My Simple 30 Day Plan Towards Increasing my Freelance Writing Earnings

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

2557

Abstract

to do anyway. To increase my freelance writing revenue this month, I decided that the best method would be to build on whatever foundation I already have and focus on avenues that I am more familiar with.</p><h1 id="1793">1) It’s time to reduce the amount of effort I put into my book.</h1><p id="5c9b">Publishing a book is an aspiration many writers have. Likewise, I have been dreaming of publishing a book that I can be proud of. When reflecting on my writing journey this year thus far, I realised that I have been consumed by my goal of completing the book by the end of this year, and have spent almost all of my free time on writing my drafts. This “unhealthy obsession” to finish my book meant that I was under constant stress to write material related to the book, causing me to ultimately have less motivation to write. Of course, publishing my book is still a dream that I want to continue to work towards. However, I also have to recognise the fact that for most freelance writers, publishing books is no longer a dependable main source of income that can be relied on. By spending less time on it, I can ensure that I utilise my time more efficiently and allow myself some space to work on other forms of writing that might help me generate revenue.</p><h1 id="d3ca">2) Source out projects and do a minimum of 4 quality proposals weekly on UpWork.</h1><p id="1030">In April, I was desperate to be hired on UpWork. As a result, I ended up applying for a large number of projects even if they did not pay well or had conditions that were too tough to meet. Combined with the large number of proposals I was sending also meant that my proposals weren’t the best I could do (after all, I wasn’t about to spend 30 minutes crafting a perfect proposal for a job that paid $5 per 2000 words article). For me to clinch more clients on such a competitive freelance market, I realised that I have to put in much more effort into the proposals I send out. This means that I have to be more discerning in choosing the jobs that I apply to. With a minimum of 4 proposals a week, I hope that I will be able to be hired for 3 projects (a 20% success rate shouldn’t be too high to hope for) that are well paying and hopefully, long term projects.</p><h1 id="962f">3) Publish daily on Medium.</h1><p id="c231">Another possible revenue stream that I could tap into would be Medium. While I have tried writing daily in my <a href="https://readmedium.com/naarwrimo-d3fac0a9f702">NaArWriMo challenge</a> before, I have only published close to 35 posts in 6 months.

Options

As such, by publishing daily, I would be able to double the amount of content I have on my Medium account. This would allow me to generate more views and more earnings. Furthermore, writing on Medium is unpredictable (most writers here will be able to agree with me on this). No one really knows why a certain article they write will gain traction while another seemingly similar post flops. By publishing such a large volume of articles (without burning myself out), I can increase my chances of having well-received posts. At the same time, this would allow me to explore many more styles of writing and different themes that interest me, setting a stronger foundation for the freelance writing career I am working towards.</p><p id="a5c7">Of course, I won’t know how this will turn out. Maybe I will be able to start generating a sizable monthly revenue from writing and end up writing the next “How I Made 10k on Medium” article. Maybe all these will flop and I end the month earning my normal disappointing $1 from Medium. But all I know is that I will forever regret the missed opportunities if I never took the first steps.</p><p id="89e3">You may also be interested in reading:</p><div id="d90d" class="link-block"> <a href="https://writingcooperative.com/why-i-masked-my-identity-disclaimer-not-due-to-privacy-concerns-33ef1f125dbf"> <div> <div> <h2>Why I Masked My Identity (Disclaimer: Not Due to Privacy Concerns)</h2> <div><h3>How you can benefit from writing under a pen name.</h3></div> <div><p>writingcooperative.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*-Lgc91bUlPb3hd0Y)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="16d2" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-setting-time-aside-to-write-is-the-best-way-to-help-yourself-6c8ea2e89886"> <div> <div> <h2>How Setting Time Aside to Write is the Best Way to Help Yourself</h2> <div><h3>The benefits dedicating time for writing has on improving your writing ability</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*zOqUpeXQd8_RcaAt)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

How I’m planning to work and increase revenue this month

I have been writing for a long time. Yet, ever since I stopped writing for my own blog over a year ago, writing has become more of a hobby for me and I relied on my day job to earn an income. I decided to write on Medium as I would be able to explore different styles of writing without being worried about having to promote a website or constantly having to contact different businesses. Although I have been writing consistently (average 1 post per week), my mean Medium earnings have been less than a dollar monthly (yes, I have barely earned enough to buy a cup of Starbucks). As a result, I unconsciously accepted the idea that writing would not be a good source of income and haven’t thought about making writing a source of revenue for me again.

However, everything changed in late March. I was first contacted to do a promotional piece that I received $10 for. While it wasn’t a lot of money, it was the first time someone hired me to write ever since I left my blog. Filled with energy and excitement from this commissioned piece, I quickly set up an UpWork account and prepared to rake in the cash I envisioned myself receiving. A $75 ghostwriting piece quickly followed and gave me so much confidence in my ability to become a freelance writer. For the first time in over a year, I could tell myself that writing was a viable source of income instead of something that I did to simply pass time.

That was it. My supposed new revenue stream dried up as suddenly as it came. Despite putting out numerous UpWork proposals, no one seemed to want to hire me for any work at all. I spent several days emailing and writing pitches throughout April for various blogs and websites but all I got back was radio silence. If this was any other month, I would have given up quickly and concluded that the money I had earned was simply a fluke. But with lockdown measures in place continuing in May, I decided that it wouldn’t be harmful to try harder since I would have nothing else to do anyway. To increase my freelance writing revenue this month, I decided that the best method would be to build on whatever foundation I already have and focus on avenues that I am more familiar with.

1) It’s time to reduce the amount of effort I put into my book.

Publishing a book is an aspiration many writers have. Likewise, I have been dreaming of publishing a book that I can be proud of. When reflecting on my writing journey this year thus far, I realised that I have been consumed by my goal of completing the book by the end of this year, and have spent almost all of my free time on writing my drafts. This “unhealthy obsession” to finish my book meant that I was under constant stress to write material related to the book, causing me to ultimately have less motivation to write. Of course, publishing my book is still a dream that I want to continue to work towards. However, I also have to recognise the fact that for most freelance writers, publishing books is no longer a dependable main source of income that can be relied on. By spending less time on it, I can ensure that I utilise my time more efficiently and allow myself some space to work on other forms of writing that might help me generate revenue.

2) Source out projects and do a minimum of 4 quality proposals weekly on UpWork.

In April, I was desperate to be hired on UpWork. As a result, I ended up applying for a large number of projects even if they did not pay well or had conditions that were too tough to meet. Combined with the large number of proposals I was sending also meant that my proposals weren’t the best I could do (after all, I wasn’t about to spend 30 minutes crafting a perfect proposal for a job that paid $5 per 2000 words article). For me to clinch more clients on such a competitive freelance market, I realised that I have to put in much more effort into the proposals I send out. This means that I have to be more discerning in choosing the jobs that I apply to. With a minimum of 4 proposals a week, I hope that I will be able to be hired for 3 projects (a 20% success rate shouldn’t be too high to hope for) that are well paying and hopefully, long term projects.

3) Publish daily on Medium.

Another possible revenue stream that I could tap into would be Medium. While I have tried writing daily in my NaArWriMo challenge before, I have only published close to 35 posts in 6 months. As such, by publishing daily, I would be able to double the amount of content I have on my Medium account. This would allow me to generate more views and more earnings. Furthermore, writing on Medium is unpredictable (most writers here will be able to agree with me on this). No one really knows why a certain article they write will gain traction while another seemingly similar post flops. By publishing such a large volume of articles (without burning myself out), I can increase my chances of having well-received posts. At the same time, this would allow me to explore many more styles of writing and different themes that interest me, setting a stronger foundation for the freelance writing career I am working towards.

Of course, I won’t know how this will turn out. Maybe I will be able to start generating a sizable monthly revenue from writing and end up writing the next “How I Made 10k on Medium” article. Maybe all these will flop and I end the month earning my normal disappointing $1 from Medium. But all I know is that I will forever regret the missed opportunities if I never took the first steps.