An English degree may not at first be the ticket to a financially successful career, but there are plenty of ways for you to make money by using the writing skills you have learned. From running your own online magazine to starting a charity to selling your writing directly to readers, your English degree can transition very well to a money making career. The Internet has opened up millions of new writing opportunities. You just have to know where to look. Here are our top ten careers for an English major.
1. eBook Writer
Before the Kindle, Nook, and other eReaders appeared on the scene, many English majors had to go through the traditional publishing process and gamble on whether they could make money or not as a professional writer. Well, that has definitely changed. You can format your writing, design a cover, and have your fiction and nonfiction uploaded to eReader websites within a short period of time.
There are many full-time eBook authors who write fiction, nonfiction, or a combination of both. You can sell novels, how-to guides or manuals, or bundled short stories. While sales may be slow to start, if you keep at it, you can make a lot of money selling eBooks. Format your books for the Kindle, Nook, Sony eReader, and Apple iBookstore. The more you write, the more you earn.
2. Professional Blogger
Blogging may have begun as an online version of a diary, but it is now big business and one of the most popular and steady careers for an English major to make money online. It is more profitable, at least in the beginning, to write blog articles for pay. But you can, of course, launch your own blog and get paid to write. Different ways to monetize your blog include Google Adsense, other ads, affiliate marketing, and selling related products or packages.
If you’ve rather blog for an established website, then do some search engine research. Blogging has become a regular part of online freelance writing and some businesses will pay $60 or more per post. Keep a portfolio of your best writing samples and keep looking for higher pay.
3. Teach Writing Workshops
A traditional way for an English major to make money with their degree is to get a job teaching. But teaching jobs can be hard to find or require a degree in Education. However, there is a way to teach without an educational degree, and that is by running your own writing workshops. You may need to supplement the workshops with other writing income, but you can charge your own tuition.
Consider teaching workshops through an adult education program, after school program, at a library or in a local writing center. You can set up your own workshop series or even teach online. Get together with other writers and offer a group writing workshop. You can teach at writers’ conferences or retreats as well. There are plenty of options to both share your knowledge and get paid.
4. Proofreader
Are you an English major who is a grammar nut? Do you roll your eyes every time you come across the wrong “its” and ending a sentence with “of”? Then becoming a website proofreader is definitely an excellent way to make money. You can launch a business cleaning up online grammar, punctuation, spelling, and syntax errors. Set up your website, determine what you will charge, and start searching for clients.
While personal bloggers may not require a website proofreader, an online business is definitely a potential source of income. Contact them and offer your services. Business blogs, online magazine articles, eBook writers, and professional freelance writers could also use an extra eye to proofread their material. Gather plenty of clients to make this a successful business.
5. Run a Charity
If selling your own writing doesn’t sound appealing and running a business isn’t something you’d like, then start a nonprofit charity instead. You can definitely use those English major skills to raise money. Fundraising requires plenty of writing, and you’ll need to write sensitive copy in order to attract donations. Name your charity, register it as nonprofit status, start a website, and integrate a donation method.
Some charity ideas for an English major include literacy, ESL (English as a Second Language), teaching people to read, raising money for writing conferences or retreats, literary prizes, single parent writers, and helping writers who work from home.
6. Create a Tutoring Business
While tutoring students is an excellent way for an English major to make some part-time income, creating a tutoring group will increase both your exposure and the amount of money you can make. Write a business plan beforehand where you figure out how much you will charge, what subjects will be offered, how you will advertise, and how to grow the business. Don’t undercharge, either.
You can put your tutoring business online and gain national exposure. You could hire tutors from every college town in the country and make plenty of money. It’s also an excellent way to help struggling readers and writers.
7. Online Magazine Editor
If you got an English major degree to go into journalism and you want to create a profitable income, then launch your own online magazine. The most successful online magazines stick to a particular niche. Instead of a magazine about animals, focus on a specific type like dogs. The key is to start a website about a topic that you’re interested in. Purchase a domain name and sign up for web hosting, then customize your site. WordPress offers some pre-made magazine layouts, so you don’t need a lot of coding experience. Once you have the basic design ready, then you can fill your magazine with content and optimize your site for SEO. There are so many free and low-cost resources to help you with the process of creating a website, use WordPress, learn search engine optimization, and how to use social media as a way to promote your website and articles you publish. Udemy is a great site to help get you started and is just one of many companies offering affordable skills training.
There are several ways to make money from magazine traffic. You can put ads on your website, try affiliate marketing, offer specialized content for a small fee, and sell related products. Invite other writers to contribute content and integrate your magazine with social media to reach a wider audience. It can realistically take at least six months to for a website to earn a decent income. But if you’re dedicated and diligent, there is no limit to how much you can make.
8. Write Personal Product Copy
Millions of goods are offered for sale on websites like eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, and Etsy. Many of the sellers have little to no experience in writing, which is a skill every English major is required to hone. Writing product copy is an excellent way to profit from the vast amounts of goods being sold on these types of websites. There are many websites that offer eBay and Craigslist sellers tips on writing effective descriptions, but you could do it as a way to make an effective online income.
Brush up on your writing skills to turn dull eBay descriptions, Amazon products, Craigslist ads, and Etsy pages into exciting marketing copy that will entice buyers. Set up competitive rates. You could charge per description or a percentage of the product. Contact sellers and advertise your services. You can compile your best tips into an eBook and sell online as well. The more clients you have, the more money you’ll make.
9. Become a Virtual Assistant (VA)
A growing trend among online entrepreneurs and website masters is to hire a virtual assistant that will help them run their business. A virtual assistant takes care of regular business details, such as writing blog posts, updating website analytics, research, formatting, data entry, and making phone calls. A virtual assistant position is excellent career for an English major, since it provides an income and naturally segues into a telecommuting position. So, a writer can work from home and get paid while they write their novel.
Compare virtual assistant services on different websites, such as Upwork, to put together a list of similar services you could offer. Set up a website and connect a headset to a phone line so you can take calls from home. Offer competitive rates and highlight your strengths in writing, research, or marketing. Be punctual and treat your job seriously. You may never have a face to face meeting with your employer, but you can certainly provide assistance online.
10. Cover-Letter Writing Business
There are many niche writing businesses an English major is more than qualified to start. While helping job seekers with their resumes is one idea, writing effective cover letters is also a way for a talented writer to make money from their degree. Cover letters require a short and succinct writing style that is similar to product or marketing copy. Cover letters also need to be personal, rather than generic.
You could create a basic cover letter template for each job category, then modify them according to what the client needs. You could also pair your cover letter writing business with a resume writer and help even more clients.
Conclusion
These ten money-making careers for English majors have hopefully given you an idea of how you could create a financially successful career. Maybe someday the English major will be one of the most lucrative degrees, simply because it teaches students how to write extremely well, fully comprehend what they read, and think critically about what they have read. These are excellent and profitable skills to have in the Internet Information Age.
