While writing jobs and continuous contracts can be financially fruitful when you secure them, being a freelancer in Australia sometimes involves dry periods – where your stream of incoming cash slows.
When these pay gaps occur, they can be problematic for writers who earn a sole income from their trade, unbalancing budgets and making it tough to manage financial obligations, like paying rent and bills on time.
Fortunately, a well-prepared and resourceful freelancer can weather such storms. There are many methods that can bring in money beyond tracking down fresh writing jobs, including setting up streams of passive income.
Here we look at some solid ways to make money as a freelance writer in 2025. Consider the options below as pathways that can diversify how you earn and boost your annual revenue to generate a stable income in the year to come.
Passively sell your writing skills
Imagine earning money from your writing work while you sleep or pursue other employment opportunities. A wide range of passive income options can be created by putting Canva-edited writing templates, prompts, tools and checklists up for sale as products on digital marketplaces like Etsy. You only need to produce templates and tools once, but can sell them multiple times to generate income.
There are also passive ways to pass on your knowledge and make money at the same time. Consider writing self-published guides and putting them up for sale on popular marketplaces like Amazon. Depending on your skill level, you could write large beginners or advanced writing guides and divide them into smaller, affordable guides, reusing the same content to create multiple products.
Act as an editor or proofreader
A straightforward way to earn more money from your ability to write is to work as proofreader or editor. There are job platforms online like Upwork where you can offer this service to clients in need of assistance, or you can add it to your profile on LinkedIn or as a new page on your website.
If you’re a writer with niche knowledge of a specific subject, you can focus on it. You’ll find it’s easier to pick up work and make more money as clients will be willing to pay for your expertise.
Provide content strategy assistance
Working as a writer crafting quality content, you’ll likely have gained an understanding of creating writing optimised for the web. You can use this knowledge as a skilled service you pitch to clients with poorly performing sites and blogs.
Enterprises looking to advance their search engine optimisation (SEO) statistics to increase engagement, website traffic and digital marketing will pay for you to consult. You can then apply your abilities to help them plan an SEO strategy and show them how to create higher performing content supported by bespoke template and informative guidelines.
Repurposing writing content
Another way to generate revenue as a freelancer is to repurpose some of your existing writing work. Examples of long-form content, like non-new feature blogs, can be reused time and again to produce more content. You can refocus it from different perspectives or edit it for different online platforms including social media.
Not only does this help you create more content quickly, but it also brings your work to a wider audience, engaging potential clients and driving them to your other products and services available (blog and web copy writing, proofreading and editing, providing SEO advice etc.).
Furthermore, you can include content repurposing in digital marketing packages you present to enterprises seeking to expand their presence online.
Supplying writing training
In your experience as a freelance writer, you’ll have gained a wealth of knowledge and useful skills. Another way of monetising your abilities is to share your skillset with others for money as an instructor.
Online, you can teach through a variety of platforms behind a paywall like training sessions, workshops, webinars and digital writing salons. You can pass on what you have learned about writing content, but if you have a speciality subject, you can also become an authority. For instance, if you write a lot of marketing copy, you could hold seminars on SEO.
Are you looking for more freelance writing work in Australia?
If you need an antidote for a dry spell in your flow of freelance writing, we can help. At Words of Worth Australia, we are always looking for committed and capable writers that can produce high-quality content. To access a wide range of writing gigs, apply to write with our team today.