HOW I MADE MY FIRST DOLLAR FREELANCE WRITING

For the very first post of this blog, I figure there's nothing better to share than the story of how I launched my full-time writing career.

Let me start by saying, it all began very humbly. I love writing, but I have no writing degree. I don't have a vast social media following either. No one understood my vision. Most people thought my writing was a pipe dream. 

Even with odds stacked against me, I built my own freelance business out of dogged persistence. 

You see, I’m an average gal. Until the end of 2013, I believed that a 9 to 5 job was the only way to earn money. 

Then I made my first $20 from freelancing writing. I made my first $20 writing two blog posts, so really a measly $10 per assignment. 

Let's be real — that's not even enough to pay for a gel mani and pedi. 

Regardless, that $20 made me feel like a million bucks. And for a newbie, it proved I could make money from writing. 

Fast forward to today, and I work on blog posts and projects that pay $1,500+.

MY JOURNEY FROM RAMEN TO LOX

I love smoked salmon a.k.a lox.

Slather some cream cheese on a bagel, throw some lox on top, and I'm in heaven. It’s a delectable yet expensive snack.

I compare the writing assignments I do now to lox and the ones back then to ramen noodles. Upgrading to jobs that pay me in lox didn’t happen right away.

I had to position myself as an expert, build up a platform, and perfect my pitch to command higher rates.

THE FIRST WRITING ASSIGNMENT

For the sake of showing where I came from (and so I can laugh at myself), I dug up my first ever pitch that turned into the $20-something dollar writing job.

The job was a paid gig as a gossip writer.

I’m a recovering celebrity gossip blog addict, so I figured writing for them would be the perfect use of my skills.

Wrong. I found writing about people I don’t know feels icky even if it’s just for entertainment. Here’s the first pitch I sent out...

Yes, I promise. This email is real life. 

My negotiating skills have improved greatly.

My original quote was $25 per post, but I bartered all the way down to $10 per post.

#Sad.

HOW I GOT TO THE NEXT INCOME LEVEL

So, how did I get here? 

First, I focused on a higher paying niche.

Gossip reporting doesn’t pay very well — at all — unless you’re one of the big names like Wendy Williams or you write for a seriously prominent publication.

I began to focus on the finance industry where there are businesses offering products to customers. Companies with products for sale usually have a bigger marketing budget.

Gossip sites typically rely on ad sales, so the budget for contributors is small. The bottom line is, if I pitched a gossip blog a $1,500 idea, they’d probably laugh in my face.

The message I want to get across to you is: start right now with what you have. It doesn't have to be perfect. People may laugh. But it's worth it. 

Had I never made that sad little pitch to a gossip reporting site, I would never have been able to grow my business to the place where it is today.