4 Benefits of Diversifying Your Income

This post is part of the Get Paid to Write for Blogs Course Launch. Get Paid to Write for Blogs is a brand new course created by Cat Alford of Budget Blonde. Cat makes a full time income from writing for blogs, and this course will teach you how to do the same.

I am a huge fan of diversifying your income. I believe strongly in having multiple streams of income that you build via side hustles.

Side hustles are for everyone, and let me tell you, I’ve had a million different side hustles: babysitting, catering, selling clothes, fitness coaching…the list is practically endless.

I value the security, the challenges, and the engagement that comes from having multiple responsibilities. The fact that they all pay isn’t so bad either!

I started freelance writing for blogs just this year as another method of diversifying my income. Becoming a freelance writer has been a fantastic way to diversify my income. It combines a passion (writing) with the benefit of a job (money). It’s one of the best choices I ever made for myself!

As a low-income earner, this second stream of income has really helped my income grow and has sharpened a lot of my professional skills. If I am benefiting from this freelance work, I guarantee that you will as well.

Here are 4 of the benefits I’ve seen since I started diversifying my income by getting paid to write for blogs.

Diverse Income is Safer Income

When you rely on only one stream of income, you’re putting all your eggs in one basket. If you lose your job, you lose your only source of income. As someone who graduated into the Great Recession and had a heck of a time finding one full time job, I can tell you that job insecurity sucks. Even now that I have a ‘real’ job, I still continue to earn money by freelance writing on the side. It not only boosts my overall income but it ensures that if I lost my 9-5, I would still be making some kind of money each month. I wouldn’t be left stranded. That kind of security is comforting.

You Control How Much Work You Do

Being able to diversify my income with a side hustle like freelance writing is unique from some of the other side hustles out there, like taking on a part-time job. When you’re a freelancer writer, and you want to write one freelance article a month, you can do that! If you want to write fifty articles a month, you can do that too! In the freelance world, you control your output. How many of us can say that in the more traditional work force? Freelance writing can be whatever you make of it. You can pick the employer you write for, the topic you write on and how often you write for them. The freedom is truly incredible!

You Set Your Price

One of my favorite benefits of freelance writing for blogs over other forms of diversifying your income is that you can set your own price. While potential employers may negotiate with you, ultimately you decide what your own value is. This price setting also ties back into how much you work. When you set your own price you are setting your own timeline and schedule.

Diverse Work Means More Skills

When you start to branch out into freelance writing, you’ll learn quickly it’s not just about the writing itself. You’ll learn how to use different web platforms, different SEO optimizers, how to write an invoice, and how to file your taxes differently. It’s a veritable feast of new skills! These skills benefit you and not just in the freelance arena. Your new skills can be applied to other jobs you have. I found that freelancing helped me become more organized, more comfortable speaking to new people, and more assertive in determining my work’s value. These are definitely all skills I can use at my other job and in my future. Freelance writing is about the writing at its heart, but it also offers other tangible benefits.

There’s an incredible array of opportunities out there for you to experiment with diversifying your income. It can be a bit daunting though. When I decided to try freelancing to diversify my income, I looked to established freelancers for examples of how to get my foot in the door. If you’re looking for something more substantial (and I would recommend going that route) you can try taking a course to help you get started.

What are some other benefits of diversifying your income that you can think of?

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Author: Kara P.