Legitimate Ways To Make Money As A Freelance Writer With No Experience
It’s not easy, but it’s possible
Making money is hard, right?
Wrong.
Making money is easier than ever in 2022. You just need to know where to look and you might have to be a pretty savvy person. Sometimes, you may have to think outside the box.
But if the ideas aren’t coming to you — don’t worry, I’ll give you a boost.
Here are 6 legitimate ways to make money as a writer.
6. Fiverr
Fiverr is arguably the world’s biggest freelance platform. The site allows you to create gigs as a writer with no experience and offer them as a service to people all around the world.
You can sell your services as a writer, or as a graphic designer, marketing consultant, or life coach for any price from $5.
As a writer, you can write other people’s essays, cover letters, personal statements, or complaint letters. It’s totally up to you.
As a freelancer with no experience, it can be hard to get your first client. The most important tips to get around this are to:
- Show your expertise. Make sure to brag about your qualifications and show off your amazing personality. Include photos, and if possible, videos of your amazing and high-quality work.
- Add your social media. Promote your gig on socials, and put potential customers at ease — they can see what a great person you are from your lovely drunk Facebook photos.
- Stay Online. Often buyers will filter to find sellers that are online, so make sure you’re online and available for as much as possible.
- Buyer Requests. Sellers can apply to jobs through buyer requests where they will send offers and “bid” for the job. You’ll be competing with highly qualified sellers, but you never know.
Alternative websites to Fiverr are Upwork, PeoplePerHour, or Toptal
5. Blogging
Another legitimate way you can make money as a writer with no experience is through blogging.
You can start your own blog on Medium and eventually join their Medium Partner Program. To join the program, you’ll need to be living in one of their eligible countries, be over 18, and have at least 100 followers.
If Medium doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you can try starting a blog through WordPress or Blogger.com
Nearly 50% of all blogs on the internet are powered by WordPress because of its easy setup features and pleasant interfaces. However, if you’re quite desperate for money, WordPress can be quite a costly initial investment that may take some time to get up and running.
Blogger.com, on the other hand, is owned by Google and is free to use. You could start earning in as little as 30 days if you play your cards right. Blogger.com is supported by Google Adsense. Post 10 blog posts on your site, which can be done in as little as 2 weeks, and make your site look presentable. Once it’s ready to go you can apply to Google Adsense to start monetising your site. They may take up to 2 weeks to get back to you with a decision.
4. Write for Publications
If you don’t feel like starting your own blog, write for someone else’s blog. There are millions of blogs out there willing to pay for guest posts.
Notably, Listverse is a publication that accepts pitches and full submissions year-round and pays $100 for accepted posts above 1500 words. All you need to do is write an interesting list of 10 that gives an element of surprise.
They prefer unusual (creepy) content.
Or if you have an amazing story to tell, yours or someone else’s, Narratively might be the place for you. They have collections that take human and original true stories. They pay around $300–$400 for articles between 2,000 and 4,500 words. They want stories told in narrative form — beginning, middle, and end.
There are lots of other publications out there that pay. Do some research and find the one that is best for you. Generally, this is a good way to make a lot of money rather fast.
3. Stuvia
Are you a student or recent graduate who still has all of their old coursework taking up space on your computer? If you’ve got old essays lying around, you could sell them on Stuvia.
This allows you to make a passive income as they can be sold more than once. Top sellers earn over $400 per month. All you need to do is upload your documents, state what the document includes, what grade you achieved, and boom. You get paid.
You need to earn $10 before you can withdraw on Stuvia and they do take a cut of every sale you make so keep that in mind.
If you really wanted to, you could write a book review or a literary essay to sell on Stuvia, but personally, I wouldn’t waste my time.
2. Translating/Transcription
If you’re just getting your foot in the door, and the other options sound like way too much work, translating or transcribing may be the career for you.
You’re a writer — but without the creative part.
If you’re blessed with the ability to speak another language, you can search for translation jobs on job boards or do it freelance.
But even if you speak only one language, people will pay you to transcribe audio files into text
1. Kindle e-Books
These days you don’t need to be JK Rowling to write best-selling books. You can self-publish your own book on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
If you know enough about a topic to write a long how-to document or personal experience on it, you can write an e-book.
You can make lots of money selling your book on Amazon and there are lots of advertising campaigns to promote it too. The best part is that all you have to do is write — there’s no marketing, selling, or production for you to do as Amazon does it all for you.
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If you’ve got any more ideas on how aspiring freelance writers with no experience could make their first buck, comment below! Help each other out.
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