How to make money as a writer? Frankly, it is not as hard as it might seem. You don’t need to be Beckett to earn money online from writing. It helps to be good at writing, but even if you are decently good, you can earn a decent amount of money.
Writing skills are always at a premium, but not many know how to market themselves and their services. They are also unaware of all the avenues available to them as a writer. This article is aimed to help you know how you can start earning money as a writer.
Work as a Freelance Writer
This is actually the simplest and easiest way to earn money as a writer. There are plenty of sites out there that bring employers and writers together, so you can bid on individual projects and work them freelance. The biggest in the industry are Elance and oDesk. You can find plenty of writing jobs posted on these two sites, more than 500 per day. Remember to do your homework in each case and apply for jobs that fit your skills. Make a customized cover letter and explain why you can do the job.
Guest Blogging for Money
This is actually a really great way to earn money but is under-utilized by most writers for some reason. Good blogs pay anywhere from $40-$80 for a detailed blog post. Though it usually takes time and some research, this is a good amount of money to get as a writer. Remember that as a blogger you will get paid more than what is typically offered at freelancing sites like oDesk and Elance mentioned above.
So how do you write for famous blogs? Well, first off, just look for the best blogs in your niche and contact the blog owner directly. Before doing this, you might want to establish a rapport, for example, through intelligent commenting on some of his posts. This will help you build some credibility as well. Then, you can simply write to the blog owner talking about your skills and negotiating a pay. If he likes what you have to offer, you can be assured of a steady job as a blogger.
Many big blogs do make a good amount of money online so they have no problem in paying for good quality talent. If you make contact with the right blogs, you can earn a living just off writing blog posts for big blogs. In the process, you can establish a very good reputation for yourself which will be priceless later on for bigger assignments.
Copywriting is in Demand
Writing sales copies online is a tough job for many. A sales letter can make or break a business and anyone who has something to sell needs a killer sales copy. The problem is, there are many people creating stuff but they cannot put the right words in their landing page or sales page. This is where you come in.
Copywriting is a high paying job. You can demand $100-$200 for a one page sales copy if you have proven experience. Of course if you are writing a much longer post, you should be paid even more. You can scout for these deals on sites like ClickBank or Commission Junction where new entries have very bad sales letters. Just contact them directly, point out a few flaws in their writing and offer them your services.
In most cases of copywriting, you will need some proven experience, so I suggest start small but do a great job, then use this as a sample to get many other deals.
