generate backlinks and one of the best routes to generate backlinks is guest blogging.
Unfortunately so many bloggers, me included just don’t have the time to either pitch for or write guest posts.
You could pitch your services to blog owners as a professional guest poster. Your job will be to outreach to other websites accepting guest posts, pitch topics and then write and submit the posts.
If you choose to specialize in this area you’ll need to demonstrate some basic SEO knowledge. Plus if you want to be in the top 1% of guest blogging freelancers, the ability to research sites, write engaging emails and take on the full responsibility of pitching, researching and writing the post will go a long way!
20. Become a Coach
If you love, love, love to write, then perhaps coaching others as a writing coach is your best bet to make money writing online.
Distill your best tips into a weekly newsletter, a blog or even a YouTube channel and start to build an audience.
As you grow you can offer one to one or group coaching to help other writers achieve their goals of becoming a published author, growing a blog, or simply making money by writing online!
21. Become a Freelance Writer
Many of the strategies I’ve discussed in this post are essentially for freelance writers. However, rather than specialize in any distinct area, you may simply want to become a generalist freelance writer.
This gives you the opportunity to find freelance writing work, on a job by job basis, only taking on freelance writing gigs you like the look of and are interested in.
One of the best sites for a real mix of varied writing tasks is Upwork.
To get started as a freelance writer, sign up to Upwork as a freelancer and create a profile including your experience, specialist areas and some examples of previous work. Then as business owners create job descriptions you bid for those you’d like the chance to work on.
Other writing services sites to consider include; Fiverr, Freelancer, Problogger Jobs Board, Writers Access, Perfect Essay Writing.
Once you’ve built up enough clients, reviews and a writing portfolio, you could expand and start your own freelance writing business, by taking on more clients and hiring your own team of talented writers.
The world is your oyster!
How to Make Money Writing Online; Summary
If you love to write and are looking for opportunities to start a writing career and make money online, hopefully this article has given you plenty of food for thought.
If you’re not sure which writing niche you want to specialize in (if any), sign up to a site like Upwork as a freelance writer and start bidding for as many contracts as possible to grow your experience and discover which writing jobs interest you more than others.
Good luck!
Subscribe to the Working Traveller Newsletter and alongside weekly money making and nomadic lifestyle tips, get instant access to my FREE ebook – 200+ Side Hustle Ideas for 50+ Nomads!
How to Make Money Writing Online; FAQs
Can I Earn Money by Writing Online?
Yes, you certainly can earn money by writing online. Many professional writers have made a living writing online across various platforms. This includes creating content for blogs, submitting articles to online magazines, and self-publishing books. With a combination of quality article writing, targeted content marketing, and leveraging social media posts, you can effectively reach your target audience and start making money writing online.
What Platform Can You Earn Money by Writing?
There are numerous platforms where you can earn money through writing. Some popular options include freelance websites like Upwork and Fiverr, where you can find freelance writing jobs. Additionally, platforms like Medium offer ad revenue sharing, and websites such as Substack allow writers to earn through paid newsletters. Guest posting on sites that accept guest posts can also lead to paid opportunities.
What is the Website that Pays You to Write?
Websites like Medium, Upwork, and Fiverr are known for paying writers for their work. Medium shares ad revenue with writers, while Upwork and Fiverr connect freelance writers with potential clients looking to hire freelance writers. Furthermore, many online publications and blogs pay for submission of articles and personal essays, with some having specific submission guidelines.
Does Wattpad Pay Writers?
Wattpad itself does not typically pay writers directly. However, successful writers on Wattpad have opportunities to earn money through ad revenue sharing programs and affiliate sales. Additionally, Wattpad can be a launchpad for writers to gain a following, leading to opportunities like book deals or self publishing their work.
How can I find Freelance Writing Jobs?
To find freelance writing jobs, start by exploring job boards and websites dedicated to freelance work, such as Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer. Networking with other freelance writers and joining writing groups on social media can also uncover job opportunities. Additionally, creating a blog post or writing articles on your own website can showcase your skills and attract potential clients.
Is it Possible to Make a Full-time Job out of Writing Online?
Absolutely, many writers have turned their passion into a full-time job. This involves diversifying income streams, such as combining freelance writing jobs with income from self published books, affiliate link earnings, and ad revenue. Building a personal brand as a smart blogger or a professional writer in a particular niche can significantly increase earning potential.
What are Some Tips for Successful Guest Posting?
For successful guest posting, first research blogs and websites in your niche that accept guest posts. Study their content and submission guidelines to understand what type of articles they prefer. When pitching, propose unique ideas that align with their content strategy. Remember, guest posting not only helps in earning money but also in building a portfolio and reaching a wider audience.
Can Writing Online Help in other Aspects of my Life?
Writing online can have numerous benefits beyond financial gain. It can be therapeutic and beneficial for mental health, allowing you to express personal stories and thoughts. It also offers the flexibility to be your own boss, manage your schedule, and work from anywhere, which can positively impact your work-life balance.
What are Some Emerging Trends in Online Writing?
Emerging trends in online writing include a focus on niche content marketing, increased demand for reported articles on current events and web design trends, as well as the growing popularity of personal essays and stories. Furthermore, there is a rising interest in content accessible to visually impaired writers and readers, emphasizing inclusive web content.
How Can I Improve my Skills as an Online Writer?
To improve your skills, consider enrolling in paid courses or attending workshops related to writing, web host management, or WordPress related topics. Engaging with a managing editor or other professional writers for feedback, reading extensively in your chosen niche, and staying updated with the latest writing and content trends are also beneficial practices.
