The Writer’s Trade Secret to Predictable Monthly Income
If you’re a freelancer, there’s nothing more comforting than regular income
Freelance writing is tough. Freelance anything is tough. You’re the chief, cook, and plate-scrubber. If you don’t work you don’t get paid. However, there are some things freelancers can do on the back-end to ensure a predictable income stream, during those questionable moments between bigger projects.
Not only can you develop multiple income streams for yourself, but you can do so without hiring employees to do the work.
I’ve done this myself, with my own writing business and I’ll show you a quick overview here. The process is additive. You won’t make ten grand a month your first day. Maybe you start with ten bucks. But once you understand your system, and the measured results you create, all you have to do is add more effort to grow your nest-egg.
When we don’t work we don’t get paid.
But this doesn’t mean we can’t create some back-end cushion to help alleviate the big income swings between projects. Whether you work for others, or entirely for yourself, we can all benefit from predictable income streams.
We start with our email list
Ten years ago was the best time to grow your email list. The next best time is today. If you’re a freelancer. You must have an email list. Period. There’s nothing more financially-irresponsible than not having a way to contact your tribe on a regular basis.
I know this is a tough statement. But it’s your duty to remind your customers that you’re still in business, ready to serve them.
Once you need the money, it’s too late. Your email list is the process of digging the well before you’re thirsty, not after you’re completely dehydrated, elbow-crawling across the sand, fighting antelope for a drop to drink. Roads must be built before we can drive from New York to LA. Your list must be established before you can earn automated, semi-passive income.
We develop an introductory product
I developed a micro-course, laser-targeted to my indie-writing tribe. Not only do I offer this micro-course at full-price, but I also offer a nice coupon to anyone who joins my email list.
I’ve written the copy and tested it ten ways to next Saturday. I play with the offer and the copy all the time. Some changes increase sales. Many changes decrease it. I attack each problem using the scientific method (i.e. change one thing, leave all other variables alone, and see what happens once a statistically-significant group of people see the copy).
I created the smaller product to get myself started.
I’m working on a flagship course, but it’s daunting and huge. The small product gave my readers something to invest in, right away. It helped my self-confidence in my work, and it paid for all my business expenses (and then some), buying me time to create the flagship course at my own pace, not out of desperation.
Your intro product will be totally different than mine.
It doesn’t matter what you offer as long as your customers want it. I realize how stupid that statement sounds, but it’s important to serve your market, not ask your market to serve you. There are far too many well-intentioned freelancers out there who create a product first, then hope people will buy it later.
- Build the list.
2. Find out what they want.
3. Give it to them.
We create daily content that serves multiple purposes
I spend a lot of time writing content. Maybe three-quarters of my writing time at the moment. The content serves multiple purposes: I earn income from writing it, the content helps grow my tribe of the right people I wish to serve, some of these people become raving fans and purchase my work, many more join my list.
Once piece of writing works very hard for me. In different directions. While I sleep.
I now serve an international audience in 60+ countries. Some of which I had to look-up on a map. This is still freelance work, however. There’s no magic bullet. I have to write my face-off every day if I want the process to grow.
The days I don’t create new content are the days my readership wanes.
But the traffic-trickle continues-on. I’ve created semi-automated income streams to keep a predictable amount of income coming in every month. If I write X I’ll get Y. This is a very comforting feeling. Freelancers need this comfort.
We don’t want to write from a point of desperation. Customers can smell desperation like hot salmon in a summer dumpster.
I never stop inviting new readers into my fold. Instead of trying to write for my own blog, I go to where my potential customers already exist. This is another secret. Let the bigger sites help you build an audience. If I tried to build my own blog from scratch, I’d have zero traffic today, next year, and three years later. No one wants to search for my blog. So, I write where they congregate. You may want to try this too.
Through relentless testing you’ll find your sweet spot.
There’s nothing better than knowing there’ll be money in the bank, even if a big project is delayed. Freelancers make the bulk of their income after they deliver. This means you don’t get paid while you’re working (the opposite of a day job).
When we create these little, automated income streams we off-set the big paydays.
The anxiety lowers.
The deliberate work can continue without desperation.
We grow our tribe as we work to serve them more. You can do this too.
We’re waiting for you.
(Grab My Free Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers.)
August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. A self-proclaimed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indie authors how to write books that sell and how to sell more of those books once they’re written. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.
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