Want to earn big bucks for all your blog posts with the best article writing? Join the club.
Anyone who writes for a living isn’t (or shouldn’t) in it for the money. We’ve already covered this before: writers don’t earn squats compared to other professions.
How Much Do Writers Earn? Recent Stats
Reporters and correspondents were the lowest earners of the jobs that typically require a bachelor’s degree, according to 24/7 Wall St. Due to statistics, the median wage is $54,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent make less than $48,000 per year.
To put that in perspective, the 2022 poverty level for a single person is $13,590, according to the U.S. ASPE, or about $35,000 less than what the lowest-earning writers make in a year.
Therefore, you’re not entirely scraping the bottom of the barrel, but it’s not exactly what mom and dad were hoping for when they paid for that fancy journalism degree.
And that’s for newspaper and print journalists. Bloggers and SEO writers? Many of them earn even less. It’s not uncommon for an SEO writer to earn around a penny per word. Think about that for a moment. For an SEO writer to earn $30,000 per year, he’d have to write 125 500-word articles per week or a headache-inducing 25 articles per day.
It’s enough to make you want to quit your writing gig and take a job with McDonald’s (btw, hourly crew members earn around $25,163 annually).
Tips to Earn More with Writing
Before you take up residence in mom and dad’s basement and start repeating the phrase, “Would you like to Super Size your order?” consider this: Anyone with a bit of writing talent can earn a good living.
1. Write Until Your Fingers Bleed
Back in the day, I covered prep sports for several small and large newspapers. And I sucked when I first started out.
However, I also took any assignment I could, whether it was sports-related or not. For example, most of my colleagues would cover one football game per week. I’d cover four to five. So, by the end of the regular season, most of my colleagues had written ten game stories, while I had written around 45.
I was cranking out 125,000 inches of content per year at my peak. Granted, some of that was for briefs, stats, etc., but that’s still a lot of content – about 3.75 million words per year, or around 144 500-word stories per week. At that ridiculous pace, I had no choice but to improve as a writer.
Figure out your point of no return as a writer, meaning how much copy you can crank out in a single day without diminished quality, then aim to increase that week by week. You’ll see a noticeable improvement in your writing and how quickly you can crank out quality content.
2. You Are Your Best Copy Editor
Simply put, you can’t seek out (or retain) higher-earning jobs until you can consistently crank out a clean copy.
“I soon found out that the cleaner my copy was, the more assignments I received,” said Phillip Brunswick, senior writer for Nimble Media.
Brunswick personifies many of today’s bloggers or SEO writers. The 26-year-old Jacksonville, Fla. writer is a full-time student who’s working on his master’s degree in finance from the University of North Florida. He had zero experience as a writer before hooking up with Nimble Media.
Brunswick’s advice? “Proofread your copy over and over and over again before turning it in,” he said.
3. Read Everything You Can Get Your Hands On
Ever watched the TV show “The Middle?” To earn more money as a writer, you must become Brick Heck-lite from the ABC sitcom. Brick, played by Atticus Shaffer, reads everything, including product labels. That, of course, is an extreme example. Still, it helps illustrate a very important point:
“The more I read, the better writer I become, because it expands my vocabulary and knowledge, and it teaches me how to write different styles and topics,” Brunswick said.
4. Become an Expert on a Niche Topic
At some point, about every guy has dreamed about covering sports for a living, and why not? We certainly love our football, baseball and basketball.
Those are extremely competitive beats, so you have to be the best of the best if you want to work as an NFL reporter, for example. Then add another five to 10 years before you’re considered for one of those gigs.
You must become an expert in a niche topic or subject matter.
“I have a friend who became an expert in ayurvedic medicine just by writing one article,” says Ryan, novelist and managing editor at Nimble Media.
“This friend took an assignment on ayurvedic medicine, then a magazine called her afterward to say they were looking for an expert on it. Now she has a consistent writing gig and writes a weekly column on it.”
Ryan, like Brunswick, comes from a humble writing background – he says she took one creative writing class in college “on a whim.” These days, the 27-year-old Wilmington, N.C. writer’s first novel, “Icebound,” (HarperImpulse) will hit bookshelves Aug. 14, 2014. Her niche? Erotica.
“Now I can’t stop writing,” she says. “I literally write every day, even when I’m not working.”
5. Take On Every Assignment – Until You Shouldn’t
No one is handing out $75,000 a year writing jobs. You have to earn it. And how do you accomplish that? Start by following steps 1 and 2.
Don’t know much about cloud computing? Still, think torts are a pastry? Take on the assignments anyway. Say you take on a $10, 500-word assignment about expatriate taxes, but you still get your dad to file your own taxes. The odds are good that it’s going to take you two to three hours to write that first story, well below minimum wage.
But look at it this way: The next assignment on the same topic will take you even less time. And by the time you’ve penned your 100th story on expatriate taxes, you’re flying through the assignments. Your topics will be better, your stories will flow better, and the research will take less time.
The best part? Now you can seek out higher-paying writing jobs on the topic.
How to Make Money Writing? 5 Websites to Get Started
Many people want to know how to do money writing. The good news is that there are several ways to make money writing. The bad news is that it’s not always easy or quick money.
However, if you’re willing to do the work, you can make a decent living as a writer. Here are five websites where you can get started:
1. Fiverr
Fiverr is a website where you can offer your services for $5. While this may not seem like a lot, you can make quite a bit on Fiverr if you can complete many orders.
The key to making good money on Fiverr is finding a niche where you can provide value and market yourself well.
2. Upwork
Upwork is a website that allows you to find freelance writing jobs. Several writing jobs are often available, ranging from one-time articles to ongoing blog posts.
The pay on Upwork varies depending on the client and the project, but it’s generally possible to earn $20-$50 per hour as a freelance writer on Upwork.
3. Textbroker
Textbroker is a website that allows businesses to order articles from writers. The pay varies depending on the quality level you choose to write at, but it’s possible to earn up to $0.05 per word on Textbroker. This may not seem like much, but it can add up if you’re able to write quickly and complete many orders.
4. Craigslist
Craigslist is often overlooked as a source of writing gigs, but some businesses and individuals are looking for writers on Craigslist.
The pay can vary greatly on Craigslist, so negotiate before taking on any gig. It’s also important to be aware of scams when looking for writing gigs on Craigslist.
5. Your own website or blog
Are you a business looking to jumpstart your content marketing and SEO efforts? If so, let us introduce you to the world of blogging! Blogging is a fantastic way to get your message out in a concise and attract new leads.
With our team of expert writers at Article Writing Co., we can assist you in creating compelling blog posts that will engage your readers and improve your website’s visibility on search engine results pages. Not only that, but by blogging regularly, you’ll open up new opportunities for content marketing campaigns and other SEO tactics. Order free SEO audit today and we’ll help you to jumpstart your business.
Whether you already have an existing blog or are just starting one from scratch, our team is here to help take your content creation game to the next level. So what are you waiting for? Let us propel your business success with our blog-writing expertise today!
Conclusion
There are many different ways that you can make money writing. While some methods may be easier or quicker than others, they all require some effort and time investment. If you’re willing to put in the work, you can make a decent living as a writer!
David is the Founder and Director of article-writing.co, the fastest-growing content creation agency in North America. He has transformed companies by offering high-quality content that has impacted their SEO ranking, revitalized websites with engaging and industry-relevant blogs and website copy, and championed successful email campaign copy.
