7 Reasons Being a Freelance Writer Is the Best Job In the World
Aside from being able to work whenever and wherever you want, there are several other benefits to being a freelance writer.
Being a freelance writer comes with several benefits. Do you have half-decent computer skills and at least somewhat of a knack for writing? As a freelance writer, you’ll enjoy a simple life with the ability to travel to your heart’s content. If you find our content valuable, please click the follow button next to our name. Thanks!
Not everyone is good with words. Not everyone wants to work at home or while they travel. So this article is not for everyone. But if you’re reading it, then the title must interest you. So I’m going to assume that freelance writing is the best job in the world for you and try to convince you that I’m right.
For more than two decades, before I became a freelance writer, I was a freelance graphic artist and content creator. As a freelancer, I did graphics, audio, video, and some writing.
Before I started getting my own clients, I used temp agencies to get work at advertising and marketing agencies. Then one day I learned how much the temp agency gets paid vs. how much of that went to me.
Generally, temp agencies are paid triple or quadruple the hourly rate that they pay low-level temps. At the time (more than 20 years ago) I think I was making under $20 an hour and the agency was getting over $90 per hour. That’s when I decided to go freelance.
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I started out as a freelance graphic artist asking for $25 an hour. I eventually worked my way up to earning about $50 an hour on average. Breaking through that ceiling without agency connections would be difficult — at least in my mind.
After 15 years as a freelancer, I landed a client that needed a lot of writing. I quickly learned that writing is a much easier way to make a living as a freelancer than all other types of content creation.
I sent out an email to 100 companies with samples of my ghostwriting work. That one email got me an amazing gig. I never looked back. I’ve been writing full-time ever since. And I couldn’t be happier. Check out that story here.
Here are seven reasons that freelancing writing is the best job in the world.
1. Work from home… or anywhere else you want for that matter.
This is the most obvious benefit of being a freelance writer. But some people actually want to go to work every day. They don’t mind getting up, getting cleaned and fed, getting dressed, and commuting to work because their job is fulfilling for them. But like me, quite a good cut of those people who do slog off to work every day would rather be working at home — or anywhere they want to be as long as there’s a reliable internet connection.
My partner and I work together. We travel seasonally. Everything we need to make a living fits in a computer bag. We have three laptops and two phones. We have mobile data plans with the two largest cellular networks. One of them usually has a sufficient internet connection.
[Check out our new digital nomads’ travel blog where we write about our adventures and share some of our art.]
2. No special equipment or software is required.
I still have a pricey Mac that I use for producing graphics, audio, and video (which are more hobbies now than anything). However, We now make our entire living writing on a $250 Acer Chromebook and a $200 Lenovo Chromebook with free software.
We use Google Drive and Google Docs with the free Grammarly plugin. If one of our computers breaks or isn’t handy, we can access our work from any computer with an internet connection and web browser.
When I was a graphic communications specialist, I had to have the mighty Mac computer and all the latest Adobe and Apple software — Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Lightroom, After Effects, Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and so forth.
Not only do all those software subscriptions cost good money — something in the neighborhood of $600 a year — but these high-end programs are complicated and can take a lot of time to learn and maintain. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent and how much money I lost learning how to apply a particular feature or attempting to troubleshoot corrupted graphics, audio, or video projects.
As a writer, it’s rare that I have any difficulty with Google Docs. And problems are usually solved in short order.
In a pinch, I can even do my job on a tablet or phone. In fact, I often make small revisions for clients using my phone while I’m out and about. They love the fast turnaround. That’s not always possible with graphics, audio, and video projects.
Another benefit that I’ll throw in this category is that there are no massive files to upload. Videos and audio and even some graphics projects can produce enormous multi-gigabyte files or collections of files that take forever to upload. With writing, all I have to do is send the client a link. Boom. Done.
3. Writing is far less subjective to clients than other artforms.
One thing I hated about being a content producer for advertising and marketing projects is that it seems everyone has a vision for what a piece should look and sound like. Almost never do you send off a design or a video to a client and that’s the end of it. There are always some changes to be made.
Some clients are worse than others and jobs end up going back and forth multiple times before these clients are happy.
When you’re working on a project for a flat rate, rather than hourly, every little tweak you do once the job is delivered evaporates away some profits. I’ve bid jobs at over $100 an hour and ended up making $20 an hour because the client was being persnickety. (You can limit revisions as part of the contract, but this situation is not common and the other projects make up for it if you’ve got a good client.)
With freelance writing, on the other hand, It’s pretty rare that I am asked to make substantial revisions, and even rarer that there’s more than one round of revisions. I’m very fortunate to have ongoing clients for whom I write several blog posts every week. They almost never ask for any substantial revisions. It’s just heavenly.
4. Learning to be a half-decent writer is easier than learning most other trades.
Once you learn some basic rules, constant improvement and growth are not difficult. Writing is not rocket science. There aren’t a lot of moving parts to a sentence or a paragraph or a blog post.
There are some very basic rules that make you a far better writer. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Don’t combine ideas in a sentence or a paragraph. Don’t jump around — put stuff in an order that makes the most sense. Use Grammarly or a thesaurus app to make sure you’re using the best words for what you’re trying to convey. Use active verbs rather than verbs like “is” and “was.” Use fewer pronouns. And so on.
Although you should be concerned with proper grammar, many styles of writing are better said using conversational language. Perfect grammar isn’t so much of an issue. Moreover, most clients aren’t grammar Nazis. And Grammarly can be a huge help.
5. You can make a fantastic hourly rate as a freelance writer… without a degree.
When I was doing graphic design, audio production, and video, more than half of my clients wanted an hourly rate. If you really want to make a living in today’s world and not work your arse off, then you need to make $50 to $100 an hour or more. The problem is that clients look on websites like Upwork and Fiverr and find scores of rivals working for half that much.
And the clients that ask for a flat rate are used to paying what they’re used to paying. On occasion, there’s some room to negotiate. But I’ve found that I usually end up taking a gig or leaving it based on the client’s budget.
The typical blog post is 750 to 1500 words. Let’s say a client is willing to pay $100 for a 1,000-word article. If you can write a 1,000-word article on the topic in one hour, then you’re making $100 per hour. If it takes you two hours, that’s $50 per hour. Even if it takes you three to four hours, you can do two per day and make $50,000 or more in a year.
If you’re writing about a topic on which you have some expertise, finding good-paying gigs is easier. And if you’re passionate about your topic (like we are about being digital nomads) that’s a bonus benefit.
I’ll also throw in here that if you’re prolific, you can create residual income as a writer using websites such as Medium. You don’t even need your own website.
6. As a freelance writer, no one cares who you are.
Clients generally don’t care who you are when they hire you to ghostwrite posts for their blog or to write an ebook or whatever. They don’t care if you’re 12 years old or 112 years old. They don’t care about your sex, your religion, your politics, your location, your education level, your experience level. They care about one thing — the quality of your writing.
Sure, having a good long resume and a vast portfolio of prior work can make it easier to get high-paying gigs. But if your writing is great, it doesn’t matter who you are — you’ll get work.
7. Being a freelance writer gives you time for other creative pursuits.
I don’t need to work eight hours a day to make a living as a freelance writer. I can cover all my bills and wants and needs working something like five hours a day. I could work more than that, but I choose to do things like this — writing articles for Medium — on my own time and my own dime. I also continue to dabble in music and I love photography. [Check out my latest song.]
Also, being a freelance writer allows you to spend far more time with the ones you love. My partner Marion and I actually work as a team which is wonderful for us.
Downsides to being a freelance writer
Before I go, I have to mention that there are some downsides to being a freelance writer.
For one thing, you’re pretty much stuck staring at a computer screen for hours and hours every day — but most people are these days. Staring at a computer for 10–12 hours a day for the past 30 years has had an effect on my vision and my cardiac health. Yeah, I know, I need to get out more. The upside is that you can work part-time as a writer and part-time doing something more energetic. (My side hustle is swing trading stocks and cryptocurrencies. I can check on and adjust my positions on my phone while walking on a beach.)
Another drawback is that you’ve got to really work to have a social life when you work at home and spend most of your time alone and in your own head. For me, prior to the pandemic, music was my social life. Hopefully, live music will get fired up again in the not-too-distant future.
For Marion and me, these drawbacks are far more acceptable than having to wake up to an alarm clock, dress up nice, and slog off to work every day to be told what to do and when to do it. We’re much more comfortable sipping coffee and listening to music on the deck in our bathing suits while we work.
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