The following is a guest post by Holly, a freelancer writer and blogger I’ve known for over five years. I’ve seen her grow her side-hustle, ClubThrifty.com from a tiny site to one that has allowed her and her husband, Greg to quit their day jobs.
Freelance writing is the easiest way to get started making money online. I did some various freelance writing after I left my day job just to make sure I wouldn’t starve to death. Despite receiving a severance and having passive income streams, I’m never 100% sure I’m doing the right thing until a long enough time passes.
Freelance writing is also one of the main reasons why I’ll never be scared of running out of money again. I know that if all else fails, I can tap my network of startups I’ve cultivated since 2012 for writing assignments. Once you become an established online writer, you can easily make more than the median household income earns a year. Take it away Holly!
As someone who gets paid to create interesting content for the web, I recognize writing talent in everyday people all the time. Sometimes it’s a thoughtful and poetic Facebook post crafted by someone I know. Other times, it’s a witty email, a clever take on an issue, or a handwritten card filled with all the right words.
That doesn’t mean everyone wants to write for a living, but some people absolutely do. Over the years, I’ve watched several of my friends take up blogging to express themselves and (hopefully) begin a digital career. Unfortunately, far too many never blog long enough to build anything meaningful. It’s hard at first, they’ll say, and there are few rewards for someone just starting out.
One of my friends, Karen, is the perfect example of a would-be writer who couldn’t hang in there. After brainstorming passionately for months, she started a blog of her own and poured everything she had into it. But, just a few months later, I noticed she, too, sputtered out.
She worked in a grueling job with hectic hours and desperately needed a change, yet she couldn’t juggle both the blogging and the career. Frustrated, she chose to settle on her regular, 9-5 job. For all the talent she had, giving up was such a shame.
Then again, I totally understood where she was coming from. I could have ended up just like Karen. In fact, I was Karen at least five or six times. When my husband and I started our blog in 2011, I quit at least once per month. I had a full-time job that consumed most of my waking hours, and seemingly, my life force. Oh, and I also had two kids under the age of three.
I, along with several other drivers met with Uber’s marketing and operations team in their offices for being the Bay Area’s top referrers. As a “reward,” they fed us some Delfino’s pizza, picked our brains on how we were able to get to the top, and pitched us on their new referral system to potentially make all of us more money.
For those of you who would like to join the 