The Write Road: About the 495 POC

"One shall be born from small beginnings..." Leonardo da Vinci

Recently, I published an article about what freelance writers really make. I know some of the numbers looked scary… but I wanted to be honest with you.

Some may have read it and thought all was lost. I get that.

But if you really read and pondered the statistics, you might have discovered something. While a lot of freelance writers barely eke out a living…

Some do quite well and make a decent income. Many, in fact. Could be you, if you’re willing to commit to it.

Keep these facts in in mind before you throw in the pen.

Not every rockstar college athlete dons the pro uniform, right?

Nor does every talented high school choir member wind up on the stage at Carnegie Hall… or the Grand Old Opry.

Talent or skill is just one of several factors in both those endeavors. Other important reasons for those who make it to the top are dedication, concentrated effort, and the willingness to do what it takes, no matter the odds.

Much of how successful you’ll be as a freelance writer boils down to similar decisive factors.

Your mindset and your work ethic are two of them.

There are other influences as well that we’ll discuss in future issues of The Write Road. But it’s important to understand that success in freelancing isn’t a birthright. Nor is it a given.

Unsurprisingly, it’s more of a choice to commit to the journey than it is an innate talent. A willingness to put aside alleged aptitude and diligently learn the craft.

In reality, few successful copywriters are born… but many are made.

Today, I’d like to tell you how I started my freelance path. And where that path has taken me.

You might be surprised.

I’m no “rockstar” copywriter, at least in my opinion. But…

I was willing to commit to the process.

And that’s made a significant difference for my career.

Of fire trucks and typing class

When I was younger, much younger, I wanted more than anything to be a firefighter, as did a lot of little guys my age.

That would be a dream come true for sure.

And believe it or not… it did come true!

Sure, I was a volunteer firefighter for a small town in Indiana, but that was cool enough for me.

I had a snazzy flashing light atop my pee-green Mustang Grande (yes… pee, not pea. Ask Mary, LOL), and responded to calls blared out from a giant, ancient radio perched near my bed in the studio apartment in which I resided.

(“Studio” is being generous.)

Sure, I didn’t get paid to put my life in danger. But it was the thrill of fulfilling a boyhood dream that fueled me.

Ah, those where the days, my friend.

Not every call was exciting, though.

I helped pull a drowning victim out of the local lake with the rescue team. And one of my first missions was to help find the body parts of a former high school buddy who pulled his motorcycle in front of a tractor-trailer rig to end it all.

That was a cold dark night along a lonely, deserted highway, to be honest.

But… that came with the job, even though it was an unpaid voluntary one.

“So, what does this have to do with writing, Steve?”

Being a freelance copywriter wasn’t even on my radar at the time.

The closest I came was taking a high school typing glass with another of my buddies.

Two guys… 30 girls.

I’m sure you know what the goal was.

No, becoming a firefighter was all about fulfilling a dream… and being willing to do what it took to get there, even temporarily. Even when it got ugly.

The dream of writing for a living would come later. Much later.

And quite by accident.

Taking up the digital pen

All that took place back in the mid-70s. So let’s fast-forward to nearer the end of 1900s.

We moved to Arkansas in 1978 and I dabbled in several things.

But in 1985, my feet finally landed in the chicken plant, a job where I worked for 36 years.

I eventually worked my way up to be the plant electrician and held that position for about 25 years. Fairly decent pay and enough hours—with guaranteed overtime every week—to pay the bills, including our house payment.

I was good at what I did. So good, in fact, that I got pigeonholed into that position. I would never be considered for management because they needed me right where I was at.

That happens with many jobs. When you work really hard and get really good… you often get really stuck.

But in 2009, it all went sideways.

A year before that, the company started cutting overtime in the maintenance department to conserve money. It took a year, but they finally got around to me.

Now, losing your overtime pay might not seem like a big thing. But it kinda is. I stood to lose $300/week or about two grand a year, give or take.

If something didn’t happen, and happen soon, we could lose the house in a very short time. We didn’t have a ton of cash on hand, but enough to keep us afloat for little while. And Mary was babysitting kids for clients, so that helped.

I couldn’t get a second job because of my responsibilities at the plant, so I needed to find something I could do from home.

I finally landed on writing for money. I won’t go into too much detail. I’ll save that for later.

But suffice it to say it appeared to be a legit way out. And I could do it from home whenever I wasn’t working at the plant.

But… would it actually pay off?

The four dollar and ninety-five cent… proof of concept

Yeppers, that’s what the 495 POC stands for.

Here’s what it means.

In 2010, I started writing in the content mills. And my first article about a carpet seam iron paid me the princely sum of… $4.95. Yeah, after six hours of research and writing (I wanted the work to be stellar), I made less than five bucks.

Woohoo.

I told my brother and we had a good laugh. But…

Deep inside, that meager compensation meant something to me. It was… proof of concept.

I could write and someone would pay me for my work. Just had to get better at writing, that’s all.

Or so I thought, anyway.

So I kept hacking away in the content mills, rarely earning more than five bucks, sometimes 10, per article. My first year in the mills, I made 2,000 dollars. How many articles was that?

Don’t do the math… it’s scary.

That was the first year. How about the next?

Second verse… same as the first.

But then things changed.

Or more precisely…

I changed.

A dream is just a dream until you put some teeth into it

You can say what you want achieve. But you won’t achieve it until you do what it takes to get there.

That’s not theory… that’s fact.

You work it into existence, not wish it.

I knew that from my electrical work adventures and I applied it to writing, even in the early days.

When I got paid for that first 5-buck article, I set a goal and worked to achieve it.

Yeah, it was modest. My first goal was to pay the cable/internet bill with my writing.

In short order… mission accomplished.

I set my eyes on higher goals and went back to work. That entailed a lot more writing for a lot more hours per week, every week. It meant missing stuff, like my favorite TV shows and other events.

And I made those goals, too.

Eventually though, it meant I often missed family events and that hurt. Big time.

One day, actually around midnight on a Saturday, it finally all came to a head.

Literally.

I banged my head on the desk, swearing there had to be a better way to do this. Maybe not easier… but better. I wasn’t adverse to working hard. Just wanted to see more reward for my efforts.

I needed to get out of the content mills, for sure.

Millwork ain't easy, millwork ain't hard
Millwork it ain't nothing but an awful boring job
James Taylor – Millworker

So I set out on a quest to find that better way.

And found it.

Don’t reinvent the wheel… change the vehicle

In the mills, I was writing for faceless people. People I didn’t know, never saw, and never talked to. In fact, that’s baked into most content mill work.

But in my research, I found a couple of people who talked about professional copywriting and content marketing. I studied their lessons, pored over their websites, and internalized their teachings.

And it worked.

Slowly at first, but it worked.

I never made more than two grand per year in the content mills. But a year after I started learning to write real content and copy for real clients, my annual income jumped to $4,000. The next year it was $8,000, then $16,000. In four years, I was making $32,000 per year… and still had a full-time job!

Not woohoo. But… Woohoo!

Look, my copywriting education wasn’t free. Quality education of any kind rarely is.

But by learning to balance my income and outgo (Is that word? It is now, LOL), I’ve been able to leave my job and do this stuff full-time.

And I’m not done learning either. Never will be.

There’s always something new to learn and absorb.

That’s how it works if you want to succeed.

Always.

Gotta go… lunch is on the table

Momma just hollered that the food’s ready, so I’d better get up there. The Littles are over today and I’d better get hoppin’ or they’ll eat Granddad’s lunch for him!

Hey, we’ll talk again soon about how I got where I am today and exactly what it took to get here.

We’ll take it bite by bite if necessary.

But for now, I gotta eat my lunch before the youngsters do … bite by bite, LOL.

Oh, by the way, about that house we almost lost.

It’s paid off now, years ahead of schedule.

Copywriting did that.

It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you’re willing to…

Put some teeth into your dream.

Until next time,

Steve M.