How To Use Your Writing Skills To Make Money Online

So, do you love putting words on paper or screen? Have you ever been told by your tutors how striking your writing skills are? Or, are you just a skilled writer and you’re wondering how you can use your skills to make you money? Well, you are in the right place.

And, yes, it’s possible to earn money and build a career in writing without publishing a bestseller book or being a publisher in the New York Times Magazine.

Times have changed, and as such, the world is quickly evolving. Traditionally, the only way one could make a living was to get a job at one of the manufacturing industries. This grew to other sectors such as real-estate and later information technology.

Today, due to the globalization of the world on the internet, you don’t have to get formal employment. You can comfortably work at home in the comfort of your couch.

Writing is one of the most popular ways people are working from home. According to recent research by Upwork, one of the leading freelancing platforms, in 2018, 56.7 Million Americans worked from home.

According to these two articles by Entrepreneur and USA Today, writing is among the top skills that employers are looking for today. The most sought after skills are Information Technology and Web Design skills.

The first step is to ensure that you have the necessary tools to start writing. You need a great functioning laptop and a good internet connection. As a beginner with limited resources you might not afford a high-end laptop, don’t worry; start with the one you have. Even if it has technical issues such as disk usage error on a Windows 10 computer, get a local repair technician to fix it and get to work. It will only take a few weeks to earn enough to get a better laptop.

So, here are the various ways in which you could earn with your writing skills:

1.Content Writing/ Ghost Writing

What’s ghostwriting?

Ghostwriting is when you get paid to write either an article, a blog or a book for another person. You are paid to tell another person’s story or ideas to the world. When the piece you’ve written is published, it will have the name of the person who paid you as the author.

Ghostwriting is very popular since many people want to write content, but they do not either have the time, the patience or the skills to do so. So, they hire you to write for them.

As a ghostwriter, you need to write ‘as if’ you are the client. Therefore, it’s imperative to take time to learn their personality, brand, voice, and style so that you can connect with their audience.

2. Blogging

Blogging is arguably one of the best ways you can earn money as a writer. In a very simplistic way, here are the steps to make money as a blogger:

Start a blog on a specific niche

• Write valuable content on that niche so that you can establish yourself as the authority in that field.
• Leverage on other ways to make your blog rank
• Implement several income streams on your blog

Once you have successfully worked on the above steps, you can earn with the following income streams:

• Sell your services as a writer, coach or speaker on your niche
• Advertising
• Sponsored content
• Affiliate Marketing
• Selling Physical Products

Most of these methods can help you earn passive or semi-passive income as a writer.

3. Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is similar to ghostwriting only that in this case, you are given credit for your work. For example, if you are an expert in Psychology, you can guest blog on a mental health website.

Guest blogging is an excellent way to gain exposure as a writer and also to build your authority in your niche. It’s important to note that some guest blogging opportunities aren’t paid. You are given a chance to link back your website, therefore, gaining traffic from the website audience.

However, there are still plenty of websites that pay guest bloggers, and it is, therefore, possible for one to earn a decent income as a guest blogger.

4. Writing Ultimate Guides

Ultimate Guides are long-form articles that discuss a particular narrow topic in incredible depth. Writers come up with Ultimate Guides for various reasons including:

• To establish their authority in the subject matter
• To offer the guide as a lead magnet to increase their email list
• To publish as a paid guest piece in established websites
• To sell on their sites as a valuable resource that could help their readers solve a particular problem they are experiencing in their lives.

5. Writing E-books

One of the surest ways to establish yourself as an authority in your field is to write a book. It sets you apart from the crowd. There is certain respect attached to authors.

Today, it’s possible to write an e-book and sell it online at minimal costs. There are various places you can publish and sell your e-book to get passive income.

As you can see, writing can be a lucrative career. Therefore, start today. You might not make thousands of dollars overnight. But, with time you’ll make connections, develop a portfolio and you’ll eventually make a living out of writing.