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About Amanda J Evans
Expertise
As a freelance writer I can answer any questions you might have on becoming a freelance writer, writing for the web, setting up your own freelance writing business, SEO article writing, copywriting, website content, ebooks, finding freelance writing jobs, and much more. I DO NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS LOOKING FOR RE-WRITES.

Experience
I have been freelancing online since 2003 and I also run my own successful writing website where I offer advice and tips to aspiring freelancers. I am also a self published author of 2 writing related books.

Education/Credentials
My experience in freelancing online is what I call my credentials. I finished school and have a diploma in Nutrition which is one of the industries that I write for.

You are here: Experts > Arts/Humanities > Writing > Careers: Writing > Freelance Writing and Holding Another Job

Careers: Writing - Freelance Writing and Holding Another Job

Expert: Amanda J Evans - 10/25/2009

Question
Hi Amanda,

Your background and credentials seem perfect for the answers I am seeking. I also write SEO articles in my spare time. This is very new for me. I have wanted to be a writer for a very long time.

I am currently holding "a job" so that I may have the time to follow my dream and work on my writing. Plus, I'm doing this to support myself, as it takes time to build up enough of clients/money to support oneself with writing. However, holding this "job" that I am overqualified for and have little or no interest in is killing me. I am encountering problems with people at work and it just seems to be a miserable task to try and support myself, follow my dream and hold this position that I don't really want to pursue. It just doesn't seem to be worth all the aggravation.

How on earth do other writers do it? I feel like I'll always be in a "lower level position" because I fear taking on too much work and taking the job too seriously if my heart isn't in it. Plus, it's tough to keep things private from your current employer and you have to always be conscious of that.

People ask me if I want to get certified in this field and I can only think to myself "My God, I don't want to pursue, and I want to have more time to work on my writing..." How do I juggle this? What if my employer wants my interest to be more with the company? (and rightfully so)...?

I hope this post has made sense. I really love writing, but I'm "faking it until I make it" and barely hanging on. :(

I don't want to work at McDonald's and I certainly don't want to be a Receptionist for the rest of my life, when I have a background in teaching (but chose to no longer pursue that anymore either for personal reasons).

Thank you so much for your detailed response to my post and your expert advice. I hope it can benefit other writers, too.

Answer
Hi there,

I totally understand where you are coming from and how frustrating it can be having to work at a day job when you would prefer to be writing. All I can say to you is hang in there. Think of your dayjob as a means of paying your bills and concentrate on honing your skills as an SEO writer. SEO articles are usually around 500 words and if you use the like of Elance to get jobs you can expect to get approximately $10 per article. The key to making this work is learning how to get plenty of articles done in the hour. I can get up to 8 articles (500 words @$10 each) done in an hour and that works out at $80 per hour. Not bad for what people call low paying assignments.

The trick to making SEO writing work is the fact that most clients will require a large batch of articles and once you have researched and written the first couple of them you probably won't need to do any more research as you will have all the information you need for the remainder of the articles.

When I started freelancing I had a day job. This was back in 2003 also the year my daughter was born. I started freelancing through Elance and that was the best website I ever found. I cut my day job hours in half after about a year and I worked 2 days one week and 3 the next. This was mainly because I wanted to spend more time with my daughter but it also worked out great for my freelancing too. I could freelance on my days off while my daughter had her naps. Within a couple of months I was actually able to make the same amount of money freelancing as I was working my day job. In 2006 I really was ready to quit my day job but I needed to test things out. I was expecting my 2nd child and so what I did was take my maternity leave three months early knowing that I wouldn't be returning to work. I was still getting a salary from work so for these three months I tested myself to see if I could earn enough freelancing and still maintain the lifestyle I was accustomed too. Long story short I resigned from my day job in December 2006 and I have never looked back.

My advice to you would be to stick the day job out until you are certain that you can maintain your freelancing work and earn enough money to stay living the way you are. The more money you earn on top of this the better.

I hope this has helped and if there is anything else that you need to know just ask.

Kind regards,

Amanda

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