There's so much work out there for freelance writers these days that it's impossible NOT to make money in my opinion. Too many are their own worst enemy. Following are three things freelancer writers either need to stop, or start, doing to increase their earnings.

1. STOP Wasting Time on Non-Quantifiable Marketing Methods: And by this I mean primarily social media. Don't get me wrong, social media is important and you should definitely have a presence on the biggies, but it can be hard to quantify how much of a direct return you get using social media.

When I lost my last full-time job in 2007, I turned to freelance writing full-time – and haven't looked back since. Has it been easy? No. Has it been worth it? Most definitely yes.

My Freelancing Journey

Before we get into the specifics of how to market your freelance writing business, let me give you a brief overview to put what I'm about to tell you into perspective.

I've been a freelance writer since 1993. I worked in legal publishing in New York City for a decade, which meant I had a network of contacts that I could tap for work. So when I first started, it was easy compared to someone who's just starting out cold. This is extremely important to keep in mind, because you have to market to keep the jobs flowing in.

Remember the artistic collaboration between an artistic mother and her 4-year old daughter, we featured sometime earlier this year. Yeah... it was amazingly cute!

Mica Angela Hendricks is a multi-talented artist who has seen the entire world. Being born in a military family, Mica started drawing at a young age and after a few years of being out of college, she decided to join the US army.

While being in the army, Mica served four years in Hawaii as a photolithographer and it was there that she became an expert on Adobe Photoshop and instructed senior officers, MOS instructors, and was also enlisted personnel on the process of digital manipulation, 4-color process printing and color separations.

I've been a freelance writer since 1993, and one of the constant debates that rages about this profession is rates – as in how much should you write for; what's too little; what's a high-paying gig versus a low-paying one; should you write for content mills; etc.

Well I, for one, love cheap writing gigs. In a minute, I'll tell you why, but before we get to my reasons, let me say, "cheap" is relative. Twenty-five or $30 for a 500-word article is cheap for some, and a decent freelance article writing rate for others.

I started freelancing in 1993 and it's taught me so much about life that I could write a book (hey, and I just might!). But that's a story for another day. Lately, I've been hearing from some freelance writers who've been struggling. Many are frustrated and discouraged.

Leaving Freelancing to Go Back to a 9 to 5

One freelance writer recently emailed me to tell me he was going back to full-time employment because he just wasn't making enough to support himself. He wrote:

I've been freelancing since 1993, and in my entire career, I've only missed a handful (less than five deadlines) – and two of those happened within the last couple of weeks. It made me sick to my stomach – but we'll get back to that in a minute.

I'm so fastidious about not missing deadlines because my first job in publishing was at a trade publisher in New York City. As a Pub Ops Specialist (Publication Operations Specialist), I got first-hand insight into how missed deadlines create a domino effect – one that cost publishers a lot of money. So when I started freelancing, I was keenly aware of what my role was in my client's schedule.

This is an exciting time to be a freelance writer mainly because of the constant need for content. With content marketing taking over as a preferred internet marketing strategy, the need for blog posts, social media writing, infographics, ebooks, etc., is never ending.

Here, we'll discuss three fast-growing trends in freelance writing, which signals where you should focus your energies if you want to make it easier to land gigs. But first, let's look at how content marketing has expanded the need for freelance web writers.

If you've ever wanted to build a thriving freelance career, now has never been a better time, particularly if you're a writer, editor, proofreader, etc. Why? Because the self-publishing industry has spawned a bucketload of freelance editorial job opportunities – with no slowdown in sight.

The Growth of Self-Publishing: Some Statistics

First, let's take a quick look at the growth of self-publishing, then some specific freelance job opportunities.

I've been a freelance writer since 1993 and let me tell ya, it's a roller coaster ride. It can be extremely satisfying when the clients are rolling in and you earn more in one day than you do in a few weeks on a full-time job, and extremely frustrating when you can't seem to land a client even when you offer to write for free.

The good thing about freelancing writing though is that it is such an easy career to start and grow into a viable, lucrative home-based business – IF you know some tricks of the trade. To this end, following are five habits that – in my experience – successful freelance writers practice these days. If you don't come by these naturally, it's ok; they can be cultivated.