Trust me when I say that freelance writing is not an age specific profession. You can start a freelance writing business at any age, even midlife.
By the time you’ve reached midlife, more than likely you’ve created your safe little comfort zone. A zone that you find yourself afraid to step out of.
You can start a freelance writing business at any age, even midlife.
More often than not, the comfort zone of a “midlifer” is the steady paycheck you receive from your job. You don’t want to rock the boat, right?
Guess what? The beauty of starting a freelance writing business is that you don’t have to rock the boat. You can continue to rely on your steady paycheck and build your freelance writing business at the same time. It just takes balance.
In order to start a freelance writing business, you don’t need any special equipment or any special degrees. You only need to make up your mind to move forward.
Don’t let fear of the unknown hold you back. Don’t be afraid to step out on faith. You know you’re a good writer, you’ve been writing since you were young.
Just because you’ve reached a certain age does not mean you can’t continue to pursue your passions. If writing is your passion, then go for it!
Nothing is going to happen until you take action and make it happen. Trust me there is nothing to be afraid of you can do it, I know you can.
Turn Your Back on Self-Doubt and Fear
Aren’t you tired of being afraid, tired of making up excuses for why you’re not doing what you’ve always wanted to do?
How many online courses have you taken about starting your own business? How many?
How long have you been researching, reading, and following other writers? Guess what? You’ve spent all this time following these writers, and reading their articles when you could have been writing for yourself all along. Those writers could be and should be reading your content!
Your age has no nothing to do with following your dreams and pursuing your passion. Ray Kroc didn’t have success with McDonalds until he was 52.
If Ray Kroc would’ve let his age keep him from moving forward, then we’d live in a world without Big Mac’s.
You have to start now. No more excuses, you can do this, I believe in you. Look at me, I finally, kicked fear in the butt, and here I am writing my first guest blog post.
Pick a topic or subject that you’re passionate about. Write about it. Share your knowledge. Someone needs to hear what you have to say. Create content that matters and helps others.
Are You Ready to Push Past Your Fear and Doubts and Get Started Writing?
Great, if you can do these 5 things, then you are ready to start your midlife freelance writing career
1. Write Down your Freelance Writing Goals for the Next 3 Months
Make goals for your writing business and strive for those goals. Grab your pen, grab some post-it notes and start writing. List everything that you want to accomplish in the next 3 months.
Then, take those post-it notes and stick them along the edges of either your laptop or your desktop, so they are staring you smack dab in the face. Every time you accomplish a goal, remove the post-it note.
Whenever you sit down to write, you’ll have your goals starting at you and reminding you not to give up.
2. You Have to Get Out of the Research Phase
Okay, you’ve researched enough. You know freelance writing is not a scam, you know there are people who are actually making a decent income from freelance writing.
Now it’s time to stop gathering information and start implementing everything that you’ve learned through your research and any courses that you’ve taken.
Freelance writing requires writers to take a step back, look at what they’ve created and edit as necessary. You should also follow this advice when you are not writing. Edit yourself, stop the research and keep it moving.
3. Do One Thing Every Day Towards Starting Your Freelance Writing Career
Whether you’re working a full-time job, taking care of a sick spouse, an elderly parent, or keeping an eye on the grandkids every day, you’ll need to set aside a little time each day, even if it’s just an hour; to work on your writing business.
It doesn’t have to be anything big; small steps will work also. If you only have an hour or two each day, you can do things like:
- Plan your own blog posts for the month
- Create a client tracking spreadsheet
- Write down a list of blogs you’d like to pitch for guest posts
- Create a few rough drafts of posts you’d like to pitch
- Spend an hour on social media. Engaging, not selling
The goal is to do something tangible for your business each and every day.
4. Connect with Other Freelance Writers
Writing can be a lonely and sometimes isolating profession. It’s important to form relationships and spend time around others who share either the same or similar interests. Some writers I recommend checking out are:
- Elna Cain (of course)
- Alicia Rades
- James Chartrand
- Sophie Lizard
5. Look for Guest Post Opportunities
You said you wanted to be a freelance writer, right? You’ve got to market yourself and seek guest blogging opportunities to get your name out there.
It will be scary at first but once you create your first guest post, you’ll let out a sigh of relief.
Conclusion
At times you may get frustrated, and discouraged, but don’t ever give up, quitting is not an option. You want this. You need this. You will forever regret it if you don’t do this now.
This new journey will not be a walk in the park. Just the opposite. It will be work. Hard work! But you can do this!
Create your writer’s website and let’s get going. The time to start is now.
C’mon, we’re waiting for you
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