Would a freelance writing career make you happy? While you may think that you know the answer on the surface, you really need to dig deep in order to determine if this is the right career choice for you. Even though there are many benefits of freelance writing, the drawbacks can be just as plentiful. If you are not willing to deal with both sides of the industry, you may be better off sticking with your current line of employment.
In order to determine if a career in freelance writing is right for you, check out the three pros and three cons listed below. These are things that I looked at when getting started, and to my amazement, they still hold true for me today.
Pros
1. If you are looking for a job that offers flexibility, freelance writing could be the right choice. Take my work schedule yesterday for example. In the morning, I worked from 7am until noon; and that was that. The rest of the day I spent time working on this blog, as well as several others that are just getting underway. Obviously, I could have spent this free time however I wanted. But of course, I had to do something work related!
2. There is money to be made. There are many freelance writers who are earning in excess of $100k a year. While I have yet to reach that plateau, I currently earn in the range of $5,000 a month. For me, this is a good income for all of the perks that go along with it.
3. Are you a good writer? Do not overlook the obvious when considering a freelance writing career. While it may sound like fun, if you are not a good writer you will soon get frustrated. Anybody can become a solid writer in time, but those who have a bit of natural talent usually find the road to be less bumpy.
Cons
1. If you are used to a steady income, and can’t live any other way, freelance writing is not right for you. Some months I earn more than $8,000, and others this number will dip to right around my average of $5,000. Is this something that you can deal with?
2. Most freelance writers work at home, independent from others. Will you be able to concentrate when working from home? Will the lack of outside contact begin to wear on you over time? These are questions that you need to answer. Even though I love working from home, other people hate it because they never get to talk with co-workers, socialize face to face with clients, etc.
3. Until you are established, a career in freelance writing can be stressful. It was not until my third month of freelance writing that I broke the $2,000 mark. Do you have enough money to keep you afloat while you work on building your freelance writing career? If so, you will be able to greatly lessen your stress load.
So what do you think? Is a career in freelance writing right for you? These pros and cons may not be enough to help you make a decision, but they should definitely open your eyes. As mentioned above, these pros and cons still apply to me, even after a few years working as a writer. Â
When I look back at the first few months of my freelance writing career, one detail still makes me wonder: why did I try to memorize the projects that I had to complete every day? Instead of writing my work down, I would simply try to remember what I had to do, and then use my email system as a bit of assistance. Simply put, I would never try this now. I have used another system for staying organized with my daily work, and it has been quite effective to say the least.
What does my system look like? In today’s day and age of technology, you are probably expecting me to use some sort of software to track my jobs and workload. But actually, the exact opposite is true. I use a simple post-it-note to keep track of the work that I need to complete.
My “freelance writing worksheet†consists of three columns; always in the same order working from left to right.
In the far left column, I include the jobs that I absolutely have to complete on a given day. I do not move onto any other projects until these jobs have a line through them.
The middle column consists of blog related work. This includes everything from writing new posts to changing ad placement and much more. If it has to do with any of my blogs, the task is put in the middle column.
On the far right I keep long term tasks. For instance, I have a reminder to renew some online subscriptions within the next few months. The reason that I keep this column is simple. Since they are all based on the long term, I know that if they are not on paper I could very well forget about them. And obviously, that would not be a good thing.
At the end of each day, I do two things. First off, I write my new worksheet for the following day. I base this off of the prior day’s notes, as well as any emails that I have in my “Jobs Due†folder. After that, I throw out the current day’s post-it-note that has been marked up.
Do yourself a favor and write down all of the work that you have to complete. This will help to ensure that you never miss a deadline.Â
If you are interested in freelance writing, keep this in mind: you need to be good at something. What does this mean, exactly? Well, a lot of freelance writers spread themselves thin. In other words, instead of concentrating on a couple topics until they become well versed, they try to be the best at everything. But guess what? Before you can become good at everything, you need to become good at something.
Early on in my freelance writing career I got stuck in this rut; it can be hard to avoid, there is no denying that. I was so caught up on making money, that it did not matter what I was writing about. This included everything from travel related articles to adult website reviews. But over time, I realized that honing in on a few niche subjects was a better idea than being a do it all writer.
So what subjects did I decide on? Even though it has been a while, I can still remember the three topics that I catered towards in the early days. They were insurance, health, and real estate. Why did I choose these topics, you may ask? Simply put, when I was starting my freelance writing career, these were the subjects that most people requested articles on. The reason for this is that these niches were most profitable. And even after a few years, this still holds true.
This is not to say that I kept a narrow focus as my career moved forward. Today, I feel comfortable writing on a wide variety of subjects. In fact, there are not too many topics that I would not be able to write about. But as mentioned above, I only began to expand after I first became good at “something.â€
To condense things, here are two tips to keep in mind.
1. From day one of your freelance writing career, decide on three topics that you would like to concentrate on. From there, take the time to become proficient in writing about them. When choosing, you can decide on topics that are of interest to you. Or you can do what I did, and choose the ones that seem to have the most opportunity attached to them.
2. Once you become good at writing on these first three topics, begin to expand into other areas. In no time at all you will be in my position; one in which you feel comfortable with the majority of topics.
Here is one last point to keep in mind: some freelance writers are faster than others at developing a good working knowledge of their first three areas of expertise. This may take you a couple months, or maybe longer. You may not believe it now, but as you begin to write more and more, you will get a feel for how well your skills are developing. And from there, your path to the future will become much clearer.
