I’m a marketing coordinator in Astoria, Queens, and about a year ago I finished paying off $15,040 in credit card debt through a mix of budgeting and side income. Right after that, I spent three months doing freelance graphic design work on Upwork to build an emergency cushion, which went reasonably well but wasn’t exactly fast money. Writing is actually the skill I use more at my actual day job than design is, so I got curious whether freelance writing would pay better for the hours I had available. I gave myself 90 days to find out and tracked every dollar.
How I Actually Found the Work
I used a mix of two approaches this time instead of relying on one platform. Some jobs came through Upwork proposals, the same way I’d found design clients. But I also reached out directly to two small businesses I already had loose connections to — a friend’s boutique and a former coworker’s consulting practice — which meant no platform fees on that portion of the income at all. That mix ended up mattering a lot to the final numbers.
Month 1: $760 Gross
I landed three short blog posts through Upwork proposals, at roughly $120 each, totaling $360. Platform fees and Connects spent chasing those jobs came to about $51. Separately, a referral turned into a website copy project for a friend’s boutique, paid directly, no platform involved: $400. Total gross for the month: $760.
Month 2: $1,105 Gross
One Upwork client became a recurring weekly blog assignment worth $480 for the month, with a lower combined fee this time — about $53 — since I didn’t need to spend much on new Connects for repeat work. I also picked up two more direct projects through word of mouth, totaling $625, entirely fee-free. Total gross: $1,105.
Month 3: $1,330 Gross
The recurring Upwork blog client continued at $480, fees down to about $43. Direct work grew too — a company newsletter setup for $650 and a small referred blog post for $200, both paid directly. Total gross: $1,330.
The Real 90-Day Total
Gross earned: $3,195 Total Upwork fees and Connects: $147 Net after platform costs: $3,048
That gap is smaller than I expected going in, mostly because more than half my income by month three was coming through direct relationships that never touched a platform fee at all.
Taxes, Same as Always
Same rule I used with the design freelancing: I set aside 25% of net income for taxes, since none of this had any withholding. That’s $762 set aside, leaving $2,286 actually spendable or saveable.
The Hourly Comparison I Actually Wanted
This was the real reason I ran the experiment. Writing a solid 1,000–1,500 word blog post takes me roughly 2 to 3 hours between research, drafting, and revisions, since it’s closer to what I already do at work. Across the 90 days, I logged about 85 total hours. That works out to roughly $36 an hour before taxes, or about $27 after setting aside the tax portion.
Compare that to the graphic design freelancing I did on Upwork right after finishing my debt payoff, which came out to roughly $20 an hour before taxes and $15 after. Writing paid close to 75% more per hour for me, specifically because it’s the skill I already use daily and didn’t require building new technical ability from scratch.
The Honest Caveat
This comparison isn’t really “writing beats design” as a universal rule. It’s “the freelance work closest to your actual day job skill set tends to pay better per hour than the one you’re still learning,” which is a less exciting but more useful takeaway. If your day job is in design, I’d expect the numbers to flip entirely. The specific skill mattered more than the category.
What I’d Do Differently Next Time
I’d skip cold Upwork proposals earlier and lean into direct outreach sooner, since the fee-free direct work consistently paid better per hour than the platform work did, once I accounted for time spent writing proposals and losing a cut to fees. Upwork was genuinely useful for finding my first two clients, though — I just wouldn’t plan to stay dependent on it once referrals start coming in.
$2,286 after taxes for 85 hours of work I mostly enjoyed doing, on top of a full-time job, felt like a fair trade. Whether it’s worth it for you probably comes down to whether the skill you’re selling is one you’re already good at, or one you’re still building.