Moving work online has brought the advantage of being able to wear your pyjamas and sliders at a work station with your own bathroom next door to your office, but does it give you enough money to cover all your bills.
Take blogging as one example, free online AI tools (as a form of research) warn “Beginner bloggers may earn $0 – $500/month in the first year or two, as they grow their audience”. Ok, that means one or two years of constant researched writing while using keyword search, SEO, afiliate marketing, tools of traffic reach after finding your niche and nurturing your presentation skills on a website that you made or bought.
So if you want blogging tips for beginners, blogging mistakes to avoid and how to make money blogging – the first big tip is – be realistic. Freelancing online is like the rest of society – only a few people truly make big bucks. It helps if you have money and the skills in the first place. It’s easier if you are a big company with a huge budget in the first place. It’s harder if you’re an individual starting out with nothing.
That doesn’t mean it won’t be you. The UK national lottery was launched on a campaign with the basic argument…”It could be you!” and now the internet social media platforms are full of advisors and influencers promoting that very same logic. Don’t give up! It could be you. It probably won’t be though.
One reason to not give up is the possibility of making a living with a mix of real jobs, side hustles and emotional compromises (compromises for our egos and not our morals). For those of us on the lowest budgets i.e. the majority of living human beings on the planet or even the majority in a wealthy country like the UK. We can do it. We can pay the bills. For real. And we can make it grow.
I can personally vouch for the fun of playing music, teaching and writing as a freelancer for over 30 years. You can be useful to society, help students, entertain, party on and go on holiday sometimes. I just won’t pretend it was easy. It has been the hardest personal goal that I ever set myself. (there’s the catchphrase from the title). And the best money I ever made was in paid employment as a newspaper journalist and a cruise musician.
sliders….
Obviously when I started back in the 1990s what I hoped I would do was take on the world by writing songs and finding great musicians to spread the love and save the planet…I guess we did. We certainly tried and some nights it felt like it was all happening for real…the dream. We’re still living it.
Mike Kneafsey Guitar 