How to Earn Money Online Writing?

If you are a writer, I bet you will agree with me that earning money online through writing is not really that difficult. As long as you write, you will get paid. Of course, how much you get paid depends on the quality of your writing. This is a widely known truth.

But the second part of the truth is often not told or should I say not widely discussed. It is about writing once and get paid many times. We call this passive income. It is not easy but sweetest if you ever made it.

There are so many choices to earn money online writing. But ultimately it still comes down to your decision to either

1. Write once, “get paid once” OR;
2. Write once, “get paid many times”.

Here, I am going to share with you both ways and I’ll start with the first one, a path where most writers choose – write once and get paid once. And I only share with you legitimate and real ways of earning money online writing.

Write Once, “Get Paid Once” (Active Income)

When I say “write once, get paid once” it literally means you trade your time for money. You only earn when you actively create something of value to the person who is paying you. For example, you write a product review or maybe writing a product sales copy for a brand. This income method is known as active income. In short, you get paid as you deliver specific. Here are 4 few online platforms you can earn active income through.

1. Write Listicle for Content Website

A listicle is an article made of a list. You can write a subject about anything. It is most suitable for use when you need to present complicated content to make it easier to understand. Some examples include 3 Time-Wasting Habits That Make Most Bloggers Fail or maybe 8 Ways To Drive Traffic Without Google SEO.

The format of a listicle is simple and mostly includes a title, a few sub-headings, or lists (preferably an image for each list) and will end with a solid conclusion. Many companies such as Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and Bustle published thousands of listicles every year.

Listicles are so popular because it is easy to read and skimp for important information. It is also easier to write listicles compared with lengthy, complicated traditional articles. Such a writing style is suitable for writers who are just starting out freelancing. Both TopTenz (temporarily put on hold) and Listverse pay from $50 to $100 per listicles of 1,500 words.

2. Transcription

Transcription is a typing work that turns recorded audio files or clips into written text. It requires you to type out audio files into words, either word for word or just writes down important notes. The three main types of transcription jobs are legal, medical, and general transcription with many professionals such as doctors, lawyers and researchers will engage transcription firms for this service.

SpeakWrite is an online transcription company focusing on government & law enforcement transcription whereas FastChart offers medical transcription jobs. Both pay up to $15 per hour transcribe information.

A general transcription job involves transcribing meetings, academic lectures, and interviews. If you want to become a transcriber, then you must have good listening skills, great command of English, and fast typing.

3. Write for Freelancing Marketplaces

Many businesses understand the importance of having good content to improve their brand image and drive sales. With more and more businesses demand for high quality content such as white papers, blog articles and research reports, this opens up opportunities for the best writers.

If you are new to writing, you may need to compete for attention with thousands of other experienced writers in freelancing marketplaces such as Upwork or Textbroker. Once you managed to establish a good track record, you could be on your way to earn a decent income from writing online.

To give you some idea, an experienced writer can earn an average of 7.5 cents  (or more) per word. Of course, some writers earn way beyond this rate. As I engage my writers from Upwork, I pay them around $100 per article of 1,000 words. For a sales page, expect to pay not less than $1,000 for a decent piece.

4. Pitch to Guest Post

Despite there is global content exhaustion, major publications can’t stop publishing new content in order to compete for more readers. This means popular blogs, magazines, and newspapers will have to pay for more to get high-quality content.

Although there are many popular publications do not offer any form of fee for guest blogging, there are still some who might pay. What you'll need to do is to pitch for your post to be published by request in writing. That's provided you've ample time to do this. When accepted, you will be paid in the range of $50 to $200 per article.

Write Once and “Get Paid Many Times” (Passive Income)

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Earlier, I’ve shared with you the various methods on how you can earn active income through writing. To many writers, these are great “jobs”. But not for me.

I prefer not to trade time for money working as a content machine for the rest of my life. Therefore, I will only write for others when I have free time or want to earn quick buck.

What I really want is something that can let me earn a passive income. Those types of income where you don't have to constantly trade time for money. This means, even when you're on a vacation, you still receive money into your bank and allow you to enjoy life without having to feel like working at all.

If you too wished the same, then I suggest you to start to make some money by writing, not for for others but for yourself.

how to earn money online writing for yourself?

There are 2 ways you can earn passive income. First is to create an ebook. You can sell the ebooks on Amazon, or use them to build your subscriber list before promoting other products to them. Anyone can list their ebook on Amazon and it's an easy process. What you need is just to register with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, then you're great to go. It's a free self-publishing tool you can use to publish your book online.

For the list you generated with the free ebook, you can set up sales funnels and email sequences to continuously promote your products or services to them. One effective and highly affordable tool to do this job is called AWeber. This will prevent your email from landing on the junk folder.

The second method which I'm using to earn passive income is to post content on a blog. What I do is to create high-quality content on a specific niche, then recommend various solutions in the form of a “product or services” to my readers. So when they buy from me, I earn a commission.

Like others, you must be thinking blog writing is no longer relevant as many have diverted to earn money on social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. This is really a big misconception. Although blogging has been around for many years, it's proven again and again as the most viable online business to earn passive income.

When you do a search on Google Trend, the search term “start a blog” is still showing an uptrend over the years. This means people are still interested to start blogging.

Look at Huda Kattan, the famous beauty influencer. Why would you think a famous influencer like her will continuously create new content on her blog despite having 44 million followers on her Instagram account? Won’t it be good enough just her to continuously share makeup tips on Instagram?

Now, let’s look at the famous podcaster Pat Flynn. Why would he want to create blog content when he has 245,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel? There must be a very good reason for them to blog.

This shows that both understand the importance of having a long-form content to deliver complex topics – one that can provide more value to their customers. Brands need more sentences to deliver meanings and build positive reputation to influence customer buying decisions. Regardless of whether you are promoting makeup products like Huda Kattan or promoting online courses like Pat Flynn, a blog is still a very important marketing platform no businesses should ignore.

Looking at the Google Trend statistics and following what most successful influencers do, blog writing is definitely not dead and is still very much ALIVE. That's the reason why starting a blog as part of my online business is still my best bet to earn passive income.

I would say only the landscape of blogging change. Readers are more demanding nowadays. They will only follow blogs that offer rich content, fulfilling what they are looking for. Content that has a combination of rich text, appealing images, or even with videos embedded will attract more visitors.

Text is still the anchor to these content. Social platforms are great but these assets do not belong to you. Facebook and Instagram belong to Mark Zuckerberg, not you. I am sure when readers who click on your post link on Facebook expect a lengthier content. They want to learn more about the topic you shared and that’s the reason why they clicked. Most social platforms can't host long-form content better than a blog.

Can You Start A Blog On Your Own?

Anyone can start a blog. It's just as simple as ABC. What you need is just a domain, a hosting, and a WordPress content management platform. But in order to earn passive income through blogging, you must know the real cost of building a blog. Yes, the cost of a domain and hosting is a must, but there're other costs to make blogging profitable.

Starting a blog is easy, but earning passive income is not. Similar to investing in good education to get a promising career, blogging requires the same to see results. You must first learn how to identify a good niche, next build a WordPress site, identify profitable affiliate products to promote, and finally learn different ways to get site visitors to your blog. Ultimately you need to learn all the various marketing strategies to transform your blog into a money machine.

The good news is, unlike going to university where you'll need to invest a hefty sum, learn blogging cost less than 1/10 of the university fee. There are in fact many blogging tutorials you can find online. However most info is scattered everywhere. It's very difficult to find those that can truly help you, let alone get one that can allow you to consistently follow through to see results.

I started this blog business by learning from a community of internet marketers that I found while searching for ways to build an affiliate marketing business. You can connect with them too if you want to. Thanks to them, I can now work online on a fulltime basis.

Blogging is Not For Everyone

One hard truth about blogging is this. You must have first had a stable source of income before you start. Yes, blogging is not for people who currently have zero income. This is because it takes time to see the result. Unless you have at least 3 to 6 months of income buffer, otherwise don't start.

Blogging is hard work and most people tend to give up after a while. That's why you'll need to garner support from your friends and family before starting. It's important so they can constantly motivate you to keep going.

Lastly, it's all about hard work and consistently take action. Just like any brick and mortar business, to become successful, rather than depending on good luck, hard work is more practical. Online business is just the same. Although you can earn passive income, before you reach that stage, there're lots of work involved.

You really need to take into consideration all those that I've mentioned before deciding whether blogging is for you. Should you give up half-way, all your effort will be gone. That's why deep consideration is really important.

It’s Your Choice

If you are serious to write once and earn many times, then I suggest you learn from Wealthy Affiliate, the community that helped me start blogging to make affiliate commission. The skills that I've learn has allowed me to earn a fulltime income by working at home.

But if you prefer to earn money writing for others, then I suggest you consider some freelancing platforms that I've shared earlier. Mind you, it can be very competitive, and many times writers whose submissions not accepted by clients will not get paid. That's the risk you'll have to take if you choose to write for freelancing platforms.

I hope the things I've shared are valuable to you. If there’s anything you want to ask about writing online, do leave me a comment below and I will try to answer as much as I can.