We’ve all heard of individuals that worked a nine to five but now proclaim to be successful freelance writers. The personal and financial freedom that comes with it is enticing and most probably addictive. Yet, the uncertainty of becoming a successful writer can stop you in your tracks.
A lot of people with a passion for writing have given freelance writing a chance, but have failed considerably. Recent research confirms this sobering statement, as numerous bloggers and online writers give up halfway.
Maybe you are a talented writer and are willing to invest in becoming a full-time freelance writer. If so, it is possible. However, your chances of success are only as good as your plans and strategies.
Today we will be taking a look at the top four ways on how to write and make money online. Notably, the below-mentioned tips are not only practical, but highly effective.
Freelancing
The best way to go about freelance writing is by joining freelance marketplaces. From Guru and Peopleperhour to 99 Designs, there are a number of sites to choose from. However, the top three sites that often come recommendable include:
- Fiverr: Fiverr is a widely known freelancer marketplace that can connect any writer to any type of project. I personally have hired the services of a freelance writer on Fiverr multiple times, so I am a paying customer to attest to it. I’ve written about Fiverr in a separate post, if you’re interested in further details.
- Freelancer
- Upwork
These sites help connect freelance writers to clients. However, it might take a while before you can even get a client to write for. It’s highly competitive, hence; you’ll need to present yourself in a very competitive way. Give clients a reason to hire you.
Clients are often looking for someone with a credible portfolio to hire. Yet, you’ll need projects to help you build one. Having a niche blog will help give you an extra advantage over to others on this platform. Be sure to get into guest blogging as well, as this will help you tap into an audience that you wouldn’t otherwise reach.
Notably, it might take a while to build an enviable track record on such platforms. However, with a lot of effort, patience and consistency, you’ll be able to build a reputable portfolio for yourself.
Start Your Own Blog
Thanks to the internet and the advancing world of technology, anybody can start a blog. However, maintaining and running a successful blog is not as easy as starting one, unless you have the right support platform. Building, running and maintaining one requires consistent work and effort.
Before you can start earning a suitable income from the blog, a few things need to be considered. Building an online community and creating a reputable online presence are a few necessary steps to growing your blog. However, starting a niche blog can help you tap into a much wider and a more responsive audience.
With a niche blog, you can break into affiliate marketing a lot easier. Affiliate marketing can essentially be described as promoting a company’s products for a commission. Be sure to choose and promote products that are related to your niche. Also, ensure that the products are reputable.
If you are interested to learn more about affiliate marketing, be sure to carry out some research before deciding on a program. Personally, I can thank Wealthy Affiliate for the success of this very blog; everything I know about affiliate marketing and how to earn money online, I’ve learnt through their training platform. Essentially, you want to join affiliate marketing networks that are reputable and are well-known. Such networks help connect bloggers to trustworthy advertisers and companies.
This wasn’t meant to be a post about Wealthy Affiliate, but seeing we’re on the topic; Having access to step-by-step guidance on how to set up your site and make it recognised by the main search engines, can tremendously improve your blogging efforts. Rather than rambling on, I recommend you read my other post about getting started with a blog. 🙂
Writing For Paying Blogs
Other than just creating content for your blog, you can do the same for others. Blogs and websites rely on high-quality and consistent content to survive and remain viable. This fact alone is enough to have high performing bloggers to outsource high-quality writers.
Below are a few examples of blogs that pay:
- Brazen
- DailyWorth
- Doctor of Credit
- FreelanceMom
- Priceeconomics
- IncomeDiary
Moreover, online and offline magazines are also in need of high-quality writers. While connecting with them requires tenacity and ambition, landing one project often leads to another, regardless of how small the project.
Earn Income as An Author
Have you always wanted to become a successful author? Maybe even earn an income from the books you’ve written? Well, thanks to platforms such as Kindle and Amazon, it’s all possible. You can become a self-published author with a simple click.
As with everthing, this too requires work and resilience from the writer. Before writing and launching your book, you need to have a market and audience in mind. This will help you identify the genre that is most suitable for your existing audience. In turn, the chances of succeeding increase considerably.
Additionally, one book alone may not have you earning enough money to go on retirement. It may take a lot of time, effort and persistence before you can even start earning a modest income.
As we’ve discussed, there are numerous online opportunities for writers who want to make a living out of their words. The crucial aspect is planning. Through research and exploiting the right opportunities, a writer can easily be prolific in his/her endeavors. Notably, it may take a little time and a lot of hard work, but the profits will certainly come. The above-mentioned tips are effective as long as you pursue them with an equal amount of consistency and patience.
Nothing good ever comes easy 🙂
If you have any questions or thoughts regarding these opportunities, about Wealthy Affiliate, or anything else, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment below. I’ll most certainly get back to you
Have a super day!
cheers,
Karina
Writing and earning money is hard! I started a blog a little while ago which is thankfully up and running well. I’m still not making money from it, which is a little frustrating at times. Truthfully, writing is not my thing, when I can afford it I will get a freelancer. Thanks for the recommendation of where to find a good freelancer, I guess Fiverr is the way to go!
Hi Hollie,
How exciting that you have a blog up and running – well done! It takes time to get it monitized, but it will happen if you keep adding quality content. I use Fiverr fairly regularly, as I too find it a bit hard to write some times. and sometimes I simply don’t have enough time on my hands to get enough content finished.
Happy New Year, and thanks for checking in 🙂
cheers
Karina
I’ve always wanted to write a book and sell it on Amazon Karina,
Super interested in that but I keep having this doubt that what if I commit 3 months to writing and not being able to sell? In order to properly reach as many people as I can, I should put in the best effort in writing it to make it attractive. Have you ever thought of writing your own book?
Thanks for your thoughts, Riaz. Really appreciate it. I think everyone has doubts sometimes, sometimes you just have to give it a go. Myself, I’ve never had ambitions to write my own book. I like writing, but have never seen myself as a big storyteller. Maybe someday 🙂
Thanks again, and Happy New Year!
cheers,
Karina
Hi Karina – I’ve been a professional writer for ohhhh, umpteem years 🙂 The way I got started is, I think, a good way for anyone to get started. I wrote for specialist magazines. Admitedly the internet wasn’t so prevalent at the time but most of them are still going and they all need good content from reliable writers. Many hobbyist magazines have knowledgeable contributors who are not great writers so if you’re both knoweldgeable AND a good writer – and are reliable! – that’s a good way in.
As in writing a niche blog, it’s always easier to write within your niche than for a wide range of topics that may not be your forte on a freelance site. If you’re speciality is one of the popular topics, however, you’ve got it made 🙂
One of the problems with Fiverr is that you only get paid $4 🙂 The best way to make money with Fiverr is to produce a copyable resoruce that you can send out As Is or easily customise. Of course you can also make more by offering add on gigs.
Writing Kindle books is another gret oportunity but you need to pick your genre and sub-genre carefully. Also, note that the ‘best sellers’ are series books so it pays – literally! 🙂 – to plot out a few books before you start. They tend to have a snowball effect and if someone likes your first book, they are likely to buy the others in the series.
Well, that;’s enough from me! Time to get back to my writing!Ian
Thanks for sharing your personal experiences Ian, I so appreciate it! I’m always impressed by writers – how do you do it?!! :):)
thanks again, and have a super day!
cheers
Karina
Hi, Karina…
There are so many ways to make money these days as a writer and earn money online while doing so these days. I know that in my own experiences over the years, there have never been more opportunities than there are out there today. It is very possible to earn a full-time income as well doing so.
As you mention, the key I think is to have a solid plan. If you have no idea on how to proceed, the chances of success go down considerably, and it is highky likely that your dream will remain just that – a dream. However there are ways you can increase your chances of success by a lot.
All of the online sites you mention are avenues to market your skills, and most certainly, self-publshing is a good way to build up income over rime, but as you mention, it likely will take a body of work over oone or two publications, unless you pen a best-seller!
To get a plan together, it would be smart to first look at your skill set, your interests, and the market. match the two up with one another, then research the problems and come up with viable solutions for that niche population. Once you have this, you are ready to start writing and making money off your effort and creations.
There are platforms that will help you in that process, and unless you are willing to strike out on your own and make it by trial and error, perhaps it would be a good idea to joiin such a platform. These days it will not cost you 4 years and a lot of money, as is the case with a formal education.
From personal experience again, writing is a fulfilling and fun activity, and you can influence people in a positive manner through your persuasive writing. This leads to sales and income naturally, and is a by-product of your passion. Most definitely worth exploring, writing for a living is something that can give you a living lifelong.
Once you have the plan, and decide the approach and platforms to publish/create/offer services on, you are ready to go. The regular effort on a consistent basis over time and by following your plan will bring success. Good article and read, you might want to consider a career writing yourself!
Hi Dave, Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I love your insights!!
Thank you 🙂
cheers
Karina
Thanks for the post. I’ve also used Fiverr once for one salescopy in Amazon FBA. It was great until I found another product with exact the same product description. That was disappointing. Now I am using another Copywriting Platform called Hirewriters. So far it looks good and prices are very low. But I assume, that If I continue writing my own material, at some point I will become better at it, and I think that’s the end goal of a good blogger.
Have a good one.
Hi Mauricio, thanks for sharing your experience! That’s not good about the plagiarism, certainly not what you’d expect. I haven’t had any bad experiences with my preferred writer on Fiverr, thankfully. Will check out Hirewriters too. Thanks for the tip 🙂
Have a super day!
cheers
Karina
When I began writing for other people I didn’t have a plan in place. I kept putting my own websites on the back burner as I built up confidence that others saw in me but, I lacked for myself. It was a huge mistake and a hard lesson but, at least I took that lesson and I learned a lot.
Now, I am exploring my own passions and working towards my dream. I still help out others with content and, I’m grateful to be able to do so but, my main focus here on out, is my own blogs.
This time I have a plan and, consistency, as you mentioned, is one of my major keys to success!
Thanks for your insight and sharing your personal experiences, really appreciate it!
Cheers
Karina
Hey, thanks for this very detailed list. I love writing and I was considering the idea of creating a blog. But I know there are some expenses once I start it, like the hosting. So I would like to start writing, so that I can earn some money and also some experience.
I wanted to try on Fiver, but I think there’s a lot of work and the payment seems just too little. In a country like India, maybe $5 is a lot, but in mine it’s not. So I moved on to Upwork, which seemed way better. But as I live in Europe, they wouldn’t let me join in because of tax issues.
So now I’m thinking about finding someone who has a blog and writing for him/her. The payment won’t be a lot, but it will surely be more than Fiverr. Thanks for these ideas, I will surely consider them.
Thanks for your feedback Ashley, really appreciate it. Hosting your website doesn’t need to cost a single $, please check out my post on how to set up a website for free.
Thanks again, and have a super day!
cheers
Karina
Hello Karina, very interesting article about earning online. You are right, financial freedom is something each of us sometimes think about. By my opinion, beeing a freelancer should be exciting, but from your list I would choose writing a blog and being engaged on some affiliate platform. I like your article, thanks for sharing with us!
Hi Luke,
Thanks for your feedback, really appreciate it! Have a super day!
cheers
Karina
Hi Karina,
Thank you for all the list that you provided. I feel that writing for me, is soooo hard. I always have this thought in my head that English is my second language. The result, I know I can write but subconsciously I avoid it loke plague lol However, I am going to follow your advice and keep on practicing. It is time to regularly writing my blog that I ignore. Lol Great post!
I know what you mean, writing never came naturally to me until I started writing more and more 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, I really appreciate it.
Happy New Year, and all the best for 2019!
Cheers
Karina