How to Make Writing a Lucrative Online Side Hustle in 2024
Is writing a part of your daily life? Have you been writing online or aspire to? Maybe you write for the fun of it, or to show your work to the world. Whatever the reason, you must’ve thought of monetizing your writing at one point or another.
Guess what? There has never been a better time to earn via writing online! Yes, you heard that right. In 2024, you can use your writing skills to make a good income. However, writing as an internet side hustle can be a bit overwhelming.
Figuring out the nooks and crannies of writing online is a long game. It comes with experience and practice, not to mention the stark competition with the advent of AI in writing. That said, knowing the basics and putting your knowledge to work will give you a head start.
This post will demystify your doubts and questions about online writing. What type of writing sells, how to find your niche, where to publish your work, how much can you earn from writing online, and how to monetize your work. These questions, among many others, will surface once you start your online writing journey, and we’ve got you covered.
All that said, put on your writer’s hat (or your reader’s one), grab a pen or keyboard, and take notes. Let’s explore how you can become a successful online writer in 2024.
Find Your Niche
The first step when you’re trying to earn from online writing is sticking to a niche. As a writer, you might tend to write on a spectrum of topics. That’s great when you do it as a hobby, but when it comes to making money, not so much.
You see, expertise is what makes your writing stand out. The more you know about your subject, the more authoritative your writing is. When you write about a specific topic and cover all aspects of it, your writing becomes sellable. It’s informative, trustworthy, and exclusive. Therefore, you can make money out of it.
How to Find Your Niche?
Finding your niche is imperative. Before you settle on one, you should answer these 3 questions:
- Am I skilled or passionate about this topic?
- What is the market value for such content?
- What’s the competition like for this content?
Let’s break these down one by one.
Skill & Passion
Figure out what you’re passionate about. It could be anything- music, technology, health, sports, education, movies, books, or even cats. But there’s a small problem here. These are pretty broad topics, so you must narrow them down further. That’s where you’ll find your core niche.
When it comes to commercial online writing, your work must provide value. Therefore, you need to get into the specifics and assess your expertise before you start. For instance, if you’ve got a computer science degree and love to code, you should write coding articles. Or if you’re a Guitarist, you should stick to “everything guitars”.
Market Value
The next step is to find the market value of your content. First, check if there’s a need for your content. Use Google search to find out if there are keywords for that topic. Use keyword research tools to find out the search volume for your keywords.
Then you should research the kind of money writers make in that domain. You can check out Medium and other blogging sites where freelancers and writers share such details.
Competition
This is tricky because you need to find the right balance of competition for your niche. In other words, understand the supply-demand dynamic for the content. If there’s plenty of content already out there, you may have a hard time getting ranked on Google. For example, if you write about AI in 2024, you will be competing with thousands of other writers. And unless your work is exceptionally detailed and well-written, it’ll smother under the barrage of other content.
Thus, your niche lies right at the center where these 3 points overlap. Now that we’ve covered how to find your niche in writing. Let’s move to the earnings part.
How much can you earn from writing online?
Before we get into the numbers, you must understand that writing is a long game. If you’re a beginner, you’ll have to publish your work first without earning expectations. Once you develop a presentable portfolio of your work, only then you aim toward monetization.
But how much can online writing make for you? It depends– on your expertise, experience, and the platform. For instance, if you’re an expert writer writing for American clients, you’d be able to make $50–500 a month. And if you’re a novice, you can quote 1000–1500 Rs per article working in India, depending on the word count.
Where to publish your work?
There are a ton of platforms where you can publish your work. For starters, Medium is a good option as you don’t have to worry about managing the backend and SEO bits. Whereas if you start writing on YOUR website, you have to set up things like AdSense to start earning.
Our purpose is to make money through our writeups. Now, let’s face it. It’s challenging for Indian writers to earn online via writing. Platforms like Medium have paid partnership schemes but they still haven’t started it here. So, let’s explore the best options for Indian writers to make money by writing online.
- Content Writing Agencies
If you find a good writing agency and play your cards right, you can make a couple thousand rupees each month. Research on Google, LinkedIn, or Twitter and contact a few content writing agencies. Share your portfolio and publications, and start working as a freelance writer.
Here’s a list of some renowned Indian content writing agencies you can check:
2. Freelancing Sites
This one is a no-brainer. Go to freelancing sites like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer, set up your profile, and apply to gigs for content writing or any sort of writing that suits you.
Here’s the thing though. Getting clients on freelance sites is no piece of cake. You need to be extra patient and tweak your profile to stand out. Check out this blog to understand how to get clients on freelance sites.
3. Start a Newsletter
Newsletters are the new personal brand. Every successful writer out there has one. The two best platforms to start a newsletter are Substack and LinkedIn. As with any writing endeavor, you’ve got to build trust and a pool of audience first. Once you gain more followers, you can monetize your Newsletter.
Substack is preferable as you can monetize your newsletter right away. First, curate a newsletter and then set a subscription price ($5 minimum). That being said, earning on substack via your newsletter is not easy. Therefore, yet again your best bet as a beginner is to start publishing consistently, and building an audience base.
As for LinkedIn, you can either write sponsored posts or use affiliate marketing to monetize your newsletter.
Bottomline
Writing as an online side hustle could seem overrated. Yet it’s still one of the best ways to make a sustainable income in 2024. All you have to do is research hard, write & publish consistently, and follow the steps we’ve discussed in this post thoroughly. And you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful online writer. Now, it’s time to get into your element and turn your writing hobby into a lucrative internet side business.
