Foreword
Imagine waking on Monday morning, ready to start your week, but without the deep-seated sense of dread so many modern employees feel.
You don’t have to drag yourself out of bed at an ungodly hour. There’s no rushing your breakfast, taking a five-minute shower or running out the door with a piece of toast hanging from your mouth. No traffic filled commute, no crowded public transport and no dreary office where you follow the lead of someone who’s getting paid so much more for your hard work.
No.
Your mornings are different. You can take your time and enjoy a leisurely morning routine. You wake up when you’re ready, cook a nice breakfast to eat whilst catching up on the latest news before taking a long shower. Maybe you fit in an hour of yoga, go for a quick run or take the dog for a walk.
When your preparatory routine is done, it’s time to start work. You head to your home office, open your laptop and handle your emails. Amongst the usual morning junk mail, there’s two that catch your eye. The first is a response to a query you sent to the founder of a tech startup in Australia. She wants to organise a time to talk on the phone to see how you can help market her business.
The second is a prospect approaching you. They’ve seen your work online and think you’d be the perfect candidate to take over the blog writing duties for a mid-size event company. You organise phone calls with both, and within the next two days, you’ve organised paid samples which could end up landing you an extra $1000 every month.
It’s not even midday and you’re already making money.
This is the life I and thousands of other freelancers enjoy. And it’s often presented in the above format. Through rose tinted glasses that focus on how you too can live the life of Riley whilst following your own schedule.
And yes, you can live this life too. But it’s not as easy as so many of the courses and articles out there make out. There are times when you worry if you’re going to make rent, times when you stay up all night worrying over how to overcome a lull in work and times you’re so worried about your income you all but cease spending money.
The freelance life is tough and requires a great deal of hard work and diligence.
Fortunately, the bar to enter the world of freelance writing is incredibly low. The spread of the Internet has brought content production opportunities to people from all corners of the globe.
All you need to get your freelance business started is an entrepreneurial spirit, a decent wifi connection, and a laptop to pen your masterpieces. Of course, a decent command of the English language is also needed. But don’t let that intimidate you, practice is the key to success with writing.
There are plenty of writers earning a great living for whom English is their second language. If they can do it, so can you.
My aim with this course is not to make you rich within a month. If anyone makes that claim, walk away. It’s bullshit. The only person who will get rich in a month is the snake oil salesman selling you that promise.
With professional freelance writing, there are no get rich quick schemes and there are no shortcuts. My aim is to help you set the foundation for a long term profitable career. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme. This is a business plan, one which will help you continue to earn for years to come. But nothing worth having comes easy, and this will take a while to get off the ground.
I’ll take you through the basics of building a portfolio, getting exposure and leveraging your work to hit the first major milestone, landing your first great client. After we’ve got you one great client we’ll establish the framework that will allow you to continue attracting the clients you need to live the freelance life you want.
This is not going to be easy. You’re not going to be sat on a beach within a month sipping cocktails and laughing with models. Sure, that can happen if you do what so many modern digital nomads do and move to a country with a very low standard of living.
The question you need to ask yourself is do you want to live in Thailand where you can survive on $500 a month? Or do you want to have the freedom to live in London, New York, Paris or Milan by building a business that earns thousands of dollars every month?
If the former, then send me an email, return the course and I will refund your money. This is not the course for you. If the latter, then welcome. But I should warn you.
You are choosing to walk a very demanding path. It’s not all rose petals and rainbows. You will fail. You will be rejected and you will feel demotivated. But if you can continue to maintain your hustle, to keep striding forward when everything seems to be going wrong, then you’ll earn your reward.
If you take nothing else away from this course then let it be this. Ignore the naysayers, learn from the failures and take the rejections in stride. Keep moving forward at any and all costs.
Many of the freelancers I speak to fail to make this life work for them because they are paralysed by fear. Don’t be afraid to fail. You’re not always going to win, but if you let the fear of failure paralyse you, you will always fail.
Believe in yourself. I know it’s easier said than done, especially during months where you haven’t had a single win. But trust me when I say that it gets easier once you’ve hit the milestone of landing your first good client.
I don’t promise riches with this course and I am not here to tell you everything’s going to work out fine. What I do promise is an honest approach. I’ll show you the negative side others avoid so you’re better prepared to avoid them and in a better position to achieve your dreams.
I will make you work hard and by the end of this course, you might just hate me. But you’ll also have a solid freelance framework and the confidence to take the steps you once thought too difficult or scary.
What You’ll Learn
Instead of viewing this course as a ‘how to make money’ guide, think of it as a proposed business plan. You’ll work through progressive steps that outline everything from establishing your business to leveraging your successes for further growth.
Unlike many courses available we’re not going to focus on making a living as a blogger. I’ve got nothing against blogging. It’s a fun way to earn a few extra dollars here and there and is, in comparison to other types of work, slightly more fun.
However, for you and I blogging is not the end goal. It’s a stepping stone you’ll use reach your destination. Instead of aiming to earn a living through writing blog posts, we’re aiming to become what Peter Bowerman refers to as a Freelance Corporate Writer.
Why focus on the corporate world? Because the pay is better.
I’ve written thought leadership pieces for a telecoms company which paid $1 per word. I’ve been paid $350 by a large household cleaning brand for 500-word content marketing articles. But my main income is made from writing landing pages, sales letters, and email sequences for companies which net me thousands for each and every project.
Seriously, I recently finished a landing page draft which paid $2000 for two days work (that was unusually short thanks to the owner of the business doing all the research for me).
My blogging income on the other hand usually earns me in the region of $200 to $400 for a 2000 word article. It’s a huge difference.
I should also mention what this course is not. It‘s not a guide on how to improve your prose. Sure, there are some tips and templates that will help you create coherent, compelling pieces, but I want this course to focus on the one key differentiating factor that separates successful from unsuccessful writers.
Your ability to market yourself.
I know incredible writers who can’t make a living from this because they don’t understand the business side of things. I also know good (but not great) writers who are killing it because they know how to run a business.
If you want to improve as a writer then there’s really only two things you need to do.
Read and write. A lot and regularly.
I know that’s a bit of a cop out, especially as good writing conforms to many (but not all) of the established grammatical writing rules. If you want to focus on the actual nuts and bolts of writing, then you need to pick up the below two books and keep them close to wherever it is you write for inspiration and guidance.
Strunck and White -The Elements of Style