You already know words move markets. The question is how to turn your writing into steady revenue without building a massive media company first. As an entrepreneur who hires writers and sells writing, I’ll show you a simple path that starts with a focused offer, a lean portfolio, and outreach that lands paid work.
You do not need fancy tools to begin. You need a niche, four to six strong samples, and a short pitch that proves fit. The steps below come from running real client pipelines, scoping real projects, and turning one-off wins into dependable monthly income.
In this article, I will share some tips on how to make money with freelance writing that you can put to work this week. You will also see how to quote clear scopes, package simple retainers, and keep one public channel warm so inbound leads start to compound.
Table of Contents
How To Make Money with Freelance Writing Step 1: Find Your Writing Sweet Spot
Pick one type of writing that businesses actually pay for and stick with it for at least three months. Maybe it’s blog posts for software companies, case studies, product descriptions, email campaigns, or in-depth guides. Spend some time looking at job boards and what agencies are offering their clients. Notice which types of projects come up over and over, and what they’re willing to pay. Then create samples that look just like what they’re buying.
Before you dive deep into any niche, do a quick reality check. Look at how often these jobs get posted, what the conversations around them look like, and where the real money is. Freelancing isn’t going anywhere – skilled freelancers in the U.S. made over a trillion dollars in 2024, which tells you there’s real money flowing to independent writers.
How To Make Money with Freelance Writing Step 2: Know Who You’re Writing For
Get specific about your ideal client and what they’re trying to accomplish. A marketing manager at a tech company needs blog posts and case studies that bring in leads. An online store owner wants product copy and email sequences that actually sell stuff. Write down how often they publish, who needs to approve the work, and what success looks like to them. When you understand their world, your pitches sound like you actually get it.
Do your homework on how they operate. How often do they publish content? Who’s the decision maker? What topics do they focus on? Where do their projects typically get stuck? When your outreach shows you understand their process and includes a perfect writing sample, you look like someone who can solve their problems instead of creating new ones.
How To Make Money with Freelance Writing Step 3: Build a Portfolio That Works
Create four to six writing samples that match exactly what you want to get hired for. If you don’t have client work yet, write pieces that look like they could be live on a real website. Create a case study with a clear problem and solution, write a landing page with tight copy, or draft a blog post that follows an actual brief you found online. Put everything on one simple page with quick notes about who it was written for and what it was supposed to accomplish.
Keep the presentation clean and simple. Make sure it loads fast, looks good on phones, and makes it easy for people to contact you. Your portfolio should answer two questions immediately: can you handle this type of work, and will you be easy to work with?
How To Make Money with Freelance Writing Step 4: Set Up Your Professional Presence
Write one clear sentence about what you do and who you do it for. Something like “I write case studies and how-to guides for cybersecurity companies.” Add a short bio, a decent headshot, and use the same name/handle across your website, LinkedIn, and email. Consistency makes people trust you faster.
Create a services page that explains what you offer, how long it takes, and what it costs (at least a range). Give them one simple starter option and mention that you do ongoing work too. End with one clear next step – either “schedule a quick call” or “email me your project details.” The fewer decisions they have to make, the faster things move forward.
How To Make Money with Freelance Writing Step 5: Pitch the Right Way
Create one solid pitch template with your positioning statement, one great writing sample, and a clear next step. Then customize it for each potential client. Keep it short and specific. You’re trying to get a response, not tell your life story. If you don’t hear back after a week, follow up once and then move on. Consistency beats perfection every time.
Track your outreach like a professional. Note the date, where you found them, what type of company, what sample you sent, their response, and what you need to do next. This shows you which sources actually work and which samples get results. You’ll also discover that sending a few targeted pitches every day works way better than spending forever on one “perfect” application.
How To Make Money with Freelance Writing Step 6: Build Steady Income
Mix one-time projects with ongoing monthly work so you’re not scrambling every few weeks. Turn a single blog post into a three-post monthly package. Add a summary sheet to go with that case study. When clients ask for help with planning or editing, say yes if it makes sense. Bundled services make your income more predictable and keep clients around longer.
Keep posting useful content somewhere public. Share helpful threads on LinkedIn or write longer pieces on Medium, and always point people back to your services page. Public writing brings in warmer leads, makes sales conversations shorter, and gives you more leverage when you want to raise your rates.
How To Make Money with Freelance Writing Step 7: Making Money on Medium
Medium works both as a way to get discovered and as another income stream. Their Partner Program pays you based on how much engagement your stories get from Medium members, and their help section explains exactly how it works. If you publish practical content that helps your target clients, you can earn money on the platform while also attracting people to your main business.
Getting started is pretty straightforward. You need to be 18 or older, live in a supported country, and have published at least once in the past six months. Keep your author bio focused, link to your services page, and publish consistently. This simple approach builds your reach and credibility over time.
7 Websites to Find Writing Jobs in 2025
Upwork
If you want steady, qualified demand, Upwork is still the biggest fishing pond. Keep your profile laser-specific (e.g., “B2B SaaS blog writer” vs. “writer”), add a focused Portfolio Project, and reply with short, tailored proposals that mirror the client’s language. Filters + “Saved Searches” help you surface only the briefs you actually want, and Project Catalog can bring in passive leads between pitches.
What can you earn? Upwork’s own guidance puts writer pricing bands roughly at $0.05–$1.50 per word depending on experience and scope, and cites $500 for short white papers up to $5,000+ for long, research-heavy ones. Typical hourly writer rates on the marketplace often sit in the mid-$20s to $40s, with high-skill niches commanding more. Note Upwork’s fee is now variable (0–15%) on new contracts, replacing the old flat 10%, so price accordingly.
Fiverr
Fiverr rewards productized offers and fast delivery. Package your services (e.g., “1,200-word thought-leadership article” with set inclusions), use FAQs to pre-handle objections, and add logical upsells (source interviews, SEO brief, social snippets). Keep your gallery and first three lines tight.
Earnings vary by niche and positioning. Fiverr’s own guide pegs ghostwriting at about $0.10–$0.70 per word or roughly $49–$84/hour, while real-world sellers report average order values around $100–$150 once established. Remember Fiverr takes ~20% from the seller side on each completed order, so bake that into your pricing.
ProBlogger Job Board
This is a classic board for blog-centric gigs and niche content roles. The quality is better than generic classifieds, and you’ll often find briefs from site owners and content teams who actually understand blogging. Set alerts for your niche + “per word” so you can jump quickly on fresh, relevant posts.
Pay here ranges widely because publishers set their own budgets. Public profiles and listings show everything from $0.04–$0.15/word at the low end up to $0.50–$1.00/word (and above) for specialist niches; some posts quote $50–$150 per article while others specify higher per-word rates. As always, pitch with one perfect, relevant sample, not a resume.
FlexJobs
FlexJobs is curated and skews professional is great for remote contracts with legit companies (tech, healthcare, nonprofits). Use their filters to zero in on “freelance,” “contract,” and your vertical, then stack it with a crisp portfolio site and a clean LinkedIn to close credibility gaps fast.
Because FlexJobs is a listings aggregator, rates depend on the employer. As context, FlexJobs cites copywriter averages around ~$60k/year, and recent roundups show freelance copy roles around ~$26/hour, while broader market data for “freelance writer” sits roughly in the low-to-mid-$20s per hour (with experts higher). Use these as benchmarks when you counter.
Treat LinkedIn as both a job board and a direct-to-buyer channel. Set Job Alerts for niche keywords (“B2B content writer,” “case study writer”), post weekly authority content, and DM hiring managers with one relevant sample + a mini audit. A tight Featured section (3–5 best pieces) does heavy lifting.
If you angle into executive personal-brand content, retainers can be meaningful. Industry pricing pages and operator posts place LinkedIn ghostwriting retainers commonly in the ~$1,000–$5,000+/mo range depending on deliverables and seniority; some agencies publish packages starting around $2,000/month, with premium offers higher.
Contena
Contena is a paid, curated board plus training is useful when you value time over trawling dozens of sites. The filters help you find higher-intent buyers by niche and rate, and the coaching materials are helpful if you’re packaging offers for the first time.
Earnings vary per listing, but the draw is that a chunk of posts skew higher than typical free boards. Public job teasers and niche analyses referencing Contena show budgets like $7,000/month roles and per-word ranges around $0.30–$0.70 for specialized formats (e.g., scripts, white papers). As always, validate inside the platform before applying.
Freelance Writing Jobs (FWJ)
FWJ (FreelanceWriting.com) aggregates fresh writing gigs daily across content, copy, journalism, and editing. It’s a fast scan: check every morning, sort by “remote” and “contract,” and pitch the ones that match your samples 1:1. Pair it with a simple Airtable to track pitches and follow-ups.
Rates here cover the spectrum. Third-party roundups note many FWJ-sourced listings in the $0.02–$0.06/word tier (with occasional flat $100–$500+ articles), so treat it as a volume lead source and negotiate up when your niche fit is strong. Use benchmarks from broader market data to avoid underpricing.
Can You Actually Make Money with Freelance Writing?
Absolutely, and the numbers tell a pretty compelling story. MBO Partners found that 72.7 million Americans are working independently now, with a record 5.6 million earning over $100,000 in 2025. That’s up from 4.7 million just last year. There’s real money flowing to independent experts, and writers are definitely part of that mix.
Upwork’s latest research makes it even clearer. One in four skilled knowledge workers in the U.S. are freelancing now, and those who make their entire living from freelance work report a median income of $85,000.
If your goal is to make money with freelance writing, focusing on a specific niche and consistently reaching out to potential clients puts you right in the path of that spending. The key is positioning yourself where businesses are already investing in content, and then making sure they know you exist.
How Much Do Freelance Writers Make On Average?
There’s no single “average” because everyone prices differently, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics gives us a helpful reference point. The median pay for writers and authors is $72,270 as of May 2024. That’s for employees, not freelancers, but it shows you what the market thinks professional writing is worth and gives you a baseline for your own project and retainer pricing.
If you want to make money with freelance writing at a sustainable level, think of that figure as context, not a ceiling.
For freelance specific numbers, check out the Editorial Freelancers Association and what’s happening on the major platforms. EFA publishes professional rate ranges by type of writing, and on Upwork, content writers typically charge $15 to $40 per hour with a $25 median.
Longer pieces like white papers often run $500 to $5,000 or more depending on how deep the research goes. The writers who consistently make money with freelance writing usually price by project rather than by hour, because it lets them get paid for the value they create, not just the time they spend.
What Is A Good Hourly Rate For A Beginner Freelance Writer?
A realistic starting point for beginners is $20 to $40 per hour for basic content work. This lines up with what you see on platforms where many new freelancers start in the $10 to $25 range while they’re building their portfolios and figuring out their process, with the median for content writers sitting around $25.
Set a personal minimum rate so you don’t accidentally work for less than your time is worth while you’re learning the ropes. This approach gives you breathing room to make money with freelance writing without burning yourself out on low paying gigs.
Switch to project pricing as soon as you can manage it, but keep that hourly rate in mind as a sanity check. Use solid references like EFA’s rate guides and Upwork’s writing rate breakdown. They show short white papers around $500 and longer ones at $5,000 or more.
Justify your quotes based on how much research is involved, whether interviews are needed, and how many revision rounds you’ll include. This is honestly the most straightforward way for beginners to raise their rates over time and reliably make money with freelance writing as they get more experienced.
Conclusion: Is Starting A Writing Business Profitable In 2025?
Yes, if you run it like a real service business. Pick one lane, build tight samples, and send targeted pitches every week. Turn single projects into simple retainers so revenue steadies across months. Keep one public channel active so good work draws warmer leads.
This plan compounds when you stay consistent. Clear scope, fast communication, and clean drafts raise your rates over time. With that rhythm, you can make money with freelance writing in a reliable way. As your niche deepens and referrals grow, you can also make money with freelance writing at stronger margins.
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