Invest in Your Writing Career and Build a Richer Future

I took most of this week off from client projects to devote time to my own, and I'd like to talk today about why you should consider it too - investing in your freelance writing future. We're not talking about investing money (at least not much). We're just talking about time - your most valuable asset as a service provider.

Why should you reserve some time each week for yourself? How is that going to help you keep food on the table and get bills paid? What exactly should you be doing with that "invested" time?

What it Means to "Invest" in Your Writing Career

You'll spend a lot of time marketing, networking, and dealing with client projects. But you need to do more. You need to think about additional revenue streams - things that don't rely on using your billable hours (which are a finite resource). Wouldn't some residual income be nice? Even if you don't feel like you need additional income streams, you eventually might - you may lose a huge client and need backup income, you may want to take a few weeks or months off from client work to travel, or you may become ill or incapacitated for a while. By investing time now into these residual revenue streams, you'll keep earning money even when you're not billing directly for your time.

Examples of Residual Income Streams

There are several things you can invest some of your time in to bring in non-service income. Here are some examples:

  • Write a book (to be published either traditionally or self-published)
  • Write an e-book or report (or series), and then sell it
  • Create a series of paid email courses around your expertise (or online courses)
  • Create a blog or website that will bring in advertising or other income (or serve as a vehicle to sell your books, e-books, or reports).

Why Invest Time in New Revenue Streams?

We've already mentioned some situations where a residual income stream might be nice (when you can't work or just don't want to).

But think about it in a more general sense as well. This is often money you "forget" is coming or that you simply don't expect to come. For example, I'm always surprised when I get payments from one ad network in particular, because I don't spend much time monitoring those ads. So when I get a direct deposit for a few hundred dollars, it's like "found money." I don't have to do anything for that money. I put ads on my sites months ago, and I keep on collecting. Nice, right?

When I was selling my press release writing e-book, it was similar. It was my first, and I didn't know what to expect. So I never assumed I would earn something in particular. Instead, every time a payment came through, it was just "extra" - something earned beyond my budgeting.

Is it Worth the Time?

It can be difficult for some folks to willingly invest time in a project that doesn't guarantee earnings, while client work will. However, it's an "investment" for a reason. You get to earn over and over again for one "payment" (of your time). Let's look at a hypothethical example.

Bob is a freelance writer. His billable hours usually equate to about $50 per hour through client projects.

Bob decides to write and sell a short e-book or report. He spends about five hours writing a 15-page report (I wrote my first 18-page e-book in five hours, so I know it can be done). He then spends another three hours setting up a quick sales page and getting the e-book setup with a payment processor. Let's say he spends two more hours building a few links, sending out some review copies, and announcing the e-book on related forums and communities to kick-start the marketing.

He's invested 10 total hours into this e-book without a cent of income guaranteed.

But then let's say he sells just 50 copies during that first year for $10 each (50 copies isn't terribly hard to do if you've picked a niche with an actual audience and have a decent product). He's earned $500 already - the same he would have earned if he spent those ten hours on client work.

It gets better. Those buyers loved Bob's e-book, and now it's spreading via word-of-mouth. There's a "buzz" around the e-book, and Bob sells another 100 copies that following year. That's another $1000.

In the third year, sales start to simmer down - just another 50 copies. Another $500.

In the fourth year, he sells a little less - 30 copies, for another $300.

In the fifth year, the topic might be getting a little stale, the market's a bit saturated for this niche info, and he only sells 20 copies for $200.

Over the course of five years, Bob has earned $2500. Even if we assume he spent another $500 of that on some simple marketing, he would have earned the equivalent of at least $200 per hour for those 10 hours put into launching the e-book. Not too shabby.

And that's what "investing in your writing career" is all about - spending time now for continued income later.

I'm such a big supporter of this model that I'm actually working to replace my client work by the end of 2009 on a full-time basis with the sales of my informational products and the income from my websites and blogs.

It isn't necessary to do what I'm doing this week - taking time "off" to work on these things. I'm doing that, because the first e-book in my new series for Web writers desperately needed to be finished, and I kept putting it off. By taking this route, it should all be finished by the end of this week (wrote 18 pages yesterday, have about the same to do today, and then I just need to finish a few addenda pieces and clean it up a bit).

If you don't want to take time away from other work, consider spending one extra hour a day writing "for yourself" with one of these types of projects in addition to your normal work. It may feel like a chore when you're not earning directly in the beginning, but believe me, when you do start earning it feels great (there isn't much better than earning decent money doing something that you enjoy - writing - on your own terms). 🙂

Profile image for Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer, consultant, and indie author. She runs numerous websites & blogs including All Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Pros, NakedPR, and Kiss My Biz.

Jenn has 25 years' experience as a professional writer and editor and over 20 years' experience in marketing and PR (working heavily in digital PR, online marketing, social media, SEO, new media, and thought leadership publication). She also has 19 years' professional blogging and web publishing experience (including web development) and around 18 years of experience as an indie author / publisher.

Jenn also writes fiction under multiple pen names and is an Active member of the Horror Writers Association.

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2 thoughts on “Invest in Your Writing Career and Build a Richer Future”

  1. I thoroughly believe in taking time for your writing career. I do it myself. A matter of fact, I do it all of the time because that’s what I do. I am an author.

    Anyone can write a 7 to 15 page report in just a few hours. It just takes time and dedication to do the work.

    However, the most difficult part is of course the marketing. That is one area that seams to stump so many people these days. However, the marketing doesn’t have to be very difficult to do, but I will tell you; it is time consuming.

    You can comment on blogs, write articles and submit them to article directories, write press releases, market through your e-book, or short report, place business cards around your city or town, advertise in free online advertizing sites, and so much more, and most of this doesn’t cost anything whatsoever. So the marketing doesn’t have to overextend your budget.

    I love writing small reports because they’re much easier to write than full-blown e-books. That is why I had written my new report entitled How To Make A Living Selling Small Reports, which can be found at the site here below.

    Click Here To Get Your Copy Of How To Make A Living Selling Small Reports

    Writing short reports is an excellent way for even the newbie to get into the information publishing business because it doesn’t take all that much to produce these 7 to 15 page reports. Just a bit of research is really all that you need, but here’s the really neat thing about the whole idea.

    Inside my report, I show you how to create multiple streams of income by using these small reports to make even more money. As we all have heard, multiple streams of income is where the real money is because you can’t get rich selling just one single report. Taht is why you need multiple reports to do it, and I show you how in my report.

    I love to write. That’s my passion. I have always loved writing for as long as I can remember. My specialty is of course, instructional material. I couldn’t write a novel if my life depended upon it. I leave that type of writing up to all the novelists out there, and I’ll just stick with the more technical side of writing, the how-to stuff.

    You see, that’s what makes the Internet so great. It is a virtual library filled with tons and tons of valuable information that you can research and use for your writing projects. It is a library litterally at your fingertips, and many people haven’t yet figured out that they no longer have to deal with things such as writer’s block because all this information is so readily available.

    I can always find something to write about, and I rarely have writer’s block because I use the Internet to my best ability to locate the information that I desire to write about and use in my writing projects.

    So yes, I take plenty of time for my writing career and I do it every day.

    Reply
  2. This is an encouraging post. I am kicking a few ebook and other project ideas around in my head right now and wondering how I’ll ever find the time to write them. The fact is I won’t find any extra time – I’ll just have to make the time.

    Reply

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