Opinion: Can You Make Money Writing from Home?

Image: Unsplash - Thought Catalog

The truth about writing online is that it offers several advantages. One of the advantages is its income-making ability.

The unpopular opinion that writers die poor (not in the Internet era) is nothing but a baseless assumption.

As a writer, you can earn a fortune and stop building castles in the air. Some writers have made great money with their skills either as a full-time job or side hustle; you can also be among those writers if you master the art of writing.

Writers need to understand that starting a freelance career may include uncertainty, rejection and self-doubt, but that is not enough to give up on the dream of becoming a writer and wait until an opportunity miraculously comes.

Taking up seemingly less glamorous and a little underpaid service will go a long way in building a writer’s portfolio, at least.

A writer shouldn’t run away from such jobs - especially at the startup stage.

So, ground your dream in reality and watch the magic happen.

The question is, how can you make money writing?

Become A Freelance Writer

One of the most efficient ways to monetize your writing skills, is to choose the freelance path.

As a freelance writer, you can choose a niche, or you may decide to be a versatile writer.

Being a versatile writer creates multiple ways to earn as a freelance writer since you are not restricted to a particular niche.

The icing on the cake is that as a freelance writer, you can work not only for yourself, but also for the media industry, and for B2B and B2C companies.

For example, you can create social media content.

Most large companies often have a team that manages their social media (marketing) content.

Whereas small companies may not have the capacity to employ a social media management team.

So they hire freelance writers.

As a freelance writer, you can apply as a content creator for small businesses around you. All you need to do is reach out to them or make yourself visible.

And you can make yourself visible through your own website, or on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.

Another opportunity as a freelance writer is that you can write product descriptions. Some companies pay extraordinarily well to get a perfect description of their product to provide clear and concise information to their client or prospects.

Keep your ears to the ground always; there is always a company looking for a product description writer.

Copywriting is another way to monetize your skill as a freelance writer. Copywriting is any writing that promotes or markets products.

You can look for companies that hire freelance writers for this type of role.

Or, as we mentioned earlier, you can create a profile on freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.

How to Make Money as a Writer on Upwork

Upwork, offers a platform for freelance writers to thrive, and it is easy to make money from it. The first step is to create a profile, which will register you as a member on Upwork.

Then proceed to set an hourly rate; you can charge as low as $10 or $20 per hour; you can subsequently give it a raise once your reviews and earnings increase. Start with a low rate to build your credibility with as many jobs as you can lay your hands on. It is by no way cutting yourself short.

The next thing to do is find jobs. Fill in “writing” in the search bar, and all the existing jobs will pop up; you can then choose the niche you are good at; whatever choice you make, search for its fixed price.

However, do not get too comfortable; keep applying for jobs you come across. To make money is the goal, remember? The next thing you need to ensure is to always provide value in every single job you take; that way, you get to keep the client for a long-term gig.

The incredible thing is that when you get ranked as a top-rated writer after earning $1k+, top-rated plus writer after earning $10k+, and with an incredible job success score (JSS), you don’t necessarily have to do a lot of bidding; clients will search for you (your profile will attract them), and you will get invitations to submit proposals for writing gigs either at a fixed rate or hourly rate.

At this point you can also ask for a higher rate.

How to Make Money as a Writer on Fiverr

You can equally earn as a writer on Fiverr.

Sign-up on the official website Fiverr.com and click on the “join button” the click will lead you to a page that requires you to provide an email. Provide a valid email to access the verification code sent to the provided email. Your account becomes valid after the email verification.

Convert your account to a seller account. Your account is a buyer account at the initial stage, but you want to make money and not pay money. Therefore, you need to convert your account to a seller account.

Click on your profile, and select the “become a seller” option. The click will lead you to a bio-data template; fill it out, and don’t forget to add a professional and catchy description.

Provide the niche you wish to work in. For instance, you can choose to be a copywriter, then pick 2 to 5 areas you are good at in copywriting. You should also add your experience level in the “skill” bar.

Link your account. The next step is for you to link your Fiverr account to your social media accounts, a google account preferably.

Set up your first gig. Describe in detail what you can do on the gig description bar, choose a language and most importantly, create a search tag to enable efficient SEO ratings.

See your gig as if it was an Amazon product listing. Explain to your potential clients why your service is unique and why they should choose you over your competitors on Fiverr.

This way, you will start to receive orders.

Also, set up a payment service that works for you.

Make sure to charge a low rate at the beginning when you don't have reviews.

This way you will start attract your first clients and receive your first reviews. This is essential to get more visibility on the platform and start appearing more in the search results.

Build your gig gallery; you can do this by adding evidence from your previous gigs; this will help in building your social credibility.

Start A Blog

Who says you have to work for someone else to make money as a writer?

As a writer, you can make money by starting your own blog.

Now you might ask: Is it even possible to make money as a new blogger?

Well, I'm here to tell you that I make money as a blogger and if I was able to do that, then you can too.

Although it's something that doesn't happen overnight, with hard work and consistency, it can eventually happen.

It will take a while for your blog to gain momentum and start to make money from it, but in the end, if you take the right steps, your blog will thrive.

Picking a niche should be the first step to getting started.

You might want to choose a different niche from what other bloggers write about. And you want to position yourself as an expert in that niche. Actually as the expert.

Doing this will make your readers stick around since little or no blogs write about your same topics.

After choosing a niche, you can proceed to set up your website, design, and layout.

Make sure to choose the right host, theme, and plugins.

Regarding the hosting, a good place to start is definitely Bluehost (you can start a blog with as little as $2.95/month. That's the price of a coffee!)

As per the theme, I definitely recommend Trellis and Generate Press.

Some plugins you will definitely need are Yoast (for SEO), WP Rocket (for site speed), and iThemes (for security).

Also, make sure to do some keyword research and write about topics people actually search for. A good tool you can use is Ubersuggest.

Also, make sure to choose keywords that are not too competitive, that is, that have a low or medium SEO Difficulty (SD). Here's an example of a popular keyword with a medium SD:

Image provided by author Sira Mas

For keyword research you can also try the Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator.

And then publish. A lot.

Always be publishing.

Put out engaging, unique content, and don’t be shy to promote your blog on social media platforms.

Start Affiliate Marketing

You can partner with companies as an affiliate and drive traffic to their websites. In return, they'll pay you a commission for every sale made through your links.

I'll use Amazon as an example.

Every time you find a link to an Amazon product on, say, a blog post or article, that includes a code like “ref=” in the URL, what that means is that blogger is in partnership with Amazon.

For every sale derived from that product link, the writer gets a small commission.

This is how it works. Imagine you write a blog post on camping; during the article, you may need to include some examples of camping products you use (and believe in).

And that's the perfect situation to include an affiliate link.

Amazon tracks the links that bring leads and check how many sales are generated through each link. And they eventually generate a payout based on that.

With affiliate marketing, you can make money while you sleep; you just need to master the strategy of generating passive income while at it.

Self-Publish A Book

Publishing a book gives you a chance to make money.

You can decide to write a book either on academics or for pleasure, but be sure to choose a type of writing that will increase your odds of making money.

Publishing a book is easy. You need to validate your idea and focus on marketing your books as well, rather than just writing.

Using the Kindle direct publishing (KDP) platform you can earn royalties even years after publishing your book.

To begin, visit Amazon.com, then Kindle books, narrow it down to the niche, and then check for competitors in that niche. Check out the similarities among the top-rated competitors; you can ingrain it in your work to gain visibility.

Package your work like a bestseller. Check out features that best-sellers use on their cover page and apply them in your book. Hire a graphic designer on any freelancing platform to give your book a befitting cover page.

Verify your publishing rights, upload your book on KDP and market it—you can do this by using Amazon ads.

Or by paying a YouTuber or social media influencers to review your book and advertise it.

This is to gain publicity and credibility, and attract clients that will buy your book.

Create a Travel Guide

If you are a writer and a travel enthusiast, then you can definitely monetize your skills by writing travel or destination content.

You can choose to put up the content on your blog. Or you can sell it to a travel magazine or a travel blog; you can even choose both. All that matters is that either way, you get to make money.

Somehow, your content might just be what someone is looking for on Google.

You can travel over to destinations that interest people, research about the place and write about it. You can also take amazing pictures and sell them.

Or you can also write content about your home town or your country for people who want to travel there - since you're probably a local expert.

Sign Up For Writing Contests

Being an excellent writer can be rewarding.

That is why you don’t have to let such enviable talent rot away, and at the same time, you must not streamline making money as a writer.

Show me anyone that has ever complained about making too much money? There is none, of course. Even though you have other ways of making money through writing, you can still sign up for a writing contest for more.

Some writing contests are free, while you have to pay for entry in some. For instance, the Writers Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest costs $5 as an entry fee, and with little as $5, you get a chance to win the amount of $300 by writing a short story of about 500 to 2,000 words.

Tell me, isn’t that $5 well invested? This could be the right time to enter your best work in a writing competition that pays a cash prize.

How to Make Money Writing - Final Thoughts

Now that you know how to make money through writing, would you rather not give it a shot?

It would be best if you gave it a try; no one will hire you unless you put yourself out there and try. It might not yield six figures from the start, but consistency and dedication will take you places.

You might just want to grab the bull by the horn.

However, in all you do, do not forget to work hard and be innovative. Quit self-doubt and watch your skill transform into a money-making venture.

Article originally published on Wealthendipity.com