5 Creative Ways to Make Money as a Writer

There are many ways to make money as a writer. The simplest of course is by simply working as a freelance writer. However, there are several creative things that you can do which help you to make some extra cash. You don’t even need to do these to make a living – these take little time but can help you make money as a writer online. So what are the creatives ways that writers can exploit to make money? Here are some –

1. Copywriting Redefined

Copywriting is a unique skill that not many possess, but if you are a writer and can pack a punch with your words, then this skill is certainly in high demand. It is not surprising that copywriting is increasingly becoming a coveted skill to posses. As more and more information moves online, it is important to get a point across in the minimum number of words, from an advertising point of view. The attention span of the online reader is very limited. Thus if an advertisement is to catch the attention of the reader, it must be perfect in its wording. That’s where you come into the picture.

Look for opportunities for writing good copy. There are everywhere if you look closely. Just Google for your favorite topic and see the Adwords advertising copy. I am sure you will find at least one that is very badly written. Simply contact the advertiser, offer him your services as a copywriter and tell him you can get far better conversions. How do you charge them? Just charge them some money for every ad that you write. Say $20? Of course it should depend on how big the company is. If you can improve the copy and hence conversions of a million dollar company, you might as well demand $1000 for every ad you produce.

It is not just with Google that you see copies. Look for people trying to sell their affiliate products. Look for people putting up auctions on eBay. Look for internet marketers with poor copywriting skills. You can find those everywhere.

2. Creative Domain Names

Website flipping was quite popular a few years ago and still is. People would create a website and make a very basic design and then sell it for a profit. For the seller, he does hundreds of such transactions a day and a small profit margin is great. For the buyer, he has a ready-made site which he can start using immediately.

However, writers are not exactly web-developers, so here is what you can do – flipping domain names. There is a huge market for domains and if you can come up with catchy domain names, people will be willing to pay you. You just register the domain in your name and then sell it to interested buyers at a profit.

Of course this is slightly risky because you might be stuck with a domain name if you fail to find a buyer for it. Thus, if you think you are very good at picking up good domain names, just register at PickyDomains and you can get $25-35 for every domain name of yours that is chosen by the site owner.

3. Look for Guest Posting Deals

Many websites offer writers a chance to get paid for guest posting on their blog. The blog owner gets great and fresh content which promotes his blog. You can find paid guest posting opportunities in plenty of blogs. One tip is to look for medium ranked websites. The very top sites seldom pay for guest posting (being featured on them is the motivation for people to write) and the very low sites seldom have the money to pay for guest posts, unless the owner is very serious about expanding and willing to invest money.

An added advantage of guest posting is that you get featured on prominent blogs and you can use it to build your brand as a writer. This is very helpful if you want to show your portfolio to someone.

4. Just Freelance!

There are many freelance sites for writers which have hundreds of job openings. You can simply apply to these and hope to start working on assignments. People are always looking for the best quality writers, so you shouldn’t have a problem landing some top assignments if you are good at writing. Sites like oDesk, Elance, Guru, etc. have plenty of jobs you can find.

5. Write Resumes

People will certainly pay for a well-written resume – after all, it is a matter of landing their dream job. If you can pick up all the basics and nuances of writing a resume, you can offer your services to career cells or just freelance on the internet. For professional resume makers, it is a very good use of their time and they can demand a very good price for their time.

Do you have any other ideas to share? I’d love to hear from you!

Photo Credit: TheTrial