How to Earn an Income as an Online Writer in 2021

So you're creative, have a passion for writing, and take the leap to make it your full time gig. Awesome. And then, rent is due and your stuck.

Not the vibe.

As writers we are such deeply passionate and creative people. We care so much about our work, and honestly, spending time any other way to make money feels like defeat, disappointment, and misalignment.

Why? Because our purpose on this planet lies in our poetic tongue and our colourful vocabulary. We were born to write. To express. To reach an audience that cares about our message.

All writers and creatives dream of one day sustaining themselves on the earnings of their creative work. To solely create art.

Express freely. Live freely. Veto the 9-5 and welcome the write-wherever-whenever lifestyle. That's the dream, right?

What if this could be your reality?

When I first moved to Vancouver, Canada I would sit on mountain tops journaling my heart out wondering if anyone would read my entries; so I started blogging. Which is basically a public journal.

It wasn't until years in, I found myself creating income around the writing I was doing. However, I could have earned way sooner, had I known these tips and tricks!

How to Earn an Income as an Online Writer in 2021

1. Find a platform to write for. Or multiple!

This is the first step. Who are you writing for? Are you freelancing from Fiverr? Writing posts for Vocal? Medium? Quora?

All of these are valid platforms to write for. Maybe you write for multiple of them! Even better.

Personally, I like to write for my website and Vocal (where you're reading this now!). Keeps it clean, simple, and organized for me.

2. Share your work!

I cannot stress enough how important this is.

Share share share! Get your work out there. Most platforms pay via the read/read time so make sure you're getting eyes on your work.

And when I say eyes, I mean a lot of eyes.

Check out my post on how to bring a lot of traffic to your work it has some awesome tips you can use for higher read counts.

To summarize it for you though, social media, influencers, and backlinks are your new best friends. Those three main sharing avenues will be the bulk of how you bring in readers.

3. Use other income streams in your writing!

Yep, you heard right. There are other ways to make money with your articles. I'll spill the tea and tell you what I'm talking about:

• Tips: Tipping is the top way I earn money on Vocal! The best thing about tipping is that your readers can choose how much they would like to gift you based on the content you provided them.
• Affiliate Links: Affiliate marketing is when you recommend products and/or services from another company to your viewers. You include a link to the product which is specifically designed for your audience, so when they buy- you earn!
• Promote your Products/Services: This is my favourite way to earn because it allows my creativity to be portrayed in a number of ways. I can write about my designs, which allows for me to promote both my clothing and my articles, while simultaneously earning from both.
• Embed your Youtube Videos: This is another cool feature! If you're doing some vlogging along with your blogging, you'll love this. You can embed your youtube videos into your posts and share the post with friends and family, along with a background story or brief synopsis of your latest release.
• Vocal Contests: We love the 'Challenges' feature of Vocal that provides creators an opportunity to win cash prizes for their work. And they are awesome prizes! With tons of different categories to choose from.
• Bonuses: Vocal says, "Bonuses are another way we can cheer on our creators, by congratulating them for meeting certain milestones!" We appreciate that, Vocal!

There isn't just one way to make an income!

As you can see from my list above, there are multiple income possibilities, you just have to tap into them! By focusing on just one way to earn cash, you limit yourself to all the rest of the options.

Whether you write for a big publication, or the pages of your journal, as creators it's an honour to do what we love most: create!

So create. Express. Write. Dream. Share.

Don't quit. And don't forget...

You deserve to make money doing what you love.

Thanks for reading. If you found this helpful, you can check out my other posts or follow along on Instagram.

Talk soon. Thank you for stopping by.