What Are The 11 Ways You Can Make Money From Writing?
What do you think about making money from your hobby? Writing is one such hobby. Now, if you are one of those looking for ways to get paid to write, then, consider yourself lucky to come across this article.
Irrespective of your reason for writing- to make additional income or as a long-term career, whichever way, writing is time-consuming but it is worth the time and effort you put into it.
In fact, as a student, it is a good way to both earn and garner experience especially when you start applying for graduate writing jobs. In other to assist you to make money from your skills, we have taken out time to explain 11 ways you can make money from writing.
The 11 most profitable ways to make money as a writer are listed below:
1. Earn by reviewing films, products, music, and lots more
One of the easiest ways to earn money through writing is by getting paid to write reviews especially when you know how…
At first, what comes to mind when you hear about this job? You may be thinking of 24/7 jobs that need loads of past experiences, such as professional TV and film reviewing.
Nevertheless, it is possible to start making money immediately from reviews by signing up for some rewards websites. Through this means, you can review anything ranging from gadgets to music to stationery, and everything in between on these sites.
2. Earn by writing articles for money
This is a perfect career path for anyone who is talented in writing, and we strongly recommend this if that is what you would love to do. Well, we will like you to note that it is a competitive industry, and as a young writer, you have to be ready to undergo unpaid internships. Also, you do not have to study journalism before you can get paid to do this job, all you need is to exhibit the characteristics of a strong writer having a great eye for stories, and paying attention to detail.
You may want to know how you can start, well, you can begin by contributing to the student newspaper or magazine at your school. Another way to go about this is to start a blog (we will talk about this later), this way you can showcase your interests and ability to write.
If you have gotten a solid portfolio, the next thing to do is to pitch your article ideas to journalists who commission articles for their publication, and if they are interested in your article ideas, you could be hired to write for them on a freelance basis.
Now, the amount you earn for each article depends on the publication and length/style of the article. We suggest that you follow the commissioning editors of your favorite publications on social media via Twitter and LinkedIn when you are ready to start pitching article ideas to magazines and newspapers.
Furthermore, you can write something related to your degree if you fancy writing about that and you can find the ones relevant to your studies and interests by running a quick Google search for ‘[industry] trade magazine'. Most times, Editors tweet about the themes or topics they are interested in as at the time of the tweet.
In addition to this, try as much as possible to keep your emails short but rather persuasive while pitching and most times, you don't always need to wait for editors to publish call-outs for pieces of articles before you make your pitch to them.
Another smart thing to do when pitching is not to send complete articles along with your pitches because they may run an article with similar ideas themselves. Also, have it in mind that it is not every pitch that will be successful, however, do not give up, learn from the dismissal and enhance your pitching skills.
3. Sell your revision notes
Are you good at making a clear but concise lecture note? You can make money from your revision note. There are also sites to utilize if you desire to sell your notes to students, interestingly, you can list your notes free of charge but for any sale you make, the company might charge a fee.
4. Engage in writing competitions to win cash prizes
Some people may find it funny entering writing competitions but do not forget that the prize is for someone to win. Adding that you have won a writing competition on your CV is a complete bonus, and at the same time adds money to your bank account.
You can see an inventory of journalism prizes here, and innovative writing contests here.
Below is a guide on how you can win writing competitions.
- You must be creative – If you must thrill the competition judges, you must not do the usual first-line entry, dare to write something different that will captivate them.
- Go through past winning entries – In a bid to find out arguments that have been successful in the past, you have to go through past entries to see the styles and arguments they used. Nevertheless, it is necessary for you to be creative while at it.
- Cross-check the competition T&Cs – Before applying to participate in a competition, ensure that you are qualified to apply. There are certain criteria attached to such competitions like age range, from a particular area, or having a certain level of writing experience.
- Proofread – Go through your work again and again before submitting, one way of doing this is to read it to your hearing. And asking family and friends to go through it on your behalf.
5. Earn from writing translations
You can earn money from your language skills by writing translations. A lot of business owners will be ready to pay you to translate text for them as a freelancer. Well, you should know that you can make more money from some languages more than others. We will also recommend that you check out sites such as Fiverr to see how much freelance translators are paid, and of course, this depends on the languages they speak.
6. Monetise your blog
Converting your blog to a money-making venture from a passion project requires time and effort, but be rest assured that it will pay off (literally). Your website will serve as an online portfolio of your work while still making money from it via affiliate marketing, advertising, sponsored content, and lots more.
If you have flair for building online followings and creating viral social posts, then, writing social media content is ideal for you and you can put it to profitable use.
Also, you can consider affiliate marketing if you'd like to concentrate on making money from your own social feeds. Brand affiliation is all about including a particular link to your social media posts when you talk about a product or service.
You earn some percentage once people buy using that link and yes, this will not affect the buyer in any way. In addition to this, you can earn by creating social media content for businesses, by writing captivating captions, tweaking the bios on their social channels, and writing their tweets.
For you to get clients, you can reach out directly to small business owners citing your previous successes as a social media assistant, or you can find clients on sites like Fiverr.
8. Become a copywriter
Here is yet another career path you can explore because you cannot do this in your spare time or quickly make money from it. According to Glassdoor, copywriters earn roughly £29K as at the time of writing.
The duty of a copywriter is to create written content that depicts the identity of the business both for online and offline resources. Regardless of who reads your content; customers, clients, or even other members of staff within the company can relate with the voice of the brand running throughout it.
There is a difference between B2C and B2B, the former is when you're writing content that will be seen by customers which are known as business-to-consumer copywriting while the latter is when you are writing for a target audience of other companies, and this is known as business-to-business copywriting.
Copywriting is one skill you can develop with constant practice, and try as much as possible to garner experience by contributing to a good number of publications with a wide range of audiences. Be flexible so that you can easily switch your tone and arguments in such a way that will suit each outlet.
9. Write a book
This is yet another means of making money through writing but not immediately and definitely not the easiest. There are numerous topics you could write a book on, it could be fictional, collate a series of poems or short stories as a book, or non-fiction, such as advice for students.
Instead of finding a writing agent and getting a publishing deal, you can as well make money from eBooks, which we strongly recommend, and make a passive income from relatively little effort aside from writing and finishing the book, obviously.
10. Work as a technical writer
This one is more of a long-term career pathway and not a quick way of making money in your free time. The job of a technical writer varies depending on the area your company or industry specializes in.
That being said, a common task for technical writers is writing an instruction manual, and to achieve this, you have to research the processes you're writing about, then write in such a way that they can easily understand and follow.
Nevertheless, you will need some sort of experience to do this job, and if you have good communication skills, can comfortably work with challenging technical information, then you should consider this career for yourself.
According to Glassdoor, you can earn up to £40K as a technical writer thereby making it a pretty well-paid career.
11. Earn as a ghostwriter
If you fall into the category of people that have great writing skills but do not like the public attention that writing can bring, then ghostwriting is most suitable for you. Your duty as a ghostwriter is to work with people to assist them in writing books, speeches, etc but you won’t be credited publicly as the author.
Well, as for the remuneration for this job, it is not static and it largely depends on the industry you work in and the clients you write for. Be rest assured that it could be lucrative for big, high-profile writing projects. Nevertheless, a measure of experience is required before you can delve into becoming a full-time ghostwriter, and it is essential that you work on developing a strong portfolio to increase your credentials as a writer.
Are you a writer? Now you know how you can make money while doing something you are passionate about.
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What Are The 11 Ways You Can Make Money From Writing?
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