I'd like to introduce Make a Living Writing readers to successful business writer Sam Thacker. In less than two years, Sam has combined his knowledge as a business consultant with solid writing skills to create a substantial income from writing. Sam's story really shows what you can do if you have sophisticated expertise in a niche area, and are willing to market your writing business.

He skipped the low-priced gigs and moved quickly to writing for $1 a word and more. He used a lot of great strategies to earn well fast, including emailing editors cold, keeping a sharp eye on his hourly rate in evaluating gigs, and approaching PR people about writing for their clients -- I've gotta try that last one myself! Here's his story:

How I Earned Big My First Year Writing
By Sam Thacker

What is your writing worth?

Answer: It is worth what you think it is worth!

When I started freelance writing it was to exercise my writing muscles. I had no idea what I could make or what kind of demand there was. I have learned in my short part-time career as a writer that you can command nearly anything you want within reason as long as you believe you are worth the money.

I started out blogging for AllBusiness.com earning a monthly stipend. After looking up web rankings for business sites, I chose them because they didn't have a financial writer at the time, and I felt like I would be a good fit. I emailed the editor and was blogging within the week.

My stipend doubled without me asking about six months into my one year contract. After a few months blogging for AllBusiness, they asked me to start writing articles. Their formula was 500 words, no interviews, $100.00. At first I wasn’t impressed. Then I only pitched articles I could write in 45 minutes or less and proof in 15-20 minutes. I've written more than 50 of these, with the average taking about 75 minutes to complete. (Hourly rate: $80-$100 an hour.)

One day I received an email from a trade publication editor in the baking industry. He had read one of my $100 articles. He wanted me to write a 500 word article for him. He apologized that he only had $500 in his budget for the article. Wow, $1 a word. I have since written one article a quarter for him, at the same rate. I spend no more than two hours on each article.

In March of 2009, right after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act bill was passed I was given the opportunity through my Allbusiness.com connection to participate in a fast paced, all-you-could-write custom publishing project about the ARRA for a major corporation. There were several levels of pay, depending on how fast you wrote and whether you had interviews in the story. If you wrote a 500-600 word article with no interviews, you could bill $300. If you had two interviewed sources in the article the amount jumped to $800, and if you had three you were paid a whopping $1,200!

I learned how to use ProfNet and Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to get sources quickly. I decided my strategy would be to write all articles with at least one source and try to write at least half with three sources. That was my first big-earning project.

After that, the biggest lesson I learned was how to use the PR folks out looking for someone to write a story for them, and convert them into sources for my own writing assignments. I have written over a dozen white papers in the last year for an average of $2,500 for 10 – 15 pages, including formatting.

After writing about green business practices in one article, I hunted down three PR firms I had previously worked with that needed collateral material written for their “green clients.” Before the first article I wasn’t an expert on “green.” Now I jump at every chance I can to get my name in front of trade journals and PR people as a “green business” writing expert. Now a number of PR firms and trade publications have paid me to write for them.

Don’t be bashful about re-using ideas and sources. I think of it as “green writing.”

Good luck and have fun. If you aren’t having fun you shouldn’t be writing.

Sam Thacker
sam@lesliethacker.com