3 Secrets to Quickly Grow Your Freelance Writing Income

Does it seem like it’s taking forever to get your freelance writing career to where you want it? While some writers have the knack of getting clients in weeks flat, you still struggle to make enough income. And time is short, and the bills keep coming. For many writers, a clock is ticking. If you can’t figure out how to make an income, soon you may have to scan the classified ads and find a day job. What makes some writers build a real income fast, while others can’t seem to cover the gas bill with their writing? Over the years of coaching more than a thousand writers, I’ve found there are three basic things freelance writers who ramp their earning rapidly are doing that starving writers don’t do. Those three things are: 1. Use What You Know I often meet former professionals — lawyers, accountants, insurance brokers, nurses — who are switching to freelance writing. To them I say “Great — you have a built-in lucrative niche you can get started with, where you have demonstrated expertise.” The only catch? Many of them say, “Oh, but I don’t want to write about X. I want to write about [homeschooling/raising Schnauzers/quilting/battling mental illness/other low-paying niche here].” There are two factors at war in the world of freelance writing — the desire to follow our writing bliss and write about whatever we feel passionate about this week, and the desire to make this a full-time living. In general, they don’t both go together. At least not at first. To earn the most the fastest, identify the best-paying markets where you have expertise, and write on those topics. You know the hot-button issues, the lingo, the experts to interview. It’s like water rolling downhill. If you don’t like that niche, switch later on, once you’ve established a base of good-paying clients. That will give you the breathing room to explore other topics. When your business plan out of the gate is, “I want to dabble and write about whatever I want,” that is not the straight shot to the big cash. 2. Use Who You Are Many freelance writers labor under the misimpression that they know nothing of value to the freelance marketplace and so cannot command good rates. But whoever you are, there is a way to capitalize on your uniqueness. Turn what you think of as a weakness around and realize that whoever you are, there are magazines written for your demographic, and companies trying to sell you stuff. Been staying home raising kids and now you’re back to working? Career transition is a popular magazine topic and there are companies that help people change careers and re-enter the workforce, too. All potential clients. What you read, where you shop, those corporate newsletters you get in the mail — those are your easy, obvious markets. Think how many products and magazines there are aimed at 20-somethings! And also how many now market to the over-50 set. If that’s you, then you are tapped into the mindset that client wants. You speak their language. Stress that when you pitch, and you’re on a fast track to landing clients who will pay well for your inside line on their audience.