I started my freelancing journey some over a year ago and until August of last year. I didn’t have any luck, but it really kick-started my freelancing career when I started writing on Medium.
I set my target last month to earn over $1000 this month, so I completed that task, so let’s try to raise the goal to $2000 for a month now.
1. Partner Programs: $314.14
When looking at my income for this month, I earned only 23.6% through partner programs (Medium.com and Vocal. Media). With Medium, I earned $313, and on Vocal, only $1.14.
One of the reasons I separated these incomes is that earning through partner programs doesn’t get you paid directly because you don’t work for one client. It is passive income. I’m considering uploading on YouTube more to add that income stream to the list in the future.
Writing for partner programs is a little insecure because you are not sure how much you’ll earn something you create. Therefore writing for direct clients is much more certain.
1.1 Medium
Medium is a wonderful platform, and I really like writing on Medium. One of my best-earning stories of last month was: 5 Useful Golang Modules Developers Should Know in 2021, which earned $23.87, followed by $21.86 from The Political Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Because I have been writing for a while on Medium now, I can earn from previous stories because they still get reads every day!
1.2 Vocal Media
Vocal Media seemed promising, and I was really enthusiastic when I first started writing there, but the earnings disappointed me. I couldn’t thrive. Maybe if I had spent more time and energy on this platform, I could have earned more than $1.14.
2. Direct Clients: $467.06
Direct clients are the more common income stream for freelancers.
I started taking on clients that needed websites for their company or just for their personal use. I also set up a gig on fiver for writing articles for people’s blogs or businesses.
2.1 Websites
As a web developer, I only got one client last month, which earned me $417.06 directly. The way how I gained this client was through Medium, actually. This person read one of my articles and called me and made some inquiries for this business he was working for.
2.2 Articles
On my fiver gig, I earned $50 for writing a promotional article for a company, and this person paid me directly instead of through fiver.
I’m still a new writer, so I didn’t expect to have many clients straight away, but one in the first month was really giving me the confidence to continue.
3. Other Income: $549.33
The income earned me the last month let me first explain what I did to earn this money.
I’m still a student, and I study Software Engineering at NHL Stenden Hogeschool in Leeuwarden. I’m also a member of some boards and get asked to do certain tasks. For example, last month, I got asked to take part in an Audit Panel to help the school evaluate the study.
3.1 Audit Panel
My task as an audit panel member has earned me $178,74, which isn’t too shabby considering I’m still a student, and I only worked for 15 hours on that.
3.2 Council Tasks
I’m occupying multiple positions in different councils, which earns me quite a few bucks per month. I consider it is freelancing because I have to work to earn it, and it isn’t a fixed salary. This earned me: $370,59.
Bottom Line
I’m not considering myself successful yet in freelancing; still, I feel I’m getting there, and I think that comes from two things: the depth and scope of my customers and the constant analysis of others to know what to do in the future.
I’m a software engineer and definitely not a natural writer, so I really like analyzing things like this (earnings, views, engagement), converting them into graphs, and drawing conclusions.
Earning on the internet always remains uncertain, but we should make the most out of it as long as it’s there.