Freelance Writer Publishes Sixty Articles Each Month

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

If you're interested in freelance writing, you might know that there's a big range in what outlets pay for articles or posts. We've had a lot of freelance writers on the podcast and it's a huge range, in fact. So today's featured case study, it's really interesting, she has found a way to make the numbers work in her favor. She's a stay at home mom who needed to go from low paid content mill writer to highly paid specialist and she did it. So let's find out how she found her niche in the financial world and now brings in over six figures a year writing part time.

That's correct, more than six figures. And here's a tip, most full time freelance writers don't make six figures and she's doing it part time. So obviously in the story you'll hear, clearly she's figured out a few key points of differentiation. So I love this story, I really respect her work ethic as well. The story is freelance writer publishes 60 articles each month and if we had room for a longer title, it would be 60 well paid articles, 60 articles that bring in a lot of money for each one and she does it 60 times.

But that would be a long title, so we went with the shorter version. All right, stay tuned, story is coming right up. [Music]

Rebecca Lake was alone and broke. Recently split up from her husband and raising two young daughters on her own, the debt was piling up. 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. Rebecca had 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? Well, in short, it means a lot of hard work for very little money. She eventually moved on to finding clients on 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, building her network and branding herself as an expert in personal finance, which might be 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 and then less than two years later, she had her first $10,000 month. Then two years after that, she had her first $20,000 month. All of this came from only working about 25 hours a week with no staff while still homeschooling her children. So let's get specific.

Who is Rebecca writing for and how much are they paying? As an independent contractor, Rebecca writes for several big name financial publications, including ForbesAdvisor, CreditCards.com, Bankrate and Investopia. She gets paid anywhere from $250 to more than $500 per article. And she writes about 60 of them each month. That's right, 60 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. And in fact, that's the beauty of having a specialty. 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. At least it shouldn't. Rebecca has built a solid reputation by doing her best work for every client. She wants to make sure they hire her again and again. If she can turn in a piece that doesn't need a single edit, she knows she's done her job and made her editor's job easier.

Now, editors and content managers seek her out. She doesn't have to hustle each month for clients. This shows us once again, the importance of having a niche or specialty. Rebecca's work ethic also sets her apart from others writing about the same things, debt, budgeting, credit cards, investing. Because even if the subject is similar, they don't all run their businesses the same way.

And it shows. Even though she's written thousands of articles about money now, Rebecca is always willing to learn something new. She keeps improving her skills, fixes any mistakes she makes, and always submits her work on time. These are seemingly simple but critical habits that keep clients coming back month after month. Now, naturally, Rebecca also has a new side hustle, 'cause that's what you do when your side hustle takes off.

For her, it's 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. And since then, she's been making $1,000 to $3,000 a month through ad revenue and affiliate sales. Rebecca doesn't have any big plans for the blog, except to keep improving her SEO. She'll continue to freelance because she loves her clients and she loves writing about money.

All the effort has certainly paid off. [Music]

So there's one more thing that I didn't mention in the story that has contributed to Rebecca getting paid so well for these articles. And that is, in addition to the work ethic, in addition to the specialty, which is important, she chose a topic or a field that has a lot of money to pay, okay? It is a industry that pays well because it has money, right? So what else is like that?

That's what you always wanna ask is, okay, I don't wanna be a financial writer. What about technology? What about healthcare? What about supply chain stuff? What about other specialty fields?

And it doesn't have to be something that you might think of in this particularly lucrative kind of category. I was thinking of this episode 1550, government lawyer lands whale of a side gig. This is a guy who is a government lawyer and writes about phishing. He is the phishing freelance writing expert and he has done really well. I don't know if he's making six figures part time.

I think he was making like 40 to $50,000 part time, but that was in addition to his pretty busy demanding day job. And it was because he chose the right kind of field. So consider, you know, what is the right industry for me to go into? How could I create something similar for myself? If that's what you're into.

And if not, hopefully this story can inspire you towards something else. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. If you'd like to see the show notes for today's episode, including links to everything I mentioned, come to sidehustleschool.com/1814. 1-8-1-4. Thank you for joining me all this year.

We've got just a few days left in 2021. I've got a lot of stuff planned for you next year. So I hope you will subscribe and follow. Come back tomorrow for a new episode. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.