How Viable is Freelance Writing?

 I am a blogger, author, professional cuddler (!), and freelance writer. Between my four jobs, freelancing is the hardest to get a regular revenue from. When it comes to freelance writing, you need to be constantly searching for jobs online and in person. Nobody is going to hand you a paycheck and most of the time once you submit your piece you likely will not be writing for that employer again. The key to successful freelancing is to get regular clients and create trust between you and the client. And if you break that trust, it is very hard to get back. Today on The Fabler's Quill, we will be discussing my freelancing career from how I started, the types of clients I get, how I advertise my services, and how viable it has been as an income. 

While I have been writing professionally for eight years now, I only recently decided to make it into a true career path. Not so long ago, I was working in the foods service industry. And if you have worked in this industry or know someone who has, you likely know where this is going. This is not to say that I did not enjoy the work. Oh, but to the contrary! In contrast to my co-workers who reasonably did not take pleasure in the tasks of making hundreds of smoothies a day I loved the task. I was quite the smoothie barista according to my fellow workers. I zoomed through that smoothie bar at lighting speed while taking orders on the headset and managing the in-store customers with a breeze. When customers slowed down, I was restocking, prepping, and cleaning that store like there was no tomorrow. And best of all, I was tied as the highest paid normal employee in the entire company. That is to say, I was compensated the maximum hourly rate by the time that I worked at my fourth location: $13/hr. This was the golden number. I was genuinely happy with the work and the pay. So why did I quit early last month?

Managers. Oh, food service industry managers... The mistreated underpaid managers who have too much pressure put on them. Often they are older people with children who wished they got more out of their life and refuse to see that they still can. In my half a year at Smoothie King, I had a single decent manager. My first one was an automatic miss who created an environment guided by fear at the ripe old age of 19. After a month of working with her I screamed at her face. She called the general manager and I was nearly fired. But I weaseled my way out of it, got myself transferred to another store, and got a $0.50 raise. I reported my manager in a 600 word essay and submitted the work to the higher ups. After a few weeks she was fired. Four months later and at my 4th location I screamed at another boss on camera and walked out on the job and when I picked up my last check two weeks later I learned she had gotten fired by the franchisers. It appears getting managers fired was my specialty, but I was done with the food service industry. I considered working at a pet store until I remembered that I was a published author with writing work on my resume. Having finished college only the last month, I realized that I could put quill to paper and make something more of myself. 

I decided to make an online portfolio and page where clients could contact me and hire me on the spot. Doing a little google searching, I found writerswork.com. Writer's Work is a platform for freelance writers where you  (I swear this is not a sponsorship) pay a one-time fee and get access to your very own page, a word processor with extensive evaluation technology, a list of services you can customize, and a pay system where clients can easily hire you. I created the profile with a portfolio containing my latest works that I update regularly.  

I filled in the about page and the services page. Now I had a proper platform to direct clients towards. But then the question came, how do I advertise my services? I landed on two different methods. 

Method 1: Networking

The first method may seem quite scary to writers due that a large portion of us are introverted. Luckily, I am extroverted and networking came easily to me. Networking is a great way to reach potential clients. The first thing I needed to start my journey was create a classic business card. Using Vistaprint, I made one. 

Once my 100 business cards arrived on my doorstep, I was ready to network. I searched for events in my area and signed up for two of them. Networking events, depending on who is hosting them, can cost nothing to a few hundred dollars to get in. I went to the free ones. But do not let the word free deter you as I met dozens of great people all with new ideas. Many people I met want to or have already written a book and want help writing or publishing their work. The first few networking events proved to be a a great medium to advertise my services. I have obtained over half of my current clients from these ventures. 

Method 2: Video Advertising 

Another tactic I played was with creating my own video ad to run on social media. However, I had absolutely no talent in this field. Instead of trying to make an original work, I left the task to the experts. I hired a production team on Fiverr to make my ad and gave almost complete creative freedom to the team. They produced the ad below.

Using google ads, I got my video approved to be shown. I set a daily budget of  $15 and my ad was off. This is how the rest of my clients have found me. 

I have now been running my brand for over a month. It is now time that I answer the big question. How much money am I making from freelancing? I have decided to be upfront with this detail instead of providing research data of the median and mode of how much freelancers make. It is also important to take note that I am spending money every day to promote by freelance services. The reason for this is that I am planning on expanding my work into a full-on business: Mad's Literary Services. As my work stands now, I do not have to register with the government because my business does not qualify as one yet. So while it may seem I am making a good amount of money, I am spending nearly as much to expand my upcoming business. Now, for the answer.

I have seven regular clients and have had twenty-two clients in total. Most of these were one-time clients that wanted a single piece of work. From these twenty-two clients I am making $1,900 a month. If I am able to keep this up, I will be making $22,800 a year. If this amount if viable for living is dependent on an individual's life circumstances. If you are a single person with no children living in a medium to low cost of living area in an apartment this is enough to survive. If you have children, this likely will only be viable if it was a side-hustle on top of a normal job. Personally, I find this amount viable because I live in a three person household where everyone works. It is important to keep in mind that freelancing can get you a lot more or a lot less. As it stands now my list of clients is only growing and I expect to be making a lot more in the future. Remember that this is my opinion on freelance writing's viability based on my experience in my own life circumstance. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide if freelance writing is a viable career path. I hope sharing my story will provide insight to those looking to start on this path.

Thank you for reading. Check The Fabler's Quill  for reviews, editorials, guides, and original short stories for new daily content. And keep on writing!