Freelance writing is one of those professions where incomes vary widely – very widely. You’ll find some who make six figures and tend to be busy all the time. On the other end of the spectrum you’ll find those who struggle – barely making enough to make ends meet. If you research freelance writing jobs online, you’ll see assignments that vary so widely in pay that it’s easy to see why this can happen.
But in my experience, the pay scale has less to do with how much a freelance writer can make than their personality. What do I mean? Read on.
Opportunities in Freelance Writing: How Your Personality Can Determine Your Success
I find freelance writers usually fall into three camps:
i) Those who look down upon anything that pays less than what “they” consider a decent rate:
Many of these tend to be long-time freelancers who have previously worked in high-paying and/or prestigious positions.
For example, some have worked in magazines where they’re accustomed to making $1 or more per word and consider any assignment less than this “not worth their while,” or low paying. Others may have worked for a newspaper, where the pay wasn’t exactly that great, but the training and professional esteem that came with the job more than made up for what the pay lacked.
For many of these freelance writers, online writing jobs like SEO article that pays $25 for a 350-word article is beneath them.
For many of these types of freelancers, they may find it hard to make a full-time living freelancing because they quickly discover that what they consider slave wages is a “good living” to others. So it may take them a while to adjust and carve out a niche where they can make the wages they were previously accustomed to making as a FT employee.
(ii) Those who will work for peanuts:
This type of freelance writing has a hard time making a full-time living because they consistently take low-paying gigs, even though they know they should be making more.
“Making more” is different for everybody; but when you find yourself stuck writing $3, 500-word SEO articles – then you’re working for peanuts.
Why This Type of Freelance Writer May Struggle to Make a FT Income
Hence, you’ll have a hard time making a full-time living as a freelance writer because you either don’t know how to market for better paying gigs, don’t have confidence enough in your writing skill to go for better paying writing gigs, or you simply don’t know enough about freelance writing to know that this is NOT the norm, no matter how many of these types of ads you run across.
(iii) Those who will consider each project on its merits:
This type of freelance writer is the thinker of the bunch, in that they’ll assess several factors before saying yeah or nay to a project, ie, they’ll assess its potential for long-term income generation, how easy it is to complete and what it provides to them personally.
This type of freelance writer will have an easier time making a full-time living freelancing than the other two.
Want to work from home full time as a freelance writer? Assess your personality. Which of these categories do you fall into?
