How to Make Money Writing Online

I would argue that everyone is an expert in something and everyone has something to say.  If you want to share your opinion or your expertise, learning how to make money writing online would be a great side hustle for you.  While there are many places you can apply, submit, or look into writing, it isn’t always easy to find the right place or to earn enough to make it worth your while.  I have compiled a list here for you of some of the most newbie-friendly places you can write to make extra cash.

How to Make Money Writing Online:

1. Make a Living Writing

This website is awesome for a few reasons.  It’s designed to help people who want to write for money or learn about making a living through writing.  It offers lots of practical advice and even offers tons of free resources you can use if this is what you are interested in.

The author of this website also wants to help writers by paying them to write posts for the website.  She offers $75 – $100 and up for select, longer assigned posts on specific topics.  She gives very clear guidelines and advice for pitching to her and getting started.  You can check out the topics and how to pitch her here.

2. Learn from one of the Best

If you like to write, and really want to learn how to make serious income with this, then I would suggest you take a look at this online course – ‘Earn More Writing‘. Holly Johnson is a friend of mine, and it will blow you away how much money she makes online writing for various publications…

In 2016, she made over $200,000 just from writing online articles!

She’s learned several tricks. She knows which publications to pitch, how to pitch them, and how to build your portfolio. Plus, she’s got a private Facebook group where she shares paid writing leads that she comes across. I’m personally a member of her growing online community.

Click here to join now!

3. ListVerse

Listverse is featured on every possible list about how to write and make money, and I, for one, appreciate the irony in that!  Listverse is a website that features all things Top Ten and is pretty widely read.

If you can compose an original top ten list about something unique, Listverse will pay you $100 for your efforts.  The guidelines are basically that the work is original, unique, and 1,500 words or more in length.  They have a few other guidelines and perks; you can check out all the details here.

4. The Penny Hoarder

The Penny Hoarder is a fabulous website about earning and saving money, often in very unique ways.  In fact, they describe what they are looking for as, “[t]he more unusual or zany the story, the better.”  This website has a pretty wide reach and allows you post as yourself and include any of your own websites in your writer bio.

The Penny Hoarder will pay writers $75 for a post, but then they offer bonuses.  You can earn an additional $100, $200, or $500 depending on how many page views your post gets!  Check out the guidelines and details about how to get started here.

5. The Dollar Stretcher

Another great website about saving moolah is The Dollar Stretcher, which is focused on “Living better…for less.”  While other financial websites can focus on earning and saving money, the Dollar Stretcher is primarily about saving money and saving time.

The guidelines for submitting work to this website seem a little bit more narrow and complicated than the other sites, but at least they are clear up front.  They will pay 10 cents per word, so depending on the length of your piece, you could earn from $50 (for 500 words) up.  Learn more about exactly what they are looking for here.

6. Doctor of Credit

Doctor of Credit is another website about finances, but it is focused specifically on credit and improving your credit.  This includes posts about credit scores, credit cards, security, and banking.

This website is looking for submissions which are fully written out, as opposed to pitches, but if they (and their readers) love an article or two, you can end up as a regular writer.  This website will pay $50 for a guest post and then will negotiate about fees for those who write regularly.  See exactly how to write in this niche here.

7. Cracked

Cracked is a comedy website all about current pop culture, hilarious lists, unique observations, and basically any humorous and relevant topic.  This makes it a place where anyone with a sense of humor and a bit of insight can write an article.  They also love infographics, videos, and good photoshopping.

They list out guidelines for the three types I just mentioned, but they also focus on feature articles which typically use the currently-popular list format.  Cracked does have a writer’s forum which hopeful feature writers have to join before they can start contributing, but they say, “it takes zero effort to join.”  Cracked is purported to pay $100 for guest written articles.  Explore how to share your humor here.

As you can see, there are a wide range of opportunities out there to write, be heard, and maybe earn some extra income.  There are SO many more than I mentioned here, but these seemed to have something for everyone, pay well, and have the least amount of hoops to jump through.  You should especially do more research if you have a niche or area of expertise too specific for me to mention here.  For example, if you are a rockstar at photoshop, you can earn a pretty penny sharing tips at Photoshop Tutorials.

I hope you can discover what you have to say and have the chance to earn a little side income along the way!