How many times have you mentioned freelance blogging to someone only to have them throw a shitpile of doubt on your career choice?
How many times have you avoided telling someone about your career and ambitions, simply because you didn’t want to have that depressing conversation again? You know, the one where you try to justify your desire to freelance and write blog posts for a living — but the person you’re trying to justify it *to* doesn’t believe you can possibly make it work.
That many times, huh? Hmmf. Me too. In fact, I still have that conversation with people now, 6 years into my successful and lucrative freelance blogging career.
Just the other day, someone who’s known me a long time asked, “So how much do you really make an hour? I mean, say you write something for a client and they pay you $20, how long does it take you to earn that?”
I laughed so hard I started crying. Then I cried so hard I had to laugh.
Then I explained that I haven’t written anything for as little as $20 since, ooh, fucking NEVER. And that my entire reason for doing what I do here on this blog is to help other freelance bloggers (like *you*) avoid working for low pay too.
Make the dumb move work for you
Let me say this as loud and clear as possible:
You are not foolish, reckless or deluded to think that you can be a freelance blogger.
If your grasp of the English language is good enough to read and understand this post, and to write posts of a similar standard, then you can totally rock a freelance blogging career.
You can probably do it better than me, because I did it without guidance and only learned later just how many screw-ups I’d made starting out.
You? You got guidance, right here on this blog.
- You can get support and advice from your peers.
- You can email me and ask any question you like, and I’ll almost certainly answer it (unless it gets eaten by my spam folder).
- You can even find carefully curated lists of 500+ blogs, sites, and online magazines that pay freelance writers from $50 up to $1000 or more.
In other words, you have no reason to avoid making the big, dumb, potentially genius move of becoming a freelance blogger. At worst, you give it a shot and decide you don’t like it. At best, you give it a shot and zoom to the top of this career ladder faster than you expected. (That happens. I’ve seen it many times. Why shouldn’t it be your turn next?)
Today is this blog’s 3rd birthday. Back in January 2013, I published my first post on Be a Freelance Blogger, and since then I’ve done some smart things, some dumb things, and a whole lotta things that were both incredibly smart and painfully dumb at the same time.
And I’m not too proud to share all those stupid / brilliant / stupid things with you, if it’ll make your journey easier. [I have zero shame. Think I was probably born with that part of my brain missing.]
So stick around. I’ll keep sharing, you’ll keep growing, and all those morons who give you the weird-eye when you say “freelance blogging” will just have to get used to the idea of your success.
OK, back to the birthday thing…
The 2016 BAFB scholarship prize
To celebrate Be a Freelance Blogger’s 3rd birthday, I’m giving one BAFB reader a full scholarship: free access to both my freelance blogger training courses to help that lucky scholarship winner get their business set up for success and track down their ideal clients.
A few days ago, I invited everyone who’s subscribed to my emails to apply for the scholarship prize by sending us a short post or personal essay. The topic this year was “what freelance blogging means for your lifestyle” and the entries we received were outstanding in their thoughtfulness, originality and writing quality.
It was SO DAMN HARD to choose just one person to award this scholarship to, but in the end one entry won out above all the others: the 2016 BAFB scholarship goes to Gayle Johnson.
Why Gayle? Well, I have to be honest — as I’m now pregnant and always thinking about what’s best for my children, I found that Gayle’s story of re-evaluating her lifestyle and choosing a difficult but commendable path really rang my bell.
Maybe that’s unfair to the males who entered. Wait, no, it isn’t — men have and raise children too, and if Gail were a man, I’d find the story just as compelling. The point isn’t that Gayle has lady-parts, it’s that she demonstrated the kind of self-awareness and insight that will serve her well as a freelance blogger (as well as serving her kids’ best interests).
Gayle will spend 28 days in the Get Started for Freelance Blogging Success program, followed by 8 weeks in The Freelance Blogger’s Client Hunting Masterclass. And I hope when she’s completed her training she’ll come back to tell us how it all went!
Read her winning entry here:
My life was turned inside out by motherhood — messily so, but all to the good. Over the past four years I’ve questioned everything: what success looks like, what life’s for, what I want to model to my children through the choices I make. I’m living a much more conscious, intentional life now, and happier for it. That everyday, quiet sort of happiness you get when your actions line up with your values better, even when you’re having a crap day and everything goes wrong.
A practical consequence of all this philosophising is that I’ve quit my well-paid secure job. I’d sucked the marrow right out of it and was purely clocking in for the pay-packet. Punchline: I’ve started out as a freelance writer.
And it can’t just be a hobby that lets me feel good about calling myself ‘a writer’. We’re falling back on a small savings stash, tightening everything, letting out our spare room on Airbnb, we’ve basically rearranged our priorities and lives to give me the runway to make this fly.
If I can’t turn the sporadic income I’ve made in the past month (which is great – it’s a start!) into more regular, high quality clients within the next nine months then it’s back to the job hunt and writing for fun, because I need to earn a living.
Which is where this scholarship comes in. I will make this work whatever — I’ve made some great contacts already, written blogs that have attracted debate, personal abuse and emotional thanks (like this one, highly pertinent to the story I’m telling you now: How Motherhood Made Me Unemployable), and I’m going to slog it out. But the opportunity to learn from the pros about seeking out the clients I want and need? Right now, it’d be life changing.
Dangit i thought i won!!
Great job Gayle and best of luck to you and your family
Thank you James! Beyond thrilled with this, it will make such a difference.
Congrats Gayle! Do your best.
Congratulations! Gayle, you are so freaking lucky- well maybe luck had nothing to do with it because you killed it. I wish you the best and hope it takes you far. My story is similar but I’m still at the bottom and trying to get started. I’m green with envy towards you right now. Anyways, congrats again!
Thank you! Good luck with your writing journey – you can make it happen!
Sophie, that’s a nice article. I love this…
To become a freelance blogger and writer is fucking dream. You know..? It was really hard to me to earn with blogging and writing.
I knew sometime to tell someone about blogging and writing job is really depressing, and I’m so serious to answer that.
Whatever, I did and nothing to hide those from anyone…
Congrats for your celebration…
Hi, Sophie,
Gayle Johnson very well deserves it.
This story isn’t only touching, but inspiring. She’s steadily wading through the storm of mothering her family and building a business she loves.
She’s scared silly she could end up going job hunting. And, far as her entry reveals, she’s a sodding good writer who deserves the spotlight. Why rut behind some desk, wracking your head for a boss who doesn’t quite deserve your time?
She’s good (as I believe are all the entries as well), but Gayle’s submission is simply a knockout.
And that’s my first comment on BAFB, though I’ve been a reader since forever.
Warm regards.
Yusuff Busayo
Thank you! Means a lot. I’m loving the challenge so far!
Happy birthday, dear BAFB blog, wish you many, many years of success and positive energy!
Congratulations to Gayle, and all the best to her and her family!
Thanks for the congrats Jana, feeling very buzzed today! All the best to you too on your writing journey.
Last night when I read this my phone jumped onto the floor I was shaking so hard. I’m still feeling a bit fizzy today. It’s going to make such a difference. Thank you Sophie and BAFB!
Thanks Sophie. And Congratulations to BAFB Blog. Wish you all the best. And thanks again for the messages.
Congratulation to Gayle and family.
Congratulations on your third anniversary and your new baby. And thank you for this riveting piece; your emboldening words were trully powerful.
Opinions are the cheapest commodities so people have a lot to say. I guess the hardest part of our job is to block the negativity. After all, it is our life and our choices to make.
As a freelancer I really do value the independence which is why I often bear the brunts of the job. But I would also like to see freelancing become a well-paying, stable job. It’s beautiful what you are doing here Sophie!
Happy birthday, blog! I’m undecided in college and already it’s annoying to answer those “what are going to do” types of questions. People are so narrow-sighted. They’ve grown accustomed to working per hour when you can easily make more than what they make using just one blog post (proof is in this blog post: http://www.blossomthecreativist.com/what-i-learned-from-my-freelance-job/) . Isn’t that phenomenal?!
Thanks for the words,
Blossom
Outstanding story Gayle and lots of luck turning your dream into a reality. I know, it’s already a reality right? But, I seriously wish you lots of luck in making it a profitable reality.
And Sophie, congratulations on three years as Be a Freelance Blogger! Keep sharing your wisdom so we too can enjoy freelance writing success.
Thank you Stephen – and yes, bring on the ‘profit’ bit of this new reality 🙂
That is really encouraging =) I am now taking courses and making a lots of efforts to get out there. It is my goal for 2016 so I started the year by not being so afraid about my skills and putting myself out there. The other day I got accepted as a contributor for LifeHack! So far so good. That only within the first two weeks of the year.
What wouldn’t I be able to do by the end of 2016??
Going through your posts is helping me to set a good path and not be so scared, so thank you. Really. Sometimes we are too scared to take bigger challenges, but if we don’t, we will never grow bigger.
Happy birthday! I’m just new to all this blogging experience and like most of you, trying to start and make it as a blogger. So thanks for your website, its been very useful, specially because there aren’t many spanish sites that can guide and help you.
Love your SelfishMother.com post, Gayle! I’m one of those who tried to do life the way it’s “supposed” to be done (i. e., 9-to-5 job) and never could. My only regret is that it took me so long to realize that!
Thanks Katherine – totally with you! Can’t believe it’s taken me this long to realise I don’t have to dance to someone else’s tune. Good luck with living life your way!
Hi Sophie,
Let me say first and foremost, I’m so glad I found your blog.
I found you through Diana Marinova. She recently published a post on freelance blogs to follow and yours was one of them.
Nice to meet you. 🙂
Your post made me literally laugh out loud. I’ve been freelancing full-time since 2014… and yes, I still have those same conversations with people. I’ve got friends (and family) who think freelance is just a fancy way of saying unemployed.
I’ve got buddies who are a little too eager to pick up the check when we go out for drinks… they assume I’m broke and struggling to get by.
But anyway, I digress…
I started blogging around the same time I started freelancing, but it was only this week that I relaunched and re-branded my blog to focus on helping other freelancers get started.
Which is why I’m thrilled to have connected with you.
I’ll be putting together an expert roundup of successful freelancers in the next couple months, and I’d love to have you participate.
Hope you’re having an awesome day,
Brent
Sophie, I believe that many freelance bloggers face the same problem. I can’t understand why people think that work freelancing is a disadvantage. I’ve heard a lot about my choice, and your story boosted my inspiration! Thanks 🙂