Member-only story
What I Learned From Launching a Freelance Writing Business
And why freelancing isn’t as great as it sounds
When I started writing on Medium at the end of 2018, I didn’t really have any plans to write professionally. I had worked as a technical writer back in the day, but I rolled my eyes at the prospect of making money as a “blogger”. Until I did it.
I went from making pennies a month to around $1,000 a month on Medium in just a few short months, and slowly began picking up freelance clients.
It wasn’t terribly difficult to get started, but I noticed that all of my new clients had been finding me through existing clients, or though my writing on Medium — not through my inquiries. In other words, reaching out to blogs and trying to be a paid writer didn’t yield results, but writing on Medium and building up a big audience did.
When I did the math, I should have been able to pull in $3,000 a month as a freelance writer, working for just a few hours a day. And, if I could pick up a few more clients and devote 6–8 hours a day to my writing, I could turn it into a full-time income.
Now, it’s worth noting that I live in NYC, where finding an apartment for less than $2000 a month is almost impossible, so $3,000 a month before taxes is really not a viable full-time income.
