How long is too long – when to give up freelance writing

Only you know when you’ve tried freelance writing or blogging long enough and when it’s smart to throw in the towel. It’ll vary for people. There is a difference between an impossible situation and an iffy situation though. For example, there are almost always feast or famine periods when you’re a freelance blogger or writer. The key is knowing if you’re experiencing a typical famine or a never ending drought.

• Have you had well paying blogging or writing gigs in the past? Yes? You can get jobs again. Try applying more often and apply for gigs that relate to gigs you’ve had in the past.
• Have you been applying to writing or blogging gigs for more than a year without even a nibble from a potential employer? Maybe you need to readjust your application process. If readjusting doesn’t help maybe you’re not a great writer or you’re not cut out for blogging. Either way, it may be time to look for another job.

But how long is too long?

As noted above every situation is different so the “too long” time-frame varies as well. There are some key issues you can look at though to help you decide how long is too long for your particular situation.

It’s most likely been too long if…

• Bills are piling up and writing just isn’t cutting it.
• It’s been over a year and you’ve never scored a job that pays an actual wage. After a year, if you’re working for free, it’s a major problem.
• It’s been over two years and you’ve never scored a gig that pays a living wage or you’re still not managing to pay all of your bills.
• You’ve been writing for a while and your expenses outweigh your income.
• You’ve been writing for a while and you’re continually making less money than you used to. Maybe you need to adjust the type of work you’re accepting or maybe your heart just isn’t into it.
• You’re not having any fun.
• You’re constantly stressed out whenever you have to think about work.

Maybe you should keep on trucking if…

• You’re still having a good time writing.
• You’re slowly but steadily building up clients. Sometimes it can take a while to build up to a full client base. If you’re getting clients, you will get there (to making a living) it just might take a little longer.
• Clients respond to you but don’t quite hire you. If clients take the time to respond often (a good sign), but don’t hire you there’s probably a little something in your application game-plan that you can tweak. You may be close to getting hired.
• Your income is rising – slowly. Slow is better than nothing. If you can hold out and manage on less income for a while you may be on the path to a full time income, especially if you know where to find the higher paying gigs. The time to worry is if your income continually stays the same or keeps shrinking.
• Bonus points if you have some back-up income (like a second job or savings) or a working spouse with health benefits you can latch onto.

Advice you can ignore…

Does everyone tell you that you should be a writer or blogger? Yes. Well, a million people have probably had people tell them they should write for a living. It doesn’t mean you can. Ignore people who tell you that you should write and focus on what’s really going on (i.e. see above). Way too many people say things like, “I was born to write” or “All my college professors told me to write.” That’s nice, but if your goal is to have money to live on, these issues really don’t matter.

Should you set a time goal?…

Setting a deadline for yourself is a great idea. For example last December I was experiencing a lull (no good new jobs) and my current writing income was not enough to live on for an extended period. Because I have a son, I can’t live on a below living wage income for too long but after writing for years it seemed stupid to quit on the fly, so I set two goals. My first goal was if I didn’t find any more blogging jobs in four months I’d supplement with other sorts of writing such as go back to magazines and business writing (which I don’t like as much but money is money).

My second goal was that if supplementing other sorts of writing didn’t work I’d head back to social work after six months. I love blogging but I don’t love it so much that I’ll make my son live without groceries. I’ll get another sort of job before that happens. Anyhow, my goals kicked me into high gear and I applied like mad for jobs that suited me and it worked out. Right now I’m good income wise but if I experience another lull at some point I’ll set some new goals.

Some people set a time goal when they first start out and others only set goals when they’re having a problem. Do what works for you. How long you set your goal for, again, depends on your situation. A smart way to go about it is to keep your day job and work on your writing career at night. If you have a spouse who is willing to support you for a while then you’re lucky but you should still have a goal, say, six months or a year. A typical goal might be, I’ll be scoring gigs within three months and by the end of the year I’ll be making enough to live on. If that fails I’ll look into another sort of job.

You tell me – how long is too long? When should you consider a new career path?

When to throw in the blogging towel

I don’t advocate quitting anything if you truly love it and feel you can make a good go at it but I also believe that some people just aren’t cut out to be freelance bloggers. If you’ve been trying for a long time to get blogging jobs and nothing is working you may think, “I have rotten luck” but it’s far more likely that you’re doing something wrong or you just don’t have the stomach to blog for a living.

Signs you should quit trying to blog for a living…

You hate blogging. I’m guessing all bloggers get tired of blogging once in a while. I get sick of blogging sometimes, but at the end of a bad week I always come back to the fact that deep down I love my job. I loved blogging when I made squat and I love it now. If the thought of having to log in and write a post is filling you with dread then you have a big problem.

You hate querying and it holds you back. Bloggers who make a living blogging for others are good at applying for jobs. You don’t have to like applying but you should be able to fake it. I actually hate querying. It’s not much fun and it’s so ongoing (boring). However, it’s part of the deal. If you want to blog for others you’ll be applying and querying for the rest of your career so you should at least get comfortable with it. If applying for gigs makes you upset or you hate it so much that you fail to apply for enough gigs then blogging for others is probably not going to work out.

There’s other stuff you could do. Freelance blogging or writing is hard, hard work. Seriously if there’s something else you could do, by all means go for it. And by could do I mean “could do and be happy doing it.” I could go back to social work or write for businesses again but I wouldn’t be as happy. If you’re always thinking about the good old days when you did something else then maybe you should go do it.

You still can’t stomach rejection. Rejection is so commonplace in freelance writing and blogging that you absolutely need to be able to deal or you will go insane. Not only will you get rejections from potential clients but readers and other bloggers too. Rejections should get easier for you at some point; you don’t have to be born with a thick skin, but you should learn to develop one. At this point potential client rejections don’t even phase me, and while mean reader comments do get me down once in a while, overall I just don’t care much what people think of me, and that’s an asset in this job. If you can’t ignore rejection or learn to live nicely with it blogging is a very hard career to manage.

You’re not on board with social media. Social media is such an integral part of blogging now that you should like, or at least be able to handle social media.

You get fired a lot. Blogs close down, clients switch gears and loosing a job isn’t too uncommon. However if you lose more jobs than you keep there’s probably a reason why.

It’s been years and you’re still making zip AND you have obligations. If you make very little money and the only person it affects is you then fine but when other people are involved you need to consider them too. It’s all good if you feel like writing is your life, but if your kids need clothes and groceries and you could make more money another way then you should do it. I’ve been at forums and seen writers who’ll say things like, “I’m still not making any money after 3 years” then they’ll complain about not having money for their kids or say that their spouse is cranky about the lack of cash. If you have responsibilities and are making very little money (after years of trying) it’s smart to look for a new career.

Not to be a killjoy but not everyone can blog for a living. If you’re dealing with the above issues it may be time to throw in the towel or consider another type of writing work. Coming up we’ll look at some time-lines – i.e. how long is too long to be looking for blogging gigs without a hit before you consider quitting. We’ll also look at some ideas that could help you score blogging gigs before you decide to quit. Sometimes just a few changes to your routine is all it takes to turn things around.

When do you think it’s a good idea to throw in the blogging towel and why?

Weekend fun: is your personality suited to blogging – take a test and find out

Have you ever had a personality test? I have. I was forced to take one in college. Everyone in the RN program had to. I guess they wanted to make sure that none of us were crazy patient killers. Well that, and it was during psych clinicals, so it taught us how personality tests work. That’s besides the point though.

I took the professional Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (mbti). It’s in-depth and if you’re honest, some believe the test can indicate the job you’re best suited for. Most people were happy with their results. Everyone was all, “Hey, I was born to be a nurse!“  Me; not so much. Not only did my test say that I was totally unsuited to nursing, but I was the only one in my entire class of 60+ to get an original score. Most people matched more than one other person in the class, but my score was ENTJ, and I matched no one. Talk about feeling left out.
Read more