Being a paid writer is an incredible way to earn money and enjoy more freedom. Thanks to the internet, writers have been able to connect with clients around the world. Because you can now write for people anywhere in the world, you can work from anywhere in the world.
This means that you have a new found freedom which you cannot get with many other jobs.
As long as you can write, you can get paid.
This also means that if you choose to, you can travel the world and earn. Being paid to write is the perfect business model as you require very little in the way of equipment.
There are many ways to get paid as a writer and in this post I am going to showcase 5 different models. I shall explain a little bit about each method including what is required in the way of work and equipment, how much you can earn and how you get paid.
The first method is an easy-ish way to make money. There are many websites which pay people to write articles for them. Not every article you write will be published. Some of these websites can be quite ruthless when it comes to approving articles. But when an article is approved, they pay you. Some websites pay up to $50 per article.
Most websites have a maximum amount of articles you can submit however, there is one website which seems to have a very interesting business model. You can submit as many articles as you wish and any that are approved, you get paid $3.80 per 1,000 views or $6 per 1,000 views if you become a member and pay a monthly fee of $9.95.
The website doesn’t have advertising plastered over it’s content so it attracts a lot of people who love the environment. Writers can write about virtually any subject, although religion is frowned upon. There are people who are making good money on Vocal.media but I do believe it is very few and far between. Saying that, Vocal runs competitions and challenges which pay out big time if your article wins.
This article here gives advice on how to win a Vocal Challenge and how to make it pay. https://vocal.media/journal/how-to-win-a-vocal-challenge
A recent advert on Facebook from Vocal.Media said that you could make around $6,000 a month from the platform, so I guess it is doable. I don’t think that it is a big money spinner for most people but it could be an opportunity to make some extra pennies as a side project if you have an idea for an article which you want to share with the world and your other normal paid writing gigs are done for the day.
Tools for this would be nothing more than a smartphone, tablet and/or a laptop. Internet connection is a must… obviously.
The second model is the blogging model. This is the self-publishing blogging model where you run your own blog, writing content around a specific niche or hobby which you enjoy.
Blogging can include recording videos if you choose but on the whole, it can be mainly articles with pictures. The writing can be done easily on a decent smartphone, tablet and laptop. The pictures which are used in the blog posts and articles can also be taken on decent smartphones, like the one below which I took using a Samsung phone while out enjoying coffee with the good lady.
Bloggers earn money through various ways.
Mostly they rely on advertising revenue from ad networks like Google AdSense, Media Vine, RevContent, Content.Ad and Taboola. To generate a good monthly income from advertising revenue only you will need a substantial amount of website visitors. Some ad networks require you to have a minimum amount of monthly visitors before you can even join.
It’s hard to say what the earnings potential is for blogging as it really can vary. Most boggers will earn a nice monthly income, enough to replace the day job and allow you to enjoy a more freedom based life but there have been a lot of bloggers who have grown their websites into multi-million pound businesses.
Bloggers can also earn money from writing and selling their own eBooks and courses via their blog. Promoting affiliate offers on products which are congruent with the theme of their blog. So for example: a blog about food would probably promote specific cooking equipment and utensils.
Depending on what the niche is, bloggers can also charge to give hourly consultation calls. This does depend on what the topic of your blog is about and whether you can actually help people.
Tools required for blogging again is a smartphone, tablet and/or a laptop with regular access to the internet.
Some bloggers also earn money by writing articles for other people. Writing is a very valuable skill so if people want to pay you to write then why not take them up on the opportunity. This leads us nicely to the next writing model…
There are two different types of articles which people get paid for. One will earn you peanuts in comparison to the other.
The two different types of articles are:
- Information Only Articles
- Action Inspiring Articles
The Information Only Article is basic website content. The kind of article which informs the reader about a topic or subject. It is fun to read and can be a great source of information.
The Action Inspiring Article is written in such a way that it gets the reader to do something such as join a newsletter, buy a product or share the content. It is results focused writing.
The second article style can demand a higher writing fee because it can lead to more business for the client. The article is written using psychological triggers to help persuade people to take action. These articles are written with a specific result in mind.
The first article is just fun and interesting information. Great for websites which generate money via advertising revenue where page views are important. A lot of time they are simple fluff and filler articles to increase the number of page views and nothing more.
The second however is more for those websites which generate their money by selling products such as courses on their website and via email. They are written to convert readers into buyers or to get them to sign up to an email list.
Obviously, no two articles are the same. In method 1 you can write a short 500 word article for a few pounds, but you could also write a 2,000 word article for tens of pounds. The second type of article can have you earning up to hundreds of pounds.
I know several writers who charge between £250 and £350 for one article. And people will pay that, especially if that article results in sales of their products worth several thousands of pounds.
You don’t need many regular clients paying you several hundred pounds to write Action Inspiring Articles to be making a good monthly income. Finding the clients is probably the hardest part but when you have a reputation for writing good articles, have the proof that you can deliver the results then finding the right clients should be a lot easier.
The first article style can have you competing with thousands of other writers all scavenging for the chicken feed. You could end up spending a lot of time writing just to make a decent monthly income. If that is the case, you will not enjoy the same kind of freedom other writers do.
The Action Inspiring Articles are written using copywriting methods. These methods have been used for over a century to turn readers into buyers and this leads me nicely on to the next writing model…
Copywriting is one of the best paid writing methods around. I want to say it is the best but I think JK Rowling might just pip me to the post. My most successful sales letter brought in over £5,000 a word… and I am not what most people would consider as a writer.
How many non-writers can claim to have made £5,000 per word?
And do you know what the best thing is about being a copywriter?
You don’t need to be a good writer or a naturally gifted wordsmith. If I am completely honest, the best copywriters are those who weren’t very good at writing but went on to learn copywriting.
Anyone can learn copywriting. For the most part, it is about following a template, a set of rules and understanding a combination of buyer psychology and words which have power.
With copywriting you can generate a lot of money from either clients you write for, or from promoting your own products. If you write for other people you can charge anything from £1,000 to £30,000 per sales letter.
Many copywriters also earn a percentage of the sales which are generated through the sales letter they have written. They could have charged £30,000 for the sales letter and then earn a nice 5-10% of all sales thereafter.
One of the reasons copywriting is incredibly profitable is that it can take next to no time to write a sales letter. One sales letter I wrote, took me just one afternoon to write and that sales letter went on to generate over £5 million in sales over many years.
Even if a sales letter took you a week on average to write, the fact that you can be paid more than what an average employee earns over a month, and in some cases more than what they earn in a year, makes this one of the most profitable writing models around.
It certainly is worth learning the basics of copywriting as it will help you to find better clients for either this model or when writing Action Inspiring Articles for people.
A copywriter uses words to generate a specific result.
The result required could be to build an email list by persuading people to sign up for a free product or a newsletter, it could be to generate a sale and send someone down a sales funnel or it could also be to turn some people off, separating those who are likely to become buyers from those who aren’t.
Getting rid of the tyre kickers and those who probably will never buy from you in the future is often just as important to your time and efforts as nurturing a relationship with those people who are likely to buy your products.
A perfect example of getting rid of tyre kickers and focusing on those people who you want to buy your products is this first paragraph on a sales letter from the legendary copywriter Ben Settle:
Copywriting is an art form and a science. The two are entwined. Together they can create a lot or money if done right. The great news is that these incredibly powerful scientific techniques and methods which are used to convert people into buyers is well documented and easy to learn.
Anyone who can write an email to a friend can write a profitable sales letter… as long as they follow a blueprint and simply do what other people have done before. This blueprint is a time tested formula. Improved and perfected by copywriters over a century. The only difference between copywriting today and that which was done over 100 years ago is the medium in which it is delivered and the language people use.
Today we use email and simple easy-to-build one page websites instead of placing ads in magazines or sending out sales letters in the post (well I do both, I still send sales letters in the mail) but the reasons people buy what they buy is still the same as it was all those years ago. Society and technology has changed a lot over the years but humans themselves haven’t changed much.
People still buy based on emotions, and when you understand that, when you know which buttons to press and know how to write content which engages people’s emotional side, you can make a lot of money.
To learn more on how you too can learn how to write profitable letters, letters which can take as little as a few hours to write then check out One Letter From Retirement Here. 
This is a fully comprehensive manual which outlines everything you need to know and do in a step by step formula for writing a profitable sales letter.
Just like the other writing gigs, this requires a smartphone or tablet and a laptop. I would recommend a laptop for this as it is easier to craft and format a sales letter on a laptop but the writing itself can be done on a smartphone and tablet.
This is another highly paid writing gig. One you can do for others or for yourself. It works well when you incorporate copywriting methods.
Companies will pay email copywriters a lot of money to write emails which direct people to sales pages and ultimately make a sale.
The first barrier is getting people to open the email so having a powerful email title is key. Curiosity is often used to make people open emails.
Sensationalism used to work well but a lot of email clients use powerful spam filters and any emails which use sensationalised claims in their titles are often booted into the spam folder before the recipient has time to see them.
As I say, there is a science and an artform at play here.
Once a person has opened the email, the content needs to keep them engaged enough so that they read to the bottom and click the link which sends them to a specific destination.
If you can do that, you can be paid a lot.
Why?
Well, it is a numbers thing based on results.
You see, you are not being paid to simply write an email. It isn’t the amount of words that matter, or the content itself or how long it took you to write the email. It is what the content of the email does that matters. It’s the effect it has on the reader. It is about driving the reader to make a specific action.
If you write a series of emails which has a high open rate, a high click through rate and ultimately results in sales of a product worth £10,000 or more, a company would be happy to pay you several hundred pounds and possibly several thousand pounds.
They would be foolish to want to pay peanuts to an overseas writer via Fiverr.com who has no understanding of copywriting principles just to try and keep costs down. They would lose more than they save.
Promotional emails do not need to be long either. The word count is irrelevant as long as it delivers the required results.
What you can do for someone else, you can do for yourself.
Especially as you are a writer, being able to create your own information products like eBooks & lead magnets and craft compelling sales letters should be a doddle.
Using your own writing skills; create an ebook to giveaway or sell, build an email list of your own, and send emails to that list promoting your own products or affiliate products where you are paid a commission whenever a sale is made.
There are a lot of people who have made a tonne of money promoting other people’s products to an email list. I personally do a mixture of the two. I have a large portfolio of my own products which I promote but I also promote a lot of other people’s products for a commission.
Commissions are generally 50% of the sale price. Sometimes they can be more. There are some product owners who will pay you 100% of the sales price to build an email list which they will profit from at a later date.
Just so that you know, most of the products I have in my portfolio are word based. They are written manuals with screenshots. Some come with videos locked behind a password protected page on a website, nothing which is too technical, but they are mainly word based. Easy to create for anyone who can write.
Once the system is fully set in place, email marketing is probably the easiest one to run as it requires little work. It is a case of writing new emails regularly which are often very short and can be done in minutes.
You only require the usual tools to make this work, a laptop, tablet and a smartphone. There are online tools with some of these methods such as requiring a website and an email autoresponder which come with a cost but nothing compared to having to rent an office or a place of business.
These are relatively cheap businesses to start and you can get started today.
To learn more about how profitable email marketing can be check out…
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