Why You Should Never Waste Your Time or Money on Online Courses
As a once struggling freelance writer in my twenties, I was desperate to make the type of money that I believed that anyone with a distinctive talent was entitled to. After all, after many years of being told that I wouldn’t amount to anything, and that writing could never pay the bills, the internet opened up many unique opportunities that my teenage self could never even dream of. However, I was never extroverted enough to be a great rainmaker, and I had little to no business acumen. So, I resigned myself to learning the ropes from the self-proclaimed experts in the field online.
There actually was a plethora of e-books, websites, free and paid content, seminars, podcasts, classes, and offers of one-on-one coaching that permeated the web as far as this hopeless writer’s eyes could see. Each of the methods outlined in such media were proclaimed to be foolproof and guaranteed and every self-appointed guru would be more than happy to show you the path to the ultimate riches that can be earned by any scribe with a modicum of talent and a sh*t ton of perseverance. They would gently rope in the listless, hungry, tired wordsmiths with their inspiring platitudes and hard luck stories where the narrator ultimately traded in their proverbial rags for riches. These stories were so melodramatic, but their messages resonated with what aspiring freelancers were hoping to hear confirmed: there is a light at the end of the tunnel…
And, after dropping a few commonsense hints that any moron could scrape from a Google search, the mastermind will show you the path to this light… for $500! Yes, you read that right, and that is on the low end. And, that free, searchable info you just received — well, it was emailed to you after you gave them your email address in exchange for what was touted as the wisdom of the ages.
You may as well have signed away the rights to your first born, because now they have you by the, um, lower male anatomy. Expect newsletters in your inbox at least three times a day from the money-hungry experts looking to sell you an assortment of products, classes, and other useless “mentorship” garbage. I guess their super-awesome methods of gaining high-profile, peak-paying, and suspiciously available clients are not working for them as well as they have advertised because they seem to seriously need my money, everyday, to survive. Hmm…
I never bought what they were selling, but I almost did, and many writers looking for a magic potion for moneymaking have fell for the charms of these snake oil salespeople. However, they are no more reliable than any other shysters raking in money in unscrupulous ways, such as psychics, astrologers, alternative medicine practitioners, and ghost hunters.
The truth is, breaking into writing as a freelancer is difficult. If it were as easy as it seems to be on the surface, everyone would be doing it. But, the reality is that not every person can write well, and even website administrators and business owners know when it is best to hand off copywriting duties to a professional. After all, this isn’t the 2000s anymore. Good copy and SEO wins out on Google and other search engines over the repetitive dreck that used to be churned out by amateurs.
Writers with true ability will eventually find clients that pay well. They just need to believe in themselves and put themselves out there for potential partners to see.
