How to Be Sure You’ll be Well Paid for Your Writing

You’ve decided to become a writer. You’ve heard the promises of the writer’s life. Work from anywhere in the world. Set your own hours. And earn a lucrative income on which you can live, and live very comfortably, with few worries about the economic vagaries that plague so many in the working class.

But you’re not sure about the money and income. You know of authors who spend years writing books that never publish. You’ve heard of copywriting sites where writers are paid pennies per word. On the other hand, you’ve been told of writers who routinely earn incomes up to six, and even seven, figures per year working no more than a standard work week and in many cases much less.

It all boils down to value. Certain written products are in very high demand right now. These are the types of writing for which clients are willing to pay top dollar.

Why spend days or weeks on a written project that might pay you a few hundred dollars when you could earn the same amount writing something far more valuable in just a few hours? Then, you could invest equivalent work time providing more of these higher-value written products.

Knowing the kinds of writing that are most valuable to clients is your ticket to ensuring that your writing pays you well.

But how do you figure out what these types of writing are? Well, keep on reading, because I’ve found solid answers for you. Best of all, you’ll be pleased to discover a wide range of possibilities no matter your experience, interests or writing style.

The Client’s View: Cost – or Income?

Fiction writing, for example, is an endeavor of timeless honor. But the payoff to the writer is far from certain.

What counts as entertainment to a reader is completely subjective. Whether a full-length novel or a feature-length magazine submission, your work is subject to the acceptance of a publisher. And they may or may not believe that your story will engage readers in their market and bring an income.

The fiction publisher bears a cost and assumes a risk in accepting your story for publication. And if they don’t see a potential for income generated by your writing, they won’t pay you for it.

Copywriting and content writing, however, virtually ensure a payoff to a marketing client – and your client will pass a portion of that payoff to you. In this context, copy and content are written products that influence an action by the reader. Often, this entails the sale of a product to a business or consumer. This type of writing results in income to your client. Yes, the client still bears a cost to buy your content. But their likelihood of generating income means that they’ll readily accept that cost and pay you for your writing. How well they pay you depends on the income they realize. This is where the value of your writing comes in.

So, while copy and content writing are generally connected to an income stream, certain types and products stand out as being especially valuable and worth your effort to write and offer to clients. These are the types of writing that will ensure a tasty income for your client – and for yourself.

Niche Marketing

One way to ensure that your content provides value is to specialize in a market niche in which you have experience or interest. This can include a hobby or a sport, in which you are active, or an area in which you’ve volunteered, as well as past career or employment experience.

This benefits both you and potential clients. Focusing on an area of personal experience and expertise puts you to work more quickly writing valuable content. You’ll need to do less research to write in an area of knowledge, and you’ll be more familiar with available resources when you do need to conduct further investigations. Additionally, clients within your niche will more readily see and trust you as a reliable resource – and pay you accordingly – if you present yourself as an expert in their field.

Finally, e-commerce demands targeted marketing. 72% of consumers engage only with personalized, rather than general, marketing messages. This adds further strength to your being knowledgeable and conversant within a marketer’s niche field.

Blog Posts

According to First Site Guide, 77% of Americans regularly read blogs, and 61% of online users buy something after reading a blog post. In 2019, Demand Gen found that 60% of consumers said that blog posts are valuable in the early stages of their buying journey. This is evidence of how a blog post you write provides value to a marketing client and a reward to you.

Written blog posts deliver value in both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) markets. Overall, according to SEMRush, 92% of content marketers use blog posts as part of their marketing strategy. More than half, 55%, consider them to be their top inbound marketing resource, according to Edison Research.

Content Marketing Institute reports blog posts and similar articles used by 93% of B2B marketers, topping virtually all other forms of content. Additionally, 86% of B2B marketers cite their blog and /or website as a key organic content distribution channel, behind only email and social media.

On average, a blogger invests just about four hours to write a blog post, on the order of around 1,200 words, according to Orbit Media. What’s the payoff for that effort? Between $150 and $800 per blog post, according to AWAI’s 2021 Copywriting Pricing Guide. At around $500 on average per post, that translates to $125 per hour of work for the blogger. Not too bad when you consider that a blogger who wishes to write two posts in an 8-hour day can handily earn $1,000 for their work.

Want to really kick your income into high gear? Get a retainer agreement to maintain a client’s blog! According to HubSpot, businesses that actively blog gain 97% more inbound links than those that don’t. So the value of your writing becomes unquestionable.

Pay depends on the market, quality and length of content. Blog posts are now trending longer in length, so commensurately higher payouts can likewise be expected.

Email Marketing and E-newsletters

Email is to the web as Morse code is to the wires. But despite its legacy status, email continues a favored venue both for B2B and B2C marketers. Face it – it’s in front of you every day. And, having migrated to mobile devices from desktops and laptops, it’s continually at hand. As a result, there are now 4 billion daily email users worldwide, 99% of whom check their email at least once every day. (And really – how many folks check email just once a day?)

Email remains a top choice of organic content distribution, used by 87% of B2B marketers, according to Content Marketing Institute. Furthermore, 81% of B2B marketers cite email newsletters as their most used form of content marketing, with 31% claiming these as the best way to nurture leads.

Email marketing not only reaches buyers; it generates income. According to HubSpot, $42 is generated for every $1 invested in email marketing. Meanwhile, the global email market has topped $7.5 billion, according to Statista. And that market is projected to grow by 138%, to $17.9 billion, by 2027! How’s that for a future writer’s market?

Email writing, whether in the form of the direct marketing campaign or the email newsletter, generates value for your market and income for you. How much? How does anywhere from $250 to as much as $2,000 – for one email – sound? Consider, too, that the best emails are short, tightly-written and get to the point – meaning that they seldom exceed 125 words or so. Meaning plenty of potential income for not a lot of writing time. And, you can handily build income by writing multiple emails for one or more clients, too.

Maintaining a client’s email newsletter can bring you $800 to $1,500 per issue. Since marketers deliver these to customers on a periodic, such as weekly or monthly, basis, that means a steady long-term income stream for you if you are hired on retainer as their newsletter writer.

Sales Letters

Roundly panned and dismissed as “junk mail” through many generations, direct-response sales letters – one of copywriting’s most historic formats – are still a hot ticket to a high income for you as a writer.

With the emphasis today on web and email marketing, copywriters often ignore the opportunity in sales letters. And that’s unfortunate. As Sandy Franks, AWAI’s Copy Chief, explains, direct-response sales letters carry a 1,300% return on investment. Once again, sales letters provide value because they bring income to the client.

Direct mail remains a lucrative revenue generator for a select class of marketers. But they’re not alone. Traditionally printed and mailed, sales letters also show up as digital copy on the web. Different medium – but basically the same format. With the same earning potential.

Direct-response sales or lead generation packages command anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000 or even $10,000 for you to write. But here’s the kicker: you as the writer also receive royalties. That is, the marketer will often pay you 2% to 5% of the sales revenue generated by your letter going forward. And, a really well-written sales letter can run for 2 years, 5 years, even 10 or 15 years – or longer! Get the picture?

If you’re a closet novelist, you might even find these long-form sales letters fun to write. The best-written ones tell a story. Of an innovative new product. Of a mind-blowing solution to an age-old problem. Of how the customer’s life is changed, or the business’s success is launched to the next level when they take action and buy the product.

And you get to be both the author and the hero. Promising a transformation. Building a picture of hope in the reader’s mind. Showing them how it can happen for them as you load up and laud the features and benefits of the product one by one in your story. And congratulate your reader for the action they are about to take.

The legacy of direct-response sales letters continues today, and their value can be your payoff both now and in the long term.

Case Studies

“Ask the man who owns one”, proclaimed The Packard Motor Car Company to less-than-gender-neutral generations of prospects. Word-of-mouth advertising and customer testimonials are time-honored confidence builders that motivate prospects to become buyers. And a case study is almost like a testimonial on steroids.

Primarily used by B2B marketers, case studies help companies to market costly or highly complex products and services to other businesses. Accountable to their peers as well as to customers, business buyers are often understandably leery of splurging their company’s money on an expensive solution. Case studies provide real-world accounts of actual business customers that have successfully used a marketer’s product to solve a pressing problem or to attain a lofty goal.

Seldom longer than 750 to 1,250 words, or two sides of a single page, effective case studies follow a typical format and are relatively easy to write. Because you’re essentially telling a story, they can be fun, too! Following a catchy headline, you’ll tell about the customer, their problem or goal, and what getting past this problem or meeting this goal meant for them. Then, you’ll share how the product or service’s key features and benefits specifically met the challenges the customer faced, the successful results realized, and the customer’s testimony to the product.

Think our client’s squeamish business buyer would be impressed, and their fears allayed?

Content Marketing Institute cites case studies as the third most used B2B content format, after blog posts and email newsletters. These real-world super-testimonials are cited by 68% of respondents, virtually tied with video content and virtual events, webinars and online courses. Given their confidence reinforcement to a prospect, they’re well worth the $750 to $2,000 that a client will gladly pay you to write one.

White Papers and E-books

Like case studies, white papers are mainly used by businesses to market expensive or complicated products or services to other businesses. White papers are often used where a client’s product is relatively new, innovative, reflects an entirely new product type or provides an improved alternative to existing solutions on the market.

Intended more to educate rather than to “sell” a prospect, white papers nonetheless bring value to the marketer by lead generation, i.e., drawing a prospect into their sales funnel.

The white paper often opens with a common problem or challenge that the prospect’s market needs to overcome. Then, the specific methodology, technology and features of the marketer’s product are positioned as a solution to the challenge. Comparisons or contrasts with other solutions are often made. The paper often closes with a summary of the product’s benefits, a “next steps” call to action and, possibly, a low-key pitch by the marketer’s company.

E-books are similar to white papers in that they primarily bring a company’s product or service onto a prospect’s radar – and provide a lead for the marketer. While white papers tend to be technical in nature, e-books are usually more generally informative and looser in language. Many e-books follow a “how-to” or “what-to-look-for” model, instructing a prospect on tips, recommendations or best practices on a matter of the prospect’s concern. Pictures, infographics and other visuals are also a key feature of e-books.

E-books also differ from white papers in that they are used by both B2B and B2C marketers.

They play up their educational aspect, thus coming across as a valuable resource to a prospect. This helps to build a favorable image of the marketer in the prospect’s mind, increasing affinity toward becoming a future buyer. Like white papers, e-books often cite a problem or challenge, provide content in the form of tips, ideas or instructions, and recommend a next step. Again, a corporate pitch may be provided, this being more robust than would be found in a white paper.

White papers and e-books are less prevalent among copy clients than blog posts, emails or case studies. Content Marketing Institute cites their use by around half of B2B marketers surveyed. Nonetheless, the companies that do use them place them in high value. Both copy products command around $2,000 to $7,000.

These content forms often run around 7 to 12 pages and take longer to write than blogs, emails and case studies, too. In fact, they may be on your desk for a few weeks as you and your client periodically interact through the project. You’d likely incorporate these as an adjunct to other types of copy with quicker turnaround. But if you like to conduct research and really sink your teeth into them, white papers and e-books can be mentally enriching and intriguing to write. And, they are among the highest paying written products you can offer.

And there’s even more …

These types of written content will give you a start. But by no means are they the only writing products that will pay you well. Here are a few more:

Site content audits and reports – Review a client’s website for content clarity, quality and search engine optimization (SEO) and report your findings and recommendations. A knock-on benefit to this job is that you’ll likely be hired afterward to also provide any changes and updates that you suggest. Fee range: $1,000 - $2,500

Video scripts – write the content for a short, 1 to 5 minute video sales letter (VSL), explainer demo, case study or testimonial. Fee range: $500 - $1,500

Long-form video sales letters – Script for a video version of the sales letters described earlier. These can be 20 to 45 minutes in length. Fee range: to $5,000 and up, depending on length.

Social media management – Maintain and grow a client’s social media presence with regular posts, monitoring and engagement with visitors for 1 to 2 hours per day. Fee range: $1,000 - $2,000 per month retainer arrangement

And there are countless other well-paying written content products still. What I’ve mentioned just scratches the surface.

Start Writing Valuable Content Today!

I hope you get the idea. You no longer have to wonder what type of writing will pay you well. I’ve offered a variety of possible products you could provide to a marketing client who will be more than willing to pay you handsomely for your work. You can even choose what suits you best among several writing styles. Short, sweet copy. Long narratives on features and benefits. Even deep, rich, technical content. Or, any combination of these.

It’s the basic sales principle: in order to earn money, you need to provide value. Choosing a niche or specialty will enable you to get up to speed more quickly in providing value in your writing. You’ll need less research to produce valuable content, and clients will more readily see you as a trustworthy content source and to pay you likewise.

Beyond that, start with blog posts, emails and/or newsletters. These short content forms can generate value quickly, paying you hundreds of dollars for a few hours’ work. This is especially an advantage for you as a new writer. As you gain experience, you’ll produce more of these products in an equivalent amount of time, multiplying your income faster. Over time, you can enhance your business with case studies, white papers and other valuable written products.

Build your business with any one, some or all of these writing types, and you’ll be on a fast path to earning a great income as a writer!

P. S.: If you’d like to learn more about how you can become a well-paid copy and content writer, a free course, “What is Copywriting? AWAI’s Essential Introduction to the Copywriting Industry”, is available to you from the American Writers and Artists Institute. It delves more deeply into copywriting as a career and the available opportunities. Tips on professional development, getting clients and earning a rewarding living are provided, too. As AWAI have been instrumental in launching my writing career, I highly recommend you check them out at AWAI.com.

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