Online jobs for writers that actually pay the bills and provide financial freedom? That can’t be true…can it?

I’m here to say that making a living as a writer is not only possible but likely if you’re motivated with the best resources at your disposal.

As a writer myself, I know what it’s like to put your heart and soul into producing written content that only makes enough money to buy an extra cup of coffee per month! I’m happy to say that I now make a living from writing, but now, I want to give you the best ways to work from home as a writer.

If you’re tired of being a broke writer or you just want to quit your boring day job, you need to get a work from home job that pays a living wage.

We at the Luster Lexicon have you covered on the front.

This article will only cover the best online jobs for writers to make money writing or side jobs where you can use your writing-related skills to make money.

This post contains affiliate links. Please read the terms of use for more info.

 The best online jobs for writers to make a living writing

Make money proofreading from home

Income Range for Proofreaders: Online proofreading jobs pay between $32,000 – $65,000 for part-time or full-time work. Proofreading can be scalable to an online business that generates hundreds of thousands or even millions in revenue per month. A proofreading business can either involve proofreading for clients or comprised of contracted proofreaders who proofread on your behalf.

Types of Proofreading Jobs: Part-time, Full-time, Freelance, and Gigs are available.

Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5 stars. Proofreading is great for beginners and writers who want to make more money online.

Recommended Resources for Proofreaders: General Proofreading Theory & Practice free workshop. This workshop is taught by one of the most profitable proofreaders in the United States. Grammarly: a free grammar tool that automatically highlights spelling mistakes and grammatical mistakes. Click here to download Grammarly for your browser or word processor.

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Do you have a knack for catching typos in articles and e-mails? Have you been irked at the preposterous grammar of posters on various forums and social media comments? Look no further because online proofreading is for you.

One of the best online jobs for writers to make a living online is without a doubt becoming a proofreader. The great thing about proofreading is that you don’t need formal education, and you can work from home or anywhere you desire.

Not to mention, you can make your own hours and work as little or as much as you’d like!

What is proofreading?

Proofreading is checking the final copy of written material for grammar, punctuation, spelling, tense, and readability.

Despite the increase in video media, there are more e-books, blog posts, transcripts, and other written content being published now than at any other point in history. That content is primed for your proofreading skills! Now, let me show you how to get started with a proofreading career.

How to make money proofreading online

It can be quite confusing knowing where to begin in the world of online proofreading.

If you’ve been scouring the internet for proofreading opportunities, you know this intimately.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be confusing. In fact, I know of someone who’s one of the most profitable proofreaders there is who can give you all the help you need in a nice tidy package.

Her name is Caitlin Pyle.

A bit about Caitlin: Back in 2014, she was making $43,000 dollars per year freelance proofreading from home part-time. She became so good at proofreading that she felt a calling to help other people make a living proofreading at home by starting Proofreading Anywhere.

She is generously offering a free workshop where you will easily learn about the skills and tools you need to be an excellent proofreader.

If you’ve been wondering how to make money as a proofreader, I strongly recommend you take her paid course. It will fast-track your proofreading career and save you countless days and weeks trying to learn everything by yourself.

Where can I find Proofreading Jobs?

You can find proofreading online jobs on websites like Flexjobs, EditFast, and Upwork.

However, I do recommend taking a course before you start looking for an online proofreader job or trying to get clients. The whole process is a lot more complex than it seems, especially if you’ve never proofread for money before. Taking a course by an expert in the business will save you a lot of time, money, and headache in the long run.

I would also like to recommend a little hack that will give you an edge in proofreading.

Start using Grammarly.

Grammarly is a free grammar checker that uses artificial intelligence to automatically highlight spelling and grammatical mistakes in a written document. It’s incredibly simple to add to your favorite web browser or word processor and only takes seconds to download.

Click here to download Grammarly for free.

Make Money as a Freelance Writer

Income Range for Freelance Writing Jobs: $30,000 – $150,000 per year. You can make above 150,000 with your own Freelance Writing business and hiring other freelancers to create written content for you.

Types of Freelance Writing Jobs: Part-time, full-time, and individual projects.

Difficulty Level: 3 out of 5 stars. Though you don’t need a formal education to become a freelance writer, you definitely need to have an area(s) of expertise and be able to write well.

With written content being sought out by businesses and entrepreneurs to strengthen their online footprint more now than ever, freelance writing has become a high-demand online job. So, if you love to write your heart out on certain subject(s) and want the freedom of working from home, pay close attention to this section.

What is a Freelance Writer?

A freelance writer is a self-employed writer that takes on various writing projects in a particular subject matter on a short-term or long-term contractual basis. Freelance writers provide valuable expertise and writing skills to clients. In exchange, freelance writers can make up to a six-figure yearly income from home.

If you’re a passionate writer like myself, Freelance writing is a great complement to other sources of income for writers such as blogging and non-fiction book writing. Doing multiple online writing jobs helps boost your portfolio as well!

How do I make money freelance writing online?

If you’ve been wondering how to become a freelance writer, I’m going to be straight up with you. It’s easy to become a freelance writer, or at least say you are.

But.

Freelance writing can also be quite competitive for finding good-paying work especially if you’re a beginner. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that you learn from an expert and educate yourself on the fundamentals of a freelance writing career.

It just so happens that I know just the expert!

Her name is Holly Johnson and she makes $225,000+ per year as a freelance writer.  Holly now writes for major publications and has been featured on Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and many more. On her website, she offers a free workshop that will give you tips for becoming a successful freelance writer and explain how she became so successful in her own right.

She also offers a paid course for a few hundred bucks that’s worth its weight in gold.

Why?

if you apply what you learn from her course and get freelance writing gigs, you’ll make back the price of the course and be on your way to making a full-time income so fast you won’t believe it.

After you’ve invested in your education, the next thing you need to do is to create a portfolio with any of your written work to be shown to prospective clients. If you don’t have any written work, that’s all the more reason to take a course from a wealthy freelance writer. This way you know what kind of content to write for a great portfolio that attracts high-paying clients.

How do I find Freelance Writing Jobs?

With quality education and a complete portfolio under your belt, you now have great options to land a freelance writing job online.

The website I recommend is Upwork.

Another way to get a freelance writing job is to cold pitch to businesses, bloggers, and entrepreneurs who you believe could use your writing expertise. A little tip for you is to analyze their website, see what’s missing and ask yourself how can it be improved. Then, contact them about your analysis, explain what can be improved and how. You may have success in landing a freelance writing job or gig for your goodwill!

Another service you can use is Writers Work.

Writers Work is a relatively new company that gives you an all-in-one platform to organize your freelance writing career, and a convenient marketplace to find online writing jobs for freelance writers. It only costs $47 once or $15 monthly which is quite cheap considering how much time you’ll save just in looking for online jobs alone.

You can also check out my comprehensive post on freelance writing jobs here.

Make money taking Legit Online Surveys: Online survey taker jobs

Income Range for Online Survey Taker Jobs: $500-$1050 per month.

Types of Online Survey Taker Jobs: Part-time and gig.

Difficulty Level for Online Survey Taker Jobs: 0 out of 5 stars. Taking paid surveys online is an unbelievably easy way to make money on the side. If you are reading this post, you most likely have all you need to get started right now as an online survey taker.

If you’re looking for an easy online job to make money today without experience, you should sign up to become an online survey taker right now. You can start earning real money in minutes.

What is an online survey taker?

An online survey taker is someone who gets paid to fill out online surveys or questionnaires from home. Online surveys usually involve writing out your demographic information and giving your opinion on popular topics (sports, current events, entertainment, travel, etc) or products.

So why do survey companies pay you?

Businesses across the globe including Fortune 500 companies pay survey companies for the purposes of consumer research. Your opinions also known as consumer feedback, help these companies improve their products and services. This, in turn, makes them more money and gives you (the consumer) better products and services. It’s an opportunity where everybody wins!

Now, you won’t make a living doing paid surveys, but it’s an easy way for you to make extra money in your spare time and supplement your main income.

How to take surveys for money

If you want to become an online survey taker the easiest way to go about it is to sign up for free on SurveyJunkie. They are the highest-paying and most reliable survey site I’ve ever used.

Not to mention, SurveyJunkie pays faster than most survey companies out there. They let payout on PayPal within 24 hours of your request but most of the time it’s instantly.

Click here to sign up for SurveyJunkie to start earning up to $50 per survey.

Make money transcribing

Income Range for Transcriptionist:  Most regular transcriptionists earn between $27,500 – $78,000 per year. Medical and legal transcriptionists earn the most. Your earning potential is much higher if you start a transcriptionist business and hire subcontractors for additional transcribing projects.

Types of Transcription Jobs: Part-time, Full-time, Freelance. You can also create a Transcription business.

Difficulty Level: 2 out of 5. If you are a fast typist and a good listener, transcribing will be one of the easiest online jobs for you.

What is Transcription?

Transcription in a linguistic sense is the act of listening to audio or video files for speech and writing all essential speech into a text document.

The act of transcribing is incredibly important not only for businesses but for human history. Think about this. We wouldn’t have many records of history, pieces of historical literature, religious texts, and much more! If you choose to become a transcriptionist, you’re not only just working from home, you’re doing one of the most historically important jobs to ever exist.

How to become a transcriptionist from home

Let me start off by saying one thing. If you want to excel as a transcriptionist, you have to be a fast typist and a good listener. Otherwise, you won’t get hired for good online jobs in transcription, and if you do, they won’t be worth the time. In other words, I recommend looking for a different online writing job if you’re a slow typist or hard of hearing.

Alright. You’re still reading this section?

Okay!

If you’re interested in becoming a transcriptionist, the next step you should do is to sign up for a free course from a transcription expert that knows what it takes to succeed. Janet Shaugnessy, owner of Zoom Transcription Services and founder of TranscribeAnywhere, is such an expert.

For over 10 years, Janet has been a high-earning transcriptionist. Upon finding success as a transcription, she has parlayed her expertise into helping others become high-earning transcriptionists just like herself.

Her free 7-day online course will show you not only what you need to do to be successful at transcription, but how to find good-paying clients.

Click here to enroll in Janet’s free online course on general transcription.

How to find transcription jobs

Before you look for online transcription jobs, don’t forget to educate yourself with one of the free courses above. This way you will be the most prepared to get high-paying jobs and clients.

With that being said, you can find legit transcription jobs online on TranscribeMe, Upwork, and SpeakWrite.

You can also check out my comprehensive post on transcription jobs here.

Make money blogging from home

Income Range for bloggers: For blogging jobs, you can make between $16,000 – $110,000 per year according to Glassdoor. For blog owners, you can make up to $210,000 per month (you read that right)! Your income will depend on if you blog for a company or if you start your own blog. If you start your own blog, your income will depend on how you monetize your traffic and how much traffic you get. Blog owners can even make seven figures a month if the blog gets scaled up into a fully-fledged business with employees.

Types of Blogging Jobs: Part-time, Full-time, Freelance. You can also start your own blog which is what I recommend.

Difficulty Level: 2 out of 5. Blogging is fun and easy when you know what you’re doing. When you blog for money and with the intention to help others, the experience is very rewarding.

What is a blogger?

A blogger is a writer who creates written content on a specific subject for a website. That content is published in the informational section of a website called a blog.

How to get a blogging job online

Getting an online blogging job is similar to the process I detailed in the Freelance Writing section of this post.

You can send messages to established blogs by using their “contact” menu tab to see if they have any freelance blogging opportunities.Make sure to tailor your writing samples and portfolio to match the blogging jobs you apply for.

Check out FlexJobs, ZipRecruiter, and Indeed for blogging job opportunities that hire fast.

Why you should start a blog today

In my opinion, blogging is one of the top online jobs for writers and best ways to become financially free.

I may be just a little biased though.

The blog you are reading now, the Luster Lexicon, was started as an outlet for my own creativity and my passion for helping folks pursue their creative passion without having to worry about money. In the process, I now make several thousands of dollars (after taxes) from this blog and most of it is passive income. Reading that statement back to myself still gives me chills considering how long I went being just another broke writer.

Blogging has allowed me to take full control of my time and finances so I can spend my life doing what I love to do. I don’t say this to brag in any way. I only say this to inspire you and remind you to never give up.

I’ve created a thorough yet simple guide to teach you how to create a profitable blog from scratch. And, I do this for free.

You will also learn exactly how I built the Luster Lexicon from the ground up, and how you can start your own blog that makes money.

Click here to learn how to start a profitable blog from scratch

Make money as a Scopist

Income Range for Scopists: $30,000 – $70,000. Beginners will make closer to $30,000 per year for part-time online work.

Types of Scoping Jobs: Part-time, full-time, gig, freelance.

Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5 stars. Scoping is a beginner-friendly work at home job for writers.

Scoping?

What the heck is scoping? I bet this is one of those online jobs for writers you’ve never heard of. Until recently, I hadn’t either.

Scoping a profession that’s a bit under the radar. This is a good thing, however, because that means there’s less competition for you to find a high-paying work from home job. Anyway, let me tell you what scoping actually is.

What is scoping?

Scoping is the editing and review of court documents. Do you know the court reporters who are responsible for typing out what was said in a court case? It turns out they type a lot, and all that typing needs to be edited.

The great thing about scoping is that it can be done from home or anywhere. You don’t have to go into court or anything (unless you love law)!

How to become a Scopist

Scoping is a great career choice if you’re a writer who wants to make a living from home. Like other writing job opportunities, getting started as a scopist can be a little tricky at first if you don’t have the right information.

The Internet Scoping School will teach you everything you need to know about becoming a scopist. They are the leaders in the scoping industry and have been in the business for 35 years. I highly recommend them.

You can also sign up for the Internet Scoping School’s 7-day free online course through this link.

How do you find Scoping jobs?

You can typically find online Scoping jobs on websites like Flexjobs, Indeed, and Scoping.com

Make money as a Screenwriter

Income Range for Screenwriters: Varies wildly from five figures to seven figures!

Types of Screenwriting Jobs: Part-time, full-time, freelance.

Difficulty Level: 3 out of 5 stars. 

Screenwriting is perfect for you if creating scenes, characters, and dialogue is your thing.

How so?

Screenwriters create what is known as a screenplay (or script) which is essentially a coherent, original document full of dialogue, character expressions, plot, and the setting. A screenplay is thus the building block for a film or videogame.

You can mostly expect to be pitching your screenplay to individuals and production companies that could turn it into a film.

Perhaps with some persistence and enough creativity, you could find yourself being accepted by the likes of Netflix or HBO!

How do you find Screenwriter jobs?

You can typically find online Screenwriter jobs on websites like Flexjobs, Indeed, and Screenwritingstaffing.com