Freelancing & Entrepreneurship
How Writers Can Balance Monetary Aspects of Writing with Creativity, Productivity, and Collaboration
How freelance writers can create a sustainable writing business
This story is for freelancers with an entrepreneurial mindset who want to scale their businesses and gradually multiply their revenues and profits in writing and publishing while maintaining their mental health.
The writing business is a growing industry. It looks saturated, but there appears to be a piece of this delicious pie for new writers who plan to enter the market because the number of readers is also growing. However, some preparation is essential to tap into the market.
Writing is a broad topic covering articles, blogs, advertising materials, scholarly papers, technical documents, educational content, fiction and nonfiction books, and many other content types. Digital delivery changed the publishing landscape and took it to massive scales.
Writing capability is an asset for freelance writers. However, productivity is required to make creativity profitable. Many creative writers struggle with the business aspect of writing. Some new writers are too shy to monetize content. Some accomplished ones are not confident to ask for monetary compensation.
Traditional writers live with the dilemma of money and creativity constantly. While they want to earn money, they also want to keep creativity and other intangible benefits. This affects their mental health to some extent as they keep facing paradoxical situations with their clients.
For example, an accomplished book author and a prolific story writer, Melinda Blau, articulates the dilemma in this story. She believes that writers should demand monetary compensation.
While some freelance writers, indie authors, and business bloggers make six-figure incomes, some very talented writers struggle to earn a few hundred dollars in a month. I met both types of writers. And, intuitively, I am inspired by those who make a high income with hard and smart work.
However, I also listened to the concerns of those who struggle hence considering giving up writing. My suggestion to them is to be patient and learn from the experience of successful ones. In addition, focusing on learning business skills and approaching writing with an entrepreneurial mindset can shift the situation to a better position.
For example, a friend of mine who has a writing business earns around 50K in a month, working only four hours a day. She is a professional writer, but she does not write income-generating content for her business. Instead, she outsources more than 90% of content development and only writes editorials, distribution letters, marketing correspondence, and sales pitches.
I mentor experienced yet low-income-earning writers who don’t know how to create visibility and market their digital assets. These skills can be acquired with minimal investment, a bit of effort, and smart collaboration. Building an audience is essential. It requires time and effort, as pointed out in this story: 8 Proven Tips to Build a Rock-Solid Reading Audience.
In this story, I want to share some points I learned during mentoring conversations with new writers and accomplished writers to whom I provide consultancy assistance. I believe looking at both sides of the spectrum can give us valuable insights. Considering both groups, I want to share some essential points to address concerns and mitigate issues in writing businesses at a high level.
Addressing Issues and Mitigating Risks
The number of writers dramatically increased during the pandemic. Remote workers use writing as a side hustle. The goal of most beginners is to create passive income streams. And those experienced ones want to double or triple their income.
However, a significant number of freelance writers, indie book authors, and niche bloggers struggle to increase their income in this harsh economic climate. The biggest issue is tapping into a lucrative market and finding loyal readers.
Writing is a multidimensional business. Just being able to write high-quality content is only one piece of the puzzle. There are many more pieces, such as distribution, marketing, selling, and administration. And keeping our physical and mental health functioning in the process becomes a challenge.
For example, for many years, I only focused on creating content and neglected other aspects. As a result, the outcome was terrible; hence I suffered financially. However, when I took personal responsibility for different facets such as marketing and sales, the situation significantly changed, as I pointed out in this story: The Joy of Selling 1,000+ Books In A Month With Minimal Investment.
We know that writing exclusively for a single platform is risky for multiple reasons. A platform we solely depend on might change rules, or it might simply disappear. It happened to a platform recently. It paid well initially but stopped paying the writers by changing the contract. The situation disappointed many writers. Therefore, diversifying content on various platforms is essential to mitigate monetary risks in the writing business.
For beginners, I mentioned some platforms in this article. For example, many writers use both Medium and Vocal Media. Depending on your writing goals, you may find both platforms helpful. There are several other public and private platforms too. You can find them on the web and also register with a membership service such as WritingPaychecks.
Some new writers, unfortunately, experience writer’s block mainly due to their focus on perfection. In reality, there is no such thing as perfection. Instead, the focus should be on gradual and continual improvement, aiming for excellence. Writer’s block is real but it is curable with a psychological and physical improvement focus.
One of the benefits of writing on multiple platforms is to repurpose the original content. Repurposing is an excellent scaling method for beginners. It is also possible to repurpose content in various formats such as training materials, e-books, marketing collateral, podcasts, and videos. For example, I guided aspiring writers to be published authors gradually in this story: “How To Create A 30,000 Words E-book In A Month”.
Another repurposing and scaling option is to create your own platforms, such as blogging or article-sharing websites. You can purchase affordable domains and website services from NameCheap or WordPress.
One way of marketing articles, blog posts, and books is through social media. You can share your content links manually or automate them. For example, you can automate your tweets for the Twitter audience using Signal, IFTTT, DLVR, and Magic Submitter tools. First, however, you need to educate yourself on the rules of each social media platform before submitting automated posts.
Another free marketing tool is Flipboard. You can syndicate your content using RSS services of writing or blogging platforms. For example, I shared my content published on Euphoria, Vocal Media, and News Break. This service allows me to share a chunk of content with a single link to my audience.
In addition, to use free services, social media, and platform services, freelance writers also need many subscribers. This is an essential requirement for creating a sustainable writing business. Starting small and growing gradual is a good approach. I introduced the importance of subscribers in this article. I also mentioned the importance of mailing lists and newsletters and invited freelance writers to collaborate on this article.
You can benefit from several automated subscription services. The most popular ones are Patreon, Substack, and Ko-Fi. You can initially provide free service, and after gaining a reasonable number of subscribers, you might provide a tiered service such as basic, intermediate, and advanced.
A viable scaling of content and creating passive income from writing is the use of affiliate marketing. I introduced affiliate marketing to freelance writers in a book. You can read chapters of the book titled The Power of Digital Affiliate Marketing for Freelance Writers. In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is introducing someone else’s products or services to your audience. Then, when sales are complete, you can earn an agreed commission.
Outsourcing is an excellent scaling method for writing business. For example, a friend who earns 50K a month outsources a large amount of her business, including content development, marketing, selling, and administration, to other freelancers.
Conclusions
Even though freelancing is considered a sole trade, freelance writers need to think and act like entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. Work-life balance is essential in entrepreneurship pursuits.
The writing and publishing market is multiplying. However, the competition is fierce as many new players join the market, and older ones are scaling rapidly. Therefore, professional freelance writers need to find clever ways to cope with the competition while maintaining their physical and mental health.
New writers think that it won’t be possible to make a living out of the writing business if everyone competes. In theory, this is a valid point. However, the number of consumers is also increasing, and the demand for niche content is growing.
Rather than seeing others as competitors seeing them as collaborators and sharing the market meaningfully by leveraging each other’s network, being a developer and consumer at the same time, and filling gaps by offering a specialty as a service provider can address the competition problem to some extent.
As I point out in my karma story recently, one’s success shouldn’t be another person’s failure. Aiming for a win-win relationship can be a source of happiness for both parties.
So, in summary, smart diversification, informed automation, unique marketing, innovative selling, significant outsourcing, and meaningful collaboration are viable ways to sustain a profitable writing business.
Even though the significant role of freelance writers is to write, considering other delivery methods (such as audio and video) can make them more competitive in the market and enable a sustainable content development business. This approach can also bring more collaborators to the market, allowing and representing different skill sets.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a successful and joyful writing career.
Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.
Disclaimer: This article includes a referral link.
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