5 Ways To Tell You’re Succeeding As a Freelance Writer

It’s pretty easy to tell once you know what to look for.

How does one know?

The clues are pretty obvious if you stop to think about it, but in case you’ve ever wondered or ever questioned how you’re doing on your path to freelance writing success, here’s a breakdown of how to know when you’re succeeding.

You’re Getting Better Paying Assignments

Early in my career, most of my assignments didn’t pay as well as I’d have liked. I was scrounging for work as a nobody on various freelance boards and spending hours and hours on assignments that paid $20 or $30 flat.

I hate to say it comes with the territory, but it’s kind of true. Very few freelance writers start out being able to charge high rates. For the most part, freelancers always end up having to learn the ropes themselves through trial and error, and there are plenty of people out there ready to take advantage of your inexperience.

You know that things are turning around for you when you learn to recognize the jobs that aren’t worth your time, and you pick up on how to attract better-paying gigs.

Keep at it. Keep your eyes open. You’ll find the better-paying jobs showing up after you’ve gotten a better handle on this whole freelancing thing.

You’re Getting More Interesting Work

You may have had a few interesting gigs when starting out as a freelance writer. I know I did. In fact, because those jobs were interesting, I figured that freelance writing would be an awesome career. You may have thought the same.

First of all, you weren’t wrong. Freelance writing is an awesome career.

Where you went wrong, however, was in thinking it was always going to be interesting work.

When you’re starting out, you’re probably going to find many of the jobs you get are going to be pretty dry or uninteresting. You may find yourself writing about estate law, or plastics manufacturing, or some condo. They’re hardly the sort of assignments you’d get as a writer for The New Yorker.

These dry jobs aren’t all bad. They pay — sometimes pay pretty well. Someone has to write them. Why not you? And it’s all good practice.

But at some point in your career, when you’re more free and secure to pick and choose your work, you’ll find the writing assignments get more and more enjoyable. At least for you.

I enjoy writing about cybersecurity. The more jobs like that I get, the better. I also enjoy writing about food, and so long as it’s not for one of those dreadful recipe sites, getting an assignment to write about something food-related is a win for me. Same thing with art and gaming.

For you, your interests may be elsewhere.

The point is when you’re finding you can pick more engaging assignments or see these assignments coming to you because you’ve established this as a niche, then you know your freelance writing career is on a good path.

You Have Better Clients Overall

I hated some of my earlier clients. Maybe it was because of the low pay. Maybe it was because of the amount of work they expected.

Most likely, it was because of the creeping expansion of scope. I wrote language lessons for one client who soon had me loading and tweaking it on their WordPress site. Then they started requiring me to provide additional translations beyond the original scope of the assignment.

And no… I wasn’t offered extra money. As soon as I suggested I needed to be paid more for the extra work, the client suggested I should be more grateful for what I was getting.

I fired them.

I’ve had a few clients like that. They don’t reveal their tactics at first. They wait until you feel more invested before they spring this on you.

I fired them anyway.

I eventually learned to recognize the danger clients more early on. Now, I have pretty great clients. They are clear about their expectations. They offer clear feedback. They pay quickly and without complaint. Some have even recommended me to colleagues.

Life’s too short for lousy clients. Fire the bad ones. You’ll eventually find the good ones.

Your Work/Income Ratio Is Improving

I mentioned earlier how I’d spend several hours on a job that ended up paying very little. It’s a common experience for new freelance writers.

If you ever wonder if you’re heading in the right direction, just look at your average hourly rate. If you kept records (and you should), compare them to last year’s average hourly rate.

If it’s higher now, you’re doing great.

You Still Enjoy What You’re Doing

When you sit down at the start of your workday (whenever it begins), do you do so happily or with dread?

If you’re happy with what you’re doing, then all is right with your world.

There really isn’t much more to be said about this. If you hate what you’re doing, and you’ve hated it for a while now, then it may be time to find something else.

If you still enjoy work as a freelance writer after a few months or years, then keep going. You’re making it.

Steady As She Goes, Full Steam Ahead

If you’re not enjoying freelancing and making lousy money — and you’ve been at it for a while — then maybe it’s time to find a different career path. Freelancing can be challenging. Personally, I find the rewards are worth it, but I’ve also been at this for a long time.

Alternately, if you’ve been doing this for a while and you’re seeing your pay increase, your engagement increase, and your enjoyment (at least) holding steady — then you can think of yourself as having “made it” as a freelancer.

Congratulations — now get back to work. People seem to like what you’re doing, too.

Cheers!

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