Here are ten effective ways to make money as a freelance writer. Some are based on Kelly James-Enger’s Six Figure Freelancing: The Writer’s Guide to Making More Money. Others are based on my own experience as a freelance writer, plus other writing resources, such as The Renegade Writer. 

Before the tips, a quip for writers: 

“For many writers – professional writers – writing faster is simply a matter of survival. Writing faster can mean the difference between making a go of a challenging career as an author versus going back to your old job as an accountant or asking ‘Smoking or non-smoking’ down at Bob’s Big Boy,” writes David Fryxell in Write Faster, Write Better. “Writer’s block, you might even say, is a luxury that real writers can’t afford.” 

Writing faster is one way to make money as a freelancer. Click on Six Figure Freelancing to learn more in-depth strategies to earn a living, and read on for ten tips on making money as a freelance writer… 

How to Make Money as a Freelance Writer 

1. Approach your writing like a business. This means putting in eight hour days if you’re a full-time freelance writer, or four hour days if you’re part-time. Approaching your writing like a business involves proper invoicing paperwork, meeting deadlines, treating your clients (editors and publishers) professionally, and being easy to work with. If you really want to make money as a freelance writer, you have to stop treating it like a hobby. 

2. Roll with the rejections. You could also stop thinking of them as rejections. “We think writers should stop placing so much emphasis on ‘rejections.’ They’re not rejections – they’re business decisions. What if your attorney or massage therapist moped around in their bathrobes like writers do whenever they lost a potential client?” This is from Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell in The Renegade Writer. 

3. Visualize water off a duck’s back. To stay persistent and motivated, compare each business decision that involves a “no” to your magazine pitches with how easily water rolls off a duck’s back. (That’s not the most well-written sentence in the world, but you get my point. Be a duck! Shake off those rejections, and jump right back in the water!). 

4. Troll down different paths to writers’ markets. I’ve found work by browsing through the magazine racks at bookstores, searching magazines’ websites for writers’ guidelines and contact information, looking in the library for more obscure or local magazines, and flipping through books such as Writer’s Market. There’s no one perfect way to make money as a freelance writer. 

5. Write on the internet. Get your work out there, whether it’s blogging on your own website, writing for Suite101 or about.com, or submitting articles to websites such as Associated Content (I’ve never tried them, but I’ve heard it can be a good way to publish your work on the internet). Editors and publishers do assign work on the basis of your online articles, and other writers may include your words in their books or articles. The more articles you write, the more likely you’ll be to make money as a freelance writer. 

6. Find your writing niche. Are you a sports writer? Fiction writer? (that’s a difficult way to earn a living as a freelancer, I must say). Poet? (an even harder way to make money as a freelance writer!). Health writer? Science writer? Once you figure out what type of writer you are, you’ll find yourself quickly recognized as a writer in the field. Plus, doing your research and locating your sources becomes easier and faster. 

7. Keep learning about freelancing. Even if you have a journalism degree, read books Kelly James-Enger’s Six Figure Freelancing: The Writer’s Guide to Making More Money or Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell’s The Renegade Writer. I always, always have a freelance writing book on the go because I can’t possibly absorb all the information at once. So, I make sure I bring home a writing book when I make my weekly library run. 

8. Enter writing contests. I’ve only entered one writing contest, and I won third prize and $15. Next week, I’ll be sending my submission to the Surrey Writer’s Conference contest – and I’m very excited about it! Not necessarily because I want to win (though I do because it’s a $1,000 prize and I haven’t met my freelance writing goals this month, so I need the money). I’m excited because I wrote a light-hearted, humorous essay. It was fun and easy to write, and was much different than my usual writing assignments. So, I suggest entering writing contests to try different writing styles and take a break from your writing niche. 

9. Consider “alternative” writing markets. Many people make a living as freelance writers by writing resumes, advertising copy, textbooks, student papers (editing), brochures, sales letters, blog posts, technical manuals, speeches, newsletters, etc. If your dream is to make a living as a poet, consider supplementing your income with speeches or brochures. With time, you may be able to branch out into writing poetry full-time! 

10. Keep learning about writing. Once you’ve mastered the “write actively” concept, tackle the “vary your sentences” writing advice. Once you’ve slashed all the adjectives and adverbs from your writing, start using one simple word instead of three compound ones. To make money as a freelance writer, you need to keep polishing your skills. 

Bonus tip: Edit your past articles, book chapters, poems, essays, etc. Earlier today, I scanned an article I wrote for Woman’s Day last month – and I cringed at a couple of my sentences. I used the words “natural beauty” twice in two back-to-back sentences! Ugh. One of the best ways to become a better writer – and thus make money as a freelance writer – is to actively revise your old writing. You’ll cringe…and you’ll learn. 

Fellow scribes, if you have any tips for making money as a freelance writer – or any questions or comments - fire away below!