Note from Jennifer: I heard from many writers who said 2016 was their highest earning year as a freelance writer so this week we are going to hear from two readers to learn what they did to break their record. Today, our guest post is from Lori Ferguson, who was one of my earliest blog readers and I owe much of this blog’s popularity to her regularly tweeting my posts for the past 3 years. 

Also if you have not entered in the 2017 Goal Setting Challenge, check out my post from Monday and post your goals in the comments. Every writer who posts goals by Friday, January 6, 2017 at 9 p.m. ET will be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card. 

How I achieved my best year ever…

The light is fading fast on 2016 and it turns out that it’s going to be my best year ever as a freelancer. When all is said and done, I will have exceeded my annual income goal for the year by at least 13%. No, that is *not* a typo.

So what’s my secret? Well, at the risk of disappointing, I don’t have one. Honestly, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything terribly revolutionary, I’ve just worked… hard. Here’s the simple formula that helped me realize success:

Take the long view

About this time last year, I sat down and looked back at the past twelve months:

• Who were my clients?
• Where had they come from, e.g., cold calls, warm emails, referrals?
• What type of work has proved most lucrative for me, and why?
• What type of work did I most enjoy doing, and how could I get more of it?
• What types of marketing worked best for me?
• And more importantly, what type of marketing did I like best, because you have got to market consistently throughout the year, so you’d better find a method that you like (or at least don’t hate) – mine happens to be warm emailing.

Then I asked myself, ‘What do you want this picture to look like 12 months from now?’ which led me to:

Set goals

Income goals, business acquisition goals, personal growth goals, and ‘paying it forward’ goals. I printed these out, set them right next to my computer and looked at them, at least once a week.

I told you, not sexy, but it worked. Holding myself accountable with cold, hard numbers and the steps to take did the trick. And this is coming from someone who’s never been a big “New Year’s Eve resolutions and goal-setter” kind of gal.

Then all that was left to do was:

Work your system

Once I had my goals in place, I focused like a laser on my primary niche, alumni publications, and worked my network. I keep a spreadsheet of all the people I’ve ever contacted, divided into four categories:

• Pending (those I’ve queried but haven’t heard back from)
• Active (current & past);
• Tickle (people who have indicated they use freelancers from time to time, but who haven’t worked with me yet)
• Inactive (those who have indicated that they do not use freelancers)

When I discover someone new, I reach out with a warm email, follow up 2-4 times with a combination of phone calls and emails – depending on the kind of response I get, if any – then move the contact to whichever category proves appropriate.

I touch base with those in the ‘Active’ and ‘Tickle’ categories about once every 3 months. Because I’ve been at this for a while now, I have several hundred people in these two categories, so I can keep a rolling tab of people to reach out to every month.

The results: a steady flow of work from a combination of existing and new clients. I also landed two of my biggest jobs ever this year, both from new clients! One job, worth approximately $15,000, came through a referral from an individual that I’ve been cultivating for about two years, but have never worked for. When I called to thank him for the referral, he said that he felt like he’d come to know me through our ongoing communications and was confident I was the right person for the job. The other client, who will likely become a retainer client, is also new to me, but admired the work that I’d done for a former colleague of hers and so reached out.

Keep learning

The final thing I did was spend as much time as I possibly could reading, listening and learning. I follow the forums on ASJA, Freelance Success and the Freelance Writers Den. These are a few of the many, many online resources available, you just need to look. I also regularly read a host of blogs, written by people, including Jennifer, who are doing the work. I attended the annual ASJA Conference in New York, soaked up the advice offered in sessions, and networked myself silly. And finally, I worked with a business coach to make sure that I was putting my best foot forward. For my particular needs, I turned to Ilise Benun, The Marketing Mentor, who proved incredibly helpful, but here, too, there are many good resources.

The takeaways:

• Put together a plan and then work it consistently.
• Never stop networking.
• Tell people what you can deliver and then deliver it (and more whenever possible).
• Keep an open mind.

If I’ve raised more questions than I’ve answered, my apologies. But throw out your thoughts in the comment section and I’ll do my best to answer.