Black freelancers are out there every day building their businesses and careers. These are their stories.
My journey as a freelance writer has been long and full of lessons. I never thought it would take me the places it has. namely, I never thought I would be living in Ghana, West Africa and writing for clients in the U.S, United Kingdom, Russia, and elsewhere in the world from the comfort of my apartment. The internet has enabled me to live a truly location independent lifestyle. But it wasn’t always this way.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve never been able to settle on an answer to that infamous question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When I was a kid, I always imagined myself walking down the street, happily toting a briefcase and talking on a phone. I never knew which job I was going to in these fantasies, but I liked the way I looked in a business suit.
As a young adult however, it became obvious just how not cut out for the corporate world I was. For one thing, I got kicked out of college after one year because of my bad grades. Therefore, no business degree to shoehorn me into a coveted internship. Also I hated having to get up early to be somewhere because someone said I had to be. In 2008, I was married with a two-year-old daughter. I had taken a job working as a security guard in Los Angeles. My distaste for working fulltime drove me to look up how I could make money online writing. I had always been a writer; as a child, I would write stories to share with my classmates, and I also became known at my church for writing and performing poetry.
My search lead me to a website that paid $15 apiece for blog posts and “how to” tutorials. I was thrilled. Shortly after, when my husband got a job at a computer firm, I left my security job and started my freelance writing journey. I wrote solely for that website for about a year, never considering that I should find more baskets to put my eggs in. Eventually, the website went under, and my income went with it.
I went searching again for paid writing work, this time coming across content mills that paid far less than $15 per blog post. However, not knowing what else to do, I applied for and was accepted to about three of these sites. Completing those assignments was a grind. I was always churning out work that I knew was low quality. I quickly got depressed and burned out from doing that work. I wasn’t going to get a “real” job, however. I didn’t feel that this was an option for me.
In 2010, my family took a trip to my husband’s native Ghana. At the end of the six-month trip, we separated and I went back to America while he and my daughter remained in Ghana. I had planned to return for her after I had saved some money to do so. I knew that I wasn’t going to reach my goal writing for 1 and 2 cents a word, so I started working for more lucrative writing opportunities.
My search lead me to Yuwanda Black of Inkwell Editorial. She was a professional freelance writing who commanded upwards of $100 for a single blog post. I couldn’t believe it! I was anxious to learn how to do the same for myself, and so I became her eager student. I went to work putting up my first website and sending out introduction emails to online marketing agencies. After several hundred of these emails, I got a few replies from people who wanted to work with me. I was over the moon! My writing life had begun to change.
After that, I discovered Carol Tice at Make a Living Writing, and with her I deepened my knowledge of how to win and keep great clients. Carol was making a healthy writing income herself. However, it was a challenge to believe that I could do the same. I had been so used to earning a low income with the content mills that I didn’t know if I could replicate Carol’s success. So I took it one step at a time.
I enrolled in her online community, where I learned so much about how to expand my business. I got in contact with an agency through that community, who became my client. I was making so much per month with the agency that there was no doubt that I’d be able to return to Ghana to be with my daughter. Sure enough, I was on a plane two months later.
It’s been almost three years since I arrived in my second home. It’s been an amazing journey, and I’ve learned so much about myself, the freelance life, and life in general. If I could give any advice to take away, it’s that you have to believe in yourself as a freelancer, and believe in the value you offer. You don’t even have to be the best at what you do. There’s always someone somewhere who needs what you offer, so don’t sell yourself short by working for pennies and for clients who don’t respect and value your time. Owning your value is key in leveling up your freelance life, and who knows where you’ll go then?
Want to be featured and tell everybody about your life as a Black freelancer? Shoot me an email at connect@blackfreelance.com to get started!
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