How can I get started as a freelance writer?

Just as an FYI: the income limit is the least of your worries. The freelancers I know are hustling to make any money at all at this point, so don't worry too much about making too much. QFT. Really, read these two sentences multiple times! I'm a freelance writer and there have been months/years when I haven't made anywhere near that much, and that's while I was working at it all the time. If there are indeed limits on the hours you can work, as xyzzy says, you should be aware that the time freelance writers put into even a short article might really surprise you. I don't know about Elance specifically, but I'll say one thing about freelance writing in general. There are basically two skills you need to do it. One is writing, though if you only want to produce 'content" that probably doesn't matter much. The other, far more important if you want to make any money at all from it, is exactly the type of research you're asking us to help you with here. That is what freelance writing is. Constantly researching markets, trying to find new clients, figuring out what is sketchy and what's legit, understanding what opportunities exist (or don't) and whether a certain job is worth doing or not. Even if Elance is perfect now, you have no idea (no one does) what could happen in a month or two, so you will really need to be constantly looking out for other places to write even if you're doing very well with one platform for now. If you don't want to do this part - and if you don't I don't blame you, it's time-consuming, annoying, and overwhelming - then I would kindly suggest maybe freelance writing isn't the best choice for you, at least at the moment. I mean, I'm sure AskMe can help you, because people here know a lot about everything. But if you're making an effort to make several hundred dollars a month through writing, then you will be doing precisely this sort of research for hours a day at first, and hours a week for years to come if not forever. And you're going to be doing it by yourself. That is the job description.

Just as an FYI: the income limit is the least of your worries. The freelancers I know are hustling to make any money at all at this point, so don't worry too much about making too much. Pretty easy to control that. Like many things, it's going to be about who you know. Get on your network first of all, and see where there might be gigs, and as croutonsupafreak says, find who's making it work, get some idea how to do it, get a mentor.

I didn't know what it was at first but I started browsing through it and realized there were tons of jobs for writers, which is my specialty, and other types of jobs as well. Well. . . sort of. It may look that way, at first, but it is definitely in Elance's interest to make it appear that way. Turns out there are fewer jobs that actually pay than there are jobs, and approximately six metric craptons of freelancers chasing those paying jobs. But you should definitely be aware that doing this can jeopardize your SSDI status. It really is supposed to be for people who cannot do any kind of productive work. There are a lot of people who are capable of doing some work and constantly skirt the edge of how much they can work without jeopardizing their benefits. The Administration knows this, but it doesn't like it very much. Now I don't know you from Adam, and I have no information about the specifics of your case, so don't take this the wrong way. But the fact that you're looking at this at all suggests that you may be the kind of edge case to whom an ALJ granted benefits rather than go through the hassle of writing an opinion explaining why you're being denied, but about whom said ALJ would not hesitate to write that opinion if it came to light that you can, in fact, make some money. http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10095.pdf. There is an income limit, of which you're already aware, but for the self-employed, there's also an hourly limit: 80 a month. All I'm saying is that you need to be aware of the spirit of the SSDI program. It really isn't intended for people who can work but for whom work is difficult, or who would rather not work. It's intended for people who can't work. If you can work 20 hours a week doing freelance writing, your goal should really be to do that work (or more!) and transition away from receiving benefits. Or, at least, that's the way the program is set up to run. And the fact is that benefit levels are so meager that it shouldn't be that difficult to exceed your SSDI benefit amount by working, even with something as dicey as freelance writing.

One more thing: absolutely everybody out there will try to sell you some special guides to getting started as a writer. Generally, these are a waste of money. They are the reason that so many people try to make a living from writing about freelance writing. Don't spend your limited dollars on a special writing guide. I have read them all through my work. They are not worth it.

Coming back in with another data point about the dearth of money in freelance writing: By far, the luckiest break I've gotten freelance writing was a job I got through a personal connection. I had volunteered to write these souvenir-program kind of things for a theater company I was affiliated with for years - three or four articles about the show's history and subject matter - and after a few years, the head of that company moved on to take over another company in Pennsylvania, and they had a grant for "improved educational outreach" fall into their lap and didn't know what else to do with it, so the head of the company asked me to keep doing that for them, for pay this time. Reiterating that my landing this job at all was an extremely lucky break of networking, and it is pretty unusual for a new freelance writer to get a consistent gig like that so early and so easily. And yet - that gig only paid me about $550 per year.

I hire and manage writers at my work. Many of these writers are professional web developers or designers, very few would describe themselves as professional writers. What do you know? What did you study, what do you do for fun, what are you generally knowledgeable about? Start with that, write a few sample pieces (any serious writing gig will require them) and put them on a blog. Your blog doesn't need to be fancy, or frequently updated. Then look for work that matches those interests loosely, or gigs where you could research your way through writing articles. I started out by writing 200 word posts about email marketing 7 days a week for a client. I knew nothing about email marketing. Doesn't matter. Don't let fancy terms scare you: read up a bit on SEO (I recommend the free resources at Moz.com and Kissmetrics.com) and go from there.

Who do you know who is making money at writing? Who do you know who pays writers? Don't ask them for work or referrals to work. Ask them to meet you for coffee to discuss their work. Then ask them what they do and how they work. Let them know what you are capable of, and suggest that you'd be interested in a head's up or a referral if they come across work they think you'd be suited to. If you don't know people who write or who hire writers, reach out across your social network and ask to be introduced to these people.

The number of hours you work can also screw up your disability, regardless of how much income you bring in. You should make sure you understand the rules about this before you start working.

Well, you're an English major, which makes you an expert in at least one field, which is literature. For your sample, can you write something erudite, incisive, and learned, something that adds to the sum of human knowledge and could get published in a journal? Because otherwise, your area of expertise is "people writing about people writing about writing," and you're going to be writing for content farms like eHow about how to be an expert whiskey taster based on 15 minutes of Google and Wikipedia research.