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.
Hello you
Welcome to this week’s edition of Be Your Best Friend with Anangsha - the weekend newsletter that’s currently seeking to build a passive-income side hustle.
This edition is all about how you can make money by writing online. It’s divided into three elements:
Writing for platforms that pay (with examples and submission links)
Writing for freelance clients (highly lucrative + healthy work-life balance)
Writing a monetized email newsletter (full control over time, money, and content).
If you’ve always wanted to be a writer but never understood how to monetize your passion, this post is for you. Read on for some valuable insights.
Note: 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. 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. Write 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:
5 Ways To Convert Your Newsletter to A Powerful Income Stream
You have an email list and want to start earning? Here’s how to go about monetizing your newsletter
I’ve made a FREE 5-day course on how to be a highly paid writer to help people who are just starting out. Join here and be a part of this amazing journey towards financial freedom.
Note that I create this newsletter for you every week with lots of love. If you’d like to support me, here’s a link to buy me a book.
If you found this letter useful, don’t forget to forward this to a friend or ask them to sign up for my newsletter. It’s free, and you know me, I only send valuable content.
That’s all from my end today. I’ll see you again soon. Till then, stay strong. Keep smiling and be awesome.
With love,
Anangsha.