As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been a free-lance writer off and on for years. I even did it full-time back in the early 1990s when I was single and fancy free.
I’ve also worked as a journalist — I was a feature writer — for a daily newspaper in the San Diego area.
I loved the freedom that working as a free-lance writer gave me. I’ve done many of those “values” tests that give you several values in a list and you are to circle the ones that resonate the most with you. “Freedom” always has been at the top of that list.
Not that I want to be free from obligation. No. It’s more that I want to live my life on my terms, fulfill my obligations in my own way.
I’ve had jobs I’ve loved — my favorite being as a recruiter for a graduate university in California.
But when I became a parent (my husband and I adopted our daughter from Russia when she was 8), more and more I wanted to be able to control my own calendar.
With fits and starts I started free-lancing again. At first I considered offering marketing services for small businesses, but I soon found out I’m not really a “marketer,” so much as I’m a writer.
I once had a college professor in one of my writing classes say that “Jean doesn’t have much to say, but she knows how to say it, while (name of classmate I’ve forgotten) has much to say but doesn’t know how to say it.” Of the two of us, I’ve always preferred my “failing.”
I’d heard about content writing for awhile. But I’d also seen at the bidding sites such as Elance that people were offering to write 500 word articles for $5. That was NOT for me.
And then I came across a blog post by SEO content writer Yuwanda Black that discussed how she had discovered this post by Christine O’Kelly of www.selfmadechick.com. Titled “How I Made $100,000 by spending 25 minutes and $0 on Marketing,” the post details Christine’s “discovery” of contacting SEO companies directly and offering her writing services.
“Ah, hah!” said Yuwanda. Who tried it, loved it, made a killing at it. And wrote an e-book about it.
“Bingo!” I said, as I purchased Yuwanda’s e-book, How to Make $250+/day Writing Simple, 500-word Articles, and followed her instructions to the letter.
Click here to view more details
“This,” I say to myself all the time, “is the writing niche for me.”
I now wake up every day raring to go on my content writing business (www.thecontentscribes.com). Today I finished up an assignment for one client, and sent 20 queries to SEO companies.
Tomorrow, I’ll wake up around 5:30 a.m., go work out, see my husband and daughter off to work and school (my husband works as a substitute teacher for the time being), read the paper and will be sitting at my laptop by 8 a.m.
My daughter returns home at 3. My day/work pretty much ends then, unless I can squeeze in some time later in the day, as I am now as I write this post.
I am FREE. I am happy. I am excited. I know I will end up making more money than I ever have doing something at which I excel, and I will be have the freedom to live the life I wish in the way I wish.
Anyone who has ever dreamed of being a free-lance writer, whether you have never published anything in your life, or you’re a journalist who has seen his or her career turned upside down by the economic downturn and the coming death of print, I urge you to check out SEO content writing. I know you’ll be glad you did.
Click here to view more details
Filed under: Uncategorized
