At 24, Andrew* has turned freelance writing into a global income stream, moving from a ₦20,000 factory job to earning $167,000 in five years. What began as a pandemic pivot became his ticket to a six-figure income stream. Here’s how he did it.
As told to Aisha Bello
I didn’t set out to be a freelance content partner for global enterprise SaaS companies.
I didn’t even know what freelancing meant.
Before 2020, I was just a teenager studying mathematics. I’d entered university at 14 and struggled, and the experience was far more overwhelming than I had envisioned. The pressure mounted quickly, and I struggled to keep up with the academic demands.
By my final semester in 2019, I hit a wall: two carry-overs. My plan to graduate at 18 had vanished. 2020 came and brought the world to a standstill.
While waiting to rewrite my exams, I took a job at a cosmetic factory for ₦20,000 a month. At the time, I had a work-your-way-up mindset; I figured I’d stay at the factory for 10 years, grinding until I reached the top of the 9-to-5 ladder.
Then, one day, in January 2020, management told all staff members to go home due to the pandemic and imminent lockdown. They never called me back.
It felt like rejection at first. But now I know it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Desperate for a path forward, I pivoted to a data science internship with Hamoye. The six-month programme was highly competitive — 2,000 people vied for only 10 spots. The internship itself did not pay a monthly stipend during the training phase, but those who ranked among the top 30 at the end of the programme were eligible for entry-level roles paying around ₦150,000 a month.
That kind of money felt like a fortune to me, considering I was making ₦20,000 at the factory. However, I didn’t make the top 10. I was somewhere around the 28th position. Something else happened during those six months, and changed my life: I started writing.
By the time the internship ended in September 2020, I had documented my learning journey on Medium.
I had also built a WordPress site, where I wrote about chess. I wasn’t planning to be a writer.b I just loved chess, and I wanted to prove I could build things online.
My First Paid Gig
My first real gig came from a random Google search in December 2020. I found a Spanish client who needed an article about chess. When he asked for my rate, I panicked. I had no idea what to charge.
So I Googled: “How much should I charge for an article?”
The search results suggested £21. I converted it and asked for $25 (₦8,000 at the time). He agreed instantly.
I finished the work in one day. Then the realisation hit: I had just earned in 24 hours what had taken me nearly two weeks to earn at the factory.
That was the first crack in my old mindset.
I Asked For More, and I Hit $1,000
Soon after, in February 2021, I used my data science internship articles as leverage and applied for an opening at a US-based agency I found on LinkedIn. They were looking for a data science content writer.
This time, I decided to be bold. Maybe even greedy.
I asked for $35 per 1,000 words and felt guilty, fearing I was overcharging. But they countered with an offer that stunned me.
They were going to pay me $200 per 1,000 words. I was eventually paid $300 per 1,500-word article. Within my first three months of freelancing, I had hit $1,000.
I couldn’t believe anyone would pay that much for words. That was the moment my mindset shifted from “making do” to “going wild.”
I realised the only thing keeping me small was my perception of what I was allowed to earn.
I Was Locked in For Good
I finally sat for my final exams in May 2021 and graduated with a second-class lower degree. But I refused to let the result define my future.
By the end of 2021, I had made about $7,000 from freelance writing, with all my clients coming through LinkedIn, either through direct outreach or opportunities I applied for. That was when I knew I was fully committed.
In 2022, I was running my National Youth Service in a remote village in Kogi State — teaching during the day and freelancing for four to five hours every night. I became more intentional about positioning myself on LinkedIn, speaking openly about my journey, and using my portfolio to move into new niches.
My income began to rise steadily. By 2022, I was peaking at about $3,000 in monthly earnings and ended the year with roughly $15,000.
In 2023, I secured a contributor role with Forbes Advisor. The credibility associated with the name was a turning point for me. With that leverage, I stopped accepting anything below $500 per article. I ended 2023 with about $35,000 in total earnings.
The Explosion
In 2024, I set a goal: make at least $10,000 in the year to fund my travel goals that year.
In May 2024, I didn’t just hit it, I doubled it, earning $28,000 in a single month.
By the end of the year, my total earnings had hit $167,000.
I was managing 7 to 8 clients at once and working with US-based SaaS companies valued at billions of dollars. These brands have the budget to pay monthly retainers without blinking, but only if you can prove you’re worth it.
I also used AI tools to scale my workflow, but the strategy and execution were still largely me. The combination only allowed me to move faster than I ever had.
The UK and What It Meant
One of my biggest goals was to self-sponsor a Master’s degree in the UK. In 2024, I paid the £18,000 tuition in full.
I moved in September 2024, completed my Master’s with distinction, and I’m now on a graduate visa that extends my stay in the country for another 2 years.
Freelancing didn’t just increase my income. It expanded my options.
My income has remained stable and upwardly mobile. My ambition now is to be one of the top ten names in content marketing — the person who gives talks, travels the world, and helps brands tell stories that drive growth.
My Advice: Do Something Crazy
If you are starting out and want to change your life, my advice is simple: do something crazy. The world does not favour people who try to fit the mould or stay silent about their ambitions.
Doing something bold means being audacious enough to show your work, raise your rates before you feel fully ready. Do your work outside social media, and then use the platform to amplify it. I got to this point because I refused to believe that my background or my degree was my ceiling.
I plan to continue doing this for another ten years, earn enough to retire comfortably, and then spend my days playing chess and travelling the world. Even as artificial intelligence evolves, the demand for human stories will never be obsolete. It will only become more valuable.
