20 Ways You Can Make Money Online With Creative Writing

Do you find yourself with some free time, a polished vocabulary and an interest in making money online?

In this article, I will share with you how you can make money as a creative content writer.

These methods will fall under 5 categories, which are:

  • Freelance writing for online magazines
  • Publishing short stories
  • Winning writing contests
  • Finding jobs on job boards – and even some;
  • Crowdfunding and donation work.

The aim here is to find something for everyone, so I am sure there will be something that will pique your interest and earn you money with your creative writing.

making money as a creative writer

The Sun Magazine 

The Sun (thesunmagazine.org) is an independent, reader-supported (ad-free) magazine and pays their writers:

  • $100 to $250 per piece of poetry
  • $300 to $2000 for pieces of fiction or personal essays

Boulevard Magazine

Boulevard Magazine (.org) accepts fiction, non-fiction and poetry submissions. There is a $3 fee to submit online but no fee to submit by post.

They pay:

  • $100 to $300 for prose (maximum 8,000 words)
  • $25 to $250 for poetry (maximum 200 words

BM also holds contests.

  • Short Story Fiction – 1st prize is $1500
  • Poetry – prize is $1000
  • Non-Fiction – prize is $1000
  • Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine https://www.analogsf.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines/ caters to Science Fiction writers.

Analog

Analog is keen on developing new talent and for First English Language serial rights they pay:

  • 8-10 cents per word – short fiction (up to approximately 20,000 words)
  • 6 cents per word – serials (40,000-80,000 words)
  • 9 cents per word – fact articles
  • $1 per line for poetry

Poetry Foundation

Poetry Foundation publishes magazines and pays writers:

  • $10 per line (with a minimum payment of $300)
  • $150 per page of prose (for first serial rights)

All rights revert to the author upon publication. Authors get two free copies of the issue in which their work appears. All pieces must be submitted online.

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Chicken Soup for the Soul only publishes true stories of events that happened to you or someone close to you.

Stories must be 1,200 words or less and touch people in some way, get them to feel something.

They pay $200 per story published in their books and will accept a poem instead of a story as long as it tells a story.

Agni

Agni accepts short stories and poetry submissions between 1st September and 31st May and pays for first worldwide serial rights for either online or print publication.

Agni pays a maximum of $150 according to these rates:

  • $10 per printed page for published prose
  • $20 per page for published poetry

They look for writing that hasn’t become habit forming yet, fresh, original pieces.

Carve

Carve publishes short stories in their print and digital publications.

Carve pays:

  • $100 for Fiction (max 10,000 words)
  • $25 for Poetry (max 2,500 words)

They are looking for emotional jeopardy, soul and honesty.

Clarkesworld Magazine

Clarkesworld Magazine is an Award-winning Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine publishing short stories, interviews, and articles.

Clarkesworld pays:

  • 10 cents per word via Paypal, Cheque or Wire Transfer.

Fiction Guidelines:

  • 1,000 – 22,000 words
  • Short paragraphs
  • Suitable for audio

Non-Fiction Guidelines:

  • Maximum 2,500 words
  • Articles of interest to science-fiction writers

Wattpad

You can apply to the Wattpad Paid Stories program here.

We could not find how much Wattpad pays per word or per story but writers appear to be earning $1000 to $2000 a month with Wattpad.

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse is an online platform that pays writers for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry or Poetry translation.

They also hold Contests each year in January and July.

You can submit short stories, essays or poems to Crazyhorse Prizes from 1st to 31st January and the first prize is $2000.

Or you can submit 1 to 3 short stories to Crazyhorse Shorts from 1st to 31st July and the first prize is $1000.

Blue Mountain Cards

Blue Mountain’s annual contest deadline is 31st December 2019. http://www.sps.com/poetry/index.html

Although they accept both rhyme and non-rhyming poetry, their preference is non-rhyming poetry that’s fresh, unique and feeling-based.

Poetry Contest Winners can win:

  • 1st Prize: $350
  • 2nd Prize: $200
  • 3rd Prize: $100

Rattle

Rattle.com pays $50 for every poem they publish and they also have an annual Rattle Poetry Prize which offers;

  • $10,000 for the winning poem
  • $200 each to another 10 finalists
  • Subscribers and Entrants vote for the finalists to win the $2000 Readers’ Choice Award.

Contena Pro

A freelance platform where you can find brilliant writing, blogging and content writing gigs in any niche you can imagine.

Pro Blogger 

ProBlogger teaches you how to make money blogging.

They also have a very active job board for content writers.

Writing Bunny

Writing Bunny offers all kinds of writing jobs once you’ve passed their copy test.

Poets & Writers

Poets and Writers is also a great place to find magazines you can write for and writing contests.

Patreon

Patreon is a way to set up ongoing crowdfunding for your writing that doesn’t cost you sent.

Owning a Patreon page is kind of like owning a done-for-you membership site.  It’s an attractive and polite way to ask your followers, fans or patrons to pay you for your work.

Fans a few dollars a month or per post you release. Patreon takes a small commission each time a pledge is made.

Ko-Fi

Ko-Fi is similar to Patreon in that it also allows you to receive money from fans of your content; however they have a free option and paid option, their Gold Membership at $6 a month or $4.50 billed yearly.

With a Ko-Fi, you create a page and you get a Buy-me-a-coffee button (for $3) which you can add it to any page on the net.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is one of the best-known crowdfunding platforms and it’s a great way to launch your next writing project, especially if you’re thinking of writing your first book.

Creating your Kickstarter campaign helps you get clear on your offering.  The only snag is, if you don’t make it to your funding goal, you don’t get to keep any of the pledges from your backers.

Kickstarter charges a fee of 5% and operates in the following countries: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

IndieGoGo

IndieGoGo is very similar to Kickstarter, except that you can get all your pledges even if you don’t meet your project goal. Just choose their Flexible Funding option. 

Whichever option you choose, IndieGoGo charges a fee of 5% fee, and 3% plus 30 cents per transaction for processing credit cards.  They operate in over 200 countries. 



So there you have it…

21 ways, strategies, and methods to make money online with creative writing.

I’d like to add here that even though you may not consider yourself to be a “great” writer, this does not mean you can not make money with any of the above-listed methods.

What it means is that you need to practice, and yes, practice makes perfect.

I don’t consider myself a great writer (I’m not even a native English speaker), however; I have managed to turn a few words into a full-time income online.

I do that, by building websites, writing content to attract visitors, and then making money.

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