Note from Jennifer: As we wrap up this year’s Winter Marketing Challenge (which ends tonight!), I have a special guest post to share with you today from Jen A. Miller, the writer who earned the most points in last year’s challenge. Jen’s freelance journey holds a lot of lessons for other writers at any stage of their career, and she’s published an ebook about her experience. Readers of my blog can save $2 by using the code CONTENT when purchasing her book before February 19, 2020. Read on to learn more about Jen and find the link to her ebook below, and be sure to follow her on Twitter and visit her website as well.

By Jen A. Miller

When I set out to become a freelance writer, I didn’t expect it to last. I’d taken on a handful of freelance assignments while in college, then a few more while in graduate school, until I was making a big chunk of my overall income while doing this on the side.

Then my paycheck at my “regular” job bounced. 

I figured I’d try freelancing full time until I failed. 

That was 15 years ago.

I wrote about I make it work, and how I had my best year ever in 2019, in the ebook How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing. In it, I call Jennifer Goforth Gregory an angel (though now I’m thinking of changing this to the Patron Saint of the Self Employed). I’m not saying this because she’s letting me write this guest post on her blog, but because of how she helped me pull my career back from the edge.

That’s because in 2017, I realized that my annual income had dropped $40,000 in two years. It was the result of junk in my personal life, starting with being forced to sell my house because of the neighbor from hell, which coincided with death of my beloved dog. Instead of moving into another house, I moved into my car: a 2002 Jeep Wrangler TJ. I hit the road to see the 18 states I hadn’t been to yet. I thought I’d be gone four months. I was gone for a year. 

It was the trip of a lifetime, and I adopted my second dog along the way, but it wasn’t great for my business. I worked, but I stopped marketing. When clients peeled away for one reason or the other (lack of budget, change in focus, etc. etc.), I did nothing to replace them. 

This community helped me out of that hole. I was too late for that year’s marketing challenge, but I bought Jennifer’s book, and did everything she told me to. I started in April of 2018. By June, I’d doubled my monthly income. I didn’t stop either. I earned the most points in the marketing challenge last year. I set out to earn $96,000 in 2019. I never expected to overperform to $135,000, and I did it working 30 hours a week, 10 months of the year.

And I haven’t stopped either. I did the marketing challenge again for 2020. I don’t ever want to be in that 2017 position again because this is the best job possible for me. 

We hear a lot of doom and gloom about the state of being a freelancer, but I mostly see that from people who have an interest in keeping our rates artificially low. There’s always going to be an essay from someone who tried freelancing for a few months and stopped, but who still claim that their experience is universal when it’s not. I know this. If you’ve hung around here, you know this too.

Freelancing is a wonderful way to make a living, but it takes work — work I am happy to do as long as it keeps me at a desk in my house, where the dress code is sweatpants. 

Get Jen’s ebook How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing and use the code CONTENT to save $2 before February 19, 2020.