So it occurred to me after I decided to tell the world about my new site yesterday that I would have to populate it with some blog posts. Here’s the first one.
I ask the question “do you have what it takes to be a freelancer?” not necessarily as a writer pulling in thousands a month. I have been writing for years, yes, but I’m still in the beginning stages of my career and still constantly building. I also have not done it all on my own. If it weren’t for a few key people to lead me in the right direction, I’d likely still be posting one article every few months, content with the few bucks and two page views a day.
That being said, however, there are definitely a few factors that need to be taken into consideration if you’re planning on making freelancing into a part-time gig for supplemental income. If you want to earn more than a few bucks a month, and develop a repertoire, you have to know what it takes:
Time, and lots of it.
If you think you’re going to get somewhere just putting in an hour a day, you’re crazy. You may be able to submit an article a day, and perhaps bring in about $5, but that includes naught for marketing, networking. You’re selling yourself short. It’s a process, and it takes time to build up a foundation. This brings us up to the second point…
Got patience?
You’re going to need it. There is no get-rich-quick scheme for freelance writing. I’m still building my own foundation, and I’m doing relatively well from what I’ve gathered. You have to have the patience to do the research—on whatever style of writing you want to do, how to effectively use SEO or internet marketing tactics.
You need to network like a crazy person, because that’s the only way anyone will ever know your name. It’ll take a couple months to see a return on your investment, and it is an investment. You’ll spend hours on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, you’ll post in forums and get involved with different communities.
I was lucky enough to have stumbled upon Associated Content a few years ago—once I actually started writing aggressively, I had a whole support system there at my disposal. Once I started getting involved, I found a host of resources I could use to improve my writing and practice more effective marketing for my articles.
You need drive, kid.
Unless you have a passion or debt that’s so up to your eyeballs you just don’t have a choice in the matter, you’re not going to have the discipline to continually write and market yourself. You need to push out content. I went from approximately 6 articles to almost 50 in a month, and that’s peanuts compared to many freelancers. But I also took the time to get links to my articles out to the internet community via Twitter. I built up my network. Then I kept writing.
When I felt bogged down by a lot of projects, I kept working. It absolutely helped that I had a drive to make a difference. I not only wrote about the generic topics that came my way (grout cleaning anyone?) but I made sure to write about things that also mattered to me, and strove to get my voice out about important issues—such as gender or racism.
The bottom line.
There is no litmus test that says whether or not you’ll make it as a freelancer. I’ve been fortunate enough to find helpful individuals that have given me direction here and there. But you have to put in the work first to connect with those people, and keep writing! If you continually work to improve your writing and research, the rest should come naturally. Just don’t give up 
