Writing excites the living daylights out of me and I don’t usually use my gifts for personal, monetary gain but gotta get this money where its at. Freelance writing has been a source of income for me and yes it has its advantages but what good thing has no side effects? Freelancing allowed me to make money on the side and also to work according to my own schedule and be my own boss. But keep in mind there is free in freelance.

• The money comes late

B!+$h better have my money! I can’t sing this song enough when it comes to my freelancing experience. Why commission work that you cannot afford? There are different payment schedules from publication to publication. Some prefer to pay when the article is published and some opt to pay when they have accepted the article and then go onto publish the article at their own convenience. Either way, pay me my money on the date that we agreed upon. I got bills to pay and I had already budgeted for that money.

• The payment arrives in pills and portions

When the money finally arrives, its not all there. Wait, what? Where my money at? I did your work in full. Did I send you half an article? Did I send you substandard work? No! But you are out there reaping the FULL rewards of my hard work. You almost wish you could ask for your money in advance but knowing myself the way I do, I wouldn’t pay me in advance either. It’s the hunger that makes me write better. Sad but true.

• The jobs are hard to come by

What I meant by this is “paying jobs are hard to come by.” When I put out an advert to voluntarily guest post for other blogs and publications there was an overwhelming response. I am still sifting through the emails because I only need 52 (one for each week of the year.) Some publications offer as little as $5 per article whereas I can make up to $20 with the right publications. And these are local rates. A friend of mine writes on Fiverr and I was not ready to go through the whole figuring out Paypal and bondnotes cross rate thing. I leave that to her.

• The editors are anti-progress

I have encountered the best and the worst editors. I had this one editor that would ‘like’ all my articles and not publish them. I must have mass produced like ten articles which were ‘approved’ but never saw the light of day. Communicating with this editor was a chore. Non-responsive like an overworked computer. No feedback. Nothing. It was aggravating to say the least. I’d have to stalk the website to see if my article was published because only then could I bill them. I regret the time I spent writing for them and may our paths never cross again.

Writing takes time and dedication and in 2017, I don’t want my time and talent to be wasted unnecessarily. I won’t stop freelancing completely but I will be reducing the load. Less local publications and more international ones to grow my brand and my reach and increase traffic to my personal blog. All benefits don’t have to be in dollars and cents and writing for big names will establish me as a blogger and that’s okay too. Gotta always have the bigger picture in mind.