3 Factors For Making Money FAST as a Freelance Writer

It seems like every person nowadays wants to know how to make money fast as a freelance writer.

They want to know the shortest way to success and for that, they ask all kinds of questions, down to REALLY specific ones like, “How much time will it take me to make it big in the freelance writing industry?”

Now, the thing is: I don’t know you and so it’s hard for me to guess. Even if I did, there’s no way I could say for sure because how fast you succeed depends on your skills, work ethic, and luck.

But what I can tell you is the amount of time it took me to make good money as a freelance writer.

It took me 6 months to make a considerable amount of income as a freelance writer. Now, that might sound like a lot to some. But I try being very real on this platform and as much as I’d love to tell you a story of overnight success… I don’t have one.

But what I can tell you is that once I had figured out the whole process of how this industry worked, my monthly income figure not only doubled or tripled in the next six months; it almost quadrupled! 

What’s more, it continues to increase every single month. But the question is, how much time will it take you? 

That depends on three simple factors that I think will help you determine how fast you can make a solid income as a freelance writer. And not just how fast you make it, but how much you can make as well. 

Right, so let’s get started.

1. How Fast Can You Learn?

Always remember: the faster you can learn, the faster you can earn.

The point is; a lot of freelance writers when starting off, try to avoid certain aspects of the job because they don’t know how to execute them. 

For example, when I started out, I didn’t know how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) worked. For those of you who’re equally clueless, SEO means to optimize your content such that your article shows up in Google searches (or any other search engine) related to the article’s topic or title.

So, when I started to make money writing articles, I used to ignore SEO related work. I wouldn’t apply to gigs that required SEO-related knowledge. And it took me a while to realize that if I wanted to make a living writing online, I needed to learn SEO.

Because the fact of the matter is that clients aren’t paying me for the sake of writing a few hundred words. Honestly, they couldn’t care less about that.

What they really want is to reach as many people as they can in order to get more traffic, make more sales, or get more people to click on their affiliate links. And SEO is one of the most prime factors for that.

If I kept denying that fact, I’d still be stuck in the initial stages of my career. Thankfully, I decided to work on my SEO skills and knowledge. And the funny thing is that it wasn’t even as complicated as I had initially thought. Just because SEO sounded technical and I didn’t really know what it was, I had assumed it would be awfully hard, which it wasn’t.

So now, the ball is in your court. How fast can you learn things that are necessary for you to grow in the freelance writing industry? These could range from technical skills down to effective communication with clients.

At the end of the day, you know yourself the best and understand what exactly you lack as a professional.

2. Published Samples

The majority of my audience is from South Asia or Africa. And what I’ve noticed is that most of the freelance writers in these regions don’t really have properly published samples when they start approaching clients.

In fact, recently, a freelance writer approached me for help. Now, she told me that she had over 10 years of experience… which is a LOT in this industry.

But she wasn’t even making half of what I was at the time. So I asked her if she had any sample articles that she could show me. Her response left me baffled because she confessed to having NO articles published with her name.

Now even if she says she has 10 years of experience, she has nothing to show for it. There’s really no easier way for me to put this but any article on the internet that you’ve not been properly credited for does not count as professional writing experience. And if you’re not even sending your prospects a link to a sample article and are, instead, attaching a word document; that’s even worse.

Understand that high-paying clients aren’t looking for ghostwritten articles or attached word documents. They want to see a sample article with your name. Why? Because for all he knows, you could be sending him a link to a random article from the Internet, claiming it to be yours.

Again, if you want to start off with making good money as a freelance writer, you need to get those articles published under your name. It would be even better if you have an author’s bio and a picture. 

Don’t know where to get your articles published with your name? Use Medium: a free platform where you can publish an article with your name.

3. Master The Art of Finding Clients

Here’s my observation:

Most freelance writers are good at writing. Finding clients is where they actually suck!

A lot of freelancers enter into this industry thinking it’s a really secluded one where they won’t need to mingle a lot with others. They could just sit back, sip some coffee and type away on their laptops. That’s why they’re really amused by the idea of making money writing from home.

But contrary to popular belief, a freelancer probably needs better communication than a person who works at a job. That’s because you’ll need to regularly find and convince more clients to hire you.

And the fact of the matter is:

If you have no idea where the rich clients are or even WHO they are, you’ll stay broke.

The biggest lie a freelance writer could tell you is that hard work is the key to success. Bullshit! The real key is smart work… knowing who to work with, where to find them, and how to convince them.

Now, talking to and convincing clients is a whole subject in itself. But for starters, read my article on how to approach clients.

Moving on, you need to understand where to find your ideal clients. Now the problem is that the right platform for finding clients depends on who you are, where you’re from, and where you currently stand in your career.

But the gist is that if you realize that you want to make a certain amount of income but don’t think your current platform will help you do that, then it’s time to move on.

Shift to a different platform where you can find better and high-paying clients. For example, if you’re working through Facebook groups, you might want to shift to freelancing websites like Upwork, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, and others. 

All these websites are home to clients which pay more than clients from Facebook groups. Now, if you’re on these websites and you’re still looking for more, then you need to shift to LinkedIn or cold emailing.

Final Thoughts…

So, there you have it, people. This was my take on how you can make money fast as a freelance writer.

But honestly, I’m not a fan of the get-rich-quick mindset. What you need to be looking for is sustainable income. So, take your time and keep climbing higher on the ladder. You’re closer than you think!