Thus far, I’ve put off getting another “real” job in lieu of building up portable freelance work. If I can get to the income level I aspire to, its unlikely I’ll go back at all! If after another month or two I haven’t reached my goals, then no problem, its back to the 9-5 grind for me.
Much of what I’ve been doing has been content production. From laptop reviews to MMO blogs, I’ve managed to pick up all sorts of writing opportunities. Having a portfolio of sites/blogs to display as a demonstration of your experience has really helped out in this regard. I love it. Every assignment is different and allows me to do what I like to do anyway, read up on various topics and write a well-researched review or blog post! I’ve also been doing some web development and online marketing work. Google recently updated its pageranks, and 3 of our niche sites pulled in a solid pagerank. One of them even managed a PR of 4! This makes the sites much more attractive to advertisers, and I’ve already started putting lines out for potential bites. Not to mention the obvious advantage of portability and independence, and I’d say (knocking on wood right now) that things are going well.
Being the conservative frugal person that I am though, even when I make enough money I have a nagging worry in the back of my mind wondering if I’ll be able to keep the pace up. Part of being a freelancer means that you have to constantly drum up additional work. Some assignments may be longer-term, but ultimately you’ll be bringing in new assignments constantly. The uncertainty of it makes me a little nervous, but getting out of your comfort zone is all part of the challenge, after all.
So let’s break it down. If you recall, I need to make $123 (ish) per day, 5 days a week to make an acceptable (meaning I could live on much less, but I like having more than I need for saving and traveling) living. At present, I’ve averaged $65.37 per day this past week. Hmm, looks like we’re short. However we’re putting up some more sites this week as well as additional writing work. I’ll keep you posted as I go along!