Note from Jennifer: Want to win $50 from Amazon and get new clients? We have a marketing challenge going on until January 31st to help everyone beat the January slump. Come post your marketing efforts and get an entry in the contest for each one! 

Writing is like going out to a party. The parties that you think are going to be best night ever, turn out to be boring and lame. But the nights you really want to stay home and binge watch Making a Murder (my new obsession now that I’ve finished Blacklist), end up being the ones that you talk about for years.

A while back I wrote a post that I thought would go viral. I was so excited. I thought it was the most fascinating and helpful post ever. I remember hitting Publish and waiting for the internet to break. Yeah, really. But nothing happened. In fact, no one read it. Well maybe my Mom, but that’s probably about it. Apparently no other writer was as excited about the nitty gritty of the 2015 Content Marketing Report as I was. It was one of my lowest read blog post ever.

On the flip side, two weeks ago when I posted “How I Made over Six Figures as a Content Marketing Writer in 2015”, I was worried people would think I was bragging and almost didn’t post it. But instead, I was overwhelmed by the positive reaction (and the crazy number of page views) that this post had on other writers and am beyond grateful to everyone who felt compelled to share my words on their own social media. And am even more excited by all of the new blog readers and subscribers who found me through the six figure post.

Since I’ve gotten many questions from readers through emails, FB messages and forum comments, I decided to answer the most common ones in a blog post.

How many years were your freelancing before you made six figures?

I worked as a technical writer in the software field for 8 years, then took six years off when my kids were tiny and begin freelancing when my son went to Kindergarten in 2008. I started with no clips, no contacts and no real idea about how to get started. I made all the classic newbie mistakes – spent several years in low paying markets, didn’t have a website for four years and consistently underpriced myself. If I had taken the steps to move up to higher paying markets sooner, I believe I could have made six figures in closer to four or five years. Writers who have clips from a full-time job or editor contacts in the industry can definitely do it even sooner.

Did you work like 80 hours a week? What about vacation?

No, as a mom (and part-time taxi service) to a teen girl, a tween son and three spoiled dogs, there is no way I could work a gazillion hours a week. I probably work about 30 hours during the week most weeks plus about 5 more on the weekend to catch up. I took two two-week vacations during the year where I did not work except to check email once a day and only worked about 10 hours a week for about 4 other weeks during school breaks. I honestly think that taking real vacations and spending time with my kids when they were home helped improve my productivity. Interestingly enough, I worked more in 2014, but earned less because I burned myself out.

What type of deliverables did you do? Was it all articles?

No, it was a mix of many different types of projects, including several larger projects. My top earning projects included a large annual report, a set of 70 articles on data analytics for a single client, 3 whitepapers, a content marketing strategy plan, web site content for a health IT firm and a multi-piece marketing campaign for the college recurring program of a national company. I think every writer has to find the right mix for them, but I think that the key is fewer clients and some larger dollar projects.

I don’t write technology (or finance or health). Can I still make six figures?

Yes, it is definitely possible but I think it’s harder. If you can write B2B content in your niche, then I think that you have a better chance of finding higher paying gigs since B2B content is typically more challenging to find qualified writers. Unfortunately lifestyle content (travel, parenting, home) just doesn’t typically pay as well and there are more writers in these niches. However, it is possible to find high paying gigs outside of tech, finance and health, especially if you have a specialized niche or are very well-known in your industry. But for most writers, I would try to develop at least one niche that falls within Business, B2B or one of these three traditionally higher paying industries.

You mentioned having fewer client, but most of my projects seem to be smaller pieces and on-off (or two-off projects). How do you get recurring work with clients?

I purposely only took clients that were looking for long term writers as well as projects that lend itself for ongoing work. I also talked with every potential client on the phone before starting work with them to help weed out clients that weren’t going to be a good match for my personality, work style, and writing style. Instead I helped those clients find another writer through my network of writer friends. The end result was that my clients were happier with my work, I enjoyed working with my clients and I ended up with the majority of my clients hiring me for long term projects.

How did you find your clients in 2015?

One of my anchor clients is a fellow writer who acts an editor for a huge annual project and hired me to work on the report. I met my other anchor client at the ASJA NYC Conference. A large portion of my work also came from Skyword, which is a content agency/service. The other clients I worked with found me through LinkedIn, my website or were referred to me by other writers. In previous years, I had done a lot of marketing to potential clients, but this past year most of my work came to me due to my years of hustling. However, that is rare and it doesn’t appear that this will repeat in 2016 so I am back to pounding the pavement. The strategies that have been most successful to me in the past have been meeting potential clients face to face, sending very targeted LOI’s and following up on every single LOI.

What kind of dogs are Hank, Larry and Katie? You mentioned them in your post. I couldn’t imagine working from home without my pets either. 

I just happen to have an adorable (well, in my opinion) picture of my three puppies that I would love to share. How ironic is that?

Larry (black and tan dachshund) has been with us since he six weeks old and honestly believes that my husband his mother. I have never seen a dog so attached to a person. Hank, the white and brown dog in the middle, was rescued two years ago from a shelter and would be truly shocked to find out he is only 14 pounds. He is a purebred pie bald dachshund and who will literally spend at least 5 hours (we actually tried to outlast him one day – he won). Katie (on the far right) is a hound mix that we rescued when she was nine months old after being returned to a shelter by three different homes because she was too high energy. Ironically, she is now the laziest dog ever. Except of course when I”m on an important interview and she decides to warn me Larry has taken her spot on the bed.

 

Do you have any other questions about my six figure year? Or are there any topics you want to see on the blog? I want this blog to be useful to you and help you to earn more money.