How To Make Money Writing: 8 Opportunities To Earn Income (2025)
Have a passion for writing? Good news: You can turn your way with words into a side hustle or a profitable full-time career. Professional writing lets you do what you love daily, and it gives you the ability to generate income, set your own schedule, and be your own boss. Learn how to make money writing, with several ways to turn your phraseology into a paycheck.
How to make money writing
- Blogging and newsletters
- Writing articles for magazines and news sites
- Technical writing
- Copywriting
- Ghostwriting
- Social media writing
- Grant writing
- Self publishing
Whether you’re writing to build your personal brand, diversify your income streams, or spread important ideas, different types of writing offer unique opportunities to make a living. Here are a few ways to earn money writing:
1. Blogging and newsletters
Blogs are long-form posts on a website, while newsletters are informational posts delivered directly to readers through email.
You can make money writing for a blog in a few different ways. One is to write articles for a company’s blog or website. In this model, you get paid for creating content to support that business’s blog. Another way to earn money writing is to start your own blog. Anyone can start their own blog using a social blogging platform such as Medium or WordPress.
Once your blog is established, you can sell ads on your page, create partnerships, and do sponsored posts to generate income. If you choose to publish content on Medium, apply to the Medium Partner Program, which pays Medium members based on read time and engagement.
Newsletters offer income opportunities similar to blogs, plus the ability to gain paid subscribers through platforms like Beehiiiv or Substack.
Estimated pay:ZipRecruiter puts the median hourly wage of a blogger at $30 per hour. According to Glassdoor, established, full-time bloggers earn a median annual salary of $95,000.
2. Writing articles for magazines and news sites
Journalism is a time-tested way to make money writing. Whether you’re writing hard-hitting investigative articles about local government or dashing off listicles ranking new eateries, writing for magazines and news sites can be a fulfilling and interesting way to make money.
Estimated pay: Income varies widely depending on your beat, expertise, and the organization you’re writing for. There are three standard pay structures for journalistic writing: pay per word, per hour, or per project. It’s common to see rates from 25¢/word to $1/word, depending on the organization. If you’re working an on-the-clock job, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median hourly rate at $35.
3. Technical writing
Technical writers create documents to communicate complex information, including detailed help guides and manuals. For example, a microphone company may need an instruction booklet on how to care for their hardware, and a technical writer would articulate this information in an accessible way. This type of writing often necessitates deep technical knowledge, so it’s useful to take a course in the field you want to write about.
Estimated pay: According to Glassdoor, technical writers can make upward of $77,000 per year in a full-time position. It’s also possible to do technical writing on a freelance basis and charge an average hourly rate of $44.
4. Copywriting
Copywriting is advertising or marketing writing. It includes text on business websites, marketing emails, product packaging, and national ad campaigns. Copywriting can be a full-time job with a brand or agency, or you can work with clients on a project basis as a full-time freelance writer.
Estimated pay: According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time copywriters make an average annual salary of $72,270 (around $35 an hour). It’s also possible to charge on a project basis.
5. Ghostwriting
Ghostwriters create work under another person’s name without receiving a byline or credit. Celebrities often hire seasoned writers to ghostwrite their autobiographies or other books listing the celebrity’s name as the author. Though this person will sign off on the final book (or post, blog, article, etc.), the brunt of the work is done by the paid writer. (Fun fact: H.P. Lovecraft ghostwrote a book for magician Harry Houdini.)
It’s not just celebrity books—businesses often use ghostwriters to write internal communications from the CEO or other higher-ups, freeing up their time while the ghostwriter drafts emails.
Estimated pay: According to ZipRecruiter, ghostwriters make an average annual salary of $55,000 and an average hourly rate of $26, but this varies depending on the project and workload.
6. Social media writing
A social media writer creates quality content to post on a company’s social media accounts. This content ranges from Instagram stories to YouTube video descriptions and scripts for social media videos. If you’re interested in social media content writing, consider reaching out to a business and offering to write their social media copy for a trial period, or search on job sites for full-time jobs.
Estimated pay: Some social media jobs pay per post or per campaign. According to ZipRecruiter, the average hourly rate is $40. This may vary depending on the business, the social media operation, and if you’re handling other parts of the social media strategy.
7. Grant writing
This type of writing creates proposals for organizations to receive funding for a program or project from government agencies and endowments. Writing grant proposals takes a lot of research to understand both the proposed project and the funding source. The writer then crafts a proposal to convince the funders it’s a good use of their money. Many nonprofits hire full-time grant writers, but it’s also possible to make money writing grants as a freelance writer.
Estimated pay: According to GrantWatch, beginner grant writers set their hourly rates around $35, intermediate writers charge upward of $60, and advanced writers charge over $125. Level of expertise is often tied to grants funded, so the more grants you win for your clients, the more you can charge.
8. Self publishing
If you have a story to tell and are eager to start writing, you can earn money online by selling your work directly to readers. For example, you can self-publish books directly through a site like Amazon and make a commission based on each book sold.
Estimated pay: This varies widely depending on your topic, readership, and how you decide to self-publish and distribute. For people selling ebooks on Amazon, the royalty calculation is a bit complicated, but you will make either 35% or 70% royalty on each book sold after regional taxes and fees.
Best practices for writing success
Build relationships with editors
After successfully pitching a publication or writing for a company and finding that your style and work are a good fit, build a relationship with an editor at that organization to ensure they keep you in mind for future projects. One way to build a relationship with editors is to respond to emails quickly and never miss a deadline. This demonstrates your reliability and responsiveness, and can make editors more inclined to continue working with you.
Build a website to showcase your writing
Once you’ve written a few articles, show off your work to potential clients with a portfolio website. It’s essential to have an easily accessible place where potential clients can see your writing experience and work samples. It also gives you the opportunity to establish a personal brand or a clear voice that clients can easily assess and decide if your work will be a good fit.
Learn SEO
Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) can help you market your writing skills to clients. Learn to leverage SEO keywords and other tools to optimize content for search engines. This helps a website appear higher in web search results, which ultimately encourages more people to click on the links or articles. One place to start is this article on SEO content writing, which digs into tips and tricks on writing for ecommerce and small online businesses.
Identify a niche
Though many writers are jacks of all trades, it can be advantageous to develop a specialty. Focus on your areas of interest—what can you offer that’s unique to the market? For example, if you have a passion for eco-friendly packaging for ecommerce, start a blog with a focus on packaging practices. Once you’ve established this niche, companies that specialize in packaging may hire you to write for them.
Be careful with generative AI
Today, it’s not uncommon to encounter AI-generated content online. Although some writing jobs have been replaced by artificial intelligence, many companies still hire real people to do their writing. And although real people may use AI to help them write articles, do research, or build outlines, clients hire writers because they want a voice, style, or depth of research that isn’t possible with a large language model.
As machine learning and large language models continue to grow and emerge, the ethical standards around AI are still being written and agreed upon. The Authors Guild has written an ethical AI users guide, which asks writers to disclose when they use AI, thoroughly fact check, and respect the intellectual property rights of other writers when using AI technology.
How to make money writing FAQ
How do beginner writers make money?
There are several ways for beginner writers to start freelance writing, from reaching out to existing businesses and asking for assignments to building a portfolio of work to share with potential clients. If you want to sell your work directly, you can self-publish ebooks or write online courses for a subject in which you have expertise.
How do first-time authors get paid?
If you hope to get paid for writing, the first step is to start writing. There are several steps you can take to become a more marketable freelance writer, from identifying a niche to learning specialty writing skills like SEO (search engine optimization) or grant writing.
How do you write as a side hustle?
Though writing online can be a full-time job, it can also be a side hustle to bolster your income or sate your creative impulse. Whether you’re an experienced professional or a beginner, it’s possible to pick up writing gigs in a variety of fields through job websites like ZipRecruiter or Indeed. You can also simply reach out to businesses and see if they need help writing website copy or social media content.