Note: Before I get into my September income breakdown, I want to invite you to share your experience about what’s working in freelance writing right now. Here’s the link to a brief survey and you can look forward to the results here on the blog soon. This survey is an update to the one I did in May of this year (those results are here) so this new survey will give us a good picture of what’s changed (and what hasn’t) over the past few months.

Now, about September… 

I saw a penguin in real life on a beach in Tasmania. 

I hung out with kangaroos – one even held my hand. 

I delivered my first keynote speech at a conference in Sydney. 

And even though I was very jet lagged from two weeks Down Under, I turned around and headed to Content Marketing World because my gut said I should go. 

It’s been a whirlwind of the last few weeks. Oh, I forgot that I also went to Florida to help out my aging mom. I’m exhilarated. I’m energized and exhausted. And I still made some money in September. Not a ton. But honestly, that wasn’t the point of September for me. I really think that it will go down as a turning point in my career. 

Now, let’s talk about my work in September. And if you want to check out all my previous monthly income breakdowns, click here. 

September Breakdown

Agency A
Project 1
$550 for a 1000-word blog

This is a long-time anchor client whose work has slowed considerably. About once a year, they need a story with an interview, and this was it. The story took me about 3 hours with the interview (I know the topic well and wrote about the same event last year) and earned an hourly rate of $183. 

Project 2
$800 for a 1000-word blog

I was super excited to work on this project for a new client (giant internet company) with a long-time agency. I had done some work for this client for another agency and it was a great fit. I’m expecting that this turns into regular work for this client. They provided a detailed outline so it only took me 2 hours, meaning an hourly rate of $400.

Agency B
$800 for a 1000-word post 

This is a quarterly project that I love doing. It’s journalism style content and the editor is great. I wish I could do more work like this. This story required one interview and took me 3.5 hours total for an hourly rate of $266. And I got to meet my editors in person for the first time after many years at Content Marketing World, which was a huge bonus of attending. 

Agency C
$700 for an 800-word post 

This was a new client on a topic that I love – digital forensics, which is a great cross between my professional passion for cybersecurity and my true crime podcast obsession. The client found me on LinkedIn and reached out to me. There was one hour-long interview, which was fascinating. Because it was my first project with the client, it took me longer since I was getting up to speed on the brand voice and the product. The post took me a total of four hours, getting an hourly rate of $150. I expect that will increase significantly with future projects. 

Direct Company A
$1000 for a 1500-word blog

This is for a relatively new client that I really like and hope to turn into a long-term client. Right now he only needs a blog post every few months, but is planning on increasing. He’s totally my kind of client. He cussed during the introduction call and when I told him that was one of my signs that a client was a fit for me, he yelled “EFF that!” I was laughing so much and I would totally go out for beers with him. I totally know that would be a huge red flag for others, but for me it’s a sign that I will turn into their favorite freelancer. And that’s the reason it’s so important to look for your unique ideal client. 

Back to the project, it took me 2.5 hours, so I earned $300 an hour which is not too shabby, especially for a project many writers would turn down based on the per word rate. That rate actually works out well because there are zero interviews, and the client provides such a detailed brief that it borders on a first draft. 

Total Earnings for September — $3,850 (pretty good for how much time off and running around I did!) 

The Good and the Bad

Obviously, this was an unusual month. Between time spent traveling and being off work, I didn’t have my typical capacity so I knew I would have lower income this month.

What worked this month:

I did almost no work for two weeks. I was pretty darn proud of myself. I successfully worked ahead, communicated with clients and pretty much unplugged for those two weeks in Australia. And I needed that. But it’s still hard to do. I turned down some work and I may have lost a potential new client. But I’ve learned the hard way that I have to protect my vacation time. I had the absolute best time with my husband and fell in love with Tasmania. Traveling is one of the reasons that I freelance and I was proud of myself for protecting my vacation time. 

I internalized my keynote. I’ve shared before that I’m not a natural speaker and used to get physically sick. Back in August Jay Acunzo shared on LinkedIn that to sound natural with a speech you need to rehearse so much that you internalize the speech. And that’s exactly what I did to get ready for my keynote last month at the Content Byte Summit. 

I practiced for months. Every time I was in my car I delivered the keynote to myself and whatever rescue dachshund happened to be hitching a ride with me at the time. It was much more than just memorizing it. By the time I stepped onto the stage in Australia, the speech was a part of me. And I loved and believed every single word that I spoke — to the point that, now that it’s over, I feel a bit empty because it’s gone and let out into the world. (And yes, I do plan to share pieces of it over the next few months!) 

I listened to my gut. A few months ago, I got the feeling that I needed to be at Content Marketing World this year. It was more than just I wanted to go or I should go. But I had the feeling there was something waiting for me at the event. I’ve learned a long time ago that when the universe talks that you should listen and do what it tells you. So about 72 hours after landing home from Australia, I got in my car for the traffic-filled drive to DC and promptly got my car stuck in a parking garage. 

Taking only projects that were my ideal type of client. The projects I did this month were great. I enjoyed each of them and got great feedback. And the reason? Every single one was for the type of client that is a great match for me. I had less stress, fewer revisions and made more money. 

I invested in myself. After a session with Jay Acunzo at Content Marketing World, I signed up the mastermind group he founded and runs with Melanie Deizel: Creator Kitchen. The group is focused on helping you learn to create higher impact content. I’ve been blown away by the program, support and resources. While the program will help with my client work, it’s primarily for personal creations such as this blog and some other projects that are brewing in my brain. I am hoping that my keynote in Australia wasn’t the pinnacle of my career, but just the beginning. And I really think that the Creator’s Kitchen will help me figure out my next path. 

What didn’t work this month:

Not lining up more work for October. I came back to a pretty empty calendar. In hindsight, I should have prioritized reaching out to my clients to let them know I was back. But I sent a bunch of emails last week and the work is now flowing in. But I could have avoided some stress by doing that before my calendar started looking empty. 

Getting behind on my invoices. I’m terrible at invoicing. And it takes focus to stay on top of them. So it’s not surprising that I (purposely) overlooked invoicing. But this past weekend, I forced myself to get them done. And will hopefully get back to my regular habit of invoicing on Fridays.  

Missing links. I’ve gotten all eight articles back from a project last month. And while they thought my writing was great and the pieces were fabulous, the lawyers needed more substantiation – meaning pretty much a link for every sentence. So all of the revisions have taken a crap ton of time and had a 48-hour turnaround, which normally I would be fine with but these last few weeks have been nutso. And I will need to think carefully about taking any more of these projects. But perhaps this is something I can get my VA to help with to save time. I need to ponder this. But I summed it up to my editor by saying that, in the future, I’ll take the number of links that I think is enough and then quadruple it. 

How’s October looking?

Really, really good. I’ve already got two big projects totaling over $6K lined up for October. And they are both quick turnarounds—my favorite . One is a 4-day turnaround for a 3K word report, which is PERFECT for me. Otherwise I procrastinate and stretch it out. I am also talking to several new clients next week who found me on LinkedIn as well as a past client who wants to hire me for regular work each week. 

I had a similar up-tick last year at this very same time. And even had a $27K month in November 2022. And while I don’t want to do that again, I’m prepared to work extra the second half of this month and November to make up for my slower year so far.

How was your September?