- The Writers Voice -

[ClarenceQuentin]

How I Make a Living as an Online Writer (And How You Could Too:

Ever since then, I’ve been supporting myself through writing. It’s my dream career – and I love being able to set my own hours, work from home, and have a huge amount of flexibility and freedom.

In the past four years, I’ve been particularly glad of my career: I now have two young children, and I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with them while continuing to do what I love for a living.

I haven’t written much here on Aliventures about how exactly I actually make money. Maybe you suspect that there’s some amazing secret skill involved, or some sort of dark art.

But there really isn’t. Turning words into money might sound like spinning straw into gold … but it’s a darn sight easier.

And … if you want to … there’s no reason why you can’t do exactly the same as me.

In short, over the past eight years, I’ve had a bunch of different revenue streams: some for a year or two, some for the whole time. I’m going to explain the basics of each, and provide some links to places where you can get further information or try these methods out for yourself.

I’ll start with the ones that were easiest to get going with, and work up to the methods that take a bit more time.

#1: Paid Writing for Blogs (2008 onwards)

This is how I started out, in early 2008. My first ever paid position was with Diet Blog (thanks Jim!) and my second one was with Daily Writing Tips (thanks Daniel!)

At first, my family and friends found it quite weird that I could get paid to write for blogs, and even eight years on, people are still sometimes surprised that paid blogging exists. It’s no big mystery, though. Like magazine and newspapers, blogs need regular content. Many generate revenue through advertising, and they need a constant stream of new articles to bring in readers.

Writing for blogs typically means:

Regular work – often writing one or more posts every week
Flexibility over what you write about – most of the time, I’ve chosen my own topics
Quick payments, usually via PayPal
The chance to get your work in front of tens of thousands of people
How Much Does Paid Blogging Make?

I’ve been paid anything from $20 – $300 per post, depending on the length and complexity. Around $50 for a 750 word post is a decent rate.

Magazines often pay more per word – but they’ll also have longer turn-arounds, and higher requirements.

These days, when I write paid blog posts, I usually make $70/hour. (Including admin time.) I write fast! This is also my current standard hourly rate for any freelance writing.