Five Writing Projects that Pay $1,000 or More … And Can Be Completed in Just One Weekend!
By Rebecca Matter

Much of a copywriter’s success is determined by HOW you spend your time …

Acquiring the skills, honing your craft, marketing yourself, and then doing the actual writing …

These are what I call the main four “time buckets.”

But what if you’re limited on time … say you only have the weekends or a few hours each night …

Is it possible to make money when you have a limited amount of time?

The answer is YES. It’s really a matter of picking a writing project that meets the following requirements:

• You can quickly learn how to write the project. Ideally there’s a system or template you can follow.
• The project type is in great demand. Companies know what they are and use them frequently.
• The typical fee is at least $1,000. You’ll be able to spend less time than if you were trying to land multiple projects worth a few hundred.
• The turnaround time is under 16 hours.

Now that you know the requirements, let me show you a few in-demand writing projects that make it easy for you to turn your weekend (or spare) time into paid writing income:

Weekend Project #1. Case Studies

Case studies are short stories that describe how a company or organization solved a particular challenge with a product or service — and what the results of solving that challenge were.

Typically around 800-1,200 words, case studies are basically a “before-and-after” story. But here’s the cool part …

Even though they only take 5-8 hours to write, the typical fee is $1,250-$2,000. That works out to about $200 to $300 per hour …

2 to 4 times what the average journalist today earns on a story!

Best of all, clients need stories throughout the year. So it becomes a steady stream of work. We’ve paid a case study writer to write over 40 in the last year alone! You can see them here.

And with the rapid growth of content-based marketing among B2B companies (companies that sell products and services to other companies), the demand for these pieces has never been higher.

This next type of weekend project comes with a huge additional bonus: ongoing predictable income …

Weekend Project #2. E-newsletters

Business owners use e-newsletters to stay in touch with and build relationships with current, past, and potential clients.

As an e-newsletter writer, your job is to write fresh, relevant content (usually around 1,200 to 1,500 words) on a regular basis (either weekly or monthly), in the voice of your client.

The fee is typically around $1,000 per issue, but can go as high as $2,000 depending on the industry, length, and complexity of the topic.

But what I love most about this opportunity is the consistency …

Once a business starts mailing an e-newsletter, they can’t stop. If they’ve promised it will come weekly, their customers expect it weekly! And that sets you up for a retainer deal — which means predictable ongoing income, month after month.

This next project is something you may have never heard of. But it’s one that you’re going to want to do again and again …

Weekend Project #3. Key Message Copy Platforms

Funny enough, many prospects won’t have heard about this project either. But once they do, they want it. Immediately.

It saves them time. It saves them money. And, it makes the whole process of marketing a lot easier for them.

Key Message Copy Platforms are very detailed documents (no more than 10 pages) that contain all the relevant marketing messages and advertising statements about a product or service.

Their purpose is to serve as the “master messaging document” for that product or service, to ensure all marketing pieces will have a very consistent voice and message.

You can complete the typical project in about 10 to 15 hours, and charge clients anywhere from $2,500 to $4,000.

The best part? This is very rarely a “one-off” deal … in many cases, doing this one project first will lead to multiple future projects, boosting your writing income even higher. Which is something my next pick offers as well …

Weekend Project #4. Site Audits

Most companies have no idea why their website isn’t performing as they’d like … whether that includes not showing up in search engines, not bringing them new business, or not making any sales.

Yet by simply following a checklist, and looking for the common issues, you become a problem solver and uncover the “why.” Think of yourself as website detective. You’ll spend about 8 to 10 hours researching and writing (less when you’re more experienced) …

And here’s the best part: Grateful clients are more than happy to pay you $1,000 to $2,500 to write up a report (usually 10 to 13 pages with screen shots) that gives them the list of areas that need to be fixed.

And guess who they’d often like to hire to fix those problem areas? :)

So in essence, with this project, you can get paid twice! Once for the audit, and then again if you choose to take on the copy needs you’ve outlined in your report.

And speaking of multiple paydays, let me close out this list with a project that has three …

Weekend Project #5. Sales Funnels

Sales funnels are highly effective and engaging, automated emails that keep new customers moving forward and offer previous buyers new products.

What makes this project unique is clients will pay you three times.

Once to design the funnel (usually around $1,000-$1,500) …

A second time to write the copy (anywhere from $300-$1,000 per email) …

And then a third time to keep optimizing it — something called Customer Value Optimization. (CVO. This is where you look at the results and continue to tweak things to improve the funnel.)

These weekend projects help ensure you’ll be able to achieve your financial goals much faster. That’s because all five of these high-value writing projects can be completed in a weekend (or within a week, if you’re moonlighting as a freelancer).

And here’s a bonus …

Most of these projects … you can learn how to do them in a week or less. So decide which one you want to start with, get the skills, start writing, and start making your weekends or spare time profitable!