How I Went From $0.70 a Day to My First $100 Writing Horror Stories Online in 2025.

 

Horror

How I Made My First $100 Writing Horror Stories Online in 2025 (Real Numbers & Sites That Still Pay)

I’m not going to lie: when I started this little horror blog (dlexxy.blogspot.com) a few months ago, some days I was earning $0.10–$0.70 from AdSense. Yes, seventy cents. For creepy stories I spent hours writing. It hurt.

But in the last 8 weeks I crossed my first $100 in a single month just from writing short horror, fantasy, and thriller stories online — without quitting my main blog and without spending a single dollar on ads.

Here’s exactly how I did it and the websites that actually paid me (updated November 2025).

1. Vocal Media – $43.80 (my biggest one so far)

I posted 12 horror stories on Vocal.media

One story (“The Girl Who Live-Streamed Her Own Death”) went into their “Horror” challenge and got 8,400 reads

Vocal pays $3.50–$6 per 1,000 reads for non-Plus members and $10+ for Plus ($9.99/month, I skipped it at first)

Total earned: $43.80 paid straight to PayPal

2. Medium – $28.40

Republished 15 of my blog stories on Medium (I just changed the title a bit and added a note “originally published on my blog”)

Joined Medium Partner Program (100% free)

Earnings come from reading time of Medium members

My best story earned $9.40 in one month

3. Wattpad Paid Stories / Paid Program – $19.00

Uploaded one ongoing serial (12 chapters so far)

Applied to Wattpad Paid Stories program after hitting 30k reads (got accepted in 3 weeks)

Readers unlock chapters with coins → I earned $19 this month and it’s growing every week

4. AdSense on my own blog – jumped from $0.70/day → $2–$6/day

After I started posting “how I earn” articles like this one, more U.S. and U.K. readers found my blog

RPM went from $0.40 to $2.20 because finance-curious people click ads more

5. Bonus: Amazon Kindle Vella – $11.20 (just started)

Turned one finished horror series into Kindle Vella episodes

Amazon pays roughly 50% of what readers spend on tokens

Still small, but growing every day

Total for the last 30 days: $103.40

Real screenshot proof on my Instagram highlights if you want to see (link in bio).

The 8 Sites That Still Pay Horror/Fiction Writers in 2025

(These are the ones that actually paid me or my friends this year)

Vocal.media – $3.50–$20+ per 1,000 reads

Medium Partner Program – $5–$50+ per story (depends on member reading time)

Wattpad Paid Stories – $50–$5,000+/month once you’re in

Kindle Vella (Amazon) – 50% royalty on tokens

Substack (paid newsletters) – many horror writers charge $5/month

Royal Road + Patreon combo – popular for ongoing fantasy serials

Dreame / Stary Writing – they pay $200–$2,000 signing bonuses for good horror novels

Your own blog + Ezoic/Mediavine (once you hit 10k–50k sessions/month)

My exact 3-step system right now

Write the story for fun on my blog first (because I love it)

Republish the same story (slightly edited) on Vocal + Medium the same week

End every blog post with “Support my nightmare fuel ☕” + Ko-fi/PayPal button

That’s it.

I’m still nowhere near the big dogs who make $1,000–$10,000/month doing this, but going from $0.70 a day to $100+ a month in under 90 days feels insane.

If you write horror, thriller, fantasy, or any fiction — stop posting only on your blog and hoping AdSense will save you. Start copying your stories to these paying platforms today.

I’ll update this post every time I cross another $100 milestone.

Now go write something that scares someone… and makes you money.

What platform are you trying first? Drop a comment and I’ll reply with tips! 👇