Making a career out of freelance writing can be a very lucrative experience, whether you are single or married with children. As a child-free woman living with my boyfriend, I took up freelance writing as a way to make money because I could not find work in this poor economy. I have spent over a year as a freelance writer on the Internet, which is where I make most of my money and there are a lot of positive aspects of this job. Here are a few aspects of freelance writing you should consider if you are thinking about getting into writing on the Internet for income, based on my own personal experience.
1. The biggest aspect of freelance writing you should consider before you even begin is whether or not writing is something you want to get into. As an elementary student and high school student, I was a pretty good writer and even won $50 from an essay contest in fifth grade. So I had already known that I could write and write pretty well, so of course freelance writing was something I could find appealing to earn income as an adult. Some people are good storytellers but cannot sit down and write their stories out on paper when it comes down to it, so you need to know whether or not you can be good at writing what you are thinking. Freelance writing on the Internet is not very different from writing essays like you would in high school or college and naturally some people just do not have this ability to write effectively, while other people excel with writing. I never thought I would become a writer just because I had a previous career in healthcare but when tough times hit and I was out of work, I figured that freelance writing was something I could get into and knew I could do well if I tried hard enough.
2. You also need to think about your household and daily activities before you become a freelance writer on the Internet. By this I simply mean you need to think about what you normally do every day and whether or not spending hours on the computer writing for websites is something that is achievable based on your own personal living situation and responsibilities. I am living with my boyfriend and have responsibilities around the house such as cleaning, cooking, laundry; basic household chores and I also have two indoor cats and one outdoor cat to take care of each day. For me my biggest concern was whether or not I could effectively freelance while also still maintaining my responsibilities as an adult and around my house. I do not have children so this was a big positive as far as knowing I could find the time to devote to freelance writing, but I have a boyfriend and cats that I am devoted to and have to constantly take care of in one way or another. You basically need to figure out your schedule of what you do every day and figure out whether you can find time in your day to sit in front of your computer and write. If you do not have children then your schedule might be a little more lenient so that you can write in the morning and take care of household chores in the afternoon for example. I have found it easier to get up and do chores in the morning then spend about five hours in the middle of the afternoon writing, and finally wrapping up the rest of the household chores at night. You will just have to think about this and try to find out where writing could fit into your life and this might take some trial and error to come up with the best plan for your own situation.
3. One major aspect about freelance writing you should consider before beginning is whether or not you can write effectively while other things are going on around you. Beyond anything, concentration is important if you want to become a great freelance writer and this can be difficult if you live with other people or have children. You have to almost find a way to block out everyone and everything around you in order to become a successful freelance writer because you probably will not have total silence every day. You have to consider whether or not you can write or research information if there are people yelling in your house, children running around, people talking or if the television is on in your house. The reason this is an important consideration is because you have to know whether you can handle things going on around you and also be able to write at the same time. Some people cannot think or write their thoughts down if there is a lot going on around them and considering freelance writing is done from home, this is a major concern for a lot of people that write like me. At first I was not very good at tuning other people out when I would write on my laptop but I figured out how to just look at the screen and think about only what I was doing with that article or information. This is something you can teach yourself but it is not easy and it will take a lot of work and dedication to master. If you do not think you can be effective at writing if you cannot tune out other people or things going on around you then maybe freelance writing is just not for you. If you take these three things into consideration it will help you figure out whether or not freelance writing is really an achievable career.
Myself, Personal Experience