There are so many perks to being a professional writer if you ask me (which you kinda are). One of the coolest features of being a freelance writer is that every job looks and feels a little different. It helps keep every workday fresh. It also helps improve my sense of creativity and helps keep me educated on everything. Ever since AI blog writers entered the freelance world, most of us have had to pursue a lot of flexibility in how we look at writing jobs. So, here are some of the most useful side hustles for freelance writers that I’ve found.

The best side hustles for freelance writers

I’m going to say this right off the bat: not all of these will be extremely profitable. This often feels like the elephant in the room regarding blog posts about writing jobs. However, I’ve found all of these to help broaden my knowledge base and help me enjoy a new sense of creativity and feel productive. Let’s go.

• Cross-training: As I talked about in my post about how to make money as a writer, you can consider learning how to do a sideways job. There are so many examples, including editing, technical writing, SEO analytics, the world of SMO, and more. I’d recommend picking a cross-training job that you are actually interested in, as that will make it much more fun and invigorating.

• Write something new: As some may know, I did this by writing a book. For me, being a published author was on my writing bucket list, and I thought it would be really useful to learn how to plan, draft, edit, and publish a book. Not to mention, it looks great as part of a writing portfolio. I really gained a lot from this experience, and it’s just one of the many examples out there. Find something to write about in a format that is interesting to you, and see what happens!

• Consulting or training newbies: This one might make you raise an eyebrow. After all, why should you spend time training new writers who are just going to replace you? As fellow professional writers already know, every job and every client will be different, and there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to a specific gig or deliverable. So, go ahead and give some tips and tricks to companies or new writers and give everyone a boost.  You might be surprised at just how much you learn, too!

Writing side hustles made simple

When I first planned this blog post, I figured I’d spend a lot of time focused on actual writing jobs. Not only did I already cover that in a previous post, I found it more useful to really think outside of the box and suggest side hustles that are actually useful and educational. There’s a lot of competition out there already going with the standard writing side hustles, so these options can help you still enjoy that sense of productivity, earn some cash, and still enjoy a really different experience that you might not have thought about otherwise!

Do you have any others you’d like to add? Do you think some of these are somewhat useless? Please share below!