10 Alternative Sources of Income for Freelance Academic Writers

Let's face it, the life of an academic freelance writer isn't always as lucrative as we'd ideally hope. Sometimes referred to as the "neglected stepchild of freelance writing" academic freelance writing has a certain stigma and negative aspect attached to it, that some people just can't seem to see past. The job of an academic freelance writer is not to help students cheat on their homework, essentially doing the work for the students. The job of a freelance academic writer is to provide a base, or a model for students struggling to make sense of their assignment papers or homework, so as to help them make sense of what they're doing. Freelance academic writers are there to help students out when they need it, to help their papers and assignments make more sense, so that they can they complete the work themselves, once they actually understand what it is they're supposed to be doing.

The problem with academic freelance writing, is that you're only catering for one market, and that market is students and those in some form of academic education. Whilst the market is very popular, and academic freelancers are certainly in high demand, there will be times when business is decidedly quiet, especially during breaks in term time. If you're looking to earn a living, you need a constant flow of steady income to tide you over and keep you busy, so what do you do? Well, you could look for alternative sources of incomes related to your writing talents, and use your writing skills and creativity to help you boost your income. Here are 10 examples of alternative sources of income for academic freelance writers, which is designed to help you increase your income by using your writing skills and overall creativity.

1. Start a how-to blog - If you're looking to increase your income, then blogging is a great way of using your writing skills and knowledge, and earning a little extra money in the process. Forget about a personal blog, as although it may be fun, if it's money you're after, you'd be very lucky if that worked out. What has been proven to be a tried and tested method however, is starting a how-to blog, that addresses a set of problems. Take cooking for instance, if you like cooking, and you're good at it and knowledgeable, start a cooking blog offering helpful hints and tips. The more people that visit your blog, the more potential there is to generate a steady income thanks to advertising programs. In simple terms, the more people that visit your blog, the more likely it will be that advertising companies will pay you just to host their ads on your page.

2. Proofreading and editing - If you're a good writer, you'll have good punctuation, spelling, and grammar and will know how to format sentences and paragraphs etc. Well, why not use this to your advantage and place an ad on various advertising pages, or even freelance writing pages yourself, and wait for the customers to contact you with what they need. You can then proofread and edit their writing so that it reads better, and get paid for the privilege.

3. Erotic fiction - Thanks to a certain poorly written book trilogy involving an extremely wealthy man, a girl he falls for, and a number of whips, chains, and who knows what else, erotic fiction is now hugely, hugely popular. The aforementioned book trilogy made the author a multi-multi millionaire within a matter of months, despite the fact that it's about as believable as an episode of Star Trek. The author proved that the erotic fiction market is huge, and although not all will admit it, many writers start out, or supplement their income by writing for various erotic fiction websites, or even self publishing.

4. Short stories - If you have an especially vivid imagination, why not try your hand at short stories? There are a number of publications online and in print, that will pay you for your story, if it's good enough of course. The pay varies greatly, but if you're good at it, and you can write them quickly, you could generate several stories per week, get them submitted, and hopefully wait for the acceptance messages to roll in.

5. Greeting cards - You may not have ever considered this one, but as you're a professional writer, why not try your hand at greeting cards, holiday cards, birthday cards etc? Get in touch with various card companies, see if they're hiring, or perhaps just send a sample of your work.

6. Magazines and newspapers - Magazines and newspapers are another source of potential income. Remember, just because you hear the word 'magazine' or 'newspaper' this doesn't mean you have to try to write for the biggest names in the world. There are so, so many different ones to choose from so why not give it a go. There's DIY magazines, fishing, fitness, country living, travel, food, the list is endless, so pick a few up, look at a few examples of what they generally print, and try your luck.

7. Try writing best-man speeches - Another great way of potentially making a very good income is by writing and selling best-man speeches. People often advertise the fact they're looking for a writer to create a speech for them, so search on various ad pages. Or, post an ad yourself. If you consider yourself witty, this could be an easy income for you.

8. Write resumes and CV's - This is proven to be a very effective method of income, as so many people miss out on their dream job, because their CV's and resumes look amateurish and poor. If you can create top quality CV's and resumes for people, you could charge good money as well. Ask your customers to leave feedback and reviews if they're successful.

9. If you can speak other languages, translate - If you can speak more than one language, advertise this fact on various ad pages and offer to translate for others. You have a unique skill, so use it.

10. Freelance websites - Finally, there are heaps upon heaps of freelance websites, some of them aimed specifically at writers, so get yourself on there and get earning money. Find out which ones are the most popular and pay the best, and focus on these.

Are there any more creative ways to make money in the coming off-season weeks? :)

11. Move to India, Pakistan, Kenya, or some other low cost of living country and continue doing what you're doing in the US/UK/Australia/Canada. ;)

It is through such interactive lessons that the scholars appreciate the essence of the net as employed in the varied learning establishments. There area unit some common habits that field students get espoused to and as a essay writing services reviews.

Col66lins, fall off a cliff, please. Nobody can understand your point.

Burger King.

I help students who learn English offline (English tutoring).

This is a pet peeve of mine, because I'm a native speaker, and I've been teaching ESL for 15 years. Especially abroad, but also in the US, more and more ESL teachers and tutors are not native English speakers, and actually are spreading ignorance rather than knowledge, due to their poor English skills. Now, I don't mind if the English isn't American; at my school, we've had Australian, Canadian, American, and UK English teachers, and that's great. I wouldn't go to Jamaica and set up shop as an expert in their idiom, personally, because I'm from the Midwestern US... but to each his/her own.

What bothers me is that during the last career development training session that I had, I watched 3 or 4 "teachers" get rubber-stamped through the program with absolutely abysmal skills, just because they (or their organizations) had paid the training fee. Their practice lessons were sad jokes! They just couldn't get it right... if you could understand through the heavy accents, what they were saying was embarrassing to any native English speaker who had been to elementary school.

Getting fluent in English requires steeping yourself in interaction with authentic native speakers, and about 12 years of study, just as a start. You can't butcher the language for 2 years in some backwater and declare yourself an expert. You have to have knowledge in order to pass it on. Otherwise, it's just another con game. Don't you want to be doing something that's not a con game?

"The job of an academic freelance writer is not to help students cheat on their homework, essentially doing the work for the students."

Speak for yourself. My job as an academic freelance writer is to absolutely help students cheat by doing their work. I fully intend to help them beat the system so long as they pay my fee. There is no need to sugar coat things here. What you are talking about is available to most students at most campuses. They just have to get off their butts and walk over to the learning center or some equivalent. Or, they can pay me and get an A. And yes, I can guarantee an A as long as the student doesn't do anything stupid.

When freelance academic writers use the "model paper" line, it is mainly a facade of plausible deniability, both legally and ethically. But some of them repeat it so much that one wonders if they've actually begun to believe it. (Some writers have even cited "research" findings that show 95%+ of clients actually do their own paper based on the model. It's an utter farce.)

Make no mistake. 99-100% of clients are turning in purchased work as their own.

If "model paper" makes you sleep better at night, so be it, but let's be real for just a millisecond. Good job, Pirate, for stating it like it is.

I don't think there's a writer out there who is foolish enough to believe that clients actually change the paper (heck, I think some of them don't even read the stuff). However, when I say that I offer only model papers, I mean it. Not because I want to "sleep", but because I don't want to expose myself legally. This business is a puddle of mud, nobody ever claimed otherwise.


It is not possible to guarantee any grade, let alone an A. You are either fooling yourself or your clients. Teachers, and you would know this if you had any experience in academia, grade students subjectively, based on criteria which is neither consistent, nor coherent. So how can you guarantee that you'll be able to adhere to someone's subjective view? You can't. I don't think that any writer (who holds his reputation to some standard at least) offers such guarantees. Besides, I think its illegal, since it implies your service is not intended to be used as a model paper, but rather as a direct submission - if you're unlucky enough, someone might actually sue you. I am not sure on this, but there are lawyers, and people who are far more experienced than me here who can explain it better.

I think s/he is saying that s/he can guarantee a grade on math/science type papers, which is a lot easier to do than, say, guarantee an A on a well-written history essay which differs from the professors' politics, and catches them before breakfast.

Still, it's good to stick to the legal BS, and not promise grades, because that implies that you're expecting them to just hand it in. As everyone knows, it's just a BS caveat to escape culpability, but it does work.

That very well may be, but it's still a very bad choice to guarantee grade. I don't do math - so I won't go into the what if's but what I said stands - grade guarantee is neither viable nor legal.

100% correct

Try to put it in your resume or in your job inquiry email and you won't get hired by a legitimate (US/UK based) company.


Not true.


You may try another experiment. Go to a local store to buy a knife and tell a salesperson you're going to use it to hurt your neighbor. Do you think they would sell you the knife? Probably not - UNLESS you start using the "I won't hurt anybody with this knife, I promise." line ; ).

I don't need to do that when I have a good balance between legitimate and other kinds work. It works out that my CV fills up quite nicely with my various store fronts while I make most of my cash out of the back door.


Oh yes it is possible. As I have stated already, the caveat is whether the student does something stupid. And editor75 is correct, I am talking mainly about science-based papers and other related kinds of assignments. I am that good. I take the time to get to know what level of writing fits the student. I have taught a lot of courses at various high and low level universities around the globe - these are my qualifications.

And I'll stir the pot just a little. I have written a lot of soft science, history, philosophy, etc. It's all touchy-feely stuff. In these cases I ask to see the syllabus so I can size up the prof. Most of them are big softies with hardly an analytical brain cell to be found. It's like fishing in a barrel. So yeah, in most cases I can guarantee an A because I do my effing homework. Bring it! Aargh!

And the knife analogy? That doesn't make any sense and seems a bit delusional at best.

Say what you will. Your reportedly "vast" experience may allow you to write A level papers in hard sciences, I don't know. I don't venture in those fields very often - by choice - since I dislike them. However, as you so eloquently put it, "soft" sciences require a different approach. Saying that people who work in those fields have no sense of analytical thought shows just how delusional you are.


Bollocks, I say. Most of those are just plain instructions. In those rare cases when the teacher actually pours some of his/her personality in their syllabus, it is relatively easy to understand how they think. But saying that you can "size" them up.....LOL. Good luck with your fishing mate.

That's not a very catchy advertising line in this business, you are not a good salesperson (too pushy and too much of the I-don't-care spirit), and on top of that you don't know the law ;). How many percent of students who order example research do actually need an A-level work? 20% maybe?

I know the law. No worries there.

Twenty percent? Maybe you're right. And maybe I am a bit more selective.

I sincerely doubt it. But then again, I might be wrong, and you are one of the all time greats, that has just emerged from a deep slumber somewhere deep underground. Sadly, this community is too confined, and too small to bypass such "talent" for such a long time.


If you did, you wouldn't use illegal forms of advertising. But I already told you, if you're unlucky enough, someone will sue you when they get a lower grade.

I see that I touched a nerve, so I'll just go ahead and smack it while its hanging out. You really should keep that thing concealed. There's a lot of junk that gets published everyday and most of it has very serious logical errors. Outside of most of the natural sciences, I can write about anything I want because it is so easy to simply make up stuff. You take a published source, find their central points, and spin it hard. Top scholars do it all the time and get away free and easy. It used to drive me crazy because I always played by the rules and tried very hard to intellectually honest. I feel much more at peace now I that I have come to understand how this works. Delusional? Maybe. Happy. Definitely.

Glad to hear it. Trust me, you haven't touched anything. I'm well aware that "soft" sciences have many gaps in reasoning. I wish every writer out there was so smart and logical, there would be far less angry students. Alas, we're stuck with you.

Okay boys, I'm done messing with you all. It's good to stir the pot a bit and get people talking. I appreciate the kind words. Later.

Oh boy. I'm now just realizing that the lot of you are all trolls. I was just kinda trolling and sniffing around. Amazing gig you got going here. I am impressed.

It's funny how you accuse others of being "trolls."

I'm trolling too! It's what you guys are doing here, so I'm just following the order of things.

An academic writer can also make additional income by writing his own "academic advice" book based on one topic or another. The ESL students are always on the lookout for any "Idiot's Guide to..." book that can help them wrap their heads around the English language and its grammar rules. So putting together a book that covers anything related to grammar, self published in e-book form and heavily advertised through social media is sure to generate income for the freelance writers year round.

Since there has been a slowdown in terms of human academic writing services, this field of employment has found a need to evolve. These days, the academic writers find themselves being hired as AI editors. What is an AI editor? The writer now has the job of going through tons of AI developed essays and articles, trying to make it sound more like a human being has written it. AI will eventually take over 10% of the human jobs in terms of writing, but it will never sound as good as when a human actually writes the article, essay, or paper. So I believe that more and more alternative writing jobs, in relation to AI, will be coming our way in the future.

When it comes to academic writing, the problem with AI isn't that it doesn't sound enough like a human writer. The problem is that it sounds almost exactly like a horrible human writer who is just trying to BS by filling the entire essay with words just to satisfy a mandatory word count but without actually generating anything substantive about the topic, especially to the extent the topic requires any kind of original analysis. Academic AI writing sounds a lot like an old cartoon that one of my freshman college professors handed out about how not to write our first essays; it was a fictional response to an essay prompt requiring 500 words about the Industrial Revolution: "The Industrial Revolution was very industrial. It was also extremely revolutionary. Because the Industrial revolution was so industrial and revolutionary, it had a very great impact on everyone who was caught up in it..." That's about what students can expect from AI programs.