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How Freelancers Can Make $10,000 a Month

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Ever since announcing my goal on the blog to make $10,000 a month within one year, I’ve had quite a few people email me asking how exactly this was possible. If you’re new to freelancing and blogging, it might be hard to imagine. However, I’ve been doing this for over three years and have seen MANY people make $10K per month consistently. It is completely, 100% possible, you just have to know how to hustle šŸ™‚

Do you want to earn a living as a freelance writer? Check out this interview from one freelancer (and mom of two toddlers, no less!) who is earning well over $10,000 per month! She's a rockstar, but there's no reason you can't do the same, too!

I have not yet hit $10K per month (hence the goal), so I wanted to bring in somebody who has. Keep reading to see how you can learn from one of the pros and be on your way to $10K per month!

How Freelancers Can Make $10,000 a Month

Today, Gina Horkey is here to talk about her freelancing journey, and more importantly how she was able to grow her freelancing side hustle into a full-time business that grosses over $10,000 per month. She’s actually on track to have her first $15,000 month in November.

I asked her a series of questions to help those of us out who want to make a killer income online, too.

So Gina, how long did it take you to start making $10,000+ per month as a freelancer?

Great question. I started looking into freelance writing on April 15th, 2014 (tax day!). I took a course and launched my website that May. By June I had my first paid writing client and an unpaid writing gig with the Huffington Post.

The short answer, is that it took just over a year. I had my first $10,000+ month this past July. If anyone is interested in the numbers behind my first year, here’s a cool infographic I put together:

Gina's Income Report

 

How much time do you spend per week working?

Good question! I try to be pretty rigid of my schedule these days, in order to spend as much time with my family as possible. This doesn’t always work out as planned – like last week, I launched a matchmaking service between webpreneurs and North American virtual assistants. It was a big project, so I pulled a couple of evenings to get it live.

Normally though, I keep ā€œbanker’s hours.ā€ I.e. I work 8-5 and take an hour for lunch and to lay the kiddos down for their daily naps (my husband’s a stay-at-home dad). I’m actually writing this from a conference on a Saturday, however… šŸ˜‰

When I started my business though, it was as a side hustle on the side of my full-time job in personal finance. I would get up at 4:30am daily to work for an hour or two before getting ready to go to work at my day job. I’d also work all day on Fridays (I had a four day workweek) and some weekends as well.

Name some things you credit your success to.

  1. Having a distinct why. I wanted to change careers, but was also the breadwinner for my family. Those two little and one big mouth I had to feed were my ā€œwhy.ā€ Have a strong reason behind launching your online business.
  2. Getting published on the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post was huge for increasing my credibility and a great sample for my portfolio. It’s a very recognizable name, even if I didn’t get paid to write there.
  3. Surrounding myself with support. Freelancing is a lonely road, so get your friends and family on board and/or start a mastermind group with some peers.
  4. Continuously challenging myself to get outside of my comfort zone. I pitched when I didn’t want to or was scared. I wrote when I didn’t want to or was scared. I’m doing video, even though I don’t want to and am scared. Challenge yourself to do scary things!

Do you think it’s possible for anyone to make $10,000 +/month as a freelancer?

Nope.

But I’m nothing special at the same time.

You need to be a hustler, and not in the negative sense of the world. You have to be driven, develop a thick skin, learn to welcome rejection and keep pitching and writing, even when you don’t want to.

How can a newbie get started?

Just do it.

Spend a little time learning and a lot more time trying and doing. If you want to learn from my experience, I’ve created a framework to help you get a new freelance writing or virtual assistant business up and running quickly in these two courses:

  • 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success
  • 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success

30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success

Thanks, Gina!! If you have any questions for myself or Gina, feel free to reach out or leave a comment!

Bio:

Gina Horkey is a professional writer and online business marketing consultant. She has a decade of experience in the financial services industry and enjoys helping other freelancers gear up to quit their day jobs and take their side hustles full-time. She also shares what she’s learned while building her online business through her 30 Days or Less Courses. On a personal note, she self-identifies as a married, millennial mama to two precocious toddlers (and is thankful her husband has the patience of a saint as he stays at home with their children).

 

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/ Filed In: Careers, Freelance
Tagged: freelance writing, making money online, self employment, work from home

Comments

  1. Christina @ Embracing Simple says

    at

    Wow this is so awesome, Gina and you are my freelancing role models so how fun is it that you got to interview her?! Very motivating hearing from someone else who is already at that 10k/month mark with freelancing that is CAN be done. Loved this post/interview Sarah!!! šŸ™‚ And can’t wait to see you get to your 10k/month goal!!!

    • Gina Horkey says

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      Thanks so much Christina – glad to hear that my story encourages others. šŸ™‚

  2. Kristin says

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    Oh wow, this is great! Gina is so awesome and so are you. I love these goals and it makes me so excited that we are all in this together to make a killer income!

    • Gina Horkey says

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      You bet we are! And we’ll all get so much farther together, than alone šŸ™‚

  3. Tami says

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    Thanks for sharing this! I’m on a similar path as Gina (growing little by little each month, however nowhere near the $10K per month mark yet). It’s great to see that it can be done, and I love what she said about continuing to do things even when you are scared!

  4. Rose says

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    This was excellent and so inspiring. I love when others share their stories. I recently starting doing web copy and was asked to apply for another writing opportunity via another website. I would love to make it to $10,000 a month but right now my small goal is $1000/month which I know is possible if I keep going. Thank you for this inspiration!!

    • Sarah Brooks says

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      $1000 a month is awesome!!! Congratulations!!! And honestly, it only goes up from there šŸ™‚ You got this!!

  5. Francisco Presencia says

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    Hi Gina,

    Thank you for the tips. I am also a writer (of code; a programmer) and I am trying to achieve the same. I am finding it difficult since I don’t have many contacts in the US and in Spain it’s a lot more difficult to reach this. Would I be better off exploiting my local connections or trying to make new ones through the Internet?

    • Gina says

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      I think you could try both Fransisco and double down on what’s working best. Some things to keep in mind while networking (whether online or offline): don’t worry about getting a sale right away, instead focus on the conversation and the person. Learn about them and their business – if an authentic opportunity arises to discuss what you do, great. If not, no worries. It’s a relationship game, not a transactional one. Cheers!

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