Hey. I'm finding it hard to break in. Dont know how to make my first few sales.

I have about 10 articles down on my Medium account, most of which are around 500 words (one is 1500 since some people suggested me doing longer articles).

I plan on doing a few more long articles; maybe looking at upwork again and seeing what the main trending things were, then trying to produce a few more articles on those maybe.

Keep doing this off and on for upwork and some other platforms; researching a bit till i find smth I have some inclination for / experience with (like health and self help), then writing a few articles, then repeating. Maybe producing a portfolio and then applying to upwork and other things - I have no idea what that should look like, or if I can even do it without having ever been offered a job.

I'm not sure how I can improve my writing (asides from just making more articles). Most forums or discord servers for critiques are either dead or have a critique-for-critique format. I'm a beginner writer myself so I have no idea how I'm supposed to be correcting someone else's work - p much all I could do is proofread for grammar.

I might have no option but to learn SEO or copywriting and niche into tech since most things I see online require experience in these things.

I just see so many barriers to entry to just landing one simple offer online. If reddit, upwork, fiverr, and medium are the main platforms for freelance writers then I might be screwed.

And at the end of the day, I'm not sure if this is worth it or if it will ever pay off since I always feel like theres no path to entry in sight. Some people have said I shouldn't be entering in this field if I'm trying to make money, but I think writing is the only (potentially) marketable skill I possess. I'm not looking to get rich through this, just around 50-100 usd a month would suffice.