How to Turn Your Liberal Arts Degree Into Endless Freelance Income
Having a university degree isn’t what it used to be.
Nearly half of Americans with a bachelor’s work jobs that require no degree. Only 3% of all doctorate holders actually become professors.
And those who do work in their field of study still somehow can’t afford a truly comfortable and worry-free lifestyle, let alone a secure retirement.
If you have a liberal arts degree, you’ve probably felt elements of this squeeze in some way:
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Student loans that will take decades to pay off
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Family expenses that increase every year like clockwork
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A job that’s a crappy compromise
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No clear path to a substantial lifestyle improvement
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Relentless, crushing worry about money
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As a degree-welding young adult, all of those things have affected me.
I saw no way to get out of the rut . . . until I discovered freelancing. Freelancing is a near-perfect fit for people with academic skills.
It’s a Different (Way Better) Financial Environment Online
In academia it seemed like finding and getting funding were constant challenges.
So much energy went into searching for foundations, writing grants, and always trying to function amid constant scarcity.
The online world is very different – money gushes through fire hoses.
There are tens of thousands of websites that take in millions of dollars every month – and they all need fresh, intelligent research, well-written content, relevant graphics, and other things freelancers provide.
Research, information, and solid content is the fuel that feeds their entire business and those websites are constantly looking for people to supply them with what they need.
And that’s not all. By definition, those successful websites are early adopters of online technology and outsourcing work to people anywhere.
That means a person like me, an American living in Ethiopia and working from home, can earn as much income (and in fact, a heck of a lot more) working online as I ever could with a “real” job at a university or in my chosen field.
I Needed to Redefine Myself
We academics like to define ourselves by our field.
But what I didn’t realize is my education also gave me the skills I needed to teach myself how to become something different. Something that can earn me a lot of money online!
I have a bachelor’s and MA in anthropology. However, I liked some aspects of business writing and discovered it is a very lucrative niche (Among many niches that are equally lucrative).
So I work as a freelance business writer in the marketing niche. Yet I’ve never taken a marketing course in my life.
Instead I rely on my research, writing and reasoning skills to find relevant information, and my ability to synthesize it into valuable online content. Content that pays hundreds of dollars per article.
These are some freelance assignments I recently completed:
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2,000-word article about email autoresponders. It paid $440.00. Took me 3 hours. (≃ $145/hour)
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800-word article about cryptocurrency. It paid $209. Took me 1.5 hours. (≃ $140/hour)
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2,235-word article on automated bidding. It paid $543. Took me 3.5 hours. (≃ $155/hour)
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1,900-word article on time management. It paid $456. Took me 3 hours. (≃ $150/hour)
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You Can Do In Less Than One Year What Took Me Over Three Years
In my case, I dropped out of my PhD program in 2014 and dived right into full-time freelancing while knowing zero about it and basically making every rookie mistake possible.
But . . . today, this is my reality:
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Paid off my credit card debt
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Paid off my student loans
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Support my family on my solo income (really)
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I’m my own boss
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I travel to the US, Europe and Asia whenever I want
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My freelance income grows 30% or more each year
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I’m making 6-figures of income annually for the first time in my life
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I happen to like writing so I chose to freelance in that niche. But you might prefer one of these equally lucrative niches:
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Editing
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Translation
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Administrative Support
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Customer Service
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Consulting
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Data Science and Analytics
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Design and Creative
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Sales and Marketing
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