How to Make Money from Writing Articles Online

Are you any good at writing quality articles?? Then there is a real opportunity for you to make some real money from writing articles online. I will go through the main ways you can explore this opportunity with some great tips on making it successful.

The first decision you will need to make is whether you decide to offer your services out for business owners to hire you out or whether you utilise this skill to starting your own online business and making money?

Let’s explore both options…

Freelancing

If you are just interested in earning extra money from writing the odd article for someone else’s business, then Freelancing is the route you can take.  There are sites like Fiverr, where you could get started relatively easily.

Website owners are often looking to offload some of the work from their businesses, and one of the ways to do this is to hire a writer to write an article for them.  There are a few things to consider with this route:

What is the Good Side of Freelancing?

  • Your Own Schedule – You create your own schedule, work when you want to work
  • No Commute – being able to work from home saves you a lot of time and money by not having to drive to work
  • Take your office with you – work where you want to work. You could write the article wherever you liked and upload it later on when you get WIFI.
  • Letting your creative side out – Often this is hard to do at the day job, especially when you have tasks to complete and it is a noisy environment.  Creating a calming environment at home and reap the benefits.
  • Time of Day – Are you a morning person…? Some of us are not, I am personally more productive on the evening.  You work whenever it is best for you.

What About the Cons of Freelancing?

  • When Do I Get Paid? – Some sites make it pre-paid before you do the work.  But the initial hardship is getting people to hire you.  It is a market where you need to stand out to make it work.  Others, you may not get paid until the job is completed.
  • Benefits? – You will be self-employed in this business.  depending on the country you live in, this can have effects on your health benefits, etc.  You will also have to consider filing your own tax
  • Distractions… – There are so many distractions at home that get in the way.  The children, the chores, watching tv.  You need to be quite disciplined when you work from home.
  • Are Your Writing for Yourself?  – If you are writing for yourself, writing articles will be an easier route.  But freelancing is typically writing for someone else.  This means a couple of things:
    • Your writing will be scrutinised and need to be good enough for them
    • It could be subjects that you find mundane/boring meaning it will be much harder to write quality content
  • How Long Will This Job Last? – If you do get a good gig and they decide to hire you for a number of articles, great!  But there will always be the times when you are not offered the work again.  You also never normally meet your employer, so this can also present its own barriers.

As a freelancer, you will always be the employee.  There will be certain elements you need to undertake and complete to ensure you get paid and receive positive feedback and hopefully repeat business.  But fundamentally, you will still be answering to someone.

Freelancing is available on a number of platforms, such as Fiverr or Upwork.  Freelancing is a viable option for someone looking to earn extra money, but if you are really looking for an opportunity where you are the boss, so you are writing articles for yourself – you may find my next suggestion right up your street.

Create Your Own Online Business with your Articles

There are many benefits to freelancing, but it still comes down to the same thing – you are working for someone else.  They will need to be happy with your article before they pay you and they will not always be on subjects you want to write about.

But if you started writing articles for your own online business, you will be writing articles that you will benefit from and be on a subject you want to write about.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t all a walk in the park.  But neither is freelancing. You could always freelance as a side gig until your online business takes off.

But the freedom, that working on your own online business will bring will far outweigh any drawbacks it may have.

Let’s start with how your articles will lead to your earning money.  Blogging is by far the best way of building an online business from article writing.

Creating your own blog within a niche that you choose, will mean that you can stay motivated and power through writing plenty of articles in a subject you love.

Once you have started writing articles for your blog, you can then look at ways of monetising it.  I personally suggest affiliate marketing and using ads.  They both are a great way of monetising a blog and will lead to a full-time income with the right guidance.

Writing for yourself, means that you can concentrate on one concept – your business and its’s niche.

If you are freelancing, you could be getting inundated with orders.  Which is great for earning money, but they could be on any subject.  If you are a great writer, the orders will keep coming in – and it will feel like work and you will need to work really hard to keep up.

Working for your own business will be hard work, but if you are writing articles about a subject you love, it will feel a lot less like work.  I love helping people, so writing useful articles is something I find easy to do, especially when it is in a field, I know a lot about.

But if someone asked me to write an article on, let’s say “Arts & Crafts”.  I haven’t got the first clue, I would have to spend more time researching the subject, before even considering accepting the gig.

So, whilst I feel freelancing is a good idea – I personally prefer writing for myself and earning money from it too.  Let’s explore a little more about affiliate marketing, so you can know how you will earn money from your articles.

What Exactly is Affiliate Marketing and How Will My Articles Work?

Affiliate Marketing is where you earn a commission for introducing a buyer to a product.  If you have never heard of it, you might be surprised to know that many retailers use it as a cheaper way of advertising its products.  Amazon, for example is the biggest online marketplace and they have used it since it started.

Related Post: How Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Rather than spending millions on advertising campaigns they can reward referrers with a percentage of the price of the product.  You will be surprised by how lucrative a model it can be if you can get it right…

So, how do your articles come into this model? 

High Quality Posts (articles) are a key to making it work.  High quality posts will lead to traffic – traffic is the key to either affiliate marketing or adverts to work.

Some people try and add affiliate links or adverts too soon to a blog and see no results.  Normally because they haven’t got the traffic yet or the content is poor.

But if you are able to write great content about your chosen niche, with great quality reviews of products – you will start to realise the potential this model brings to you and your writing.

Related Post: How to Make Money from Blogging

By all means, you can freelance and make some good money from it.  My only reservations are that you are writing for someone else who may or may not like it.  You could always get long term deals with website owners/companies to write articles.  Great.  But if you are freelance, they can end it quite quickly.  There is also no guarantee, that you will still enjoy doing it further down the road.

By using your ability to write articles within your own blog business, you can easily write content that you want to write, start to realise the online potential that brings with affiliate marketing, selling ad space, etc.  and realise that you will become a business owner with the freedom that can bring.

Get Expert Help Along the Way – Learn from the Best

Everyone needs help at times, and it is such a massive relief when you realise you are not on your own and you can get expert help and support at any point along your journey.  I started with my own online business a couple of years ago and I would not be where I am today with the help and support from the guys at Wealthy Affiliate.

People naturally assume they are just about Affiliate Marketing, but they offer so much more.

  • Training on all aspects of Online Business
  • Tools to Get You Ahead – Websites, Research Tools, Engagement Tools
  • Expert Help & Support Every Step of the Way
  • I’ll be your Personal Coach!!

There are many reasons why someone might feel more confident writing articles for someone else, but for those that are ready to take the next step and become their own boss… Wealthy Affiliate will be there to help them.  I also promise to be there to help anyone who accepts my invitation to give them a try.

Related Post: My Wealthy Affiliate Review

With a Free Starter Membership, you can see the real potential in yourself with regards to an online business.


IF you have any questions around Freelancing, Affiliate Marketing, Wealthy Affiliate or anything else – please leave a comment and I promise to come back to you.

If you have any experience with freelancing or affiliate marketing, please share your experiences, I would to hear from you.

24 thoughts on “How to Make Money from Writing Articles Online”

  1. Great post and good info.

    I make money by affiliate marketing, I use Wealthy Affiliate for this.

    I earn serious money with it, I saw the other methods you say, I agree, but personally, this one is the one that works for me.

    Anyway, I think you can help people a lot with this post!

    Thanks for sharing it with us!

    Reply
    • Hey Emmanuel,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  Affiliate Marketing is the path I chose, but there are many different ways depending on what people are after when looking online.

      Wealthy Affiliate is a great platform to get started with and then scale it to a point where you are earning some serious money.

      I try to help whenever I can, thanks again

      John

      Reply
  2. Hi John, can one really make an online business profitable by writing as a freelancer on fiverr? I have heard this question a lot of time and i can say from personal experience, its not as easy as it sound. When i saw the segment you mentioned it, i worried but my worry did not last as i saw what you where driving at. Writing high quality posts on your blog or website through Wealthy Affiliate is a sure way to success and i appreciate you for taking your time to illustrate that. Cheers

    Reply
    • Hey Samson,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  Freelancing works for some people.  Not everyone is ready to build their own business online.  So there are always options.  If people decide to go down that road, they will always have my support.

      But those that are serious about building an online business and writing for themselves, will tend to have more long-term success and be happier.  But until you are ready to take that first step, you need to do what is right for you…

      Wealthy Affiliate is a great partner to have in the business, but I will always recommend people do their research first.  Check out my Wealthy Affiliate review.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  3. I love writing but I think writing my own articles is the best choice, working for someone can be overwhelming and yes affiliate marketing is the best choice and that is what I have chosen.  It need lot of work but I have put it as a long term goal I want to build authority and brand myself first.

    Thanks for tips.  Great Article.

    Reply
    • Hey,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  Setting long-term goals is a great idea.  People go into this thinking it will be an over-night success.  But it takes time to build up an authority and brand and that is where the money is.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  4. Thank you for sharing with us this great post.

    Many people are getting money from writing articles online and this is not a game it is work.  People who need to be self employed can try this and they will be happy by the result of writing articles online.

    I started doing this through Wealthy Affiliate platform and i can say that it is not easy but sure. 

    Building a website is very important because the written articles must be published to arrive to the audience and this audience later become the customers depends on the niche.

    Reply
    • Hey Julienne,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  It is hard work, whichever direction you take with online business.

      Article writing for yourself, is the direction I prefer.  But everyone is different, and the options are there for people.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  5. I found this article to be very helpful to me. Thank you John! I think that writing is one very powerful tool that people could use to earn money online. I was a freelancer one year ago and with that one can make a living but time and dedication are needed. Just like you mentioned, we should earn more by writing and that is why I started my own online business. It is definitely worth it.

    Reply
    • Hey Daniel,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  There is definitely an art to writing and it can have a very powerful message for your business.

      Freelancing is fine as a side gig, but personally I believe the potential is there with an online business, if you are willing to put the time into it.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  6. Great post as you explain in very simple terms how affiliate marketing works. 

    It may feel overwhelming to newcomers and in all honesty it is a little bit but if someone really want to succeed WA offers the right tools to do so. 

    It only remains to put the will to work hard and effectively in order to bear the fruits of work in the future. WA is great because you can try it for free with no obligations at all something that most platforms don’t do. 

    If you are a skeptical then being able to try the tools on offer is a major advantage. 

    That’s why so many people when they see the value of WA join the premium membership. Thanks for the share.

    Reply
    • Hey,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.

      Article Marketing & Affiliate Marketing are great partners and will lead to long-term success from it too.  Wealthy Affiliate is a great place to learn everything that is needed to make the most of your writing.

      thanks again

      John

      Reply
  7. Dear John,

    Thanks for the detailed article on How to Make Money from Writing Articles Online.

    To share my own experience…

    I was offering gigs or service on Fiverr and freelancer sites as a content writer. As you discussed the pros and cons, compared to the advantages and disadvantages one thing hit me strong and you have mentioned and recommended the same.

    Instead of writing to someone if we write for ourselves it will make a big difference.

    Being a blogger… One of my article which I wrote one year before still brings me sales which is the power of writing for ourselves.For content writing I am just paid for once. You have provided great insights and sound advice in this post.

    Much Success!

    Paul

    Reply
    • Hey Paul,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  You have a great point.  You can earn from an article for years to come, yet writing an article on fiverr could earn you a one-time sum.

      It is a great way to summarise the difference between the two.

      Wealthy Affiliate is a great training platform that can help you achieve your goals.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  8. Hello there. Thank you for sharing how to make money from writing articles online. This is blogging and blogging is a very lucrative stuff to do as I have seen bloggers being liberated from their 9 to 5 jobs and have had the ability to fire their Bosses.

    What am I saying in essence? Blogging is an awesome opportunity to create passive income. This article will be a great help to those who want to make money online.

    Reply
    • Hey Barry,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  Blogging is an awesome way of earning money online.  Being able to give up on the day job is a dream many of us aspire to and it will lead to that opportunity.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  9. Great article, I have been looking for a program that could earn me a decent amount of money online. I am very good at typing I will not have no problem with freelancing I am sure. But I am just an ordinary Thomas in the online business, I think it will really be difficult to find customers to write for.

     You talked about Affiliate marketing, I really appreciate and love the whole idea, I think I will look into that in the near future. 

    But currently, I need cash, it seems affiliate marketing is a long time project. What are the best freelancing platforms you can recommend me, will really appreciate your help

    Thank you so much for such a comprehensive article

    Reply
    • Hey,

      thanks for checking out my post and leave some comments.  You are right, Affiliate Marketing is a long-term project but will also lead to a more sustainable source of money.

      But if you are looking at ways to earn money in the short term, I would recommend Fiverr.  It is an easier platform to get started with freelancing.

      It can lead to you earning money and being able to explore Affiliate Marketing too.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  10. Great article. Freelancing works for the people who are excellent writers and knows how to engage their audience. As you rightly said, writing for others feels like work. 

    With Wealthy Affiliate, you are your own boss writing articles for yourself on your own terms and doing training at your own pace. With discipline, dedication and hard work you can build a website and earn from it. This post was helpful.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Hey Brenda,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.

      The main thing I enjoy about my online business is that it doesn’t feel like work – it feels like helping people, which is something I love to do.

      Wealthy Affiliate is a great partner and training platform and can definitely help those willing to put in the time and effort.

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  11. Hello there,

    You have put out a very comprehensive piece with tons of valuable information on how writers can make money through their skill. Writing is the best skill one can possess because even if you don’t get paid jobs out there you can still find other means to earn income, like owning your own business as you clearly pointed out. 

    I agree with you, Wealthy Affiliate is the best platform any writer can utilize and use their writing ability to make money as well as help others. 

    Thank you for this informative post!

    Reply
    • hey Jane,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments. Writing is a great skill, and can actually be learned.   It gets better with time too.  

      thanks

      John

      Reply
  12. Thank you for this article on how to make money by writing. I have always liked to write but I had not thought about writing for someone else. I am a little like you in that I work best at night. ( no distractions.)  I am currently working on Wealthy Affiliate so I can endorse your recommendation. It is an excellent program.  

    Do you have any suggestions of  businesses to connect with as a freelance writer? 

    Reply
    • Hey Judy,

      thanks for checking out my post and leaving some comments.  

      Fiverr and Upwork are both great websites that offer freelancing opportunities.  Freelancing doesn’t have to stop at just writing articles, there are plenty of different opportunities.

      thanks

      John

      Reply

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