How I Made My First $500 as a Freelance Writer

7 min readAug 3, 2020

The following is a guest post on InkwellEditorial.com.

Breaking into the field of freelance writing can seem like a dream come true.

The thought of working from home, or anywhere in the world with Wi-fi is enough to attract anyone who is the least bit interested in breaking free from the stresses and strains that come with working a traditional job.

Factor in today’s ‘new normal’ with Covid-19, and freelance writing is even more appealing.

But, how exactly do you get started as a freelance writer? How do you earn any money?

In this post, I’ll share the roadmap I used to earn my first $500 as a freelance writer.

Hopefully, you will be able to glean some useful gems to not only land your first opportunity to write for pay but put yourself in a place where you can turn this into a full-time career path.

My Freelance Writing Background

My freelance writing career started with me submitting articles for a magazine called brass in 2002.

It was a financial literacy magazine printed and shipped to credit unions all over the United States.

I had pitched three articles to them. One article paid $60 and was a feature article.

The title of my article was on the cover of the magazine and I had a whole three-page spread. I was geeked!

The second article was only a few paragraphs long and I was paid $35 for it.

The third article I pitched was accepted but ended up being killed; a term which basically means they decided not to pubish the article.

They paid me $30 for my time (aka as a “ kill fee “).

Even though writing those articles did not earn much for me, the experience of being able to write and be paid for my words was amazing.

It was so amazing that I started to research other avenues that I could explore where I could earn more money from my writing.

It took me a few years to land new freelance writing opportunities, partly because it took some time for me to take my writing career more seriously.

The opportunities did not just land in my lap. I had to look for them.

I also had to stop referring to myself as a freelance writer. Freelance writing is a general term. I will touch on that a little more in a minute.

My First Freelance Writing Job after the Magazine Gig

After no more of my pitches were accepted and the magazine eventually folded, I set out to learn what I needed to do to land more freelance writing jobs. I did have some writing experience under my belt, but I wanted to land more paid gigs.

I wanted to earn enough to at least be able to write part-time. I was eager to prove to myself that I could do this.

How Starting a Blog Helped Me Land More Freelance Writing Gigs

I started a blog in 2011 that focused on branding myself as a freelance writer. I would write posts for my blog every day without fail. I really didn’t know much about SEO at the time, or, even having a niche.

So, I blogged about a variety of topics from business and entrepreneurship, to writing and publishing. I shared my blog posts on my social media profiles and wrote articles for article submission sites to help drive traffic back to my blog.

A $5 per Article Writing Job … That I Took!

After about a year of doing that, I got an email from a teacher who was interested in hiring me to write ten blog posts for a science blog he was working on for his students-to the tune of five dollars per post.

Before you scoff, just know, he only needed each post to be one hundred words each, which was easy for me to crank out, so I took the job. So that brings me to an additional fifty dollars earned on my freelance writing journey.

After I wrote those articles, I was eager to earn even more. I loved doing the research needed to write the articles the teacher had hired me for.

I also loved seeing my phone light up with alerts that the teacher had made their payment, since they paid me five dollars each time I submitted an article.

Of course, he was willing to write me a review for the work that I had done, which meant that I now had a testimonial that I could use to land more work. That $5/per article writing gig paid in more ways than one. BUT …

The thing was, I had small children at the time, and while I enjoyed writing the articles, I knew that if I was going to make some real money writing, I was going to have to change some things.

I started researching freelance writing jobs on the internet, and there was one term that I had not heard much about: copywriting.

For those who do not know what that is, copywriting is basically writing content that sells or persuades someone to buy something. It is the sales pages you see on websites. The emails we get promoting new products, programs, or courses.

It is even the so-called junk mail that floods our mailboxes, which is called direct response copywriting. And it pays extremely well. Extremely.

Expanding My Freelance Writing Skillset by Investing in Myself

I was intrigued about copywriting and wanted to learn more about it. So I signed up for a course that taught me the basics, and then I set out to see if I could land some actual copywriting jobs.

I continued to blog, but I also added a testimonial page to my website, along with a few samples of my writing. I decided that I wanted to focus on writing blog posts for websites and set out to find clients in need of those services.

When I first started in the blog writing niche, I charged $35 per post. I will admit, I had no idea about how to properly structure my services to include up-sells and things like that. I only had the one set rate.

I reached out to people on my contact list first, focusing on people who I knew were business owners and needed content for their website, and people who had websites that needed its content updated.

Landing a $1,250 Blog Writing Contract

I landed one client who wanted me to write three posts per week for them, for three months. So here I was, having landed a client who was willing to pay me $420 per month to write for them.

My total contract was $1,250. I was ecstatic!

The funny thing was, I landed the client from among people I already knew. I sent them a cold email, but it was to a warm list, so that worked out in my favor.

It took a total of two emails to seal the deal; and I did not even have to show them any writing samples, which lifted a huge load from my shoulders.

I realized how much I loved writing blog posts, which my clients referred to as articles. I decided to specialize in writing blog content, and in blog management.

So while it took months — and even years — for me to earn my first $500 as a freelance writer, it only took one client to earn my first $1,000 as a freelance copywriter.

Once I decided to specialize, learn what I enjoyed doing, and going after those that I knew could benefit from my services, I saw that I could earn more while working with fewer clients.

My Advice to New Freelance Writers

My number one piece of advice to new freelance writers would be to take those early jobs. This allows you to get accustomed to meeting deadlines and figuring out what kind of writing you enjoy; as well as the type you don’t.

Once you figure out what you like to write, then it will be easier to specialize, rather than generalize.

Also, if you really want to make freelance writing your career of choice, be willing to invest in yourself so that you can stay on top of what is working in your chosen niche.

No matter what, stay the course. With everybody having to stay home more nowadays, many are doing more online. This opens up opportunities for freelance writers, whose services are needed now more than ever.

About the Author: Sandra N. Peoples is an award-winning author and blogger, as well as a certified content marketer. She has been featured in Book Dealers World Magazine, brass Magazine, The Flint Journal, as well as on Blogtalk Radio, AAMBC Radio and NBC 25 News.

You can reach Sandra on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other social media outlets.