How I Stopped Chasing Clients and Started Building Assets: A Technical Writer's Guide to Multiple Income Streams

In 2020, I was in my final year at university, working as a frontend engineer at a fintech startup for 30k naira per month. My friend and I needed extra income and were literally hungry. Then we found this Indian blogger running Codesource who paid $10 per frontend tutorial. That $10 was significant money for us.

But here's what changed things for me: I didn't jump into freelancing cold. I'd been building what we call "career capital" by writing my own content on Medium, Dev.to, and Hashnode. Free content that showed I could write technical tutorials.

That mindset shift from "I need money now" to "I need to build assets first" really helped my trajectory. Fast forward to today, I'm working as an AI developer, still earning from technical writing, and speaking about this journey. Not because I figured it all out, but because I know how much these strategies can help when you're starting from survival mode.

Here's what I've learned about building multiple income streams as a technical writer. Some of it worked, some of it didn't, but all of it taught me something.

Why I Had to Think Beyond the 9-to-5

The biggest shift that helped me was realizing you have to build the asset before you monetize it. Most people want to get paid immediately, but I learned you need to prove you can deliver value first, then people will pay you for it.

This same principle applied when I moved into AI development. I built a bunch of projects first, documented everything, then used that as my transition path. The documentation work I'd been doing suddenly became more valuable because I understood the technology I was writing about.

Career capital isn't just about portfolio pieces. It's about developing the skills and reputation that make opportunities come to you instead of you chasing them constantly.

The Technical Writing Areas That Actually Pay Well

Three areas are really hot right now:

Developer documentation is finally getting the respect it deserves. Companies understand that bad docs kill adoption. This is why programs like WriteTech Hub exist. When I started in 2020, we were just writing blogs. Now there's serious demand for API docs, SDK guides, and integration tutorials.

AI tools and workflows are everywhere. For the last few months, every client article I've written has been AI-focused. Agents, MCP (Model Context Protocol), RAG implementations. You need to stay with the trends because that's literally part of the job.

Cloud-native tools keep evolving. Cloud management, containerization, DevOps tooling. This demand stays consistent because the ecosystem keeps changing.

What I've learned about showing your skills in these areas:

Build public examples. Don't just say you can write API docs, actually document an API. Pick a trending AI tool and write a tutorial about it. Contribute to open source documentation.

The rates I've seen: Content writing ranges from $100-600 per article depending on complexity. Core documentation work varies by company, but it's significantly higher than blog rates.

Companies paying top rates want writers who understand the technology they're documenting. That's why my AI transition made my writing more valuable. I can explain what I've actually built.

Where to Find Real Freelance Opportunities

I'll be straight with you. I haven't had success with Fiverr or Upwork. But here are the four channels that built my career:

CommunityWriterPrograms repo was my 2021 breakthrough. I found companies like Sanity, Strapi, ContentLabs, LogRocket. Currently working with Draft.dev as my stable client. This repo really helped change my financial situation. Another resource is who pays technical writers.

Cold outreach to startups requires mastering the art of cold DMs. Right now is the perfect timing because AI startups are launching daily. Find something genuinely interesting about their product, then pitch. Don't spam, be specific.

Your network, including ghost writing, is more powerful than you think. Here's the reality: 60% of my work isn't in my name. From 2020-2023, it was 90% ghostwritten. Rates were $150-300 per piece. This has pros and cons. You get paid, but don't build a public portfolio. Weigh it based on your current needs.

Dev advocate connections often need content support and pay well. Build relationships with people in these roles.

The CommunityWriterPrograms repo update I'm working on is me giving back to the resource that really helped fund my career transition.

Creating Content That Opens Doors

First, cultivate a growth mindset. Be ready to try things, experiment, fail, and iterate.

Show up consistently and solve real problems. Thanks to AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT, anyone can build anything now. But you need to build with product expertise and create buzz around solutions people need.

Let me give you a concrete example: The biggest issue in coding with LLMs today? Leaked secrets. Everyone's bashing new coders for exposing API keys, but nobody's helping them. So I built npx secure-commit scan and shared about it. That's the kind of thing that opens opportunities.

Be part of the conversation. Join community discussions on Discord, Reddit, and X. Make open source contributions by writing articles for tools that don't have any and tag the maintainers. Participate in discussions around topics you care about. Don't just consume, create.

Apply to speak at events, and volunteer to help. Being a helper is underrated. You never know who's watching.

Stay curious and locked in. The 100 Nigerian Dev Articles project I'm running is an example of how I stay curious about our ecosystem and document what I find.

The pattern that's worked for me:

Find problems → Build solutions → Document the journey → Share with community → Opportunities follow.

Unconventional Ways to Monetize Your Skills

"Interning" for established technical writers or dev advocates might not be for everyone, but it's one of the best learning experiences. You don't just learn how to write; you learn client management, project scoping, and communication patterns.

What I learned from this experience is important: don't get exploited, but working under someone who can afford to delegate teaches you the business side. I learned more about client relationships from ghost writing than I ever would have figured out alone.

Create text-based educational content with micro-monetization. Build something like a practical course or guide, add a Buy Me a Coffee button, or request GitHub sponsorship. If it delivers real value, people will support you.

Document your learning journey with a specific technology. People pay for organized, tested knowledge that saves them time.

Don't give up if it doesn't work right away. Take it as experience because you're growing either way. Each "failed" project teaches you about audience, packaging, and delivery.

You're building multiple income streams while developing business skills that most freelancers never learn.

The Hard Truths About Freelance Challenges

Inconsistent income is the biggest challenge. Writing programs don't last forever. They can suspend anytime. Agencies are more predictable but tougher to break into.

Solution: Apply to as many writing programs as possible. Programs, agencies, cold DMs. But when you get them, treat each like a full-time job and give your best work.

Time management and communication is where I've failed a lot. Managing time and communicating ETAs properly. I've only been saved by the quality of my work, but don't rely on that. Be professional and reliable as much as possible.

Payment bottlenecks still hurt me. Inconsistent payment schedules, gateway issues. Try Mainstack if you're a Nigerian freelancer dealing with international payments. It's been a great solution I found recently.

Isolation kills productivity. Don't be a lone wolf. Have a healthy community of friends who understand what you're doing and can help you navigate challenges.

What's worked for me is treating inconsistency as the norm, not the exception. Build multiple streams, communicate like a professional, solve your payment infrastructure early, and lean on community when things get tough.

Building Products from Your Knowledge

Start with what you already know deeply. My AI transition journey could be a course called "From Technical Writer to AI Developer." Don't create in a vacuum.

The first thing I recommend is asking your audience what they're struggling with. The 100 Nigerian articles project is part of market research. I'm seeing what resonates. For example, when I highlighted Linda Ikechukwu's article on creating a technical writer resume, it got the most engagement of any article I shared in the collection. That tells me people are more interested in career-growth related stories.

Validate before you build. Share your course outline, see what gets engagement. Build the landing page before the course.

How Technical Writing is Evolving

AI is changing everything. I lived this. I went from documenting other people's code to building AI systems myself.

The future belongs to hybrid roles: Writer + Developer, Writer + AI specialist. Companies want people who understand what they're documenting.

The skills I think are most important now are learning the technologies you write about, AI tool integration (obvious but true), developer experience thinking, and product sense, not just writing sense.

My career is proof: the writers who evolve beyond just writing will have the most opportunities.

Building Assets That Work for You

The thing that connects everything in my journey is this: build assets, serve community, stay curious. That's what's helped me future-proof my career, even when I didn't know what I was doing.

Whether it's the CommunityWriterPrograms repo that funded my transition, the AI projects that got me hired, or the 100 Nigerian articles project building my speaking credibility, each asset has compounded over time.

I learned to focus less on chasing individual clients and more on building things that bring opportunities to me. It takes longer upfront, but the payoff is more sustainable than constantly hustling for the next gig.

The technical writing industry needs people who understand technology, not just grammar. I'm still figuring this out, but positioning yourself as someone who can bridge that gap seems to be working.