Making money writing is my favorite way to make money online. In fact, it’s my main source of income.

Writing and content creation can be lucrative ways to increase your income and start doing the things you want with your money.

Here are 25 ways you can make money writing.

1. Blogging on Hub Pages

Hub Pages is a rev-share site where you can post your articles and get paid based on how many times people click on ads they placed on your content.

I’ve been a member for 12 years, but never really utilized the site until recently. And after posting only a few times, I’ve already started making money through the ads program.

The only thing I don’t like about Hub Pages is that they don’t allow you to promote yourself in any way. If you do, your article won’t be Featured.

That means your article won’t qualify for their partner sites and you’ll get overall less visibility.

So I’d recommend publishing content on subjects you just enjoy writing about. Earning money writing about what you love is a great way to earn passive income (and it’s personally one of my favorite ways of making money).

2. Write and sell screenplays

You don’t have to write the next Hollywood Blockbuster to be successful as a screenwriter.

You just have to be able to tell a good story and follow the standard format.

You might have to study the format a little bit at first. I’d recommend reading a few scripts similar to the type of script you want to write.

If you want to write a romantic comedy, read the Pretty Woman script or the Bridget Jones’ Diary script.

If you want to write comedy, read any of the following: Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, Ted, Horrible Bosses, etc. You get the idea.

Get the Screenwriter’s Bible and Save the Cat. Do some research to figure out which resources you want to use to help you learn the craft of screenwriting.

Once you’ve completed your first screenplay, you can start entering screenplay contests on sites like CoverFly or OpenScreenplay or uploading them to InkTip where producers are always looking for scripts from up and coming writers in a variety of genres.

3. Blogging on Medium

Blogging is, as you already probably know, a great way to make a living writing. Most people struggle to get traffic with their own blog.

That’s why blogging on Medium can be a great alternative to that. You can get instant traffic and start building your audience.

Once you do that, it’ll be easier to promote things to your audience, whether it’s your other content, your own products, or other people’s products or services (affiliate marketing).

4. Affiliate Marketing

If you already blog for money, why not add affiliate marketing to the mix and promote other people’s products for them?

You’ll get a commission every time someone clicks your links and buys something or subscribes to a service.

Even if you don’t have a blog, you can make money with affiliate marketing on social media if you have a decent following. But if you don’t, you can still take the time to grow your following and eventually, you shouldn’t have a problem making money with affiliate marketing on social media.

5. Social Media Posting

Okay, so it’s not exactly writing, but these days, it’s technically for people who are good with words…writers.

Like you and me.

You can either try to get a job as a social media writer or you can start up your own social media management agency where you take on clients and post on their behalf.

It all depends on whether you want the freedom to be your own boss or if you’d rather have someone to help you stay on track.

6. Writing Online Reviews

Writing online reviews can actually be a good way to make a little extra cash.

Granted, you’re not going to make a living writing online reviews, but it can help put a dent in that stack of bills piling up.

So start looking for companies that pay for online reviews. Slice the Pie pays for reviews of music for up and coming artists.

You can also read books and write online reviews for money.

Related: How to Get Paid to Read Books

7. Entering Contests

If you’re more of a creative writer, entering contests can be a great way to make some extra money.

If you’re nervous about submitting your work, try starting with flash fiction, like I did. I never won any contests, but I wasn’t consistent.

Starting with flash fiction allows you to get your work out there and (hopefully) make some money doing it.

Start doing some research for contests that you can enter that align with the type of writer you are and the genre you’re writing in.

Reedsy is a good place to start.

8. Submitting to Magazines

Magazine writing is still a pretty lucrative way to earn a living if you can manage your time and submissions properly.

But I wouldn’t advise relying exclusively on magazine work because it can take months to hear back from certain publications and it wouldn’t be a very reliable source of income (unless you’re sending out 10 great pitches per day and getting regular responses — but that’s rare).

The magazine industry is saturated with writers that want to make a name for themselves by getting published.

So if you’re going to do this, make sure to have another way to bring in a stable source of income if you need to.

Use Submittable to keep track of your writing submissions and pitches to magazines.

9. Submitting to Trade Publications

Similarly to magazines, trade publications accept submissions from writers about pretty specific subjects.

So if you’re an expert in something, you might be able to find a trade publication that would consider publishing an article written by you.

For example, if you travel often, you could submit content to Travel and Leisure. Or if you know a thing or two about real estate (more than the average person) or you’re in the real estate industry, you could submit to real estate publications like Realtor Magazine.

10. Ghost Writing eBooks

Got a talent for writing books? You can make money ghost writing ebooks or even books for business leaders and professionals that simply don’t have the time or skills to write their own books.

List your services online and link to books you’ve written once you’ve gotten your first few clients.

Promote your services with ads, social media, and on sites like BookJobs.com or Publishers Marketplace.

You can even search for ghostwriting jobs on those sites.

11. Seek Out Writing Fellowships

A writing fellowship can help you pay your bills while you’re working on whatever project you’re currently working on.

But beware because there’s a lot of competition for fellowships. And oftentimes, fellowships have requirements that you might not meet.

Some have location requirements, some have age requirements, and some have genre requirements.

Do some research to determine which fellowships you might be eligible for.

Check out these 12 Grants for Emerging Writers to get started.

12. Creating Courses for People (Or Yourself)

Wanna become a course creator and write the curriculum for small businesses, corporations, colleges, and/or universities?

Showcase your skills by creating a few courses of your own.

Promote them heavily and you might just get noticed and contacted to create a course for a large company or university.

You can also contact them directly and offer your services.

Another route to take is to create your own courses and sell them on Udemy, Teachable, etc.

13. Writing Email Copy

Email marketing is how most businesses keep in contact with their customers. Typically, they’ll have a CRM filled with customer data, but one of the most important pieces of data is the email address.

Because with it, companies can reach their customers with coupons, special offers and discounts, and new product announcements, among other things.

That’s why mastering the perfect email is a craft that many writers struggle with. You have to be persuasive, entertaining, engaging, and informative all in one email.

If you can master that skill, you can become a highly-paid email copywriter. Start by reading a few books and articles about crafting sales and marketing emails. You could even take a short course if you wanted.

14. Writing Landing Page Copy

Landing pages are one-page websites that marketers use to sell products or services.

If you’ve been sucked into an ad on social media at any point in time, you might’ve become part of a sales funnel that incorporates landing pages to sell whatever they’re selling.

If you notice, that copy is often written very well and very persuasively. And in this day and age, it’s done without the use of in-your-face, gimmicky sales tactics that were used so much in the early 90s and 00s.

Gen Z, be thankful you never had to deal with that.

I can still hear the echoes of bad car commercials ringing in my ears sometimes when I’m trying to come up with copy.

15. Writing Video Game Fiction

You know those ads for games you see about choosing different storylines and you get to see what different outcomes there are?

Well, somebody has to write those storylines. If you’ve got a wild imagination and can think up great scenarios, you could make a living writing video game fiction.

A friend of mine is looking to get into doing this and I’ll tell you what I told him. Check out my article on how to make money writing video game fiction.

16. Writing Stories on Vocal

Vocal is a website writers can earn money on by entering contests. It costs $9.99 a month to become a member and enter the contests, though, which could be seen as a downside.

But some writers claim that it’s worth it, especially if you win a contest.

Go check it out, browse around, and see if it’s for you. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a membership for a while now.

I might just try it out for a month or two and if it’s not for me, then hey, I only lost $20, right? Wouldn’t be the first time! 😅

17. Writing Ads for Companies

Writing ads for Google or Bing is something I came across on a job board. I saw the post, applied, and got hired.

But it was a little trickier than I realized at first. And shortly after getting the position, I realized it’s not really the kind of writing I want to do.

Or that I’m good at.

But, hey, who knows? Maybe you might be better suited for writing short ads. I think they were less than 100 words, but I can’t remember the exact count.

But basically, I had to incorporate certain keywords and write a short sentence (or two) describing the product.

If you want to try getting a position as an ad writer, you might be writing ads for companies like Lending Tree, Google, and Bing.

Search for Ad Writer positions on Indeed, LinkedIn Jobs, and job boards for writers (like the ones I mentioned earlier).

18. Writing Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are exactly what they sound like. They’re descriptions of products, but they have to be written in a way that makes the reader want to buy the product.

And these days, that means showcasing to the reader what their life will be like once they do that.

Look for jobs product description writer positions online on sites like UpWork, LinkedIn Jobs, Indeed, and specialty writing job boards, like ProBlogger Jobs and BloggingPro.

19. Writing Case Studies

Case studies are stories about how a company helped a particular client or customer solve a problem or meet a challenge they had.

They’re generally only a few pages long, but they can net you a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars per case study.

I thought about getting into writing case studies and I actually wrote one. But afterwards, I decided it just wasn’t for me, particularly, the part where you have to take a client interview and transform it into a story.

I had a gig through Clear Voice with a client that wanted me to write case studies, but it didn’t last long because I just didn’t enjoy the process.

But you might find that you like that kind of writing (or transcribing - whatever you want to call it).

Search jobs sites for case study writer and you might just get lucky and land a gig.

It’d be helpful to have some samples so look at some examples of great case studies and create your own.

Bonus points if it has an eye-catching design!

20. Writing White Papers

White papers are typically used between B2B (business to business) companies that want information about a product or service before they make a purchasing decision.

For that reason, white papers should be written authoritatively and informatively. You don’t have to worry as much about engaging the reader, other than to try to get them to follow the call to action.

Your main goal is to inform. They usually already know they want the product, but they’re comparing companies.

Make your client’s company stand out by highlighting the benefits, instead of the features.

You could also get a book on white papers. When I went to NYU for grad school, I took a course on writing white papers and that’s how I got familiar with them.

Here’s the book I used:

21. Writing on SubStack

Substack is like your own personal email newsletter. And that’s pretty much it.

It’s simple, it’s effective.

Sign up on Substack, import your email list (or start doing lead generation for prospects), and start creating quality content that people actually enjoy reading.

Keep creating quality content consistently and you’ll keep getting subscribers and the subscribers you have will stick around.

22. Writing Song Lyrics

Writing song lyrics isn’t exactly an easy way to start making money writing.

The music industry is a competitive industry and a lot of people want to write popular songs.

But you have to be really good if you want to get your foot in the door. So start practicing. The more you write, the better you’ll become.

Study popular songs and see what works and what doesn’t.

As a songwriter, you might have to co-write with other songwriters and work with artists.

To get into songwriting, you’ll have to decide what approach you want to take because there are a few ways to do it that weren’t even available a decade ago.

Learn 10 Ways to Make Money Writing Songs.

23. Writing Book Reviews

Writing book reviews isn’t exactly, writing, I know.

But if you’re also a writer, like me, it could be a chance to showcase your creativity and get paid doing it.

There are a few sites that pay you to read books, but you might not make a living doing it.

Not right away at least.

Start by reading books and reviewing them on Medium or your own blog.

Once you start to get the hang of it, and can write really good reviews, you can start applying to book review jobs that actually pay good money.

You could try Reedsy or Online Book Club to get your feet wet with this. I got accepted to both of these sites fairly quickly.

Of course, I did have two reviews to showcase from my old blog of a few books I really liked reading, one being a book called In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (because I enjoyed it so much when I read it in college) and the other, a review of a Kristin Hannah book I loved called On Mystic Lake.

You can read my book reviews to get an idea of what type of stuff they’re looking for.

Once you have some experience, try Kirkus Media.

24. Technical Writing

Technical writing is for writers that don’t mind not being able to be creative.

It’s pretty rigid and you might not be writing about subjects that interest you.

Technical writing involves writing technical manuals, policy manuals, user manuals, process manuals, and more.

So if you’re okay with dealing with complex, technical language on a daily basis, technical writing can be a pretty lucrative form of writing.

It’s also not as popular as other types of writing so you might see less competition for jobs.

Start looking for technical writing jobs on sites like Indeed, Glass Door, Zip Recruiter, and LinkedIn Jobs.

25. Medical Writing

Medical writing is not for the faint of heart.

It’s complex. It’s tough. And it requires knowledge of medical terminology.

This type of writing is probably better suited for someone who worked in the medical field before.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t do medical writing if you didn’t.

It just means you might have to work harder to grasp the concepts and get a job as a medical writer.

Start with this article I found on How to Become a Medical Writer.

Want Even More Ways to Make Money?

Did these ideas inspire you to go out and seek your own greatness? Let me know in the comments.

Want even more (non-writing) related ways to make money?

Download my ebook 101 Side Gigs and Hustles to Make a Decent Part-Time Income on Gumroad. I‘d greatly appreciate the support! ☺️

25 Ways To Make Money Writing