13 Writing Side Hustles That Pay Real Money

How much you can earn: Varies

We’ll start with the most obvious (and most varied) of the options on this list. Freelance writing is when you take on jobs as an independent writer, usually working for multiple clients rather than for a single company.

Freelance jobs can fall under many different categories, including:

1. Copywriting
2. SEO blog writing
3. Technical writing
4. Ghostwriting
5. Grant writing
6. Speech writing
7. Writing academic papers
8. Writing press releases
9. Personal writing services (this can include tasks such as writing personal emails or helping someone create an online dating profile)

You can try a few different options or pick a niche and specialize.

Regardless of what you choose, to become a freelance writer, you’ll need a portfolio of work to show to potential clients. If you don’t already have one, it’s worth spending a few evenings creating 3–5 sample pieces in whatever niche you plan on focusing in.

Once you’re done, upload them to Google Drive, Dropbox, or host them on a website like Journoportfolio.

As a freelance writer, you’ll normally work remotely and will have control over your schedule. It’s up to you which (and how many) jobs you accept.

Freelance job boards

The easiest way to find writing gigs is by frequenting popular freelance job boards, such as:

• Upwork
• Fiverr 
• Freelancer
• PeoplePerHour

These platforms feature many different types of freelance jobs (not just writing jobs).

Be aware that the jobs on them are often relatively low-paying and the platform itself will take a cut of your earnings, so this isn’t your most lucrative option (although it is a convenient one). You’ll usually earn more money if you land clients independently, either by pitching to them directly or finding them through your personal network.

Content writing platforms

You can also look into websites focused exclusively on blogging and writing gigs, such as:

• ProBlogger
• Qwoted
• Constant Content
• ContentWriters
• ContentGather
• Contently
• Crowd Content
• Compose.ly
• Textbroker
• Toptal

These sites feature the same downsides as the general-purpose platforms listed above—they’ll take a cut of your earnings, and many clients that use them won’t be willing to pay very high rates. However, they can be a good place to start a writing side hustle.

Once you’ve built a decent-sized portfolio, try to move off these platforms and find clients independently. This will give you more power to negotiate your pay.

How much you can earn: $50+ per resume

A resume is a document that showcases your work and education history so that you can sell your skills to an employer. A cover letter is a self-introduction that accompanies your resume and tells the hiring team why you think your skills are a good fit for the job.

Resumes and cover letters are important, but many people dread writing them. As a writer, you can help them put together a resume and a cover letter to land their dream job—for a fee, of course.

Like freelance writing, this is something you can do remotely and on a flexible schedule. As mentioned, you’ll make upwards of $50 per resume.

While it’s not hard to become a resume writer and you don’t need any special qualifications to get started, if you’re interested in doing this side hustle in the long term, you can consider getting credentialed. Look into the Certified Professional Resume Writer certificate (CPRW), the most respected qualification in the field.

How much you can earn: $0.25–$0.50 per word

This might not be the most glamorous of side hustles, but if you have the emotional capacity, it can be a way for you to help others process their grief. It will also establish you in a valuable writing niche that not everyone is willing to work in.

As an obituary writer, you’ll normally work for a funeral home or a newspaper (often on a contract basis). To get started, you can look for openings in your local paper or on a job listing site. You can also inquire at a funeral home.

If you want to work independently (as a freelancer), you can also offer your services through your own website and advertise them online or through a newspaper ad.

How much you can earn: Varies

Are you a writer with strong opinions and the drive to share them with the world? If so, getting paid to write reviews could be a great side hustle for you.

When looking for review-writing gig, you can:

• Find jobs through the freelancing portals we’ve already mentioned, such as Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer.
• Look for opportunities through traditional portals, such as Indeed, Glassdoor, or Flexjobs.
• Sign up to dedicated product review sites, such as ReviewStream, Capterra, or SoftwareJudge.
• Write for music and book review sites, such as Online Book Club, Reedsy Discovery, or Slicethepie.
• Pitch reviews to magazines and websites, such as Listverse, Shvoong, or Cineaste.

You can specialize in a specific kind of review or try writing all sorts of reviews until you find your niche. Your pay will vary, but this is a relatively easy side hustle to start and can be done remotely and on your own schedule.

How much you can earn: $0.10+ per word

There are many websites and magazines that pay independent writers for their work. They may be willing to buy articles from you, even if you have relatively little experience and are only writing on a part-time basis.

Here are a few of them:

• Cracked
• Making a Living Writing
• Narratively
• International Retirees
• Bitch Media
• Chickpea
• Veg News
• FanSided
• Copyhackers

You’ll normally start by submitting a pitch to the publication with a preview of what you intend to write for them, making sure that you’re following their submission guidelines. This is a competitive process, but if they accept your pitch, you can submit the full article and get paid.

If the editors like your work, you might get hired on a freelance or contract basis to write for them again.

Pay rates will vary depending on your experience, the article itself, and the publication you’re writing for.

Writing for exposure

Some publications will ask you to write for “exposure,” meaning you’ll write for free in exchange for a byline (authorship credit), which will increase your popularity and make it easier to land paying work in the future.

While this can sometimes be worth it, make sure you weigh the pros and cons, and don’t forget to value your time. In general, the smaller the publication is, the less valuable their byline will be; a chance to write an article for Forbes is probably worth taking, even if you aren’t paid, whereas writing for a lesser-known blog probably isn’t.

Some publications have been known to use the promise of exposure to get free work from writers who are eager to get their start. Be wary of publications asking you to write for free more than once; this is a sign that they might be exploiting you.

How much you can earn: $20 per hour

Transcriptionists get paid to write down the words from an audio or video file, such as an interview, creating a textual record of it.

While this isn’t a very creative job, it requires fast typing skills that as a writer you may already have mastered. It also sometimes involves light editing work, as you might be called upon to produce a “clean,” publication-ready transcript with filler words, false starts, and verbal detours removed.

You may want to niche down into more technical fields, such as medical or legal transcription. This will require you to be familiar with industry jargon.

You can apply for transcription jobs through generalized freelance websites like Upwork or Freelancer, or sign up for specialized transcription sites, such as:

• Rev
• TranscribeMe
• Castingwords Workshop
• eScribers
• Allegis

In the US, pay rates for transcriptionists range from $13 to $30 per hour, with the average rate being $20 per hour.

While becoming a transcriptionist isn’t difficult, you can expect your pay to be on the lower end of the scale when you’re starting out (until you build up your portfolio and establish a decent reputation).

How much you can earn: $0.02–$0.049 per word

Proofreaders review the final draft of a text to check for spelling mistakes, typos, grammatical errors, inconsistencies, formatting errors, and stylistic problems. Editors make more significant changes to the text and usually work with an earlier draft.

While you don’t need any special qualifications for either of these side hustles, there are many proofreading courses you can take to prepare for them.

To get started with proofreading, you can have a look at freelance job sites—both the general-purpose ones we’ve already listed and others that specialize in proofreading gigs. Here are several options:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Freelancer
• FlexJobs
• Scribbr
• Scribendi
• Proofreading Pal

Proofreading and editing jobs can be paid per word, per hour, or (occasionally) as a flat fee. Like most jobs on this list, you can do this remotely, as a freelancer.

How much you can earn: $1–$10 per post

If you fancy yourself someone who’s social media savvy, you can use your writing skills to create content for businesses to post on it. This can come in the form of video scripts (more on that later), written posts, or captions for images. You can also help plan a social media campaign by creating posting schedules.

When you work as a social media content writer, you’ll usually need to have other skills to accompany your writing. Above all, you’ll need familiarity with popular social platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.

You will normally be asked to perform other tasks that go beyond just writing, such as actually posting the content. You may also need to be able to create images with graphics software, such as Canva or Adobe Creative Cloud.

The pay for this will vary according to your responsibilities and experience. This type of work can be done as a one-off project or a long-term arrangement.

You can find work through freelance sites, but there’ll also be part-time roles to be found via traditional job-hunting sites, such as Indeed. It’s also worth approaching companies you’d like to work with directly, especially if you have a contact at that company who can refer you.

How much you can earn: $50 per audio minute or $0.07–$0.12 per word

Have you ever wanted to write a script for a movie? This isn’t quite the same, but it might be the next best thing. Companies and online content creators frequently need scripts, and some are willing to pay for them.

You could write anything from a script for an ad or a YouTube video (or, as briefly mentioned above, scripts for short-form social media content, such as clips on Instagram or TikTok).

This side hustle works particularly well if you can write in a conversational voice and adapt to the style of the brand you’re writing for.

This is a slightly tougher niche to break into, but it’s possible. You can look for job advertisements on freelance sites or strategically approach YouTubers with a pitch.

How much you can earn: $15–$30 per 1,000 views

As you may know, platforms like YouTube pay creators for their videos based on their performance (at least after they reach a certain number of views and followers). In a similar way, platforms like Medium offer the same opportunity to writers who would like to publish articles on their site.

You can write about whatever you like on Medium. Articles in these niches tend to be especially popular:

• Self-help and self-improvement
• Health
• Business advice and entrepreneurship
• News, current events, and politics
• Pop culture

Your earnings will depend on your readership, the number of articles you publish, and how popular they are.

Be aware that it might take a while for you to see much income from this. In fact, seeing any money at all is dependent on your content having enough popular appeal to take off.

How much you can earn: Varies

If you don’t love the idea of working for someone else and would rather just write about your own interests, you can try to make money by blogging or video blogging (vlogging).

The first thing you’ll need to do is pick a niche. You should pick something that will sustain your interest, but don’t make that your only consideration. It’s also worth researching which niches are likely to be profitable while still having low competition. Popular subjects include:

• Travel
• Food
• Personal development
• Writing/blogging (meta content)
• Teaching
• Mom-related content (mommyblogging)
• Hobbies
• Tech
• Pets

Whatever you pick, try to put your own spin on it to make your blog stand out from the sea of competitors.

Setting up and monetizing a blog or YouTube channel

Once you pick your niche and the name of your blog, you’ll need to set up a site (or channel) and start creating content.

For blogs, you have a wide selection of web hosts, such as Bluehost or GreenGeeks, which you can use in tandem with the WordPress software suite. Alternatively, you can choose an all-in-one web service provider such as Squarespace. Do some research to decide which option works best for you.

You’ll need to learn about SEO best practices, as well as promotion and monetization strategies. Common earning strategies for blogs include:

• Affiliate marketing
• Sponsored content
• Ads
• Selling services or products (either physical or digital)
• Selling online courses and workshops
• Coaching and mentoring
• Memberships
• Using donation sites like Buy Me A Coffee or Ko-fi
• Publishing paid/premium content on Patreon

All of those strategies are applicable to written blog content. Making money on YouTube generally involves similar techniques.

Can you really earn money with a blogging side hustle?

Yes, it’s possible to earn money with this side hustle. However, blogs and YouTube channels tend to take time to become profitable, and there are no guarantees your content will ever take off. This is a competitive space with thousands or millions of other would-be influencers vying for viewers.

Your earning potential will depend on your expertise, niche, strategy, and ability to produce content regularly. It will also depend on your promotion strategies and how fast you can reach your target audience.

How much you can earn: Varies

It’s important to preface this section by saying that while you can generate passive income from book writing, for the vast majority of people (including influencers with large followings), publishing one book won’t be enough to make a living. The unfortunate truth is that most books just don’t make that much money.

Whether you go the traditional or the self-publishing route, the odds are against you if you’re hoping to make it big as an author. It’s possible, but you should keep your expectations realistic so you aren’t disappointed. Most authors don’t generate a full-time income from their work.

Your pay as an author will depend on the book’s popularity and your publisher. If you choose to go the traditional route, you’ll need to reach out to agents or publishing companies that accept manuscripts in your genre and follow their submission guidelines.

If you decide to self-publish your book, you can do so via print-on-demand services like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or Lulu.

You can also reach out to printers directly and handle your inventory yourself. You can use platforms like Kickstarter to help cover the initial printing costs, although you’ll need a certain level of popularity (e.g., a blog audience) to attract enough attention for this to work.

Regardless of how you choose to publish, to make a profit from your book, you’ll need to market it. In many cases, this will mean posting about it on social media or hosting live events in bookstores (such as talks or book signings).

How much you can earn: $10.20—$400 per hour

Teaching about writing is a great way to share your passion with others. You can do this in person or virtually.

If you’d like to teach in person, you can check out online job boards or have a look at local notice boards and Facebook groups looking for writing tutors. You could also reach out to community centers, colleges, cafes, and cultural centers. Offer to run a writing workshop, whether as a one-off or a regular thing.

Alternatively, if you’d like to teach virtually, you can look for online tutoring jobs.

Finally, if you’d like to make money passively and have greater control over the content you teach, you can create online courses centered on writing topics and publish them through sites like Skillshare, Domestika, and Udemy.