The Secret to Making Six-Figures in Freelance Writing

Are you looking for flexible work that you can do from any location? You may want to consider freelance writing. According to a report compiled by FreeLanceWritingGigs.com, the average freelance writer works 3-5 hours a day and about 7% report earnings of $40,000 or higher, while, on average, about 13% percent make between $10,000-$20,000 annually (remember most do this part-time or supplement their full time income with writing.)

But if you want to make more, the potential is definielty there, which is why I was inspired to profile a number of six-figure freelance writers.

Holly Johnson of ClubThrifty.com

Latest Income Report: $27,453 for August 2016

Holly is one of those people who you try not to get jealous of because of her fabulous life and outrageous success. It’s so hard not to envy…I mean admire someone who gets paid to travel and write about it. Though her most profitable niche is personal finance and higher education, she still gets to travel multiple times a year and cash $20,000+ checks each month. In fact, her most recent income report, she reported a $27K month and is trending to make over $225,000 for 2016! She now has an eCourse teaching others to start their freelance writing career. Check out Earn More Writing to starting getting paid as a freelance writer.

Holly’s advice for anyone wanting to start a freelance writing career?

My best advice for someone wanting to break into the writing world is to start writing. Build your own blog and website from scratch, then use it as your online business card. It can be difficult to build a portfolio when you’re first starting out, but with your own blog, you will have a place to feature any writing samples you deem worthy.”

Michelle Schroeder Gardner of MakingSenseofCents.com

Latest Income Report: $90,188.40 for August 2016

Michelle  as a way as a way to chronicle her story of getting out of over $40,000 in student loan debt. She began freelance writing and providing virtual assistant services to add additional income to her 9-5 salary. Pretty soon, people visited her blog in large numbers to check out her debt repayment progress. People were inspired by the huge dent she was making in her debt simply by systematically increasing her income. Ultimately, this lead to others starting their own side-hustles, blogs and extra gigs. Her loyal audience would use her site’s affiliate and referral links to sign up for services that would help them accomplish similar feats. It wasn’t long before Michelle’s website income from affiliate products quickly surpassed her freelance income. Today she has a website that earns up to $90,000+ per month! Even though her freelance income is a relatively small amount in comparison to her website income, this is an inspiring story of where a freelance writing career can take you! If you are interested in learning about Michelle’s affiliate marketing strategies, check out her new eCourse,

Today, Michelle has a website that earns $90,000+ per month! Even though her freelance writing income is now small in comparison to her website income, this is an inspiring story of where a freelance writing career can take you! If you are interested in learning about Michelle’s website affiliate marketing strategies, check out her new eCourse, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.

Michelle’s advice for Newbies?

My advice would be to try it on the side first, as a side job, if you can. This way, you can learn all of the ins and outs of freelance writing before you get too invested in it. Doing this can help you figure out if you are truly interested in freelance writing, gain clients, and more, without the instability or the nervousness that may come along with attempting it without a full-time income.

Gina Horkey of HorkeyHandBook.com

Latest Income Report: $22,000 for August 2016

Gina has a great story because, she too, starting freelancing as a side hustle and eventually made enough to replace her full-time income. Her income reports dating back a couple of years shows her raking $10k+ monthly solely from freelance writing! Like Michelle, Gina branched off and started offering coaching to other freelance writers and eventually offered ultra-professional and effective courses for aspiring freelance writers. Her classes are so popular that they account for the majority of her income these days.

Gina’s advice on how to start freelancing:

1. Just get started. Don’t wait until the “perfect time.” There is none.
2. Figure stuff out as you go – don’t read everything on the internet. You’ll make mistakes, no big deal. You’ll learn more from your own experiences than you will from reading what every “expert” has to say.
3. Give yourself a long timetable to accomplish your goal. I.e. don’t think you’ll have a thriving business and can quit your job in 2 weeks. All good things take time and more importantly CONSISTENT EFFORT.
4. Which brings me to my last tip – be consistent and run the marathon, not the sprint. Try hard and accomplish a reasonable amount of activity every day, rather than pushing hard for a week or two, not seeing results and giving up.

Miranda Marquit of PlantingMoneySeeds.com and the Adulting.Tv podcast

Miranda started freelance writing because she wanted a more flexible way to earn income. She wanted to be able to stay at home, yet still contribute, income-wise, to the household. She studied journalism in college (not required!) and decided that freelance writing would be a great use of her degree. She’s made over $100k+ for the last 4-5 years.

My number one piece of advice is to realize that sometimes you have to write things you don’t find interesting and to be willing to learn new things. Writing about money wasn’t even on my radar when I started as a freelancewriter. However, I remained open to opportunities and accepted a financial writing gig because I needed the money. Now, 10 years later, most of my writing is about money. Don’t turn down a gig because you aren’t sure about it or because it doesn’t fit with your expectations. Remain open to opportunities and be willing to do something new, and you might be surprised at where that takes you.

Honorable Mentions:

These ladies don’t publish regular income reports, but I have gleaned from conversations and blog posts that they are still among top earners when it comes to freelance writing, earning anywhere from $2,500 per month to $10,000 per month and some much more. I still say check them out, because they are killing it when it comes to freelance writing and offer up great tips on how to optimize earnings and gain more clients.

• Latisha Styles of youngfinances.com
• Melanie Lockert of deardebt.com
• Michelle Jackson of shopmyclosetproject.com
• Toni Husbands of debtfreedivas.org
• Stephanie O’Connell of stefanieoconnell.com

Interested in learning more about freelance writing? Check this eCourse to help:

Earn More Writing

Aja McClanahan

Aja “A.J.” McClanahan is a writer, speaker and entrepreneur.