Even though the past few months have been slower than I’d like (check out my May/June income post, as well as April and March), I’m proud of myself. I haven’t panicked (too much). Or just sat around waiting for things to get better.

I’ve gone back to the same strategies I used to build my business and grow it. And it’s working. Slower than I would like. But it’s working.

My July was better and my August is already set up to be even better than July.  Here is how I did it:

July Breakdown

Here is how the month went:

Agency A
Project 1
$2100 

An agency client asked me for a last-minute e-book and I said yes. It was a blast to work on and ended up being a great hourly rate. And yes, I wrote a $2500 word e-book in three days, but that’s honestly how I prefer to work. Not to mention it’s going to be a great clip on generative AI for a household name client.

Agency B
Project 1
$850

This is the same project I do every month that’s about 1,000 words with no interviews. It took me about 2.5 hours, meaning an hourly rate of $350. 

Agency B
Project 2
$1500 for 2 articles 

This has been an occasional client, but I reached out to the editor at the beginning of July to let them know I had availability and he sent over these two projects. I had let him know that I was up for last minute projects, which these were. I am positive that I wouldn’t have gotten these without sending that email. Each one took three hours, giving me an hourly rate of $250. 

Agency B
Project 3
$575 

I’ve been bummed that this project, which has been one of my main ones for years, has basically been put on hold. Instead of five to eight assignments a month, I only had one this month. I really hope it ramps back up soon. This was a 1,000 word project from a research report, which took me three hours and earned me an hourly rate of $191. 

Agency C
Project 1
$450

This was the one project for the month that didn’t come from outreach to past or potential clients. I occasionally do blog posts for this client and she sent one my way. It took me two hours for an hourly rate of $225. While many writers would pass over an assignment at $0.50/word, they can turn into a great hourly rate because the editor gives me a detailed outline and the stories require no interviews. 

Agency D
LinkedIn posts $1400

One of my LOIs turned into a new gig of writing six short LinkedIn posts (100 to 200 words) every week for $700 a week. The client provides the source material in terms of blogs and a newsletter so all I have to do is rewrite it for LinkedIn. I can dotwo posts in an hour if I do them in a batch so I’m earning over $200 an hour on these. And they are a ton of fun. I’m super excited about having regular work to count on. 

Agency E
1 800-word article $800 

I actually cheered when I got this email from an occasional client. I had reached out the day before to let them know I was available and I landed a crapton of work. While I completed one of these in July, I actually got assigned an entire package of work that includes multiple stories for more than $6800 in total due in August. They are a bit research intensive so this one took me four hours for a rate of $200 an hour, but hopefully once I get the hang of them then I will get a little faster. 

Direct company A
2 blog posts at $1600 total

This is another project that I absolutely wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t reached out to the editor. The first project took a lot longer than I expected because it was research heavy so my hourly rate was about $100. However, the second one was back up to the typical rate for this project since it took me three hours for an hourly rate of $266. 

Total earnings for July: $10,000

The Good and the Bad

As always, there are highs and lows every month. July was no exception!

What worked this month:

• Cold outreach. I was dreading doing it. But it works. I sent out 30 LOIs total through LinkedIn and email. I plan to do a post on my adventures soon. And I actually landed a brand-new client for $2800 per month within a day of sending a LinkedIn.  It doesn’t normally happen like that, but it did in this case. And the editor thanked me profusely for reaching out. He needed a cybersecurity writer at the exact time I reached out. I started the new project the next day. I’m going to be writing a full post on my cold outreach efforts in the near future. 
• Taking advantage of the slower time. Normally I have a terrible habit of letting my available work fill whatever time I have. But in July I did a great job of taking the time off to hang out with my family (my son was home between study abroad and going back to college) as well as go kayaking a lot. 
• Reaching out to editors. Normally my work comes to me. But that didn’t happen at all in July. It was super slow. So I kept in contact with my editors and let them know I had availability. And it worked – every single assignment I got in July was a result of me keeping in contact with clients. Let that sink in – if I hadn’t reached out then I would liklye have had almost no income this month. Editors are busy. And if they know that I’m available then they are going to be more likely to reach out to me when something lands on their desk to save time. Staying in touch really really works.  
• Passing on a volunteer role. I was offered a fabulous volunteer role that would have been super duper consuming, both from an emotional energy and time perspective. It was hard, but I said no. I am proud of myself for hitting the pause button and talking to my people (my friend Stephanie and my husband). Previously, I would have just said yes, but I am proud of myself for realizing that I really need to focus on my business this fall. 

What didn’t work:

• Not launching my training yet. I know, I’ve been talking about launching two new training courses. But I haven’t done it. I keep prioritizing client work, but I need to do what matters to me as well. It’s hard to find the balance. August will be the month. I promise. 
• Being two months behind on my invoices. I have a zillion excuses, mainly that I got locked out of my invoicing system due to having an old email set up. But it’s ridiculous that I let it get to this point. Invoicing really stresses me out – even with fancy tools. But I finally spent an entire day and got totally caught up. It was a relief. 
• Only sending out 30 LOIs. I wanted to do 100 in July and 100 in August, and I didn’t get to them. I did a good job for the first week of doing five a day and then slacked off. But this week I would like to get 70 LOIs sent out to get back on track. My goal is to start getting new clients in the pipeline because I’ve gotten soft from work coming to me and my pipeline is empty. 

How’s August Looking?

In a single word: GREAT! I’m hoping this means that I’ve turned the corner and things are picking up. I’ve got my new anchor client with $2800 of work, which I’m very excited about and enjoy working on. My efforts in reaching out to current and past clients also landed me $5500 in work for August simply by letting them know I was available. I also landed an article through Contently with a project that I haven’t worked on for years that will earn about $1000 plus my regular monthly article for $850. 

Right now, I have about $10K in work booked for August, which is odd for me to have so much booked so far ahead – I normally only book a week or two ahead. So odds are very high that more work will be coming in throughout the month. I’m hoping to at least clear $15K in August to start making up for my lower months. I will be traveling in September to Australia to keynote a content marketing conference, so I need a very strong August. 

I’m starting to feel like the tide is turning in freelancing and things are starting to pick up. I’m seeing it myself and I’m hearing it from others. 

How was your July? And most importantly, how is August looking?