Sounds to me like you are almost there If you were to take the steps to bump up your social media and business aspects a couple of notches, you would easily be able to become the sole provider. But as long as you enjoy what you are doing, that’s what matters most.

This post was mostly intended for those who aren’t happy with what they are doing and continually blaming their lack of success on everyone but themselves. Sometimes we all need to take a step back and re-evaluate what we are doing and how we can do it better. It sounds to me like you have all the fixin’s of a professional writer, but are comfortable with your hobby paying for itself and giving you a little extra. If that’s all you want out of it, than good for you

Everyone has their own level of comfort when it comes to their personal success. As long as you are happy with your status in the great scheme of things, I say keep on rocking it to your own tune!

I tend to shy away from labels and categories. I like to write and I earn money from it. 100% of my income is residual and comes from my online properties. I am my only client (never really liked the demands of writing for other folks).

I don’t make enough to support my family (my 6’3” son could eat my earnings at one meal) but I’m very close ($3.52 shy) to making $100 a day every day in residual earnings from my writing.

As probably the only online dinosaur that doesn’t use social media (or have a firm grasp on internet marketing), I think I’m doing ok.

I love what I do and used to do it for free. So, I guess you can call me a professional hobbyist.

The funny thing about agents and marketing companies who focus on doing the publicity for a writer is that they want their cut of the pie. In other words, a writer still needs to pay them to render services. So while you are absolutely true that it’s possible to hire someone else to handle the business side of things, that means forking over money, or paying for professional services (the same thing this article suggests is necessary; paying someone to help you make your business successful)…and a hobby writer needs to first have the relevant skills to prove their writing is worth being marketed, which often means learning how to write in the first place. Or, at the very least, having the money to pay for the agency. In which case they aren’t a starving, hobby writer, but rather someone who is a real writer by the very fact their writing is providing them with the money to pay for other services that are part of the business side of writing. Which, ironically, is what this whole article was about; hobby writers who don’t have the money to treat their writing as a business versus real writers who understand that they are running a business, and therefore are spending money to make money.

It’s unfortunate you feel that way about my personal stance on things, but you are certainly welcome to your opinion, just as much as I am in the writing of it. I wish you nothing but the best in your future ventures, and I’m very glad you understood the core of this piece: real writers treat their writing as a business. You either pay a professional to teach you the basics of business so you can run your business by yourself, or you pay someone else to do it for you. In either case you still have to spend money to make money and there’s still a difference between writing for a living and writing as a hobby. Cheers, and I look forward to hearing from you again in the future!

By the way, being desperate is not synonymous with the title “Hobbyist”; it might be a lack of self-esteem rather than talent or ability.

You sound like the kind of person who has it all figured out in a bloodless, joyless way and are very happy to force-feed it to those whom you feel should be just like you; an elitist snob.

How magnanimous. And boring.

I personally pay between $200 and $500 a month for various services, ranging from press release packages for the various products to subscriptions to services I use for my niche sites. Not all people need the same services; this is just an example, but the reality is that if you want to make money you have to be willing to invest in your business. If you don’t want to invest, you can’t expect to reap any returns.

A real writer doesn’t do it for the art; they do it for the money. If it were only for art, the work would never move beyond a personal journal or work space. The only reason people submit their work into the public arena is to earn a nut, which they can either squirrel away for a rainy day or use to feed themselves tonight. At the end of the day the thing which separates the professionals from the non is the paycheck; successful writers make a healthy living.

If people want to move out of the 1% they need to get off their bums, stop complaining about how “unfair” things are, stop acting with a sense of entitlement and get out there and do something to change their reality. The world isn’t national or regional anymore. You know this, because you live in Romania. The world is a great big wide open space of opportunities and people can either sit around and cry about how they don’t make any money…or they can wise up, put their nose to the grindstone, work with other professionals who can help guide them, and get out there and make a difference in their lives.

Firstly, education and hard work guarantee opportunities…as long as you look on a global scale. You can’t be relegated to the U.S. only if you want to be truly successful. If you want to be part of the 1%, you have to look at global opportunities, not just regional. That’s a problem with many freelancers; they aren’t looking outside of the U.S. for work, and as a result they are starving. The world has 7 billion people on it, and hundreds of countries. All of those countries are full of potential clients who need writing services.

Secondly, as long as people work hard and look for work on a global scale, the opportunities are there to move up the ladder. If people want to get out of the 99%, they need to be willing to look outside of the box they’ve been stuck in. If a person isn’t making money only looking inside the box for work, then that person needs to wise up and look outside of the box for solutions.

Thirdly, success of an individual is still related to skill, education and/or innate genius. If you are a skilled person who knows how to market yourself, how to write well and how to network with other writers, and you know when to use mentors and other products to your benefit (much like paying for a college course to help you get a leg up in a specific career, such as dentistry), there is a global pool of opportunities to be had. If not, said person needs to look to their mentors, their idols, for solutions, just like in the days of yesteryear when it was considered worthwhile to have an idol to look up to.

Beginner writers have multiple mentors to look for on the Internet, not just myself. I actually list several of my favorites here in the post, several of whom offer free newsletters and booklets as promotional material. Writers who choose to ignore those helpful tips do so based on their own choice. There are hundreds of Internet gurus around the world who can help a writer get their career moving in the right direction; I’m not championing one above the other, merely stating that if a writer has been struggling for the past six months or two years and still hasn’t managed to find steady work, it’s not the environment or the economy. It’s their cover letter, resume and approach. That’s what mentors, classes, courses, newsletters and consultations are for. If a writer doesn’t have the money to pay for classes, they don’t have a business. They have a hobby. One that doesn’t pay for itself. It’s simple mathematical fact. A business pays for itself by its very nature. A hobby can, but only if it’s a serious hobby. If writers want to become more than just hobbyists, they have to take their career seriously and treat it as such, which means spending money to make money, just like a dentist needs to spend money to learn the skills necessary to become a dentist.

As long as you are making a healthy living according to your cost of living, good on you. I personally think that only looking a few days in advance for work is career suicide, but that’s just my opinion. I prefer to keep things booked out 3-4 months in advance, or more if I can manage it. Again, my opinion only. You are free to agree or disagree.

Thanks again for your comments, and I look forward to reading more from you in the future! Cheers

I’m totally thinking of getting serious about this like I never did. I have to start somewhere, right? Well, I’m already working for a few folks that have nice deep pockets, but I’m sure I can do better. If not for profit, why be in business?

Fact: The 99% understand that education and hard work no longer guarantee even an opportunity to achieve success in today’s American culture.

Fact: The 99% only want the same opportunity to find a job and through hard work and ongoing training move up the ladder.

Fact: The success of an individual in today’s culture is in very little way related to skill, education or innate genius.

Fact: Your post is nothing more that a Newt Gingrich attempt to separate beginning writers from the few dollars they might have.

I am retired. I am now a professional writer. I write content and seo for the Internet. I make several hundred dollars per week. I do not market often. Jobs are rarely booked more than a few days in advance.

Where do you get the stones do determine if someone is a serious or hobby writer?