Freelance Writing: How to reach the next Income Plateau
If you are like most, you have experienced this problem. You reach a certain income level, but for one reason or the next, you cannot seem to fly any higher. For myself, as a freelance writer, this is one problem that I seem to deal with every few months or so.
The first couple months of my freelance writing career I was happy to make any money. After all, a few bucks here and there were better than nothing. At that time, I was doing tons of work, but only being paid peanuts. But again, it did not matter because I simply wanted to get up and running. My first major goal was breaking the $1,000 barrier on a monthly basis. Luckily, after my first two months I did this for the first time. In fact, the first time that I broke $1,000, I almost hit the $2,000 mark as well.
In my dealings, the best way to get from one income plateau to the next is to cut back on lower paying jobs, and do whatever it takes to find higher paying ones. Personally, I feel that this is a much better idea than adding more quantity to your workload. This may work for some people, but being able to do less for more money is always a good thing in my book.
To do this, I began to cut out web content articles that were only paying a few dollars for 500 words or so. I replaced these with jobs that paid almost twice as much, and bang, I was on my way to the next level.
But remember, you should not get rid of lower paying clients until you have better ones lined up. After all, if you are just scraping by, you never want to throw any money out the window.
Right now, my situation is more comfortable than it was when I first started on this venture. I am making a good full-time salary, but even then, being satisfied is never an option.
Don’t get frustrated if you are having a difficult time hitting the next income level. Instead, devise a plan, and carefully chart your progress!
