I finally landed the job I've wanted for years!

If someone had told me when I was a teenager that I'd grow up to be a writer, though, I probably would have laughed at them.

All I really wanted was to find a way, any way, to earn a full-time paycheck from the comfort of my own home so that I could watch my children grow up and be as present as possible. I had spent months researching all the many ways one can claim a paycheck working on the internet and none of them really suited me. I was an affiliate marketer and a social media manager, I did data entry, and I even tried voiceover work.

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Then, nearly six years ago, I found Steemit...

^{Yeah, I still use its name. I chose my team during the Steem wars, but I'll always remember where I came from.}
I was already incredibly interested in cryptocurrency and it was this overlap that led me to discover the platform in the first place. "Post here and earn crypto when people upvote your content"?!? This is everything I had hoped for and then some! It was slow-going at first, but I eventually found my voice and began writing articles about things that interested me as if I were talking to my best friends, but it would still be a couple of years before I came to the realization that writing could be what I was searching for all along.

I spent a few more years working as many freelance writing jobs as I could, in any niche I could, building a portfolio that would eventually land me a full-time gig. Little did I know, the "portfolio" that would get me that job was being created right here on HIVE. During the height of the pandemic, I was browsing around on the 'Hire a Writer' and 'Jobs' subreddits when I stumbled across an inconspicuous post looking for writers. I submitted my resume, including links to posts I had written here as writing samples, completed the hiring challenge, and was over the moon when I received an email stating that I was ready to start paid training...

I did it... I finally did it.

After two months of training, I was finally a real copywriter. I now write for a website that tests and reviews VPNs, antivirus software, password managers, and other security software, and I've never had a job I loved so much. I work remotely, during any hours I want, from anywhere with an internet connection, and for more money than I've ever made before. It's not all sunshine and lollipops, though.

Here are a few of my favorite things about being a full-time remote copywriter (and a couple that I don't):

I get paid fairly well.

I certainly won't be rich anytime soon, but I worked in restaurants for nearly 20 years in my low-cost-of-living hometown in Kentucky and this job pays more than double what I ever made in my previous line of work.

The kicker here is that it's also incredibly easy money when compared to being stuck in a 90-degree kitchen for 8 hours at a time, stressing over a barrage of 5-minute deadlines on repeat while cutting, burning, and potentially crushing one's extremities.

All of the freelance work I had done was always paid by the word. This is really great if the content you're writing doesn't require you to do much research, but not so much if your job requires you to spend hours testing every feature of a piece of software in order to explain how they work.

Therefore, I get paid a very generous hourly wage for all of the time spent working on a piece of content. This gives me the stability I needed to finally go full-time and get out of the restaurant industry and allows me to earn money doing things I never thought I could earn money doing...

I enjoy the work (though it can get monotonous).

Although my job title is 'copywriter', writing is barely the meat of my job, and I get paid to do all sorts of things. I big part of this is reading...

How will I know how to write an article better than the competition unless I first read and analyze what the competition has already written? This is before I'm required to read all or most of the documentation included with the software. I bet you'd read the terms of service for every website you signed up for if you got paid an hourly rate to do so, too!

Beyond that, I have to actually use the products and make sure they're compatible with a wide range of everyday internet activities like streaming video on Netflix, playing online games, torrenting files, and more. I can usually dedicate an entire workday every other week or so to being paid for mostly playing around on the internet, which I find very enjoyable.

The only thing I don't really like about the work is that it can be somewhat repetitive. There are a few articles that I've seemingly written multiple times, simply targeting a different audience. It's nothing like writing a blog here on any random number of topics, though I understand the need to "check the boxes" and make sure the website has an ever-growing content library that brings in people from all over the world.

I have TONS of freedom (but that's a double-edged sword).

Hands down, the number one thing I love about being a copywriter, and the entire reason for choosing this career, is the sheer amount of freedom I have. No more bosses lurking over my shoulder to make sure I'm staying on task, no more "if you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean", and no more 5-minute deadlines or shitty customers at table 37.

I'm assigned a task that has a due date, given a basic outline for the article, and left alone to do the work. I don't have a work schedule, and I rarely set alarms unless I need to wake up early for something special that has nothing to do with work. I'm not confined to working from this time to that, and I work whenever I feel for however long I feel. If I want to take a random day (or two) off work to go on an adventure, or play disc golf, or just lay around the house spending time with my boys, I can do that without having to make an awkward phone call and thinking up some lame excuse as to why I won't be coming to work.

I also very much enjoy not being tethered to one place to do my work. There have been many times when I decide that working at a desk just isn't what I want that day so I'll pack up my laptop and turn on the hotspot on my phone, go down by the river, and spend the day typing away relaxing by the water.

There's just one problem with me having so much freedom:
I've never been great with self-discipline...

I'm really good at putting off until tomorrow what could be done today. I'm also really good at getting a couple of hours into work, telling myself I'll take a short break and get back to it, then going about my day as if I'm already finished with my work day.

I've never been the best at telling myself "here's what needs to be done today", then just doing it. As you can imagine, this creates issues with pushing close to deadlines, but then I justify my procrastination by the fact that when it has to be done, I'm also really good at having panic attacks and doing two weeks' worth of work in a single day...

This is truly a dream come true.

This job is the culmination of years of work, and I'm more than proud of myself to have come this far. I've always just taken what I could get instead of working for what I could have, though I recognize that I still have a lot of work to do both on myself and my craft in order to see my true potential.

I can't say that I never want to do anything else, because my ADHD brain would never be comfortable with complacency, but I never want to work another brick-and-mortar job again. That isn't to say I wouldn't if the well-being of my family were at risk, but I've tasted the good life. This is exactly what I was looking for. I'm available for my children 24/7 and earn a paycheck working on my own time around the life I want to have.

I never thought the journey to an income-from-home would lead me to become a writer. I still have a passion for so many things, and being able to earn a living in such a flexible way has allowed me to broaden my horizons, try new things, and given me the free time to figure out what hat I'll wear next!

Thank you so much for reading.
I've been away from Hive for a while because another downside to writing full-time is the lack of motivation to write my own content, but I'm working on that, too. Being able to write something off-the-cuff has been really nice, and spending time around the old neighborhood and seeing familiar faces has only made coming back feel that much more natural.

_{I also still use some of my free time to make stupid t-shirts, hoodies, and s#!t to make your friends laugh.
Check out my original designs over at:}