I'm frequently involved in conversations online with how people earn side income or similar. We all get into opinions about how a side gig or investment is working, and then comes the inevitable question of, "How do I get into that, too?" So, while I'm not a guru at NFT flipping or being the first on the latest inside scoop on the next big crypto project, I do have a few feathers in my cap on writing. And, I won't lie, it does provide a notable side gig income for me [which the taxman is quite happy to take a bite out of as well but that's another story for another time].

However, while consistent success is an enjoyable thing, in writing it doesn't happen magically. So, the first thing I warn people about who want to know more is that it takes a lot of work, a lot of discipline, and a lot of patience. 99.99999% of writers will not hit a big job their first time out, much less their first year of writing. In fact, I really didn't start making decent income until at least about five years into the work. Granted, I was making a few hundred a month, but the real income started after I changed my game and got serious about professionalizing my approach.

Whom to Write For?

There are three big sources of writing demand:

• Someone in a company hires you as an employee [traditional]
• You work for a writing service [the most common form online]
• You get hired as a contractor [depends on your reputation and referrals]

Writing Requires Good Writing Skills, Surprise!

First off, if you're going to be a working writer, you have to be good at writing. That does not mean you need to have already won a Pulitzer Prize. There are different types of writing. Writing a book is very different than writing a memorandum in the office. Writing a personal letter is also very different than chatting online. Different styles of writing apply to different environments. This is key to having any success in freelance writing. You have to know how to write, and you have to know how to write for your given audience. If you're not sure what this means, then take some writing classes. There are plenty of them, they cover the basics, and with sites like Coursera and EdX you can get them for free or low cost.

Develop Your Own Personal Discipline

Second, when writing for freelance you have to be able to write fast and keep pace. People don't want to wait 30 days for their product. Most articles and jobs want to see a draft within 72 hours at the latest, and for one-pagers usually within a day or two. That means verbosity and big embellished writing aren't going to cut it. You need to know how to write fast, how to be original versus copying stuff, and how to give people what they want. That also means paying attention to the job scope. If they say they want 5 articles on how to eat fast food, then you don't write 5 articles on baking a cake. Stick to the script, deliver what was ordered, and keep your personal opinions to yourself.

I tend to work on certain topics and avoid others. I focus on legal, finance, automotive, crypto and construction. I don't do food recipes, childcare, interior design or dating. Why? I could, but I'm just not interested in the latter topics. I know the first group are where my skill and knowledge are, and those topics are where I can write fast and well. So, I lean towards my strengths and avoid traps with stuff I'm not good at.

Sometimes, however, you get offered a really big project and good pay, but you know the topic is one of the worst for you take or you know nothing about it. It's a risk; you have to decide whether taking the shot is worth the trouble. I've learned from experience to pass on some of these because it will just be a trainwreck. Other times, I'll jump right in and bite the bullet, even if it's a miserable experience. It also depends on where my side income is at the moment and if my target needs that boost for the month or not.

Learn the Tools of the Trade

Third, you're going to have to be good a quick research. Right now, I'm at the top of my current game. I can always improve and look for ways to do so, but writing-wise I'm at the point where someone can give me a topic on anything and in 15 minutes I will have enough information on it to write 500 words in the next half hour. Now, I didn't get there overnight. It takes a lot of practice and learning how to cut corners to get to that level of efficiency, and there are times when I still have to take longer. But the trick of it is to use the tools available to you effectively. Every topic has some kind of response on search engines. Whether you use Google or something else, it is your go-to tool for fast research. Take the topic, search it by phrase, and see what comes up. More than likely, someone has already written something related. You are not, I repeat, not going to copy this. You will use it as your basis for your own writing. Once you find the piece you like, then you take that source and use it as foundation on how to put your article together and deliver your ORIGINAL product. I emphasize this point because it is extremely easy to catch cheaters and copiers with tools like Copyscape. In fact, many writing services automatically scan work from writers to block cheaters or bots from churning out work stolen from someone else. So don't do it.

There's No Lottery Ticket Here

Fourth, stop looking for the big win. Being a consistently successful writer is about consistently producing product. There is nothing wrong with churning out 10 simple articles for the same value of one big one. The trick is to maximize the value of your writing time. If you produce $100 in one hour with a dozen short articles or $50 in three hours with one article, which one is earning you more money for your time? Obviously, the first choice is the better approach, even if it seems like more tasks. This is how you have to think about being a working writer. You have so many hours in the day that you can produce. Most people generally create substantive work six hours in a day. The rest is traveling, eating, socializing, errands, personal stuff, taking a break, and busy work. If your earlier hours are your best time to work, or vice versa your night hours, you're only going to get three good hours of top productivity per day. The other three are going to produce, but not at the top of your game. Your brain starts to get tired, you get distracted, you run into problems etc. So, those three to four hours of top game writing are incredibly valuable. Your writing mindset has to be on track how to maximize them for the best income possible, versus just churning out work in terms of whatever comes next. This makes the difference between a writer who produces big income monthly, and one who barely gets by.

Plan for the Worst, Save for the Rest

Finally, writing is very much a feast-and-famine game. There are days, weeks, even months when jobs and income will be tight, hard to come by, and scarce. Then the opposite happens, and you can't get enough work done to keep up with demand. How to be successful? You have to diversify your writing income sources. Never, ever put your work all in one buyer or service. This mistake has wrecked multiple writers again and again.

Work with multiple levels and ways of having your writing produce income. The most obvious is direct work. However, what many writers don't take advantage of is passive income. If you don't sell your writing outright, or you can belt out side articles on topics for other needs like Publish0x, then you can generate passive income where your work earns while you sleep or do something else. Get creative about where your work can go too. If you do photography or art, combine your writing with other talents and create hybrid products that can sell. For example, NFTs are not just about a picture; they have the ability to carry writing, music, video and anything digital in an NFT package as well.

I use a goal plan for what I want to earn per month and for the year. To date, I've never hit my target. It's high, and I do that on purpose. What I have learned in practice is that when you set a goal for yourself with enough detail to be practical, your work output improves. You mentally find ways to go farther, push harder than just accept the usual. This again is what makes the difference in writing success versus just making a few bucks here or there. It's actually easy to do.

Take a spreadsheet and line out 13 columns, one for each month and the last one for totals. Next, create 31 rows for the days of the month. At the bottom at two more rows, one to total what you earn per month, and one for minimum wage. Plug in what your minimum wage total would be for a month. This is your monthly minimum earning target. Make more than that a month, and you are now gainfully employed. Do that twelve months for the year. At the far end is your total column. This should have a minimum wage total, as well as your ideal target goal of earnings, let's say $50,000. Now you can compare what you actually earn each month, to a minimum wage figure to beat, and then how you add up to your annual ideal figure. Will you make $50,000? Probably not, but it will drive you to perform, and you're probably going to earn more doing this exercise than if you didn't set a goal. Here's an example of what the total rows would look like:

Freelance writing is not an overnight ticket to riches. Anyone who tells you otherwise is, frankly, full of shit or ripping you off selling you some how-to guide on "writing to riches." It is a work of progress in which you develop a discipline and ability to consistently produce, and that's when you start generating income over time that you can depend on.