How to Make Freelance Writing a Full-time Career in 2008
The Freelance Writer's 2008 Blueprint to Success
by Yuwanda Black
[Want to start a successful career as a freelance writer? Click here.]

If starting a career as a freelance writer is something that you’ve been wanting to do, but have been held back – for whatever reason – following is a concrete plan to make freelance writing a full-time career in 2008.

How to Make Freelance Writing a Full-time Career in 2008

1. Assess Your Desire: The reason I start with this is, no one can teach you this. There’s no ebook, seminar or teleclass that can teach desire. You either have it, or you don’t.

If you really want to be a freelance writer, but have not become one yet, really question your desire.

Do you feel like: “it seems like it’d be fun,” or “I think I’d like it better than my job,” or “I’ve always been good at writing so let me give freelancing a try?"

OR

Is it a burning desire – something you dream about, think about, DO something towards every day?

If freelance writing is not a burning desire, then don’t pursue it because like any dream, it requires some sweat equity. You have to write when you don’t feel like it, on topics that you could care less about and within impossible deadlines sometimes.

There’s also the constant marketing for new work – which is a full-time job in and of itself.

But, all of these “obstacles” can be overcome. There ARE ebooks, seminars and teleclasses to tell you how to handle these.

But, you must have the desire, the passion, FIRST. If you’ve got that – read on.

2. Create a Niche: I’m a big believer in “nicheing it to success.” The reason is, it’s easier to sell yourself as a specialist than a generalist. Once you’ve got your foot in the door, it’s easier to get clients to entrust you with projects that fall outside your niche.

An Example: I recently started doing SEO writing. When I initially contacted companies, I “sold” myself as a writer who specialized in real estate, mortgages and general small business matters.

The first client I got contacted me because he needed someone to write on mortgages.
********************************
Read here how I routinely make $250+/day as an SEO writer – and how you can too!
********************************
Since that first project, I’ve also written for this company on wedding accessories and cake toppers. This certainly wasn’t in the samples I submitted to him. BUT, because he was so impressed with my writing on mortgages, he entrusted these projects to me as well.

This has happened so many times in my career. But, it all started because I sold myself as a specialist first.

3) Create Revenue Streams: Most beginning freelancers are flummoxed by this because they don’t even have clients. So, they think, “I’d just settle for one revenue stream at this point.”

I counter with, "begin with the end in mind." An illustrative example:

This past summer, I attended a seminar at my local chamber of commerce. The speaker was Jim Ziegler, the author of The Prosperity Equation: The Entrepreneur’s Road Map to Wealth. Mr. Ziegler is a successful author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker.

During his presentation, he put up a chart demonstrating how he makes his money. The chart consisted of several circles, each of which represented a revenue stream. I don’t remember the exact breakdown, but I do remember that they looked something like this:

Speaking engagements: $50K/month

Book Sales: $30K/month

Seminar Presentations: 12K/month

Website Sales: $5K/month

There were a few more categories that I can’t recall. And remember, all of these are approximations of my memory, not exact numbers – but these are really good ballpark figures.

My point in telling you all this? Start thinking concretely now about how much you want to make as a freelance writer – and where that income is going to come from.

There’s never been a better time to be a freelance writer because all of your income doesn’t have to come directly from your writing efforts.

My income, for example, is split across client projects, blogging, ebook sales and seminar presentations. I’m also looking at adding a couple of more streams in the coming year.

The great thing about developing different income streams is that you inoculate yourself against the ups and downs of freelancing as a whole. If 20% of your income comes from one source, 15% from another and 12% from another, if one stream dries up or slows down considerably, it doesn’t have nearly the effect on your entire income.

Marketing Tip for Beginning Freelance Writers: If you’re just starting out and have no product/service of your own to sell, affiliate programs and ad-generating programs like Google Adsense are great starters.

You can start making money almost immediately with these.

So, start thinking about how many streams of revenue you want to develop and figure that into your marketing plan (discussed below).

Warning: Don’t spread yourself too thin though creating secondary income streams. In the beginning, you want to cultivate revenue streams that are not going to take a lot of time to promote because most of your energy is going to be taken up marketing for  freelance writing clients.