Notes from Chris

Episode 1814

Rebecca Lake was alone and broke. Recently split from her husband and raising two young daughters on her own, the debt was piling up…but she didn’t want to go back to her old career in corporate sales, because that would mean she could no longer homeschool her kids. In short, she needed something that paid well from home.

She’d already done some freelance writing a few years ago after her second child was born but had been trapped in the hamster wheel of writing articles for content mills. What does that mean? It means a lot of hard work for very little money. She eventually moved on to finding clients on bidding sites like Upwork and was making $300 a week writing a few articles after her daughters went to bed.

But now that she was raising those daughters on her own, she had to up her game and turn her hustle into a serious business. Rebecca spent much of 2014 to 2016 improving her writing skills, building her network, and branding herself as an expert in personal finance—somewhat ironic since she was deeply in debt after her divorce. But that wasn’t her fault, and she loved learning about money … so it seemed natural that she would write about it.

She found clients by networking with writers and editors on LinkedIn. She also kept applying to writing jobs on job boards. But success really started coming when she changed her mindset and began treating her freelance writing as a business. She earned $2,300 the first month she began taking her writing seriously. Less than two years later she had her first $10,000 month. Then two years after that, she had her first $20,000 month.

And all from only working about 25 hours a week with no staff while still homeschooling her children.

As an independent contractor, Rebecca writes for several big-name financial publications, including Forbes Advisor, CreditCards.com, Bankrate, Investopia, and SoFi. She gets paid anywhere from $250 to more than $500 per article… and she writes about sixty of them each month.

That’s right, sixty articles! Fortunately, Rebecca can write quickly because she already knows a lot about the subject. She doesn’t have to spend hours researching each one. That’s the beauty of having a speciality–Rebecca already has the experience she needs to create high quality, engaging articles. Plus, she’s not charging the rates of a generalist. She’s an expert, and expertise doesn’t come cheap.

Rebecca also has a new side hustle: a blog called Write to Six Figures that teaches people how to start a successful freelance writing career. Last year she was able to get her traffic high enough to qualify for MediaVine.

Since then, she’s been making between $1,000 to $3,000 per month through ad revenue and affiliate sales. Rebecca doesn’t have any big plans for the blog except to keep improving her SEO traffic. She’ll continue to freelance because she loves her clients, and she loves writing about money. All the effort has certainly paid off.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about Rebecca at her website, BossSingleMama.com.

SEE ALSO:

• Freelance Writer Starts School To Help Writers Start Side Hustles: After answering the same questions over and over, this freelance writer opens an online school to help others break into the business.
• 7th Grade Teacher Earns 2nd Income Writing Resumes: This English teacher has a passion for writing. After a few unexpected twists and turns in his career, he’s using his skills to help others find their dream jobs.
• Out-of-Work Writer Turns to Profitable Poetry: When a down-on-his-luck writer composes impromptu poems for strangers in the street, he puts smiles on the faces of everyone he meets.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work! Yours in the revolution,

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