As someone who has been a generously paid professional writer for several years, I’m baffled by half of what you said. It’s not hard to make a living writing if you’re committed to your craft. It is, however, difficult to make a living writing if you have a single, simplistic, inflexible idea of what a professional writer is. I’ve done everything from blogging to copywriting to ebooks and it’s all been worthwhile because it gave me the chance to get paid and learn more about the industry while honing my craft. The majority of writers aren’t so lucky. If you’re having a hard time figuring out how to get paid, you’re doing something wrong…

Another point to note: you talk about the imperfect first draft, which we all have. But you should always be striving for excellence. You say you’ve written hundreds of blog posts but this post is riddled with grammatical and punctuation errors. If your passion is to write, take pride in your work and make every effort to be the best. Study, take classes, work with an editor, join a writing group to gather feedback. Success doesn’t come easy for any of us — those that make it are willing to put in the hard time.