One of the biggest complaints that freelance writers today have about their job is that friends, family and neighbors don’t view their work as a “real” job. If you are thinking about getting into freelance writing, you may even be fighting your own internal battle with regards to this issue. Do you really want to give up on the opportunity to work at your “real” job to pursue a career as a writer? If you have had this thought, you are certainly not alone. However, as you begin picking up assignments and working in the field, you will see for yourself why freelance writing is indeed a real job. If you want to be convinced before you enter the field, consider these points.

Real Income

Perhaps the largest defining characteristic that most people have about a “real” job is its ability to generate regular, consistent income for the work. Many people want to know just how much money they can make as a freelance writer, and unfortunately, this is truly difficult to say. You can research the average income for a freelance writer online, and you will see a huge variation in numbers. Some struggle to earn $20,000 per year while others earn $80,000 or more per year. Your income will be tied to your ability to write well, how well you please your clients, your knowledge in a specific area of specialization, your ability to generate residual income from royalties and other factors. Of course, these are all characteristics of a real job.

Real Contribution to Society

Most, although certainly not all, “real” jobs offer some meaningful contribution to society. As a freelance writer, you may write marketing material for businesses that help them to generate new business, educational pieces for community service pieces, SEO pieces for business marketing purposes and blog pieces that ultimately are used to generate income for the owner of the blogger. The fact is that writing is a real industry. People read content every day for news, to make buying decisions and more, and someone has to write that content. As you can see, freelance writing does indeed make a real contribution to society as well as to the economy.

A Real Business

You may not realize it, but as a freelance writer you will be an independent contractor. This means that you will be a self-employed worker who is capable of picking and choosing assignments you want to work on and clients you want to work with. Of course, it also means that you have to stay on top of your bookkeeping, file taxes for your work efforts, keep taps on business deductions, market your talents so that you continue to find new clients to work with and more. You essentially will have to make every effort to operate your business that any other small business owner or independent contractor would have to make.

After you take the time to learn more about freelance writing, you will see that this really is a “real” job!