My Journey to Becoming a Freelance Writer

A brief summary

Hello and happy Tuesday everyone!

Last night I received a lovely comment from one of you asking for a walk-through of how I became a freelance writer. I haven’t written an article explaining that, so I will write one and publish it later this week. Still, I wanted to give a brief summary here for you all first.

The “short” answer is I started writing on Medium to build a writing portfolio as something to do to hopefully earn a little extra cash. I was consistently earning $100/month on there, but it wasn’t enough. I got my first full-time job in September 2020, after graduating in May, and promptly quit after realizing it wasn’t for me. I then looked for programs and contracts to apply for as a writer. News Break was mentioned on some Medium Facebook groups and I applied and was given a generous contract. This contract is what made me being a freelance writer possible.

If you are interested in the News Break creator program, here is a link to apply. Along with writers, they also accept YouTubers for video content.

However, contracts end. Being a freelancer is about looking for new opportunities constantly. I recently started a Fiverr account for article ghostwriting, and already had a few offers. I wrote an article on that here.

I also constantly search for content writing opportunities on traditional websites such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. I’ve also seen quite a few posts from prominent companies on Craigslist. I have a phone interview tomorrow regarding a contract for writing product review articles on a well-known website.

Finally, I write many blog posts with referral links. These links earn me around $100/month. You do not see these constantly because I do so on Reddit. This is a great strategy to implement if you are looking for some extra writing income. Here’s an example post I wrote the other day that’s really taking off. I receive $10 for every accepted writer, and that post has 34 upvotes.. I expect to earn around $50 from a post that took me 10 minutes to write.

TLDR: Becoming a freelance writer is difficult. News Break has one of the best contract offerings I’ve come across, and it’s free to apply. You can build up your Medium monthly earnings, but also branching out to different platforms and diversifying your income will lead you to success faster. If you happen to get a decent income from one source, do not take it for granted. Work to develop other sources just in case. Remember that connections are incredibly important in everything you do — build an email list and network!

Thank you for reading and supporting me as always.

Rachel