When people ask me what I do for a living, I honestly don’t know what to say.
I usually say that I am self-employed. Or “I blog”. Or “I’m an online marketer.” And they’re all true.
In fact, these answers are, too, and I’ve probably used them all these years…
- I am an affiliate marketer.
- I create and market e-books.
- I create websites.
- I am an online marketer.
- I am a marketing consultant.
I could go on.
But the real truth is this: I write to make a living. After all, that’s the crux of all these answers.
What I write takes many forms, and I make money from it in a variety of ways.
And the funny thing is that I never took a writing class.
Heck, my writing is full of grammatical errors, but I do it for a good living.
That leads me to believe that almost anyone can do this.
If you’re someone who wants to make money from writing, here are 13 easy ways to turn your writing into cash.
Table of Contents
13 Ways to Make Money From Writing
#1: Write articles
As an article author, you can write for offline publications and magazines, but you can probably find more opportunities online. There are so many small, medium, and large publishers online that it’s relatively easy to find work if you’re looking for one.
For example. many people earn regular income by writing for Medium.com on every topic imaginable. Just log in and start submitting content. Then join the affiliate program and ban some of your items.
#2: Write biographies and memoirs
Here’s a unique opportunity to help people tell their stories. Many people want to publish a biography or memoir but don’t have the writing skills to put it together. In fact, many famous biographies were not written by their “authors.” Instead, they are ghostwritten, and this is where your services come in. In some cases, you may even be credited as a co-author.
- Tip – Earn Passive Income: Instead of doing all the hard work of putting together a memoir or biography, teach people how to write their own so they can do it themselves. You can create an informational product about the process that you can sell repeatedly. Or if you’re successful on your own, you can teach other aspiring memoirists how to break into the market.
#3: Blogging
Blogging is certainly something you’ve heard of before. However, you may not know that many bloggers don’t actually write their own content. They have it written for them by a third party. Bloggers can make a good living working for a handful of select blogs. Some bloggers are ghostwriters, others “guest bloggers”.
- Tip – Get ongoing work: Offer blogging services from your own website and set up a monthly subscription where you write a set number of blog posts for each work. Give your monthly subscribers a special retainer rate so they’re encouraged to keep their subscription active.
#4: Book Suggestions
Authors who want to have their books published by a publisher need a book proposal. This proposal conveys the idea of why the book should be published and provides an overview of the book, its market, and the competition. A book proposal is a special type of writing that needs to be detailed and persuasive. Suggestions can be used for both fiction and nonfiction, so there are a variety of types of clients to work with.
- Tip – Focus on results: While not all of your clients will get book deals as a result of your work, the success rate you achieve is critical to increasing your opportunities. Always reach out to your clients to find out how things went and use these success stories as case studies to demonstrate your expertise.
#5: Copywriting
The art of copywriting is the creation of information that aids in the conversion of readers into customers. Copywriting can include anything from email messages to ads to online sales sites. Any marketing collateral often requires some level of copywriting. You can do things like writing slogans, brochures, ad copy, sales letters, product descriptions, and more. Copywriters are in high demand and once you have a proven track record, clients will be knocking on your door.
- Tip – Track your results: Copywriting is a results-driven business, and your clients want to know that you can get them more leads and customers. Keep a record of conversion rates and help your customers improve on those rates as part of a value-added service.
#6: Creative Writing
If creative writing was one of your favorite subjects in school, you’ll be glad to know that there are ways to make money from it. The different types of opportunities are plentiful. You can write fiction, write songs, write jokes and humor, poetry, greeting card messages, jingles, and more. Here’s a look at some types of writing you could do.
- Tip – Treat your creative writing activities as a business: you need to build your own audience by growing and monetizing your email list. These are fans who can contact you directly about your work for sale and send other product recommendations where you earn a commission. Treat it like any other business… just writing good content isn’t enough.
#7: eBooks
The e-book industry is thriving and there are many opportunities for authors. You can write for clients or for yourself. There are opportunities in fiction and non-fiction. It is important to find a niche for yourself.
- Tip – Find a lucrative customer market: Look for business owners who want to use a book as a marketing tool. For example, a professional coach can publish a book that they can use to build awareness and credibility for their services. If they build your business directly from the content you write, they are willing to pay well to provide that service.
#8: Editors
With all the publishing being done these days, the opportunities for talented editors abound. In addition to traditional publishing, think of all the blogs, books, and newsletters that people are publishing. If you have an eye on making your writing more concise and clearer, this might be an opportunity for you.
- Tip – Meet with Authors: Many authors require editing services, so make sure they know who you are. Join online communities and groups. Connect with them by attending local writing events.
#9: Emails and newsletters
Email is a very commercial medium that generates a high return on investment, so customers are often willing to pay a lot to have you write for them. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email delivers a return on investment (ROI) of nearly 4300%. This means that for every dollar they spend, they get back $43.52. This is your opportunity to write for clients who want to monetize their email marketing or monetize their own email list in a niche of their choice.
- Tip: Create retainer packages for your customers: For email marketing campaigns to be effective, they need to be consistent. This means that your customers have to write more and more emails. If you can get your clients to sign up for a subscription to your services, you get ongoing work, they have more success, and you don’t have to constantly look for new clients and work.
#10: Ghostwriting
The practice of ghostwriting is far more common than most people realize. A ghostwriter is someone who writes content for their client and then publishes it under their own name as if they wrote it. Many of the markets we have mentioned in this report can be ghostwritten. Ghostwriters write everything from blog posts to e-books, including fiction and non-fiction, screenplays, screenplays, speeches, articles, businesses, and more.
- Tip – Listen to feedback and apply it: Writing is such a personal thing and it’s easy to defend our talents, but when you’re ghostwriting you become irrelevant. Your job is to write what the client wants and stick to what they ask for. Of course, you can give your professional advice if you think they are moving in the wrong direction, but ultimately it is in their hands.
#11: Private Label Rights (PLR) content
Private Label Rights (PLR) content is pre-packaged content such as articles, blog posts, e-books, reports, and any type of content that multiple people purchase the right to use as their own work. Usually, the buyer is responsible for modifying the content to make it their own, but they can credit themselves as the author. This differs from ghostwriting work, where someone hires you to write about a specific topic and pays you for exclusive rights to use that work. PLR allows you to sell the same content to multiple buyers multiple times.
- Tip – PLR customers keep buying: PLR is cheap for individual buyers, so they keep buying more. If you keep coming up with great themes and offers, your customers will keep buying. That’s why memberships are also good for PLR. Set up a subscription-based program. They deliver content every month and they pay you every month.
#12: Revenue sharing sites
With revenue-sharing sites, you write an article on a specific topic or niche, depending on what the site asks of you. Once your article is published on the site and people start reading it, you get a share of the advertising revenue generated by readers when they click on an ad. This is a useful way to get started and learn more about online writing, as well as get work under your name to market yourself as a writer to the world.
- Tip – Make Passive Income: The income you get from these websites can become passive if traffic keeps visiting your older content. A natural progression from writing for other websites is creating your own website. Not only do you keep 100% of the earnings, but you build yourself a valuable fortune that can bring in extra money in other ways.
#13: Social media content creators
Social media writing consists of writing blurbs to introduce memes, blog posts, contests, and other content that ultimately leads the customer to the customer’s websites or email lists. If you have the talent to get people to “click” and want to read more, you can become an effective social media content creator.
- Tip: Get ongoing work: Set up your own website and integrate with social media management services. Some of your clients might just want you to write their content, but many others want you to handle the publishing and interaction on their various accounts. The more hands-free you can do this for your client, the more likely they’ll want to work with you on an ongoing basis.
To Your Success!
