Are you a good writer? Do you like writing for your own blog? If yes, you can earn a significant amount by writing online content. Wondering how to make money as a freelance writer? Here are some perfect ways!
Imagine being able to pursue your passion for writing while getting paid for it too.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, it’s possible.
We are not saying that making money as a freelance writer is easy — at some point, you will have to come up with novel ideas or write thousands of original words in one sitting.
But, that shouldn’t discourage you from making money while doing what you love.
There are dozens of ways to earn online as a writer, and maybe enough to make writing a profitable side hustle or a full-time job.
This article is all about how to make money as a freelance writer and kick start your online writing career.
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How To Make Money as a Freelance Writer
Let’s be honest. It is not easy to sit behind a desk every day and leave the office so tired that you don’t have time for yourself anymore.
That’s why so many writers are looking for ways to make money online because stay-at-home jobs are simply convenient and often stress-free
If you think working as a freelance writer will limit your online job opportunities or if can you make money as a freelance writer at all, here’s your answer.
Suppose a company hires fire employees. One of them has to be someone who can write annual reports and keep up with the content marketing war.
Sales letters don’t write themselves. That’s where a writer comes in.
Companies have a lot of writing jobs to be done, and not all businessmen know how to do that.
So, they are willing to pay freelance writers every day to help them in the writing department.
11 Ways to Make Money as a Freelance Writer
Here are the top 11 ways to make money online as a freelance writer.
Start a freelance business with these platforms
SolidGigs
When you have decided to work as a freelance writer, the first thing you do is search for “How to make money as a freelance writer” on Google to look up potential job opportunities.
Then, you are left with several million results, and you can only go through so many. You will be spending hours scrolling through the pages only to realize you have wasted your time on scam sites.
Now, imagine a filter that goes through these results for you to cancel out all the scam sites and offers that won’t be worth your time. SolidGigs is that filter.
It is a freelancing website that provides you with hand-picked jobs that are worth your attention. The team examines the kind of job you are looking for and hand-picks gigs multiple times every week.
The website displays only the best opportunities on the web, which consist of the top 1% of gigs found from an extensive search. That means you can pitch out more clients and skip the clients that will only waste your time.
SolidGigs also offers courses, videos, lessons, tools, templates, and other resources to help you along your freelancing journey.
Toptal
Toptal, short for top talent, is built for experienced freelancers and designers who can work on online projects for companies. As a writer, you can start with simple data entry and typing work, web research, keyword research, email research, and online surveys.
It is a good option for freelance writers seeking high financial rewards, flexibility in working hours, and a variety of projects that will fit various skill sets. The website also has a blog that you can contribute in to help Toptal and other freelancers to gain reputation.
The hiring process of Toptal is a bit more complicated than usual, but it is worth your time. To start working, visit the website, and apply as a freelancer.
After that, you will have to go through a five-step interview that usually takes a month, including a two-week project.
Once you have passed this interview, you are all set to start working with Toptal. Most freelance writers working for Toptal make between $50 and $250 per hour.
WriterAccess
WriteAcess is a platform that connects businesses with content writers. You can sign up to join the team of editors, designers, illustrators, animators, and most importantly, writers.
The WriterAccess team hand-reviews work and pick only the best to build their profile to get started.
The website reaches 500,000+ brands, agencies, and small businesses looking to expand their name in the marketplace. They offer transparent margins — 70% to the writer and 30% to WriterAcess — to keep them on top of the freelancing industry.
The platform offers flexible working opportunities when it comes to timings and schedules. You can pick out the gigs that match your skills and raise your star ratings.
More star ratings mean a higher pay rate range, which gets you free benefits of 250M stock images, content strategy certification, and content marketing tools.
Fiverr
If you have searched for jobs before, you have likely come across one of the most popular websites for freelancers – Fiverr. The platform is all about gaining experience to make writing your side-job while preparing for future opportunities or working as a full-time freelancer.
Registering with Fiverr is easy, and the website dashboard is very user-friendly. Before skipping to offers, make sure you browse the whole website and discover each tab.
Posting a gig on Fiverr is easy too. You only need to answer a few questions, post a photo that shows something about your writing, and briefly write about what you have to offer. Then, submit the gig for it to go live.
The “To-Do” tab has a list of gigs that need to be done, and the “Inbox” tab is for emails that will inform you when your gigs sell.
Once your gig is published, you will be able to see all the published requests to pick from. Over time, you will learn that taking clients off Fiverr can turn out to be more profitable for you.
Behance Creative Jobs
Behance is an online platform for creative professionals, powered by Adobe. It is a great way to showcase your work and you can also connect with companies that are looking to hire.
Unlike Fiverr, Behance is not a true platform for freelance work. It is more of a place to display your writing skills for companies who will contact you via their own branded site.
It is not to say that you should dump all your work on the site. You have to be selective and put out only the best of your pieces to build your following.
You can join Behance for free and create your portfolio in a few clicks.
Metro Parent
Metro Parent is a publishing group that is open to freelance writers who can build content for their magazine and website. The group seeks a mixture of fun and substantial local stories that will interest local parents.
The content you will be producing for Metro Parent should be local as they are looking for local sources that know the communities they are covering.
Also, keep in mind that the publishing content is decided months in advance, so the stories you pitch in should be two to three months before the time they have to run.
For example, a story revolving around Christmas should be pitched in at least three months in advance for it to publish on Christmas.
Cracked.com
If you can write articles with some humor, Cracked.com offers good article writing opportunities to earn some extra cash.
You don’t need any prior experience to work. You only need to produce good content such as articles, infographics, and videos, and you are all set.
First, register with Cracked.com, and then click on Writer’s Workshop, which takes you to the message board where everyone pitches their articles. You can pitch in your article idea, followed by five subtopics, a full column, and the information.
In the starting, you get $100 per article. After getting up to five posts published, you can earn as much as $200 per article. If luck is on your side and your post ends up in the top 10 list of the month, you will get a $100 bonus too.
Start a Blog
Starting a blog is a great way to unleash your creativity, practice your writing skills, and build your credibility in your niche.
If you do it right, you can make good money by monetizing strategies along the way.
Before you practically start to create your blog, think about what your blog will look like. Will it be a food blog, a travel blog, or a lifestyle blog? Or maybe something completely unique.
Next, pick a platform such as WordPress to create a self-hosted blog through Bluehost.
Once you have created a website, choose a creative theme, and set up pages. Your blog can have:
- Hire Me page – tells what you do and why anyone should hire you
- About Me page – tells about you and how you can help your client
- Contact page – a contact form or links to your social media profiles and/or email.
- Shop Page/Courses Page
- Blog – link to your blog
- Privacy Policy and Disclaimer Page – a detailed breakdown of your policies
With your website all set, it’s time to write content for your audience. While it is essential to focus on content quality, more quantity will make your blog appear in search engines and bring in new followers.
Along with being a creative outlet, the blog will serve as a way to showcase your writing skills. Think of your blog as your online portfolio and a platform to try monetization strategies.
Once you have a blog, you can set up your site to be service-based, which will help you make more money.
Constant Contact
If you have a service-based blog, you can use Constant Contact to launch an email marketing campaign to boost your sales via GoogleAds and social media.
Constant Contact’s email marketing tools allow you to generate awareness about the services and set up an online store to start selling digital or physical products.
You can promote your own store or work with companies to help them sell their physical or digital products on a standalone online store. You can put your writing skills to use and reach people in their inbox with mobile-optimized templates for every purpose — promoting sales, new launches, etc.
The AI-powered Website Builder helps you create professional websites with complete images and content suggestions, so there is no guesswork. The built-in marketing tools help any business to thrive.
Even if you don’t have any tech skills but you know how to write, and you are ready to reach a wider audience.
Canva
Any writer with some experience in online writing knows the importance of social media graphics. There is a large number of images attached to every link on the internet, and it can make or break a post.
Images play a significant role in keeping a reader on the page, and Canva helps you enhance your content with pictures to keep the readers’ attention for longer. It has a range of customizable templates to compliment different designs and themes.
These templates have many uses for freelance writers, bloggers, and authors who have a website, to promote their business and writing. Using featured images can give the reader an extra push to click on a link or visit a page they otherwise wouldn’t notice.
As a freelance writer, you can design attention-grabbing logos, social media graphics, blogging graphics, and promotional material for your services. You can even add your own picture and text into these layouts to personalize the design.
If you enjoy designing with Canva, you can also consider getting a gig that pays for designing graphics. You can pick from the platforms in this post to find people looking to hire someone who can create their graphics for social media.
Cold pitch potential clients to land writing gigs
Cold pitching is the idea of approaching online businesses and informing them directly about your freelance writing skills. These businesses might or might not be seeking a content writer, so your email would be a “cold pitch”.
Even though this way can be very time-consuming and filled with rejections, it is not ineffective. Many writers have found this option to be an effective way to get writing gigs, guest post opportunities, and build relations.
For it to work, you need to know how to create an outstanding pitch.
Wrap-Up
There you have it, our top 11 ideas to start your money-making journey as a freelancer. Remember, the more time you spend on polishing your writing skills on these platforms, the faster you will become a professional writer and get higher paid work opportunities.
Now, the next time someone asks, “Can you make money as a freelance writer?” you know the answer.