Freelance Writing Money Tips: Earning extra income as a freelance writer isn’t just about transaction rates. If you’ve mastered the basics of freelancing and want to increase your income, follow these guidelines that helped one writer earn 40% more per hour.
I’ve been a freelance writer since 2014, but my first five years at the company weren’t very productive because I thought it was an exercise.
During this period, my annual salary was only five figures. After finding a full-time job as a freelance writer, I dreaded going back to freelancing for a living.
I thought I was just not good at it. I was fired after that.
I lost my job unexpectedly in February 2020 and only had one freelance project the other months.
But this time I took my freelancing seriously and in less than 3 months I went from almost nothing to earning the equivalent of a full time salary.
7 Ways to Make Money as a Freelance Writer
If you’ve mastered the basics of being a freelance writer and want to increase your income, follow these steps to increase your value and attract more clients.
1. Learn to write for the web
Due to the power of content marketing and online publishing, freelance writers are in high demand. Businesses need writers to create blog posts, email marketing, ebooks, social media, and landing pages.
If you have experience writing for print media or creative writing, brush up on how to write for online platforms like search engine optimization (SEO) and social media to dramatically increase the number of gigs you are eligible for.
2. Cultivating a Niche
My specialty is writing about personal finance, a popular niche that has helped me a lot to find clients quickly. I have been working full time in this field for five years and have improved my knowledge on difficult subjects.
I was hesitant to specialize at first because I like to write on a variety of subjects. However, marketing myself as a “private finance writer” and leveraging my broader knowledge base helps me attract clients seeking that expertise.
3. Work based on income, not hours
As a freelance writer, you can plan your day in several ways:
Schedule: Commit to work from 9:00 am. Even if you’re working on a project, you can stop when the timer goes off and continue the next day.
By Task: Even if you’re working on a project, stop when the timer goes off and continue the next day.
By Income: Set a daily budget and stick to it until you reach it.
I organize my working day around my income because it maximizes my income while reducing my workload and my time.
Setting daily revenue goals helps me prioritize tasks and also allows me to quickly identify when I need to adjust tasks by removing overloaded customers and contacting new prospects.
4. Do the math
This is one of the most important steps I took to increase my income by 65% in my third month of freelance work.
I did a lot of content planning in the beginning, it took up to 20 hours a week, and I spent the rest of the time doing homework.
After tracking the time spent on each project, I quickly realized that writing has a much higher ROI.
To determine your effective hourly rate, track the hours you spend on each project. You will be able to choose which projects are profitable and which are a waste of time
A rule of thumb for setting your target hourly rate is to double your full-time hourly rate.
As a freelance writer, you have to fight for more because you won’t get paid for your hours. You spend a lot of time and energy on non-billable tasks such as writing pitches, researching publications, writing proposals, researching job boards, meeting potential clients, and networking.
If you’re self-employed, you’ll also have to pay more taxes and buy your own health insurance if you don’t have a spouse to cover you.
5. Don’t rely on sales
My biggest failure as a freelance writer is thinking that sales are the only way to get a job.<犀利士 /p>
Contributing to a high-end newspaper or magazine, or blogging as a new writer are great ways to find work. However, making a living as a writer is a challenge.
Focus on finding clients who can provide ongoing writing assignments and are looking for a long-term relationship.
Small businesses and niche sites that require specialized knowledge, such as health, finance, or legal blogs, often go this route.
Or, by excelling in one-time jobs, you can turn them into regular jobs.
is following up on another active project proposal. Once you’ve proven your worth to an editor, let them know you’re qualified to work.
Almost every website has a wish list of articles they want to write, and they’ll be happy to refer you to it until you prove your worth.
6. Find the right place to work
As a new freelance writer, you’ve probably used brokerage sites like Textbroker and Upwork to find places to make money. On the other hand, customers of these sites are generally looking for the best price and care little about quality.
Now that you have so much experience, you have more options for looking for part-time jobs:
Look for jobs on sites like JournalismJobs, Mediagazer and MediaBistro.
To make it easier for clients to find you, create a portfolio and “work with me” page on your own website and link to it from your social media accounts.
Join writing organizations like Freelance Writers Nest, Professional Journalists Guild, or Editorial Freelancers, which offer curated job boards and allow you to post yourself as available for hire.
Use your interactions to let colleagues who appreciate your work know that you’re available so they can recommend you to potential clients. Whenever possible, try to give back to the other person.
Join Facebook groups for freelance writers, like The Write Life and The Freelance Content Marketing Writer, where editors post great articles.
7. Reaching New Clients
When you’re a new writer, it’s easy to rely on message boards or social media posts to get new clients, but if you want to make more money, you you have to get customers yourself.
Crunchbase is a website where you can find startups in your field. Send them an email explaining your services and how your articles can help them grow their business.
Set calendar reminders to quickly save and link to articles from previous months.
Even if you don’t get a response or the response is lukewarm, it’s important to follow up. It is impossible to predict when a company will be ready to hire freelancers.