Guys, it's official, I have an internet friend!
Last week I randomly met this lovely lady, and since then we've been blabbering on like we've known eachother for a million years (maybe even a million and one)!
Anyone with aspirations of a freelance career will definitely enjoy this post!
Hello internet people! I'm so happy that you're joining me today for a guest post on Blogging by the Moon! (
♥Love the Shakespeare reference here).
Before I begin my guest post, I would like to thank
Nichole for inviting me to her stretch of real estate on the internet. I love it here—Nichole is a terrific lady. I’ve only just met her online last week by chance, and I’m so glad that I did! You can never surround yourself with enough positive people who are full of life!
Now, allow me to introduce myself. My name is
Lauren Michelle and I’m a blogger/freelance writer. I love to write and I think I’ve pretty much always been a writer dabbling in random projects here and there.
I get a lot of questions from readers, clients, and friend that go something like this: “How did you do all of this? How did you get to where you are—you job seems so cool—how can I become a writer? Can anyone do it?” I also get some questions like this from my family, “When are you going to get a ‘real’ job.”
I’m not going to answer the second about getting a “real” job, because writing actually is a real job! Anyone who tells you otherwise wouldn’t know, I’ve met a lot of writers who make a terrific living doing so. But I am going to discuss the first question because looking back on it, I think I’ve taken an interesting path to get to where I am, and judging from Google Analytics—readers genuinely do want to know: “How DO YOU make a living writing and how can I do it too?” I’ll admit, it is a lucrative career—you get to choose your hours, do creative, enjoyable work (for the most part), and create your own income that fits your specific needs. But unfortunately like everything else in life, there is a flip side—you also have to be a business owner, salesperson, effective communicator, and (gasp!) a fairly descent and entertaining writer. LOL.
Quite honestly, writing is a job that almost anyone can do—if he or she enjoys writing! There are plenty of clients and readers out there to go around.
For me, it all started my freshman year of college. I was just like any other college student—living in a dorm, majoring in English, of course my parents tried to convince me that clown college would have been much a much more practical route to take, but they were supportive nevertheless! Being an English major, I’d always wanted to write a book—so I did! Well, sort-of. I thought college was the perfect time to experiment. Some girls kiss other girls to experiment—but not me, I wrote an erotic novella. Hey, I thought it was funny and I was bored. I self-published my work with Amazon Kindle and thought, cool—I’m a published author.
I really didn’t believe that anyone would buy my piece of garbage, so I just tried to forget about it. Well, that is until I got a check in the mail for over $1500! I was pretty excited. Soon after that, a small business contacted me online. They asked me if I would be their resident freelance writer. I thought, yeah sure, I could use some extra cash in exchange for writing some flyers. Then this person recommended me to others and I began to get more and more freelance clients.
Then something even more exciting happened, a freelance writing job opened up at a huge Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper—I applied and I got the job! A great-paying steady gig. Of course now, I was starting to make what I considered to be “real” money—and I was only working part time.
Book sales continued to increase as well and my client-base began to increase! I felt like I had a real career on my hands! It felt amazing. Now, four years since the publication of my my trashy little book’s release, a “real” publisher has picked it up—stay tuned for the re-release on my
blog if you’re interested in learning more! There will be some major changes and since the publisher picked it up—so I had to take it off of the virtual shelves for formatting, editing, and a professional cover design.
Anywho—I just kept writing, querying clients, and moving forward in school and in my “side” business. Everything kept flowing smoothly and I’m still doing this today.
The thing is—anyone can do this job if you take it one day at a time. It’s been said a million times, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a freelance writing business. You just have to put your mind to it, grow a set, and work on your sales techniques so that you can get quality clients. Also, you have to shamelessly self-promote and be your own PR person (which is something that makes us introverted writer/blogger types squirm)—because nobody else will do it or care about your business and what you do unless you make them care! If you can do that, you’re pretty much set and you can expect freelance writing success.
Recently, I’ve launched a new blog, well, more of an eZine, which I call
Spree Studio. Over at Spree, you can find information about me, my copywriting services, and articles about life in general. As I said above, I’m waiting for the re-release of my old book (there will be a launch party next summer with free stuff involved!), and I’m working on a self-help book to help other aspiring success-stories get there faster. That will be available Summer 2013 as well!
I love to chat with other writers and bloggers about furthering their careers, quitting their day-jobs, and dumping the 9-5 rat race (which I was once apart of). Email me!
Lauren@spreestudio.com or go check
Spree Studio for an otherwise good time!
Again, I want to thank Nichole for having me! I love this corner of the web and I visit often—you should too!!
A big thank you to Lauren for this post! Head on over to
Spree Studio for more Lauren-y goodness!
Hugs and poops,
Nichole
