How to write and make money online as a freelance writer in 2022?
Have you ever come across a piece of writing that had everything you were looking out for?
There is a fair enough chance that such a piece is written out by someone in exchange of getting paid for the same.
If you want to fancy your chances to write and earn money online, then this article is for you.…😃
We will discuss another side hustle business which can make money online by writing content for others.
This is another side hustle just like proofreading service or even a Pinterest virtual assistant.
It can be a great source of making money online if one can invest time and energy into building it.
Today we will be talking about freelance writing and how you can make money as a freelance writer.
Believe it or not, freelance writers do make up to $5000 per month which can even scale up by 3 to 4 times if you invest your time and energy into making it a full time earnings.
Let’s cover up some basics before we dig in further to know more about “How to make money online as a freelance writer”.
In this Guide
Who is a freelance writer?
A freelance writer is someone who offers services as a writer to others in return of getting paid for an individual assignment or even multiple assignments at once.
Freelance as such by its definition means working independently on your own but not under any terms of an employer as an employee.
Generally a freelance writer works upon multiple clients depending upon his/her chosen field of writing.
This adds to the credibility and authority of an individual over a period of time which leads to growth in income gradually during the course of the time.
Types of Freelance Writers
As such, we can classify freelance writers into the following broad categories depending upon the services offered by them:
1. Bloggers
You can be a freelance writer who would help write and maintain the blog pages of other companies and organizations.
These business entities would need articles to reach their audience.
For this to happen they would need written content in the form of blogs which would help them to market their products and business operations worldwide.
Thus you can be a freelance writer and help maintain the blogs for other companies who would need your services.
2. Work for other types of content creators
Other types of content creators also require some form of written content such as:
- Videographers,
- Podcast creators,
- Video game guide books,
- Poetry writing,
- Greeting cards,
- Writing and selling songs etc.
3. Be a ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is someone who writes content for others but doesn’t publish it under his/her own name.
It’s writing anonymously without taking any due credit for the published content for others.
As a ghostwriter one can write ebooks, courses, online journals, white paper publications etc.
4. SEO expert or subject matter expert of any specific topic
You can also write as a SEO expert or a subject matter expert for any specific topics that you hold knowledge for.
You can publish content which is properly optimized to rank higher in Google that reaches a wider audience.
5. Be a social media marketer for clients
Clients rely extensively on the use of social media to improve their presence online.
For this, they would need the service of a writer who can help in managing the written content on social media.
This will help in promoting the products and services online. It helps to improve and enhance the brand presence of the clients with the use of social media.
This is what social media marketers do.
You can be their social media marketer and help in managing their content online for the clients.
Besides all of above services, you can be a professional writer for a specific chosen niche that can cover up the topics that builds an interest in you..😃
Okay so now we have a fair enough idea of who is a freelance writer and what services can a freelance writer offer.
Freelance writing can present amazing opportunities down the road and can pave the path for an amazing career..
Who knows even one day you can end up writing and publishing your own book …😇
Let’s see the steps necessary on HOW you can be a freelance writer.
How do I become a freelance writer?
Well, there is not a direct answer to this.
No 2 individuals will ever have the same path on “How to become a freelance writer”.
But the path of becoming a freelance writer would generally involve the following:
1. Select the field (niche) to write upon
In order to begin writing upon any topic, one can choose upon a niche to write upon.
For this, you can experiment upon some topics in a niche which interests you.
As an example, if you are someone who holds an interest in TV shows/ web series and love to talk about it.
Then you can consider writing about web series coming up, rather than being someone who would write upon “How to make money online”.
👉 It’s really essential to remember that you are in here for a long run and if you love what you write about you will never fall short of motivation to write around your niche.
👉 You will soon establish the credibility and authority from your work in the time to come.
Thus simply don’t run for the sake of the money because a niche is more lucrative than another.
Choose a niche where you hold an interest as well.
2. Write content for blogs or websites
You can write content onto other websites such as Medium or even consider publishing onto your own blogs.
This is a great place to start upon as you practise upon your skills of writing and publishing useful articles onto such websites or blogs.
When you start writing blogs, you get used to writing and get acquainted with other stuff involved in creating the article.
This would involve editing and drafting the content such as formatting, correcting grammatical errors,reviewing and redrafting the content as desired.
3. Produce good quality work samples of your work
In order to pitch to your clients, you should have some quality work samples which is essential to get clients.
Start writing upon different topics around your niche to get good quality samples.
Deciding upon a specific niche is key as it will help you grow and expand further in due course of time.
Thus, write some good quality samples around a specific niche that can give you necessary exposure and market yourself.
Work around skills that can produce the best quality samples that you aim for which would take time.
4. Spread the word out everywhere
Until and unless you don’t put the word around you for yourself, no one will ever get to know about you and what you really do.
Grow your readership & audience by improving your presence onto several platforms available such as LinkedIn, Medium or even to Quora.
Once you find an opportunity available from any such places, be it paid or free, make the best use of it.
You can even look into freelancing sites such as Fiverr, Upwork or even freelancer which presents a lot of freelancing opportunities to begin with.
Any freelance writer can make the best use of such sites to gain initial traction into their work.
5. Join community groups and job portals which reflect about writing services on offer
This is pretty simple
If you are looking to buy food for your cat, you would be looking out for a pet store near you, isn’t it?..😑
You should visit job portals or community group forums which revolve around freelance writing to find work online.
These are the places where the recruiters advertise about their job requirements and also search for job resumes that suit that position.
If you find any such job opening as a writer you can consider taking up the work as a freelance writer.
This goes the same for other forums or communities like Facebook or even Quora.
It can be a great starting point as well.
Okay so now we have got a fair enough idea about ways that can help us to become a freelance writer.
Let’s have a quick look upon some of the additional skills required by a freelance writer.
What skills do freelance writers need?
If you are looking for additional skills that are necessary for a freelance writer, here are a few skills to consider:
- Communication skills
- Ability to work in an organized workspace for writing.
- Being able to research upon topics to make quality content.
- Having basic knowledge of how to edit and draft content which includes correcting spelling mistakes, grammar, punctuations etc to deliver quality content.
- Making reader friendly content which can be understood by the readers.
- Having a genuine approach towards producing authentic content for readers.
Here is a list of some of the notable job portals where advertisers post about paid writing job assignments:
Now we are aware of the ways that can help us make money online as a freelance writer, but you are not sure about the future of freelance writing.
Let’s figure out if freelance writing has enough opportunities in the time to come.
How is the scope for freelance writers in 2022 and beyond?
The world is turning into an ONLINE mode of operating business with each passing day.
More and more people are always looking for stuff online everyday.
The very fact that you are looking about freelance writers and their prospects though this blog in 2022 goes on to show about HOW the content is being consumed online everyday.
As per this, the reach of online written mode of communication is massive.
An estimated total no. of “4.9 billion users” had access to the internet in 2021.
This is almost equivalent to the 2/3rd population all over the world who consumed something or the other online.
How would these people continue to get info online, well it would be through blogs and other forms of digital medium of content online.
And the ones who would be producing content for these people are the writers. These people would be writing content for the websites or blogs out there on a regular basis.
These writers can start their journey in the form of freelance writing and can later go onto set up their entire business around it which can be a full time earning online.
This goes to show that the freelance form of writing holds immense potential in the future and one can actively work upon it to build a successful career in freelance writing.
Now, let’s see what is the earning of a freelance writer.
How much do freelance writers earn?
The answer to this can vary a lot.
There are examples of freelance writers who are earning $10000-$20000 per month and then there are also cases where people are earning even less than $1000 per month.
These figures vary due to the experience and expertise that one builds in the field of freelance writing.
As you write more and produce more content you will be more experienced and will earn more money in the process.
Freelance writers can charge for their services on the basis of rate per hour, per word or even for an entire project undertaken.
Beginner freelance writers charge somewhere in the range of $0.01-$0.02 for each written word.
The whole calculation says that freelance writers can expect to earn an average hourly rate of somewhere around $10-$20 per hour, provided you put up a decent 1000 words long article…📝
This means you can expect to earn around $200-$400 per month (💰) provided you get to work for around 20 hours in a month.
Usually the rates are charged for each word written, and can accordingly be calculated for each hour of work completed.
Well, apart from the lucrative earnings of the freelance writers, there are other good reasons why you should consider being a freelance writer.
👉 Looking for more make money online strategies, consider checking out the following:
- 9 effective ways to make money from YouTube in 2022
- Make money online by dropshipping (Earn upto $1000-$5000 per month)
Why to become a freelance writer?
A freelance writer enjoys a host of other benefits besides earning a good amount of money.
Here’s a list of some of the benefits of being a freelance writer:
1. Flexibility to work as part time or full time
Being a freelance writer you enjoy the flexibility of working part time or full time.
This is one of the major benefits of working for yourself.
You get to decide if you want to work part time or full time.
You can take up recurring assignments which pay money in tranches or even assignments that require a few hours to complete.
It all depends upon you and how you want to take up the work.
2. Helping people with your written content is always a satisfactory feeling
When people need help with their content to reach the right audience, they seek help from writers to post stuff for them.
This translates into an awesome experience for writers and the feeling of satisfaction of meeting client’s expectation is next to none..😇
3. Freedom of working at any location
Another big advantage of writing as a freelance writer is working independently at any location across the globe.
You need not be tied up to any location in order to continue to work as a freelance writer.
In fact all make money online strategies which can help you earn money such as Proofreading, being a pinterest virtual assistant etc can be done at any work location.
4. Source of full time earnings
Being a freelance writer can be a source of full time earnings for you.
Freelance writers earn a good amount of money which slowly has the potential to convert into a full time earning.
This can be a ticket to quit your day job and end the 9 to 5 hustle.
There can be nothing better than this to make money online as a freelance writer..
5. Low cost of investment
Freelance writing has a low cost of investment involved.
It has a low barrier to entry and thus the initial cost involved is less.
You can start earning as a freelance writer after finding suitable job opportunities online by checking out job postings available online.
This can help you make money without any substantial upfront cost involvement.
How to find job opportunities as a freelance writer?
Finding job opportunities as a freelance writer is not difficult as it seems.
Here are some of the ways on how do you find job opportunities as a freelance writer:
1. Submission of requests for Guest Post opportunities
Many bloggers still accept guest posts for their blogs.
Guest posting can be a great way to get job opportunities as a freelance writer.
You can submit your post/article as a guest post by visiting any website in your niche which has guest post opportunities available.
You can even post articles in your own regional languages if that’s where your strength lies in…🙂
As a newbie freelance writer this helps you immensely and helps you widen your reach to a larger audience through the help of guest posting articles.
2. Take help from social media
Social media plays a very crucial role in our day to day life.
You can take help from social media to find any type of job listings or current openings available across the social media platforms that suit your job requirements.
There are several community groups and forums dedicated towards freelance writers which are open for discussion about job postings online wherein you can apply as well.
Facebook groups, LinkedIn, Quora can be a good place to start with where you can find freelance writing opportunities.
This helps immensely when it comes to make money online as a freelance writer.
3. Network with other freelance writers around you
Networking is key and essential for growth as a freelance writer.
If you have a good community of people in your network you will see a substantial amount of growth in the long run.
As you gain access to the different communities sharing job postings online (freelance writing opportunities), you can start interacting with others in those communities to build your network.
It’s important that you remember to contribute as well when you build your network with others.
Don’t only ask for favors but also help others who would need any form of assistance.
4. Reach out to the companies by getting access to their inbox
If you are a tech savvy person and can write about tech stuff online, you can consider reaching out to tech companies by sending across emails directly to them.
It is essential to reach them the right way when seeking for any requirements, if any.
This is key for any services you offer as a freelance writer.
Any company interested would respond back to you and you can get your first job as a freelance writer.
5. Take help of the freelancing platform
Freelancing websites such as Fiverr, Upwork, ProBlogger offer a wide range of freelancing opportunities for a freelance writer.
These platforms help you to market (advertise) your services as a freelance writer to others who would need your services.
Once you gain a few projects, you can leverage it to your advantage to gain more projects and spread the word out for others to reach to you as well.
This can open up more avenues to make money online as a freelance writer.
6. Create your own website and showcase about your services
Another good approach would be to showcase your services offered to others from your own website.
Having your own website makes a huge difference to your image.
This speaks volumes about your seriousness and approach towards your work.
Get a custom domain related to your freelancing service and list out what all you can offer.
Spread it across to others among all your platforms available that you offer services as a freelance writer.
Okay, now we have covered up all that we needed to know about being a freelance writer and earning money from it.
Here’s some few key takeaways of how to be a freelance writer and earn money from freelance writing.
Key Takeaways
Here are some few key takeaways of what we talked about so far:
- Freelance writing is a wonderful opportunity to make money online.
- A freelance writer is a self-made individual who offers services as a writer to others for payment for work.
- Freelance writers can earn somewhere around $0.01-$0.02 per word which can build an average income of $10-$20 per hour as a beginner.
- A freelance writer enjoys a host of other benefits. These can be flexibility to work as a part time or full time individual, ability to travel to places while you work, helping other people with your content, can be a source of full time earnings etc.
- Freelance writers can work in different areas.
- This can include working as a blogger, ghostwriter, SEO expert, social media marketer, script writer for videos or podcasts etc.
Lets have a look at some of the frequently asked questions on how to make money as a freelance writer.
FAQ’s on How to make money online as a freelance writer
Ans: Yes, you can definitely make money as a freelance writer. Freelance writer make decent money in the range of $0.01-$0.02 for each word as a beginner writer.
This can convert to $10-$20 per hour if you write around 1000 words in an hour as a beginner.
Ans: Becoming a Freelance writer online is a simple step to follow, i.e. selection of niche, setting up a blog, putting good quality samples of your work etc.
More details on this in available in this blog.
Ans: Freelance writing is not hard provided you follow the right approach on how to become a freelance writer?
It can take you a good amount of experience to gain clients over a period of time but once you are established in freelance business you can pull in good amount of time in time.
Ans: No, freelance writers don’t need a degree. All they need is an enthusiasm to write and the belief to get started.
Once you begin to write content you will find you don’t need any educational degree to earn money as a freelance writer.