The Ultimate Guide to Making Money by Writing Online
Why most writers struggle to monetize their passion — and 3 steps to set yourself apart from the crowd.
Why most writers struggle to monetize their passion — and 3 steps to set yourself apart from the crowd.
It’s 2022. Why do people still behave as if being a writer means you’ll always be item broke or underpaid?
In this post, I want to discuss three ways writers can monetize their writing.
This is a very beginner-level post. If you’re a completely new writer who has no idea how to make money, or if you think that the only way a writer can get rich is by selling copies of their books, then this post is exactly for you.
Before proceeding further, if you’d like to watch a more candid version of this article in video format, watch it here:
1. Writing for Platforms
The first way that writers can make money online is by writing on platforms that pay you a fixed rate for the number of reads your article has.
1. Medium
The biggest example of such a platform is Medium.
Medium is one of the largest writing platforms on the internet. It has a program called the Medium Partner Program where writers can get paid based on how many views their answers get. The sad part is the Medium Partner Program is currently only open in 33 countries.
Aside from Medium, other platforms that you can write for money are
2. Vocal Media
The earning model for Vocal Medium is the same as Medium. You get paid based on how many views your story gets. Vocal media also has some amazing contests where you can write fiction stories and get up to $5,000 a month.
If you’re curious, I’ve already made a video about Vocal. You can check it out right here.
3. PopSugar Voices
Another cool platform that pays you is called PopSugar Voices. It accepts articles related to mental health, wellness, life as a modern woman, exercise, and health. For each accepted story, PopSugar pays you $50 and it’s open to writers from all countries in the world.
Check out the submission guidelines for PopSugar here.
4. Memo’d
This new knowledge-sharing platform has a paid program for select creators who can write 10-point ‘Memos’ on topics from self-help to philosophy to economics.
If you’re a subject matter expert and would like to contribute to the platform for writing commissioned Memos leave a comment or a private note for more details on how to get accepted as a creator on Memo’d
5. Platforms that pay
There are several platforms that pay anything from $100 to $1,500 for one article. You can check more details here:
2. Writing for Freelance Clients
Freelance writing is a very lucrative avenue for writers. If you have the flair for writing and have already have picked a niche, then this could be a great, great way to supplement your monthly income.
What exactly is freelance writing?
There are so many companies in the world currently — companies related to every niche that’s out there. When you check out the websites of all these companies, you’d always see an option called “blog.”
If every company has a blog, Google thinks of them as more valuable. Whenever a person searches for something related to their company online, Google indexes its blog on the first page.
So blogs are a very valuable way for companies to list their services and make sure that people know that these services are available.
Every company needs a blog. This is especially true in 2022. Since most companies don’t have a writer on their team, they hire someone on a freelance basis to write. When you write for a company it’s called content marketing because you’re writing content for them that will help in their marketing.
Earning potential
Anything from $50 to $1,000 for an article of just 1000 words.
The rates you can ask for freelance writing vary depending on the niche of the company and how skilled a writer you are.
The hardest part about freelance writing is that it’s very difficult to find a good job because the market is hugely booming. There are several freelance writers online who are willing to write a thousand words for as low as $2 for 1000 words. When you put yourself out in the market as a freelance writer, you have to compete against these thousands of writers from all the countries in the world.
If you want to be a successful freelance writer but are struggling to find amazing clients, I’ve got something for you. Check out my 90-day guide to finding your first high-paying freelance client. You’ll find 5 pitching secrets, 2 email templates, and a solid framework to get your freelancing career started.
3. Have A Monetized Newsletter
The third way writers can make money online is by having a newsletter.
When you write on a platform like medium Quora, Instagram, Medium, etc, your views are dependent on the algorithm. If the algorithm thinks that your content is good, it will distribute it to a wider audience. Otherwise, there’s very little that you can do to make sure that you get good views.
But when you have a newsletter, then everything is in your control. There’s no algorithm involved. You can directly talk to your audience. Your stories or your articles will land directly in the inboxes of your readers.
But how can you monetize a newsletter?
That’s a very good question that has so many different ways of answering it.
The first way you can monetize your newsletter is if you set up a subscription.
So there are platforms like Substack and Revue that allow you to keep a fee that the readers pay per month just to read your newsletter. It can be anything starting from $1 to $50 in a month.
For example, if you just charge your newsletter a basic rate of $5 per month, and if you have a thousand readers, then you can easily get $5,000 a month.
The second way of monetizing your newsletter is if you do sponsorships with companies. There are so many companies that are on the lookout for highly targeted audiences in which they can promote their products.
If your newsletter has a niche, then you can approach companies working in these niches and ask them if they’d be interested to sponsor your newsletter. Sponsorships from good companies can get you anything starting from $1000 and it doesn’t have any upper limit.
That’s how powerful newsletter marketing is. Read more info here:
Want to Become a Successful (And Wealthy) Full or Part-Time Writer?
Then, I’ve got quite the thing for you — I, Neeramitra Reddy, and Shivendra Misra have started The Write Way.
With close to 100k followers and over 5 million views combined on Medium alone, we might be fairly big and successful writers today.
But when we started, we had been clueless — and the exorbitantly priced writing courses weren’t much respite. Not to mention each of them offered the expertise and experience of only a single writer.
With The Write Way being affordable and the 3 of us running it, we solve both the above problems. Here’s what all we’ll be offering:
- One Exclusive Value-Packed Article per Week → This will span headlines, pitching to publications, freelance proposal writing, monetization tips, writing tips, etc. (Only for paid subscribers)
- Private Sneak Peeks into our writing processes, ideas, and plans. (Only for paid subscribers)
- The Ability to Reply to Every Email with Any Question. (Only for paid subscribers)
- A Monthly AMA detailedly answering all the questions we’ve received throughout the month from our paid subscribers. (For all subscribers)
- Early-Bird Offers and Discounts on Our Personal Products → Not “generic” discounts but specific ones only our subscribers will receive. (For all subscribers)
As part of our launch offer, we’re offering a whopping 50% discount to the first 50 people!
If this sounds interesting and valuable (which trust us it is), go grab your offer right away!