$103 in 30 Days Writing Horror Stories (2025

 

Horror

Look, I’m not some six-figure guru.

Three months ago I was staring at my AdSense dashboard crying over seventy-cent days. Yeah, $0.70. For stories that kept me up at night writing.

Fast-forward to last month: I cashed out $103.40 just from horror, thriller, and creepy short stories.

Zero ads spent. Zero fancy degree. Just me, my laptop, and a couple of platforms that actually pay.

Here’s the exact breakdown and the sites that sent me money in 2025.

My $103.40 Pay Proof (October–November 2025)

Vocal.media → $43.80 (one story blew up in a Horror challenge)

Medium Partner Program → $28.40 (reposted my blog stories)

Wattpad Paid Stories → $19.00 (readers unlocking chapters with coins)

Kindle Vella → $11.20 (just started, already growing)

My blog AdSense → extra $1–$6/day after U.S. readers found this “how-to” stuff

Total: $103.40 in 30 days while still posting the creepy stories I love.

The 10 Platforms That Still Pay Real Money for Horror/Fiction in 2025

(These are the ones that paid me or my writer friends this year — no fluff, no dead sites)

Vocal.media – $3.50–$20+ per 1,000 reads (my top earner right now)

Medium – $5–$100+ per story depending on member reads (free to join)

Wattpad Paid Stories – $50–$5,000+/month once accepted (I’m at $19 and climbing)

Kindle Vella – 50% of every token readers spend (Amazon pays weekly)

Dreame / Stary Writing – Up to $2,000 signing bonuses for full horror novels

Substack – Charge $5–$10/month for exclusive serials (many horror writers at $1k+/mo)

Royal Road + Patreon – Fantasy/horror serials → $200–$10k/month with a loyal following

Radish Fiction – Another serial app paying $100–$1,000+/month for good stories

MegaNovel / GoodNovel – Same company as Dreame, big bonuses for scary stuff

Your own blog + Ezoic or Mediavine – Once you hit 10k–50k monthly sessions, $1,000–$10,000+/month is normal

My Dead-Simple 3-Step System (Takes 30 Extra Minutes Per Story)

Write the horror story on my blog first (dlexxy.blogspot.com) because I love it

Same week → repost slightly tweaked version to Vocal + Medium

Add a “Buy me a coffee to keep the nightmares coming ☕” link at the end

That’s literally it.

I’m still grinding, still nowhere near rich, but $103 in a month from doing what I’d do for free anyway? I’ll take it. And it’s growing every week.

Stop posting scary stories into the void hoping AdSense will magically pay rent. Start copying your stories to at least two of the sites above today.

Which one are you trying first? Drop a comment — I answer every single one with extra tips.

Now go scare someone… and get paid for it.

— Douye

(Yes, the same guy who used to make 70 cents a day)