How To Succeed As A Part-Time Freelance Writer — Part 1

May 09, 2012

I’ve been writing here on GetPaidToWriteOnline.com for coming up two years now. During my time here so far, I’ve tried to mix up my posts, thinking about what I’d want to hear if I was in your shoes.

Sometimes I’ll write about my experiences as a freelance writer to date. Other times I’ll provide some information on what I think you should — or shouldn’t — do as a freelance writer. And there have been plenty of times where I’ve just talked randomly about writing!

I like to think that although I’m not by any means the most successful or experienced freelance writer out there, plenty of you can relate to what I say because I didn’t go about freelance writing in a traditional way — I essentially fell into the career, worked at it part-time for years and although I’ve now left my salaried role, I’m not a full time freelance writer (although all of my work does revolve around writing).

In this series, it’s the part-time aspect of my career to date that I want to focus on, specifically how you can succeed as a part-time freelance writer.

Understand full-time doesn’t have to be your end goal

Before I started writing, I used to dabble in a bit of SEO. I was working in a full-time salaried role unrelated to anything writing / SEO / digital / online and wanted to develop a career in a ‘modern’ area that would allow me to be full-time self-employed. A few discussions on a popular web forum later and I was writing some articles for a SEO agency.

For me, being full-time self-employed was my primary goal. That’s the main reason why I started writing and the reason I kept at it — but it doesn’t have to be yours.

A lot of new writers start — like I did — wanting to eventually be full-time, but the truth is you can be just as successful of a freelance writer if you only work part-time.

Sure, you might not work with as many clients at once, you might not earn as much money as your full-time counterparts and at times you’ll no doubt find it particularly difficult to stay-on top of everything, but I think back to when I was writing part-time alongside having a salaried role and although I worked longer hours, it did have its benefits.

Take the responsibility as an example. Full-time, you have to ensure you please every client in the exact way they want and expect, because if you don’t, there’s a chance you could lose them and if you lose a client, that’s your income affected, something that could potentially be devastating.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t aim to please every client when you’re only part-time, but you have a safety net in the shape of your regular salary, money that allows you to take risks — albeit what should be calculated ones in your freelance writing career — as well as removing the worry of wondering where your next client is going to come from.

Sure, we all know that you need to constantly be marketing yourself, but every freelance writer will tell you there are dry patches.

Respect Your Other Roles

It’s because of this benefit from your salaried role that you need to ensure you don’t neglect it. I never got to the point where I was disciplined in my salaried role, but there were a few times where I found it a struggle to do both and the reason I left the salaried role in the end was because I physically couldn’t dedicate the amount of time that was needed to both roles.

Similarly, it’s important you don’t neglect any other roles you have, whether that’s husband or wife, mother or son.

When I was juggling writing with a full-time salaried job, working an 80 hour week wasn’t unusual for me. I was tired on occasion, but I was happy — until I realised I was neglecting my girlfriend. We were living together, but we were seeing very little of each other.

We talked about this a few times, but it never really clicked with me how unhappy she was. One day we talked about it properly — and I felt awful.

I cut back on some of my writing work, freed up my weekends and started to enjoy my life with my girlfriend more.

It’s important to be able to dedicate the time necessary to succeed in any new career, but it’s also important to remember what matters most in your life and although I was — and still am — working to give my girlfriend (now fiancé :)) and eventually our family the best life I can, if I work so much that I can’t spend time with them, is it really worth working so much?

Regular readers of my blog posts will know how much I love freelance writing and I simply want every other reader in the position I once was to succeed. I hope you’ve enjoyed the start of this series and are looking forward to reading the content in the coming weeks just as much as I’m looking forward to writing it.