Online Side Hustle #1 – Writing 

As Caribbean people, we have a love-hate relationship with language, making writing and editing difficult for us. It could be because we grew up with teachers who didn’t always make reading and writing fun, or it could just be that we despise the colonial constructs of language.  Still, despite English having some of us bazodee, many of us can and do write well. For those of us who can, there’s an opportunity waiting to happen in writing and editing jobs online. Setting up as a writer online is one of the easiest things you can do. I can attest to this because that’s how I got started.

A Few Places to Land Writing Jobs Online
Even though the quality of jobs you land might not be top tier right away, still, there are several good sources for online writing jobs.

Upwork: A solid company that requires you to bid on jobs and pitch clients. Payment is made via escrow, and you get reviews so you can see which clients are worth working for.

Constant Content: Constant Content pays decent rates for the experts, though it can be challenging to get started since the bar is so high. Definitely something to aspire to, though.

Guru/Freelancer: Most of the jobs are low-quality, so this is the lowest on the recommendation list. Still, if you want to give it a try, do so with care since they require you to pay for some of their services.

Other Websites: Several websites allow freelancers to pitch them on content. The Writing Cooperative provides an extensive list of companies that will pay you to write – it’s well worth checking out!

The time you spend searching for online writing freelance work, will be time well spent given that eventually you’ll have found yourself a way to get paid for using your mind 🧠 at a skill you (hopefully) enjoy and that you can improve on (and get paid more for) over time.

Focus on a Niche
As a writer working online, your best bet is to pick a niche and focus on it to get started. Rates for beginners usually start at $0.01US a word, which doesn’t sound like much but works out to around $5 per page (500 words). Beginner writers can typically crank out one of these in an hour. But as you get more proficient, you can quickly get three or four done in that same time frame. Still, at ten hours a week, you’ll be expecting about $200US a month, which isn’t bad.

Our next article will cover options available in editing other people’s writing.