How to Make Money with Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Guide
How to Make Money with Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Guide
Suraj Vishwakarma
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TL;DR
Technical writing pays quite well, and you pursue it as the main source of your income. You can write sponsored content on your blog, guest post on their platform, or collaborate with organizations.
There are various ways of making money through technical articles. Let’s look into those.
Paid Collaborative Article
Collaboration is one of the most important ways to increase exposure to technical writing for the cooperative. You can learn a lot through their constructive feedback and style guides for your article. It can also lend you freelance work. With my first collaboration with daily.dev, I got the awesome opportunity to work with LogRocket through that article. There are many benefits to such work. You can do this merely for exposure, but sometimes they also pay you for the time you invest in the article. So, in both situations is a win-win for you. Also, these kinds of collaborations are based on a freelance contract.
Let’s look into some of the platforms where you can write collaborative articles.
1. freeCodeCamp
If you are a software developer, you have heard of them. They have a publication where they publish articles in collaboration with other developers. It's not easy to get selected as an author on their website. If you get selected, it is awesome for your portfolio and will get amazing exposure. They does not directly pay but it can boost visibility and can also promote your portfolio through them.
Read this article to learn their style guide and form to fill out for their publication: The freeCodeCamp Publication Style Guide
2. CSS-Tricks
CSS-tricks is one such publication like freeCodeCamp. While freeCodeCamp is a general tech-based blogging platform and CSS-Tricks is more oriented towards web development, especially CSS.
It's also an awesome platform with a massive reach. You can try writing them by reading their styles and filling out their form from here: Guest Writing for CSS-Tricks.
3. LogRocket
LogRocket is an AI-first session replay and analytics tool that helps you track errors. I have previously published a few articles in collaboration with them.
It was amazing working with them learned a lot through their style guide and feedback. You can read more about how to write for them here, Become a LogRocket guest author.
4. SitePoint
Another great platform for writing collaborative technical blog posts. They publish books, courses, and articles for web developers. Visit this website to learn their style guides and form for the collaborative post: Write for SitePoint. You can find such of website on the internet, a tech-based organization that has a blog. Most likely, they have a page for guest writing.
You can find more platform that looks for some awesome technical writer in this GitHub repo’s readme: https://github.com/malgamves/CommunityWriterPrograms.
Cold Emailing for Collaboration
You can send a cold email/DM to the organization or person who associates with the organization for the paid collaboration. This collaboration can be for writing articles either on your platform or as a guest writer on theirs.
There are chances that this kind of cold emailing can land you freelance work or even a job if they find it helpful.
Jobs in Technical Writing
Due to the rise in startups based on developer-based tooling, they need writers who can write technical articles. The salary they are also quite good. According to Glassdoor, $85,000/yr is the average salary of a technical writer in the USA. Mostly, there are two types of writing work that are involved in such jobs: writing technical articles and documentation.
1. Writing Articles
In this job, you will be asked to write technical articles for their blog. They most likely provide you with the content idea and keywords to use for the article. But sometimes, you have to do it all by yourself. It depends on the organization. This job might also involve editing articles of other writers (most likely articles of guest writers).
2. Documentation
As the name suggests, it involves writing documentation of the organization. You will be charged with interacting with developers to write proper documentation for their tools.
Monetizing Article
Platforms like Medium offer a subscription model where readers pay a monthly fee to access premium content. By placing your articles behind a paywall, you can earn a share of the subscription revenue based on the engagement your articles receive.
One of the significant advantages of the subscription model is the potential for a steady and predictable income stream. As you will not depend on the client.
Selling Digital Product
After building an audience, you can start selling digital products such as the Notion template or GumRoad ebook to your audience and to other people on the internet. You can create and sell Notion templates that showcase your expertise in organizing and presenting information effectively. These templates could cater to various needs, such as project management, content planning, knowledge bases, or personal organization.
You can create comprehensive ebooks that delve into specific technical topics, offering detailed explanations, tutorials, examples, and best practices. One such example of this ebook. One thing to make sure of is that you should not use your audience to sell mindless things or cheap things. Whatever you sell, make sure it provides value to your audience.
Affiliate Marketing
As a technical writer with a blog or an online presence, you can leverage affiliate marketing to earn passive income. This involves recommending products, tools, or services that you genuinely use and believe in, and including unique affiliate links in your articles. When your readers click on these links and make a purchase, you earn a commission. This method works particularly well when reviewing software, hardware, online courses, or development tools relevant to your technical niche.
Transparency is key; always disclose your affiliate relationships to maintain trust with your audience.
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Let's connect and stay informed on all things tech, innovation, and beyond!
Also, I am open to writing freelance articles if you are interested; then contact me via email or social media.
Conclusion
Earning a substantial income through technical writing is not only possible but also offers a diverse range of opportunities. From securing paid collaborations with reputable platforms and organizations to landing full-time technical writing jobs that involve crafting articles and documentation, the avenues are varied. Beyond client-based work, you can also build sustainable income streams by monetizing your own articles through subscription models, selling valuable digital products like templates and ebooks, and incorporating affiliate marketing into your content. By strategically combining these approaches and consistently delivering high-quality, valuable technical content, you can establish a thriving career as a technical writer.
You can also list down some the platform or sources that has helped you earning consistent income in technical writing. Thanks for reading the article.