How to Break 5K+ Per Month Freelancing

Over on Twitter, there’s been a lot of discussion about making 10K+ per month freelancing. It’s absolutely possible, but 10K+ also seems to be this magic number coaches and consultants use to entice new clients.

Before you pay someone to help you level up your writing career (or any career really), ask how much of that 10K+ per month is made off what you want them to teach you versus off consulting clients.

I never regularly made 10K per month when I was freelancing full-time, but I was consistently pulling in 5K+ per month. My first year of freelancing was hell. I worked nonstop and made hardly anything. I’d moved back in with my mom after grad school and it was depressing when I realized how many $50, $75, and $150 articles I’d have to write to afford to live on my own again (and while I was very thankful to my mom, I was also in my 30s and was accustomed to being grown-grown in my home!). I couldn’t figure out how other writers seemed to be making so much money! Ultimately, I found out: Most of them weren’t.

• They had day jobs
• They had spouses
• They had ninety-eleven roommates

But the ones who were had been at it for a while. And that’s the thing, as your network grows and you build a name for yourself, better opportunities will come your way. But here are some tips for how to get yourself over that early hurdle. It’s what worked for me, but there’s lots of ways to do it. I doubled my income in my 2nd year of freelancing full-time, I was working half as much, and I was on track to break 100K in year three, when I decided to become a professor (Hello, decent health insurance!).

Build a Pipeline

Figure out what your magic monthly number is. The number you need to cover all your bills every month and have a little spending money. For me, at the time, that number was $2,200.

When I made like $500 that first January, that number seemed impossible. I told myself if shit didn’t change, I’d have to get a part-time job in March. Fortunately, things began to pick up.

In those early days, I didn’t have writing to do, so I spent my time sending out a certain number of pitches to editors and cold emails to potential content writing clients and attending networking events. I live in a smaller city and I think people often overlook the opportunities right in their own backyard.

Pitching is like any other skill, the more you do it, the better you get at it. And there’s just always going to be a certain percentage that go unanswered. But the more relationships you build with editors and other writers, the less pitching you’ll have to do in the future.

When writing work started coming in, I remained diligent about continuing to build my pipeline but constantly looking for new clients and landing new articles. I figured out from landing a new client to getting that first payment was often a 60-day turnaround.

So, I made a spreadsheet and looked at my income in 3-month chunks. By seeing the entire quarter, I could forecast how much money I had lined up to come in in the months ahead and I could do more pitching or work hunting down new clients to help hit my income goals.

For example, it’s September. So, I’d be looking at October, November, December. I’d put down all the work I have that I know is going to pay out in those months, then I’d figure out how much more work I needed to lineup to pay out in each of those months to make sure I hit my financial goals. I’d also know if I was going to fall short, so I could do whatever I needed to do on my end to prepare for that.

Stop Taking Low Paying Work As Soon As You Can Afford To

I stopped doing any assignments that paid less than $300, unless I really wanted to do them or knew they could be done in less than an hour. Writing low paying pieces and the admin associated with all those additional invoices (and heaven forbid you have to spend a ton of time chasing down a $50 check…) robs you of time you could be putting into higher paying work or securing higher paying work.

A lot of people suggest breaking into print. I’ve never made $1/word per print (but someday soon I hope to!) and it’s hard to break into print, but once you do more of those opportunities will come your way! But Corporate blogs like Slack also pay $1/word. You just have to keep an eye out on calls for pitches for when they pop up (which is rarely) and if you know anyone writing for a Corporate blog, see if they’ll connect you with their editor.

Higher paying work generally comes your way through your network, so in those early months and years when you’re grinding, it’s so important to focus on building that network and just not being an asshole to people, consistently turning in good work on time so people trust you with their contacts.

Shift to Content Writing

I always did a little content writing, but then I realized that ROI was so much greater than article writing, so I shifted most of my business to content writing and only wrote the articles and essays I wanted to write or were paying good money.

To land content clients, I legit sent cold emails. And connections came through all those networking events I went to. Every time I landed a new client, I raised my hourly rate, until I hit $100/hour.

Cold emailing is not fun, but it does work. It is a numbers game. And the more clients you have, the easier other clients are to land. You just need 1–2 to say yes and then things tend to take off from there.

I recommend choosing a niche and becoming embedded in that world and that community. Then, you’ll have a better sense of who you should be targeting. There’s info around the Internet for sending cold emails aka Letters of Interest.

I also went after small to mid-sized ad agencies in my little city. Most of them didn’t have a copywriter on staff, but occasionally needed one for larger projects. I had about 3–4 in circulation who usually were good for a project each quarter. It was fun, mostly easy work and I didn’t have to deal with the full-time stress of agency life. Plus, it was cool to see my work around town in ads.

Stabilize Your Income

Ultimately, I established a monthly retainer. Each client had a 1K minimum for a set number of hours, but had to pay me the 1K whether they used the hours or not. This help stabilize my income and saved me time by not taking one-off projects.

I also, figured out my monthly expenses and then found an anchor client that paid enough each month to cover them. This gave me a lot of freedom to turn down a lot of work that wasn’t a good fit for me. And it was an opportunity I created because I literally walked into the door and told them they needed a content writer, which means I didn’t have to compete against anyone else like you do when you’re going after a job posting.

Once your income is stabilized, you can finally breathe a little has a freelancer. You aren’t running yourself ragged worried about how you’re going to make enough money each month. But remember to keep building your pipeline because clients come and go, that’s just a natural part of the business.

And Yes, Consulting and Teaching Can Make You $$ Too

I never really got into writing coaching or freelance business consulting. People have approached me, but it’s not what I’m about right now. I seek out folks to mentor who are marginalized and I do classes (that I honestly charge too little for). I enjoy leading workshops and helping people figure out how to do what they want.

I don’t have anything against coaches and consultants, but like most industry, there are grifters and I just hate when people who are already struggling are taken advantage of. There are a lot of free resources out there, kind people who give advice and more affordable options before decide to hire a coach or consultant. If you do decide to go that route, please, please, please do your research!!! Ask a ton of questions. Make sure there are ACTIONABLE takeaways from their sessions.

If you have any follow up questions you can find me on Twitter @mindahoney.