8 Ways to Make Money by Writing Online
Because now’s the best time to start building your online writing empire.
Because now’s the best time to start building your online writing empire.
As a child, I always dreamed of being a writer.
But back then I thought the only way you can earn money by writing is if your book becomes an international bestseller, something like Harry Potter.
This is part of the reason why I never considered taking up writing seriously. According to what everyone around me said, writing is just a hobby, and you need a job to stay alive and earn money.
Today, thanks to the advent of the Internet, writing has become one of the most sought-after occupations in the world. We are lucky to be alive in such a time where it’s possible to earn six figures every month only by writing.
Of course, this is amazing, and we are so fortunate that the wave for the creator economy is just beginning. If you start right now, it’s the perfect time to establish yourself as a writer.
If you’re someone who has always loved writing and wants to make a living just by being a writer, this article is just for you. I’m going to talk about eight ways you can earn money by writing online.
Before we get started, if you’d like to watch the same in a candid video, here’s a link —
1. Quora Spaces
Many of you might already be aware that Quora is a question-and-answer platform where you can answer questions and write posts. Recently, in 2019, Quora came up with a new feature called Quora Spaces.
The owners of the Spaces can earn money based on how much ad revenue their Space has generated. For example, if you have a space that has 2 million followers, you can get quite a good amount of money every month from the Quora Spaces program.
Of course, this is a long-term gig as it takes time and effort to grow your Space to have enough followers where you can get enough views and a stable income stream.
But if you like Quora as a platform and you like the idea of answering questions, then definitely, Quora Spaces are a great way to earn money by writing as well as managing a team of writers.
2. Medium Partner Program
If you’re new here, I’ve already made a video about how to get started writing on Medium. Basically, Medium pays users based on how many minutes their story has been read by paid subscribers on the platform. On average, you can earn up to $5 for every one hour that your story has been read.
The issue with Medium is that the only way of getting paid is through Stripe, a payment gateway available only in a select few countries. Currently, only people from 33 countries can make money by writing on Medium.
3. Vocal.Media
Vocal.Media is another platform where writers can get paid based on how many views their story has. Unlike Medium, these views can be from anyone on the internet, and not just paying members.
Vocal.Media also uses Stripe as their payment platform, but it allows Stripe Standard accounts— a feature that’s available in India. So, if you’re a writer from India, this could be a great place to start earning money.
I’ve covered the important strategies to keep in mind before starting on Vocal.Media here:
And, if you’re a fan of content in video form, click here to watch the full video on what is Vocal.Media and how you can optimize your content to perform well there.
4. Write Commissioned Articles
There are a lot of websites in the world that pay you $100 or more for each article that you publish.
If you are a writer who’s tired of spending hours of hard work and earning pennies for your work, I've written an article discussing 4 websites that pay you $100 US or more for each article that gets accepted.
5. Curate Your EBook
As a new writer, it’s very difficult to write a book as the prospect of stringing together 20,000 words or more sounds daunting. But it’s not so difficult to write one article of 1000–1500 words, right?
If you’ve been writing online for a while, you can compile 30 of your best articles into an ebook. Then, you can just publish the ebook on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and start earning money by making sales.
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to self-publish your eBook on Amazon:
And here’s an article discussing four fail-safe ways to promote your book for free. These marketing strategies will help you make sales and earn more money:
6. Write for Freelance Clients
A great way to find freelance clients is on two platforms: Upwork and Fiverr.
On Fiverr, you can make a profile and you can list your skills, previous projects, etc. Then, you can wait for potential job openings that suit your interest.
On Upwork, you have to build your profile and then send proposals to potential employers. If they like your proposal and profile, they will select you for more work.
Another very underrated way of finding freelance clients is through LinkedIn. As we all know, LinkedIn is the online equivalent of your resume or CV. But it’s also one of the world’s fastest-rising social media platforms. If you haven’t built a presence on LinkedIn yet, you definitely should as you can get a lot of freelance clients just by being active on LinkedIn.
Read this article by Jessica Pereira for some actionable tips on how to use LinkedIn to generate leads and clients:
7. Brand Journalism
A lot of brands that want articles written about them will pay good money to have them published on a website with a good domain ranking.
It’s a little difficult to do brand journalism as a beginner writer because you don’t really have a follower base, but if you have a website or a blog where you get a good amount of monthly reads or website visitors, then you can start pitching to the brands that lie in your niche that you are available for gigs and you’ll be happy to do sponsored collaborations with them.
In your pitch, mention that you’re interested in sharing news about them with your own network, and plan out a potential collaboration that mutually benefits both parties.
8. Coaching or Consulting
The last and the most interesting way of earning money is by doing coaching or consulting. If you’ve been writing online for a long time and you have considerable experience, you can start coaching other writers who are just starting out.
I have known writing coaches who charge up to $500 for an hour of coaching. I know people are very happy to pay that because they know the amount of value they’ll get in that one hour can be literally life-changing.
But again, it’s important to remember that coaching is not a viable option for beginner writers. If you’ve been writing online for a few years, then you should definitely consider coaching as a potential income stream.
Bonus: Newsletter Marketing
Another very interesting way in which you can add another income stream as a writer is by monetizing your newsletter. This can be done in five ways:
- Build a subscription model, i.e. offer premium content for a subscription fee.
- Sell ad space on your newsletter to brands that have an audience complementary to yours.
- Pre-sell your product or service to your newsletter subscribers.
- Do affiliate marketing.
- Ask your readers to sponsor you.
You can read more about how to monetize your newsletter here:
Final Words
As I mentioned before, now’s a great time to start building your empire as an online writer. The wave for the creator economy is just booming, and if you ride it now, you can reach great heights.
If you’d like to book a coaching or consulting service with me, fill this form and I’ll get back to you.
For more talk on freelancing and expanding your income streams as a writer, find me on YouTube.
Click here to join my community of 1200+ innovative thinkers and ambitious action-takers.
