This dad makes $500,000 a year working 30 hours a week as a freelancer. Here's how.

Ed Gandia makes $500,000 a year working 30 hours a week doing what he loves: writing business articles and teaching his colleagues how to create a thriving writing practice. He teaches them through lessons and private coaching for a select group of clients.

Gandia, based in the Atlanta area, started his writing business 14 years ago after a hectic career in sales. He gradually reached the point where he brought in $750,000 a year in revenue, bringing in contractors when he was inundated with work. Then he decided the pace of his freelance career was ruining his lifestyle.

"I quickly realized that I was getting exhausted quickly and was sacrificing way too much family time," he says.

So Gandia took a step back and re-prioritized, and now loves his current lifestyle, where he works Monday through Thursday and enjoys a three-day weekend every week.

Recently, Gandia shared his advice with me on how other writers can build thriving, income-generating businesses like his. The answer is not to produce one article after another.

Here are some of his tips for improving your writing career.

Slot down. If you write regularly on a subject, try to develop expertise in a particular area. This will help you become the go-to person for the client to consider when they need a writer on a given topic. “Refine your domain to be the obvious choice for your target market,” says Gandia.

He took this approach with his podcast, High-Income Business Writing. There are plenty of podcasts about freelance writing and copywriting, but most aren't as niche as his.

Fee for "discovery". One of Gandia's colleagues discovered that he spent a lot of unpaid time helping his clients figure out the engagement strategies they needed, but wasn't making any money from that point on- the. Now he offers a set program where he gets paid to help them narrow down their needs and create a plan. At the end of the consultation, they benefit from an audit and recommendations.

"Helping clients follow all their ideas on a very narrow track and plan is very helpful," says Gandia. “Clients can either deploy the plan themselves and find someone to execute it, or hire you. At least you got paid for the value you provided."

It's part of thinking like both a writer and an entrepreneur. "You have to be more than just a writer," he says. “You need to help customers find creative solutions. That's where I think freelance writing is going."

Partner with other writers. Gandia frequently partners with other writers to develop classes, courses, and other joint ventures that don't require a lot of time. He is looking for writers who have already developed intellectual property that his audience would appreciate – and would benefit from getting it on his mailing list. “Once we register this workshop, we can resell this information in various ways,” says Gandia.

A successful workshop was held with a copywriter who helps her clients set up editorial calendars and content strategies in her Content Calendar Playbook. She worked with Gandia to develop a self-paced course that they marketed to the Gandia list. The result ? They brought in tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue, says Gandia.

“Automating a lot of my revenue frees me up for the active revenue part, where I can be more selective about clients and charge higher fees,” says Gandia.