Write for Us: Read through our 10 Guest Post Guidelines to Get Started

Want to write a guest post for Make a Living Writing?

You’ve come to the right place! Our guest post guidelines outline what we are looking for so you can be sure your pitch hits the mark with our editing team. We are excited to hear your post ideas about the business and craft of freelance writing.

Carol Tice started this site with a simple goal: to be a central hub that helps writers make money writing. The site’s content focuses on helping writers find better-paying writing jobs, pitch more effectively, hone their craft, and even become an author.

Why We Pay Writers for Guest Posts

We believe that if a blog makes money for its owner, guest posters should be compensated. After this blog began earning income in 2010, guest writers started getting paid.

Rates within our Guest Post Guidelines

We currently pay $150 to $230 USD for guest posts (higher fees are for longer, in-depth pieces written on assignment only). We buy all rights to your post and ask that your post is original and not posted somewhere else at the same time.

Pitch your guest post ideas about…

What topics are we looking to assign? Based on reader requests, we’re looking for posts about:

Blogging: How to get more traffic, build your list, guest post, conversion, using blogging to get freelance clients (should be backed with data, screenshots, social proof)
Breaking in: How/where to find good beginner markets that pay
Copywriting: Tips and strategies for writing headlines, email campaigns, lead magnets, case studies, white papers, and sales copy that converts
Editor Q&As: What do editors really want? Talk to several in a niche and share it with us
Ghostwriting: How do you find ghostwriting clients? How much should you charge? Are there ghostwriting platforms that connect writers with clients? What’s it like to be a ghostwriter?
Juggling: First-person stories on balancing a full-time or part-time day job, kids, family, etc. with freelance writing
Making the leap: How to make the transition to full-time freelancing
Market reports: What it’s like to write for specific online websites and emerging platforms, including interviews with the company and successful writers on the platform
Marketing: Lead generation strategies to find freelance writing prospects and clients, how-to marketing tips for freelancers, ways to be consistent with marketing, how to find the right prospects to pitch
Move up and earn more: First-person stories of how you found your first good-paying client, raised your rates, up-sold a client a big project, or broke into a new, better-paying type of writing; where to find better clients and how to get them to hire you
Overcoming fear: New slants, techniques, and first-person stories on how to do freelance marketing or put your writing out there despite fears, how to build confidence
Productivity: Fresh techniques, tips, tools, or insights on time management, overcoming procrastination, committing, avoiding distractions, and staying motivated
Resources/tools/best sites: Seeking longer, 50-100 item resource posts for freelance writers
Self-publishing success stories: Would love to hear from writers doing well marketing and selling their e-books
Social media marketing success stories: On established or emerging platforms, from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Writing craft: Concrete approaches and exercises for improving your writing, overcoming dry spells, beating writer’s block, figuring out what to write about, writing headlines

Where should you send your pitch?

Make sure your pitch falls within our guest post guidelines and then email it over to our blog editor at editor@makealivingwriting.com.

Can you pitch now?

In general, we only accept guest post proposals from current and former Freelance Writers Den members, and past writers for Make a Living Writing.

Occasionally, we hold an open pitch time. If you’d like to pitch but you haven’t been through the Den then follow our Facebook Page. We post there when we’re open to pitches.

10 Steps to Guest Posting for Make a Living Writing

Here are our guest post guidelines:

1. Become a subscriber to this blog and read it for a while. Nearly all our successful guest posts come from regular readers.

2. Read and follow these guest post guidelines. Seriously, you would not believe how many writers pitch me who have clearly never read this page.

3. Submit your best headline idea AND outline for your proposed guest post, in the body of your email. If interested, we’ll probably ask for some tweaks before giving you an assignment.

4. Receiving an assignment is not a guarantee of publication. So remember to write the heck out of it.

5. We pay on publication, at month-end. We often have a backlog of guest posts and only use 4-5 per month, so it may take a few weeks for your post to appear. We pay using Bill.com at the end of the month your post appears, so make sure we have your correct email.

6. We buy exclusive first-time and reprint publication rights. We reserve the right to reprint your post on other sites owned by selfpublishing.com, and in future resources we create.

7. DO NOT SUBMIT PRE-WRITTEN POSTS without getting an assignment first. They will not be read or published.

8. We prefer 1,200-word guest posts (unless we’re assigning you a specific idea from the list above at a longer length we agree upon).

9. Note that we do NOT pay experts who would like to do a guest post ahead of an appearance on one of our webinars or podcasts, or who are posting specifically to promote a book, course, or other paid product. If your guest post has fresh, useful information for freelance writers, we may still be interested in publishing it, but do not pay in this scenario.

10. On the day your post goes up, please respond to comments over on Facebook. Part of what we pay for is your help driving engagement and social sharing of the post. Payment may not be forthcoming if you are MIA the day your post goes up, so be sure to let us know if you’re not available so we can reschedule your post.

Sound good? Email editor@makealivingwriting.com to submit your guest post headline and outline.

WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAID ADS, LINKS, OR SPONSORED POSTS.

If you are an agency or company working to place guest posts for links, we don’t do any of this. You can skip pitching us. Take us off your list now. Ditto if you want to publish your sponsored post with your links, or go back to an old post and stuff your link in. Not gonna happen. Thanks.

We will respond only if interested.

Due to the volume of pitches we now receive, we’re unable to respond to all the pitches that aren’t a fit for this blog. If you don’t hear back from us, you might want to re-read this page and work harder on your proposal.

For instance, I’d say well over half the pitches we get have obvious grammar errors or are on a topic that we don’t cover on this blog. Don’t be that writer.

How to get your post idea accepted

Wondering what makes an awesome post I just can’t resist publishing? Most of our guest posts contain firsthand, practical advice about some creative ways to increase your freelance writing income.

Here are a few great guest posts we’ve paid for:

Think You Can’t Make $100 an Hour on UpWork? This Writer Does

How I Supercharged My Writing Income With a Niche Website

How I Got 25,000 Blog Subscribers from Pinterest…in Two Months Flat

3 Ways Smartphone Apps Can Help Freelance Writers Get More Gigs

How to Get Well-Paid Copywriting Gigs Without Being a Suck-Up

Our nondiscrimination policy

This site actively welcomes useful contributions about how writers can earn more from writers of every color, ethnicity, religious faith, sexual orientation, political viewpoint, and country of residence or origin. If you’ve got helpful information for freelance writers, we encourage you to email editor@makealivingwriting.com with your pitch.

What kind of freelance writer are you? Get your report.