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Have you been looking for the best online side hustles for writers and authors specifically? Read on!
Today in 2021, it is more important than ever to establish several income streams if you’re going to thrive financially.
Having reliable online side hustles enables you to do just that. They can mean the difference between making ends meet and struggling indefinitely. Believe me, I’ve been on both ends of the stick.
And let’s face it. Writing doesn’t always pay the bills, especially when you’re first starting out.
Side hustles helped get me out of tough financial crunches while I was still going to college and at the beginning of my writing career. Some side hustles that I tried didn’t work, turned out to be scams, or just weren’t worth the time investment.
The 9 side hustles I’m about to tell you have been time-tested for me and other writers that I know.
I wanted to share them with you because if they helped us, I know they can help you.
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The Online Side Hustles
1. Get a work from home job
One of the most if not the most important commodities we have as writers is time. Between daily responsibilities and relationships with others, it can be hard to find adequate time to write. This is where working from home can help tremendously.
I speak from experience. Literally, all jobs during my whole writing career have been work-from-home. They enabled me to save time on commuting and getting dressed up for work. That’s valuable time that I invested back into my writing.
You may be wondering if it’s hard to find a work-from-home job or where to find them.
Don’t worry.
it’s easy to find one when you know where to look, and you have a little persistence. There are countless work from home opportunities available across many industries (including writing) that are legitimate and pay well.
ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Flexjobs and are all great places to start. In fact, my first work from home job came from ZipRecruiter.
However, My current favorite is Flexjobs, however. My #1 reason is that you don’t have to worry about work from home job scams. Flexjobs also vets work from home jobs for wage and description accuracy, and to make sure they’re actually hiring now.
It costs about the price of a large pizza for membership, and if you know anything about searching for work from home jobs, that’s a very fair price.
Click here to sign up for Flexjobs and land your next work from home job.
2. Fill out surveys and questionnaires from your phone or computer
Surveys are a fun little side hustle to make extra money in your downtime.
A lot of them are scammy and won’t end up paying you. However, SurveyJunkie is one of the few legitimate survey companies out there that actually pays something usable. The highest survey I’ve seen was $45 for about 2-hours worth of time. Now that’s a lot!
I’ve casually made more than $500 taking surveys. It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s not too shabby for only doing them during commercial breaks and waiting for appointments.
You can sign up for SurveyJunkie and start making money within minutes through this link.
3. Get a Freelance Writing Gig
Freelance writing is an excellent way to acquire valuable writing experience and make a part-time or even full-time income! As an added bonus, many freelance writing opportunities allow you to work from home.
There are numerous sites to choose from where you can find legitimate, high-quality writing gigs. Here are the main websites in which I and others I know have had success with: Freelancewriting, ZipRecruiter, Upwork.
Fiverr is another great freelance writing resource that I recommend if you’re more of an entrepreneurial spirit.
It’s perfect if you have marketable skills in editing, creating book covers, translating, formatting or anything else you can think of really. You can set the price range for your services and use Fiverr to help build your brand and credibility as a writer.
If you’re interested in learning how to start making money as a freelance writer and getting some tip-top training, I just so happen to know of one of the most profitable freelance writers around. Her name is Holly Johnson.
Holly went from making $0 as a writer to now making $225,000 per year as a freelance writer.
She now writes for major publications and has been featured on Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and many more. Her passion and success in freelance writing inspired her to help others create the same kind of success. This led to the creation of her Freelance Course on Earn More Writing School.
In this course, she teaches you everything you need to achieve financial freedom through freelance writing. Before you begin, I recommend taking advantage of her free workshop! You’ll get unique tips and techniques for becoming a successful freelance writer.
Click here to take her free online workshop on Freelance Writing.
4. Start a blog that makes money
Of all the side hustles for writers out there, blogging is definitely my favorite and one of the most lucrative.
As a writer, blogging is one of the most effective ways to earn a side income or even a full-time income. They are inexpensive to start and can be a way for you to get your voice out there, help others, and grow your writer platform.
Blogging has completely changed my life, and I know it can be for you as well. It’s allowed me to take control of my time and finances so I can spend my life doing what I love to do. If I knew how fulfilling it would turn out to be, I’d have started a blog years ago.
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.
All you have to do is get started, stay committed, and put in the effort.
You will also learn exactly how I built the Luster Lexicon from the ground up as a blog that now makes me $5000+ per month after taxes (and quickly growing).
Click here to learn how to start a profitable blog from scratch
5. Apply for Grants
Did you know there is an abundance of grants for writers and other creatives?
I certainly didn’t when I first started out. When I thought of grants, college scholarships and the like are what came to mind. It was only by pure happenstance in a Facebook group that I found out there were grants for writers.
Turns out that many grants are completely free and provide stipends, living accommodations, and cash prizes!
For your convenience, I’ve compiled a comprehensive 2021 list of grants for writers and other creators which you can find here.
Lots of time has been spent putting together this list and keeping it up-to-date. I hope it helps you out!
6. Invest your money and watch it grow while you write
Investing is crucial because you can use the money you’ve earned to make even more money.
Do you know what’s better? Being able to automate your investments and make passive income. You can grow your money while you work on your next writing project.
I recommend automating your investments if you don’t have much money to start with, or you don’t have much investing experience. This way you can see if the investing process is enjoyable for you.
To do this, I recommend an app called Acorns.
With Acorns, you can automate your investments by investing the spare change you accumulate from normal spending. Some of the choices you have with Acorns allow you to build wealth for the long-term or reach short-term savings goals. It’s perfect to use if you have little to no investing experience or don’t have a lot of money saved up yet.
Through my special link, you will get $5 added to your account upon funding.
Click here to download the Acorns app and sign up. You don’t have to make a minimum deposit, and if you’re a student, you get to use it free!
7. Become a proofreader
Yeah, I know proofreading isn’t exactly writing. But, as writers, all of us proofread our own work. So, why not get paid to proofread someone else’s?
And, I’m going to show you exactly what you need to do from this point.
First things first. You need to get some training under your belt to get online proofreading jobs.
Don’t worry.
Getting yourself trained up doesn’t take long at all.
Let me tell you about the go-to expert in the proofreading space, Caitlin Pyle. In one year, she earned $43,000 proofreading from home part-time. She ended up getting so good at it she decided to help others earn a part-time and even full-time income just through online proofreading alone.
Caitlin is a complete lifesaver for anyone new to online proofreading as a career. For a limited time, she is offering a free online workshop that will explain the ins and outs of proofreading and how it can be a great career choice for you.
Click here to watch her free workshop on proofreading from home.
I also want to recommend a little hack you can do to give yourself an edge in proofreading.
Start using Grammarly.
Grammarly is a free grammar checker that uses artificial intelligence to automatically look for spelling and grammatical mistakes. Adding it to your favorite web browser or word processor only takes seconds and is super simple. Click here to download Grammarly for free.
8. Transcribe audio files online
As writers in the digital age, we do a lot of listening and especially typing. Both of them are skills, you know.
Did you know that you can combine those two to make money on the side as a transcriber?
A transcriber is basically someone who first listens to audio or video files for any speech. Then, the transcriber types out all of the essential speech into a text document.
Sounds simple enough, right?
You definitely have to be a fast typer and accurate listener at the same time. There’s a bit more to it and that’s why I recommend signing up for a free course so you know exactly what you’re getting into.
Janet Shaugnessy, owner of Zoom Transcription Services and founder of TranscribeAnywhere, is the expert behind this course.
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.
Click here if you’re interested in her legal transcriptionist free course.
9. Enter writing contests
Writing contests are an excellent side hustles for writers.
They allow you to test your writing skills and commitment while putting your writing up to scrutiny by people in the writing industry.
Not only can you earn cash by entering writing contests, but if you win, they’ll boost your writing reputation! This leads to more connection and ultimately more revenue from your writing.
Best Online Side Hustles for Writers and Authors: Conclusion
I just gave you 9 reliable online side hustles that have helped me and other writers make ends meet.
But don’t just read this article and do nothing. Take action. Start a blog, invest, apply for grants, or do one of the other side hustles here.
Remember the best time to start is now.
I really hope this article can be the jumpstart that helps you make ends meet! If you found this article helpful, share it with someone else who could benefit.
Thank you very much…