Making The Transition to Full Time Writer

Many of you find the transition to working at home very difficult, understandably.  There is a lot of risk in quitting your job to sit in front of the computer for fourteen hours a day.   I know, because I have done it myself.  I spent twelve years of my life working construction and building maintenance, knowing the entire time it was not what I wanted to do.

Now days I make my living working from home as a freelance writer and blogger for several blogs as well as my own projects(my newest blog is in my signature).  I have established a great deal of experience and blogging jobs come fairly easy.  I, by no means, recommend you up and quit your job, however if it is something you are interested in I am going to give you some tips on getting started.

The chances of successfully starting out relying on a new blog as your sole source of income are not good, to say the least.  There are however, many paid opportunities for bloggers on blogs that have already been established and these tend to be a reliable source of income to keep you going.  I currently write for six different blogs and through this have gained new opportunities ghost writing for those bloggers on the side.  Always place your focus on making money for the day, write some articles for other people and when finished turn your efforts to building your personal projects.

Unfortunately, just like so many other things in life people want to know your experience.  This is where a lot of new bloggers and writers are turned away at the whole idea, but you don’t have to be.  Most potential employers want to see nothing more than your writing styles.  Get a few posts on your blog so you have something to reference when inquiring about a paid position.

Regularly check the job boards for new writing opportunities before they are snatched up by the competition.  I frequently use the ProBlogger Job Board and Rat Race Rebellion when sourcing work.  These sites tend to turn up some good leads on a regular basis.

Steer clear of the “paid to write articles” sites.  Yes they do actually pay you when you write their reviews, but there is just not enough hours in the day when you are writing for five dollars an article.  You won’t get anywhere.

After you have some good experience under your belt, go after the big fish on Technorati’s Top 100 list.  To give you an idea of the compensation, when I write articles for some of the bigger sites, I make anywhere from $100 to $1000 dollars per article depending on who its for and how many words it is.

Check the Universities and print magazines, they often pay freelance writers to write short stories and columns.  They also have considerably higher funding, which means they are likely to pay more.

What it all boils down to at the end of the day is, you don’t have to be a professional writer or have a college degree to make a nice living writing.  Most of the publishers and bloggers today don’t care about your history they want to know how well you can write. Regardless of what happens, always remember this  is all temporary while you establish your own projects and begin a path down the happy road to working for yourself.