$1500 A Month After Six Months As A Freelance Writer
If you are thinking about how you can start making some extra cash by writing online, or want to take up freelance writing as a career, I’ve got some information that might be beneficial to you. No, this won’t be a detailed guide that you can use to get filthy rich overnight. Instead, I’m going to give you the steps I took to gain success, and I’m positive that, if you follow my advice, you will have a good idea of the mentality you must have in order to start earning an income by freelance writing on the internet.
About six months ago I made a decision. I said to myself… “For the rest of your life, you will work only on your terms.” I meant it. Now I don’t have anything against the people who work nine to five, in fact, I believe they are the backbone of this country. However, that life isn’t for me. I like a little bit of freedom and I don’t like it when someone is looking over my shoulder. So, I made the decision and, even though I hadn’t the slightest clue of how I was going to make money writing, I started exploring my options.
Without a college degree, I figured I’d have to start somewhere small and work my way up. It didn’t matter to me… I KNEW that I was going to figure it out… one way or another I was going to make money writing articles online. And this is probably the most important part of being successful in any endeavor you may undertake in life. You have to have faith, you have to know you are going to succeed in what you are doing and you HAVE to be willing to do what it takes. For the first time in my life, I had that attitude…
In the first month I busted my ass writing 14 hours a day, writing 500 word articles for $3 a piece. Looking back now, it was kind of brutal, but I didn’t even notice. It was so exciting to me, I was actually making money! My enthusiasm to write blurred my vision to how badly paying this website really was. I think enthusiasm is also very important in any undertaking you do in your life. Here’s the bottom line, you’re never going to find a job where every little second is amazing and you love everything about it. However, by being enthusiastic, you can leap over those inconveniences that accompany any work you do.
So, as my attitude and faith in knowing that I would make it as a successful freelance writer, provided my support, I began searching for better opportunities. About one month after deciding to start freelance writing, I came across a site that was in beta testing. I figured that if this site was just starting, maybe I’d have a chance to get on something that would turn out to be more lucrative down the road. At first, the work available on the site was non-existent. In fact, in the first month writing for the new site, I had only written one article and it was on a topic that I knew NOTHING about. But I got paid $11.50 for completing it. (During that time period I continued writing my $3 articles to give me something to fall back on.) About a month later, I grabbed a couple more assignments on the same topic. With each assignment I took, I made sure that I was producing the best work I possibly could.
From the time I signed up to write on the new site, I had a really good feeling that something good was going to come from it. I’m not exactly sure what it was. After writing a few articles on the subject I knew very little about, I got a message from one of the editors. She asked me if I could take on more work, and of course, I said that I would. This was my first big break. (To be honest, I’ve only had a couple of ‘big breaks’ in my short freelance writing career… but it’s awesome to say ‘my first’ because I am planning on having a ton more ‘breaks’ as I progress.) So, after letting her know that I would be thrilled to take on more assignments, I began getting a consistent stream of work on the subject I knew little about. However, as I kept writing, my knowledge on the topic began to grow. And whenever they asked if I could write more, I ALWAYS said yes.
In my past, there was a few jobs that I had that I could have excelled at. However, I never had the attitude and correct mental state to do what it took to get ahead. Instead I always just did whatever was required of me to get by. With this new career, I am eager to say ‘yes’ to EVERYTHING that comes my way… and that take on this whole thing has helped me get off to a successful start.
As my client continued to send me more assignments, my writing became much more efficient. After two months writing for them and nearly three months after I decided to jump into a new career, I was earning about $1500 a month and have managed to stay at that level of income for about three months. Now, $1500 a month is nothing for a lot of writers and that’s great for them, because I, too, want to be doing well for myself. But $1500 right now, when compared to where I was, might as well be a million dollars. When I began I didn’t have any idea on how I was going to make money writing online. I didn’t know where to start. I wasn’t sure if I could produce quality work. And I had no idea what I was going to write about. All I had was faith and enthusiasm.
A couple of weeks ago I got a second ‘break’. I had just turned in an assignment and I got an idea I wanted to bring up to the client I wrote for. So, I did. The next day my client messaged me asking me to email her. After I emailed her back, she told me that she needed one writer to write a database of articles for a new client of their company had gotten. And, although it wasn’t what I proposed to her, it was a better opportunity than I currently had. The articles I wrote for the database would pay four times as much as I was currently making. Without hesitation, as you can imagine, I gladly accepted the new assignment.
The important thing to note here, is that I took a chance. This is the last point I want to make. You HAVE to take chances. Sure, the idea I pitched wasn’t really even acknowledged, however, a better opportunity than I currently had was offered to me. And that was critical to furthering myself.
In the first six months, I think I have done a lot of things right, and have done other things that I need to learn from. However, I believe my success has stemmed from three different factors, they are: have faith, be enthusiastic and take chances when they present themselves.
I believe that no matter what kind of undertaking you come across in your life, be it a freelance writer, business owner, or food eating champion, those three things will always help you be successful. They are definitely how I’ve gone from nothing to something in such a short amount of time and they are definitely how I will continue to grow.
Filed under: Writing & Speaking