The primary goal here at Location Rebel is to help you build a freelance writing “bridge businesses” which makes you $3,000+ a month.
Why?
Because if you do that, you have options.
You can pay your bills while you build a side hustle…
You can support yourself as you backpack around the world…
You can quit your job, work from home, and grow the business.
Freelance writing is the best “bridge” I know to take you from where you’re at now, to where you want to be.
However, over the last few years of helping people do this full time, I’ve received more and more questions and comments asking “is freelance writing dying?”
Whether it’s a rise in competition, an increased focus on social media, or even AI getting better and better – some of you seem to be concerned that freelance writing isn’t going to be a viable industry over the long term.
“The Market is too Saturated”
Let’s get this out of the way right now.
The market is not too saturated. Yes, there are millions of people who identify as freelancers in the world.
There are also millions of jobs for freelance writers of all types.
And here’s the secret most people forget. Most freelancers simply aren’t very good.
They don’t know how to find work, they don’t know how to build relationships, and they aren’t willing to learn.
There’s ALWAYS room in the market for good.
And these days it really just comes down to being “less bad” than everyone else. And if you truly invest in yourself, pursue freelance writing with vigor, and are willing to learn?
Then you might be surprised at just how much work is available.
Remote Work is Bigger than Ever
In 2020 more people worked from home than ever. According to Stanford University research, 42% of the U.S. labor force is now working from home.
FORTY-TWO PERCENT.
That’s insane.
And what happens when your employees don’t have to come into a physical office every day? It opens up opportunities to hire a much broader array of people to work with you.
Rather than being limited to people in your city, you can begin looking for talent all over the world. Savvy companies are also realizing that often they can hire a freelancer for certain jobs, such as copywriting, pay them well, and still have it be less expensive than hiring an employee full time.
On average a company saves $11,000 for each telecommuter they hire according to Global Workplace Analytics.
So it’s benefitting companies in more ways than one to hire both remote freelancers and employees.
For all the negatives that COVID has crossed across the planet, it’s actually creating more opportunities for those of us looking for freelance work.
But it is also creating more remote jobs as well…
When Freelance Doesn’t Mean Freelance
For many of us, the term “freelance” isn’t necessarily about working with different clients and truly running our own business.
Rather, I’ve found that in 11 years of running Location Rebel, that most people just want to be well compensated while also having some increased flexibility in their lives.
They don’t actually want to be a freelancer, but rather they want the lifestyle that freelancing brings.
Going back to our point about the rise of remote work, there are more opportunities than ever to get a real remote job, for one company as a writer, or in a role that is writing heavy (digital marketing, editor, content creator, etc.)
There have been countless Location Rebel Academy members that follow this path:
- Join the Academy and spend time learning new skills and getting their first freelance jobs
- They freelance for 3-24 months, perfecting their skills and building confidence
- They find a full-time remote job for a company they’re excited about while retaining the work from anywhere flexibility with more stable pay.
Freelance doesn’t always mean “freelance.” It’s often just a synonym for doing work that provides flexibility and freedom so many of us crave.
What’s Old is New Again (Blogs vs Social Media)
One of the great things about freelance writing is there are tons of different types of it. Content writing, B2B writing, email writing, copywriting – the list goes on and on.
When I started this site back in 2009. Blogs were the thing.
We all had blogs we’d check daily.
Now with Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and others being so big, blogs haven’t been given as much love as they once had.
But let me ask you a question:
When was the last time you searched for something on Google and had anything show up from Instagram? Facebook? TikTok?