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How I Built a $5,000/mo Freelance Writing Business in 4 Months (Month-by-month Breakdown!)

By Jorden Makelle

Just over a year ago, I was sitting at a job I hated, wondering how I’d ever escape.

I was stressed out, overworked, underpaid, and constantly dealing with office politics.

(I even developed a stress-induced eye twitch from my work situation… Not. Cute.)

Then, I unexpectedly got fired. The same day my husband’s contract ended at the SAME workplace.

Aaaaand this happened about a week after I found out I had skin cancer on my leg.

The rotten cherry on top of a smelly sundae, right?

…It could have been.

But instead, I chose to use this difficult time as an opportunity to do what I had ALWAYS wanted to do:

Become self-employed as a freelance writer.

It worked.

Within 4 months after getting fired, I had my first $5,000 month – all from freelance writing clients.

This free class will teach you the EXACT process I used. Click and open it in a new tab so you can take it after you’re done reading this blog post! 🙂

…Even though I was:

Broke, clueless about freelancing, and had NO college degree (still don’t!).

(And this blog post will teach you what I did to grow my business so quickly and get clients each of the 4 months.)

Today, I’m running my freelance writing business from my apartment.

I now:

Make my own work schedule
Pick my own clients
ONLY take on projects I enjoy.

…Running my own business has enabled me to take mental health days when needed (as someone who has struggled with anxiety for many years, thats a BIG plus!), travel to awesome places, and have control over my career and financial situation.

Big improvement, right?

Now, you might think that this is the process that will actually happen if you try to build a profitable freelance writing business:

1. Chug coffee and swear you’ll launch your business.

2. Binge-watch Netflix instead.

3. Enter fetal position.

4. Wipe tears with English degree.

But I built a $5,000/mo freelance writing business in 4 months without doing any of those things.

(Minus the occasional Netflix binge… I’M ONLY HUMAN, OKAY??)

Today, I’m going to walk you through what I did each of those four months so you can launch your own profitable freelance writing business — no fetal position required.

First, there are a few things you should know about my leap into freelance writing.

1. I started freelancing because I got fired from my full-time job.

I got fired in April 2015 and started getting into freelancing right away. My husband’s contract at his job had just ended too (bad timing, right?), so I knew I had to hustle and make things happen if we were going to pay the bills.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I always knew I’d become a full-time freelancer eventually, and I had even snagged a few freelance writing clients while still working at my full-time job.

But I definitely didn’t have a freelance writing business plan or know what I was doing.

I was forced to jump into freelance writing, which sounds stressful, but it actually made me more motivated.

Another thing to note:

If you’re thinking, “Wow, must’ve been easy for you to get started with copywriting experience!”

…No. The place I worked at was a content mill masquerading as an “agency.” *barf*

So definitely don’t think that you need writing job experience to become a full-time freelance writer!

I literally learned NOTHING about copywriting from my full-time job. The copywriting skills I learned before I started freelance writing was 100% stuff I taught myself.

2. I never took a course to learn how to become a freelance writer.

That’s right – I learned everything I know by devouring books about freelance writing, reading countless blog posts, and just trying different strategies until I figured out what worked.

Loooooots of trial and error, my friend.

The whole reason I’m writing this blog post is to help eliminate some of the trial and error for you so you can succeed faster and have a solid, step-by-step plan for landing clients!

3. I started out with no degree, no connections, and no clue how to build a freelance writing business.

I had only worked as a writer for about one year when I started out — I certainly didn’t feel ready to go full-time.

And I didn’t have a degree.

…Nope.

In fact, I’m a 3-time college dropout.

We all have to start somewhere, right?

My point is this:

You don’t need a degree or experience to start freelancing and make a full-time income. You just have to be willing to learn how to market yourself, implement what you learn, and invest time/money into your business.

Now, before we get started, a quick announcement:

I have a totally FREE class that’ll walk you through the 3 steps YOU can take to make your first $1,000 writing in 45 days or less:

It’s FULL of actionable advice, and over 7,000 writers have gone through it, with MANY letting me know the class helped them land actual paid writing clients work.

So don’t miss out – click here and sign up for instant access to the class so you can take it after you’re done reading here! 🙂

How I Built a $5K/Mo Freelance Writing Business (Month-by-month Breakdown!)

One of the first and most important things I did was set a crazy goal.

I gave myself 4 months (well… technically 4 1/2 since it was mid-April to the end of August) to make $5,000 per month from freelance writing work.

And guess what?

That’s exactly what happened.

If I hadn’t set that goal, I wouldn’t have pushed myself nearly as hard.

So, don’t underestimate the effectiveness of setting an income goal for yourself!

Research shows that documenting your goals will make you WAY more likely to achieve them.

Make sure your goal realistic… but a bit crazy too. You want to push yourself!

I recommend setting an income goal with a clear timeline.

You can also put your “why” at the end, like this:

“I will make $3,000/mo freelance writing within 5 months so I can travel full-time.”

Got your goal written down?

Cool.

Now, let’s talk about what happened in the first months of my freelance writing business, and I’ll tell you exactly what I did to quickly build it up to $5K/mo.

(I’m not sharing this to brag, by the way! I just want to show you that it’s possible to quickly make good money from freelance writing quickly – WITHOUT content mills and bidding sites like Upwork.)

April 2015

I got fired around the middle of April – just a few days after I found out I had a Stage 1 Melanoma on my leg.

I’m super fortunate that it wasn’t worse, but still…

I was an anxious mess. My health and financial situation had suddenly become 2 major concerns.

I mostly kept my mind occupied by throwing myself into creating my freelance writing business. I kept my $5,000/mo income goal in mind and told myself I was going to do whatever it took to meet my goal and turn freelance writing into a career.

Even if it meant I had to work at a minimum wage job during the day and stay up all night building my business.

(No, that never happened, but I truly would have done it because I wanted to become a freelance writer so badly!).

As far as what I actually did to build my business, I spent most of April (after getting fired) building and working on my freelance writer website and soaking up as much knowledge as I could on how to market myself.

I also picked a narrow, high-paying niche:

Writing copy for IT service providers and technology companies.

I’ve said it a million times on this blog already, but I’ll say it again because it’s just that important:

Picking a high-paying niche is one of the most important things I did – if not THE most important thing I did – to grow my freelance writing income fast.

No doubt about it.

May 2015

This was a big month for me. I had the melanoma removed from my leg, and the margins came back all clear (meaning it hadn’t spread!).

I was SO. RELIEVED.

I also landed 3 new freelance writing clients.

One of those clients came from the ProBlogger Job Board.

The other two clients were technology companies I found on LimeLeads, which is a huge database of leads that you can filter by industry. I gathered their contact information, cold emailed them, and they responded and hired me to write for them.

I was THRILLED about landing those clients.

I had heard great things about cold emailing, but to see it actually work?

It felt like a miracle!

Cold emailing was my #1 most successful method of getting high-paying clients at first.

I wasn’t making enough money to pay my bills and live comfortably yet, but I could see the path to becoming a full-time writer!

And I was discovering that it was possible to grow my freelance writing income fast without resorting to penny-per-word Upwork gigs or content mills!

June 2015

I made $1,582 from freelance writing this month. And I could NOT believe it.

It may not sound like much, but it was a lot to me. Especially considering how little I knew about freelance writing when I started out.

I landed one of my biggest clients ever this month – an agency who hired me to write blog posts for their clients (I definitely suggest working with agencies this way — it’s often high-paying, consistent work!).

I found them on the ProBlogger Job Board, and I still work with them today.

Another of my biggest clients found me on LinkedIn.

He said he liked my writing style and wanted me to write a paid test piece for him, so I did.

This connection happened because I had optimized my LinkedIn profile to make it easy for potential clients to find me and published a few posts to my profile using LinkedIn Publisher (an awesome way to show off writing samples!).

I also found some other clients using cold emailing.

I kid you not – I was a cold emailing machine.

It was becoming an everyday thing for me, and I was learning what worked and what didn’t with every rejection and response.

July 2015

I made $3,100 this month — all from freelance writing work. More than I was making at my previous full-time job!

This happened mostly because the clients I had landed in June started giving me more frequent work.

But I also had another client find my LinkedIn profile and hire me to write blog posts for her clients (she worked at a marketing firm) – she ended up becoming one of my biggest clients for several months and was awesome to work with.

And no – I never pitched her or anything like that. She simply found my LinkedIn profile (because I had optimized it based on my niche) and reached out to me (because she liked my LinkedIn Publisher samples).

Another thing I started doing a lot this month was outsourcing my editing.

I realized that I was spending way too much time obsessing over whether or not my work was perfect, and hiring an editor was a HUGE time-saver.

I still hire an editor to look over my client work today!

Yes, hiring someone is an investment.

But here’s the thing:

As a BUSINESS OWNER, you WILL invest.

It’s up to you whether you invest time or money.

For example, if you don’t want to invest in an editor because of the money, then self-editing your work is going to cost you TIME.

…And that’s time you could spend working for higher-paying clients instead.

It’s so, SO important to think like a business owner when you start freelance writing.

Make smart investments (a website, an editor, a copywriting book, a course/coach, etc.) that will help you grow your business faster! I invested in my business BEFORE it was making money. You HAVE to invest if you want to see growth!

Think about the return on your investments and spend money on your business WAY before it feels comfortable.

August 2015

My income this month came out to a grand total of…

*drum roll*

$5,305.00.

That’s twice what I was making at my full-time job just four months earlier!

I landed 2 new clients this month.

One of them found my website and emailed me via my contact form, and the other was a client I found on the ProBlogger Job board.

At this point, I was charging about 13 cents per word and mostly writing blog posts for clients.

I was pretty overworked at this point, so I raised my rates soon after.

I don’t regret taking on tons of work though, because it helped me understand the importance/process of raising my rates and scored me some pretty sweet connections.

I also learned how to write more productively (you have to when you’ve got a ton of work due all the time!) and use apps like BaseCamp to plan my weeks/days better.

And that, my friend, is the story of how I reached my freelance writing income goal. 🙂

This free class will teach you the EXACT process I used. Click and open it in a new tab so you can take it after you’re done reading this blog post! 🙂

5 Important Takeaways from My Experience Starting a Freelance Writing Business

I’m not going to sit here and act like building a $5K/mo freelance writing business is easy peasy. It’s not.

But guess what?

It also wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it’d be.

Sure, I had some 12-hour days and 60-hour work weeks starting out (Probably for the first month or month and a half. I was building my site and just starting to market myself, which required tons of upfront time and effort.)

But once I was making the monthly income I wanted, I slowed down a bit and tried to keep regular business hours.

Because you don’t have to work 60-hour weeks forever to build a profitable freelance writing business – put in the bulk of the work at first (building a website and an online presence), and the success will follow.

Here are some other key things you should take away from this blog post to help you build your own profitable freelance writing business:

1. Set an income goal, and tell yourself that you’ll do what it takes to reach that goal.

Make it a bit more than you think you should. For example, if you’re thinking $3K/mo, challenge yourself to hit $4K/mo. And make sure you pick a month you want to reach your income goal by – that way, you’ve always got that timeline in the back of your head.

2. Pick a narrow niche at first. You can widen it later like I did.

I know how difficult it is to find clients when you’re a new freelance writer. That’s why I always recommend picking a narrow niche and marketing yourself as an expert in that niche at first.

The point of this is to make a client who sees your site/social profiles think:

Wow, this writer knows my industry and can give me exactly the content I need!

No one will think that if you market yourself as a general freelance writer or a freelance writer who specializes in “B2B and B2C content” (because that’s basically everything!).

3. Realize that you’re a business owner and ditch the employee mindset.

The “employee mindset” means that you view your clients as employers. You treat freelancing like “just another job.”

The problem with that?

An employee mindset won’t make clients respect you and view you as an expert. Instead, they’ll see you as another replaceable employee who can be bossed around and walked all over.

So, say it with me:

“I AM A BUSINESS OWNER.”

Because you are! And you have to act like it if you want to command respect and high rates.

That means no more writing your pitches and social media profiles like you’re a desperate job-seeker. Instead, approach everything you do as a confident business owner who has something amazing to offer.

4. Do all the heavy work when you first start your freelance writing business.

Seriously. Work HARD first month you get serious about freelance writing. Get obsessed with making it work, and it will.

Start by building a professional website that helps you get the leads you want (more on that here!).

Don’t know how to create a freelance writer website?

It’s easy to do it in a drag-and-drop interface Wix or Weebly (which is what I used at first) if you have no web design/development experience. You can always transition to a more robust site in WordPress or Squarespace later.

Once you’ve got your site, market yourself to your target audience like crazy.

Sounds obvious, but it really works if you pick the right niche.

5. JUST TAKE ACTION.

That’s the most important thing you can do.

Stop obsessing over perfection, and start writing some samples.

Stop being afraid of rejection, and start sending out cold emails.

…Every day.

Don’t give yourself the option to fail.

If I can do it, then you can too. 🙂

One final reminder:

I have a FREE class on how to make your first $1,000 writing in 45 days or less – even with NO experience!

No fluff – just crazy actionable advice.

Click here to join and get INSTANT access to the class, taken over by 7,000 writers – with LOTS of ’em getting actual client work from my strategies!

See you there! 🙂

Do you have any questions about how I built my freelance writing business? Ask away in the comments below!