If you’re a student, the chances are that you’ve heard about essay writing services. These companies offer a type of ghostwriting — students can pay writers for their essays, term papers, or other academic papers, and then submit them.
Such services are extremely popular for many reasons. Even though educators always condemn writing services for essays, students keep buying their papers online despite all the consequences of being caught on cheating.
If you’re a freelance writer looking for a job, you may have also encountered dozens of essay writing jobs on the internet. One can find a lot of work like that on Reddit via specialized essay writing subreddits. Perhaps, you’ve wondered how much essay writers make. Well, the answer to this question depends on too many factors. In short, the industry of custom writing is thriving, and many talented writers make essay writing their full-time job. However, finding the right job can be a tricky task.
Why write papers for money?
First, let’s figure out why anyone would even consider such a job. If we forget about the ethical side of the issue, it will become clear that custom writing has a number of advantages. Even though these advantages may not be appreciated by all professional writers, if you have a certain background, mindset, and skills, essay writing can be a great option for you.

Writers who create academic papers from scratch often provide other services, as well. For example, they may edit and proofread students’ papers, or they may simply do the research part of the assignment and provide students with the necessary information so that the latter can write their papers themselves. This is also a nice option for writers who don’t think that custom essay writing is ethical.
Customers
Although some teachers may say that students who order writing services for their essays online are lazy and talentless, the truth is that essay writers deal with customers of all kinds. Many students don’t actually want to cheat but their workload is overwhelming so they don’t have enough time to write some of their papers. Quite often, students go online and pay for essays on Reddit, making their orders at the last minute. The reason is that students of many colleges and universities are under constant pressure.
Another common category of customers is ESL students. They get the same assignments as native English speakers, and they need to deal with the same requirements. Therefore, there’s no surprise that these students often delegate their assignments to professional writers. Besides, many native English speakers know that their writing skills are far from perfect so they lack confidence and ask for help to get a chance to get a better grade.
Of course, there is also another category of customers that consists of lazy students. Many students, especially those from a wealthy background, simply don’t want to waste their time on writing papers so they decide to pay for all of their papers. Even though this category of customers is least concerned about ethics, they are willing to pay a lot of money to get the job done.
So, how much will you make?
There are cheap and expensive writing services, or so-called “essay mills.” Some writing services work with writers from the U.S, the U.K, Australia, and Canada, while others hire writers from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Some customers are ready to pay more for an opportunity to get papers written by native English speakers, while others are looking for cheap papers.
If you’re not a brilliant writer, you can work for cheap essay mills, where papers cost $10-15 per page. Of course, the company will take a certain percentage, so if you want to earn more, you can work as a freelancer. However, it’s easier to find customers when working for well-established online writing services for essays.
If you decide to work for a cheap essay mill, you should keep in mind that many writers from Africa or Asia might be happy with earning $300-400 a month, and you will have to compete with them. However, if you’re a talented writer, you can not only work for more expensive mills but also take more expensive orders. Academic papers, especially term papers and dissertations, can cost $25-$40 per page. You can also earn more by taking urgent orders. Many writers make $500-$1,000 a week, and there is always room to earn more.
There are also countless freelance platforms and companies that don’t have fixed pricing systems and simply connect customers with freelance writers. In this case, every writer can set an individual price or place a bid. However, you should also make sure that your prices match your portfolio. How much you can earn depends on your skills, experience, and the time you’re ready to allocate for writing.