Make Money Writing Articles: A Complete Guide for Beginners

If you’re a wordsmith looking to turn your passion for writing into profit, you’re in the right place. While starting a freelance writing hustle can be overwhelming, we’ve simplified it below.

We’ll break down how to make money writing articles, including what you’ll need to get started and where to find clients.

How to Earn Money by Writing Articles

To make money as a writer, follow these four simple steps:

1. Decide if article writing is right for you.
2. Create sample work.
3. Make a portfolio.
4. Apply for freelance gigs.

Decide if Article Writing Right for You

Article writing is a form of content writing that educates or entertains. In contrast, copywriting aims to persuade readers to take a specific action, like buying a product.

In general, copywriters get paid more than content writers due to their direct role in generating sales. For example, the copy on an advertisement has a direct impact on whether consumers convert and purchase the item being advertised.

While content writing, like blogs and educational guides, should generate results like website traffic, it isn’t as high stakes as copywriting. Thus, copywriters tend to make a bit more than content writers.

Consider which option makes most sense for you based on your interests, skills, and income goals.

Create Sample Work

If you’re new to freelance writing, prepare a few sample articles. While it’s best to have published work in your portfolio, it’s okay to create sample work when you’re just starting out. (It’s what I did, and now I have a full roster of writing clients!)

If there’s a specific niche you’d like to write in, like travel or finance, create pieces related to those topics. You can use ChatGPT to give you prompts to work off of. For example, here are a few:

• (Travel) 3 Best Budget-Friendly Destinations for Summer Vacation
• (Finance) Top 3 Credit Cards for Travel Hacking
• (Parenting) A Beginner’s Guide to Gentle Parenting
• (Marketing) 10 AI Tools All Marketers Should Know About

Make sure your drafts are error-free and provide a unique perspective. If you have the option, ask a friend or colleague to provide feedback on the piece. At the very least, run it through Hemingway, a virtual editor, before adding it to your portfolio.

Make a Portfolio

Once you have a few sample articles, create a portfolio. From what I’ve seen, most experienced freelance writers host their portfolios on their own website. However, building a website from scratch is time-consuming, and frankly a waste of time as a beginner freelancer.

A site like Carrd is a more efficient option. Carrd is a no-code website builder with drag-and-drop options, making it quick and easy to get a website up in a few hours. They’ve got tons of templates to choose from—just change the text and colors, and you’re good to go.

Where to Find Writing Opportunities

Once your portfolio is complete, start looking for clients. As a freelance writer myself, there are a few places I'll go when looking for writing clients:

1. MarketerGrad by Pangea
2. Contra
3. LinkedIn

There are a few other platforms that aren’t my personal favorite, but that other folks use:

• Textbroker
• Upwork
• Fiverr

MarketerGrad by Pangea

MarketerGrad is Pangea’s marketing-focused freelance marketplace. As a commission-free platform, you’ll keep 100% of your earnings—a rarity for most freelance platforms.

It takes less than five minutes to sign up. Just paste in your email and LinkedIn profile, and MarketerGrad will pull together information to complete your account. Once you’re in and your profile is complete, you can begin applying to posted roles. In the background, their team will also match clients directly to talent when they feel there’s a perfect fit.

All clients on the platform are vetted carefully by the Pangea team. This keeps the platform spam-free and full of high-quality opportunities.

Contra

Contra is a similar freelance marketplace.Despite not being solely focused on writing, I’ve found the opportunities on Contra are higher-paying than on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.

The Jobs feed compiles gigs posted within the platform and gigs the Contra team finds online. This makes it a decent one-stop-shop for finding clients.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the social media platform for employment. In my opinion, it’s the most underutilized platform for freelance writers.

There are a few ways you’ll find article writing opportunities on LinkedIn:

• The Jobs tab
• Curating your feed
• Inbound leads

Jobs Tab

Click on the briefcase icon located in the upper navigation. From there, you can search for positions to apply for.

When searching, try a variety of search terms like:

• Blog writer
• Article writer
• Freelance writer
• Content writer

How to Get Gigs Onto Your Feed

There are a few freelance writers that curate lists of available opportunities and publish them for others. Give them a follow, and your feed will be full of opportunities:

• Chris Bibey
• Freelance Opportunities by Kaitlyn Arford
• All Things Freelance Writing by Jessica Walrack

Getting Inbound Leads

An inbound lead is one that comes to you, not one you’ve sought out. The key to receiving high-quality inbounds is having a fleshed out profile. This makes it easier for potential clients to find you when searching for someone to hire.

That being said, make sure your headline is searchable. For example, “freelance content writer” would be a much stronger headline than “making your blogs 10x better.”

Other Platforms to Consider

There are a few other popular platforms to consider—Textbroker, Fiverr, and Upwork.

Textbroker is a popular content mill, or a platform that works with a massive amount of clients by paying writers lower wages. After signing up on the platform, you’ll have the opportunity to receive offers from Textbroker clients. While I’ve never used the platform, freelance writers say it’s a good place to get your feet wet, but it isn’t the most reliable source of clients or income. Income data on Textbroker is a bit outdated, but some writers report earning $3,000 to $4,000 per month on the platform.

Fiverr and Upwork are similar—massive, global freelance marketplaces for talent and clients to connect. While there are tons of opportunities on these sites, you may find it’s competitive and challenging to land a client. Once you do, however, landing subsequent clients becomes easier.

How Much You Can Make from Writing Articles

The data on freelance writer pay varies significantly. For example, Glassdoor claims the salary for a freelance content writer ranges from $62,000 to $115,000 per year, with $82,000 being the average. ZipRecruiter, on the other hand, claims the average is $48,412 per year.

According to Upwork, freelance writers make $20 per hour as a beginner, $42 per hour as an intermediate, and $85 per hour as an expert.

This variance makes sense given the different types of writing, whether folks write part-time or full-time, and the rates they charge. To get a better idea of earnings in your niche, we recommend looking at freelance rate databases.

These databases compile rates reported by real freelance writers, which gives you a better idea of what you could make. Here are a few resources to check out:

• Contently
• Who Pays Writers
• All Things Freelance Writing (not a database, but a compilation of survey data)

To make $10,000 per month writing articles, you’d need to deliver:

• 10 blogs per week (40 per month) at $250/blog
• 8 blogs per week (33 per month) at $300/blog

If this sounds like a ton of writing, it’s because it is. Ten blogs per week is a massive workload, and it’s important to consider if it’s something you could maintain. Consider add-ons, like SEO services, or taking on non-writing projects to supplement your income without burning out on endless writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Earn Money by Writing Articles?

Yes! You can get paid to write articles by becoming a freelance writer.

Does Textbroker Pay Well?

Based on our research, Textbroker doesn’t publish income data. However, some writers have reported earning $3,000 to $4,000 per month on the platform when their content was highly-rated.

What Online Magazine Will Pay Writers $1 Per Word?

According to Who Pays Writers, magazines like National Geographic Travel and Quanta Magazine pay $1.00 per word.