How to Be a Successful Writer and Get Paid for Your Work

Ways I found legitimate paying opportunities for my work

*Disclaimer: Please be aware that there are affiliate links in this article. If you click on them, I will get a commission, without any cost to you. I wouldn’t recommend a product unless I tried it and believe in it. Feel free to check these products out yourself to see if they’d be a good fit for you.

Every developing writer comes across tools that help them improve their craft. Procuring these tools not only enables you to improve as a writer, but it also gets your work out in the world, so you gain paying jobs.

As I’ve tested and tried out tools of the trade, I’ve kept the ones that worked and placed them into my tool belt.

I wanted to create a complete guide for you. So in this article, I’ll focus on:

• How to help improve your writing and be successful online.
• How you can find opportunities where you can get paid for doing what you love: writing.

Here are some tools to assist your writing career:

SEMrush

To create quality content that will reach an audience and rank with your competition, you need a tool that can work for you. SEMrush is one-stop shopping with what they offer and they’re the number one marketing tool in the world!

You can try SEMrush for FREE by clicking here*. Here’s how the all-inclusive suite helps manage your marketing workflow:

SEO: Research, Audit and Analytics

Advertising: Research, PPC Keyword Tool, Display Advertising and Ad Builder

Social Media: Posting and Tracking Social Media

Content: Content Audit, Topic Research, SEO Content Templates and Brand Monitoring

Competitive Research: Domain Overview, Ranks, Keyword, Backlink Gap Analysis and Traffic Analytics

Reporting and Management: Reporting and Lead Generation Tools

Here’s how it works:

Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer

Once you have a topic in mind you want to write about, (or even if you’ve written your piece), it’s time to give it a headline.

First impressions are important and for many readers, your title will be the reason they do or don’t click on your article. Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer is a great tool that can help you drive traffic to your article and rank in search results.

The headline analyzer will breakdown your title and score it based on SEO practices. It will also measure the word balance of emotional and power words that could inspire your reader. It also offers a ranking based on sentiment, clarity, word count and character count.

The platform is free, but you can upgrade to a paid plan for more features that will help give your headline the best opportunity to rank in SEO.

Here’s how it works:

Grammarly

Good grammar goes hand in hand with being a good and successful writer. Grammarly* helps take the guesswork out of your writing.

The great thing about Grammarly is that while it helps edit your work, it also trains you as a writer. As I’ve been using it, I have been noticing I need fewer edits with my work.

There is also a plagiarism checker if you’re writing a research article. It will give you peace of mind if you’re writing on a specific subject where you will be using references. You can use Grammarly FREE by clicking here*. You can also upgrade your account for even more features!

Here’s how it works:

How I found legitimate opportunities to earn money as a writer

The first step to obtaining a regular paying writing job is to keep writing! The more you write, the more experience you gain. Writing on Medium and developing your blog will highlight your talent and expertise in whatever area you specialize.

The most effective way I found legitimate writing opportunities was by using social media platforms to pitch stories to well-established publications. I connected with publishers, editors and writers through LinkedIn. I would send a message to them to pitch a story I was looking to get published.

Many publications offer a submittable.com submission option. I have used this opportunity to upload my stories for consideration. So far, I’ve been successful with publishing content for local, national and global publications.

If you want to take the guesswork out of which websites will offer you the best paying opportunities, then click here to subscribe to my e-mail list and I’ll send you my FREE guide to websites that will pay for your writing.

If you have any tips for other aspiring writers, leave them in the comments below!

About the Author

Sarah Seweryniak was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. She received her bachelor’s degree in Communication Media Arts in 2009 from Hilbert College. She is a board member with the Gentle Parenting Institute, Inc in Western New York. Sarah’s writing career has spanned over a decade, writing for local newspapers and online publications. She loves writing pieces that connect, inform, and inspire. In her downtime, she loves spending time with her husband and daughter.