Online Writing Jobs: Types of Online Writing That Pays
How much can you get paid to write online?
It all depends on the type of writing you do.
In this post, I put together each style of online writing I’ve done and how much it has paid.
The point of this post is to drive two points home:
Certain types of writing pay better than others.
The income you can earn per assignment will increase as the workload and expertise level increases.
So, let’s charge forward!
Keep in mind—this is solely what I’ve made from these types of writing. It’s only a guideline. You could charge even MORE.
General bloG POSTS or articleS
$50 to $150
Clients and publications who are looking for writers to write about random general topics usually pay in this range per article.
Topics can be as simple as writing a story about life as a college student or general “how-to” articles that anyone can write with a bit of basic research online.
No interviews are required. Typically, these stories run from 500 to 700 words and are not very time-consuming.
Who is this type of writing for? Part-time writing hustlers who are trying to earn a little bit of extra income.
The pay isn’t always great, but the assignments are typically low stress, and it’s easy to churn out a bunch of them to make a few extra hundred bucks each month. Making income this way may be easier than, say, doing Uber for a few hours on the weekend.
Op-eds and press releases
$100 to $250
Op-eds are opinion pieces for newspapers or magazines that people write to share a stance or position on a certain topic.
A press release is a statement sent to media making an announcement. I used to ghostwrite op-eds and press releases here and there for a PR agency.
Op-eds may involve an interview because you need to speak with the person you’re ghostwriting for to get the content they want in their opinion piece.
You can usually get the information you need to put into a press release from the client in bullet points. I haven’t done this type of work in a while—you can charge more than I was charging.
Who is this type of writing for? Full-time writers and side hustlers can both do this type of writing and make a nice buck. Specializing in these forms of writing may even be lucrative.
Set up yourself as the go-to person who does this type of work for local businesses and you can become sought after.
Thoroughly-researched articles + news Articles with interviews
$300 to $500
More and more businesses that operate online and offline are interested in in-depth articles and guides for their sites because long-form copy gets brownie points with Google search.
These articles are typically around 800 to 1,500 words or more.
The publisher or client asks you to source all information and from high-level sources (think government entities, associations, etc.). All assertions must be backed up with facts. You may be asked to interview experts.
This is higher-level writing, not your run-of-the-mill general blog post writing about your experience that one time you took a vacation to the Pocono mountains.
Who is this type of writing for? This is intermediate and expert level writing. Clients and sites are going to want to see that you’ve had success writing high-quality long-form content. They will also likely require that you’re a subject matter expert.
Edu-copywriting
$600 to $1,500
This category is completely made up by me, but this type of writing, in my opinion, is in a league of its own.
Let me back up so I can take you through my thought process:
Copywriting is writing that’s meant to get people to do something, whether it’s to buy a product or sign up for an email list.
Copywriting is a very large umbrella term that includes the writing you see in emails, brochures, and almost all marketing material.
I consider edu-copywriting a subset of copywriting. It’s educational content where you’re writing guides or reviews that are meant to educate readers on a topic. On first glance, the reader sees the content as purely informational.
But the underlying business goal is for the reader to take an action, usually to sign up for an email list or visit an affiliate link.
Major online magazines share this content. Online businesses share this content.
This type of writing can be very lucrative, depending on how much the company is making from the edu-copy that they publish.
Who is this type of writing for? Again, this is intermediate and expert level writing. Clients want to see writing samples, and they’ll likely look for experts to write at a high level.
Course Content
$500 to $2,000+
Now back to some fun stuff. Tons of business owners are putting out courses. The course industry is booming. You can create course content to take content creation off the plate of business owners.
I got into creating course content by accident, but thoroughly enjoyed helping businesses and entrepreneurs bring their content to life when they didn’t have time to put it together themselves. The pay is going to depend greatly on what you have to bring to the table.
For example: If you’re an experienced landlord, writing a course for a company that supports landlords, you can charge more money than someone who has no property management experience.
Who is this type of writing for? This type of writing can be done by beginners all the way up to expert level depending on the topic and the depth of the content. I started creating courses in almost the very beginning of my career and increased my rate as my experience level grew.
Ebooks or printed books
$1,000+
Writing your own ebook or printed book is an awesome monetization strategy. If you don’t have an audience yet or a marketing method of promoting the book, ghostwriting books for other people who have an audience can be very lucrative.
The amount you can make from ebooks or printed books can vary greatly. Some professional ghostwriters charge $5,000, $10,000, or more.
Who is this type of writing for? Similar to courses here. Beginners can likely make money writing content for simple ebooks and printed books. More in-depth non-fiction books or fiction books may require a bit more writing experience.
Consulting
$100+ per hour
Lastly, consulting. This is currently my favorite thing to do.
Consulting is when you advise a client based on an area of expertise. My expertise is personal finance writing so I sell my experience creating personal finance courses and other content to entrepreneurs creating personal finance products and services.
Instead of doing the actual writing, it’s more of an advisory role, which has been an obvious next step for me.
Who is this for? Pretty straight forward here. You have to be an expert in a certain area to command a consulting rate. If you already have a college degree or professional experience in an area, you may have the expert level chops to start consulting sooner than later!
Final Word
There are many forms of writing that haven’t made this list only because I don’t do them regularly enough to speak on the pay.
Website sales copy, email copy, and social media copy are two forms of writing that are not my favorite.
However, you can make A LOT OF MONEY doing this type of writing, so it’s something to explore.
You’re next question is probably—How do I get clients to pay me?
It all starts with a pitch.
A pitch is pitching your services to a publication or client for pay.
In your pitch, you explain who you are and the services you provide. I’ll be blunt, most pitches get ignored by editors and prospective clients.
In fact, I ignore most pitches that hit my inbox from companies that want to partner with me.
It’s because most pitches are missing a few veeeery important elements.
I can teach you how to formulate a winning pitch in the cheat sheet below!
SHARE THIS FOR LATER… PIN THIS IMAGE BELOW.
