I felt a huge amount of pressure this month to earn $15K since my keynote next week at the Content Byte Summit Sept 14 to 16 in Sydney, Australia is titled, “The secret to my $15k months and how I consistently hit my income targets.” And I’ve fallen short of that the past few months due to my vacations, a slow summer, and family stuff. 

If you aren’t able to attend the conference and my keynote in person in Australia, you don’t have to miss out. The conference has affordable virtual tickets so you can watch around the globe – and all sessions are recorded so you don’t have to stay up all night, unless of course you want to. I’ve attended a lot of writing conferences and I have to say that without a doubt the line-up and topics for the sessions are by far the most relevant and useful that I’ve ever seen. While I’m excited (and nervous) about presenting the keynote, I’m even more excited about attending the sessions myself and meeting new friends. 

Now, let’s talk about August. It was one of the best months I have had in a while. Work started to pick up, which was a huge relief. And I’m seeing it pick up even more now this week. 

August Breakdown

Agency A
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 hours this month, meaning an hourly rate of $400.

Agency A
Project 2
$1000 for sales emails 

I LOVE writing sales emails–they’re fun, challenging and pay well. I landed this project from my emails last month letting the client know I was available. They put me on a new project and then assigned these emails. They took me a total of two hours, so I earned a whopping $500 an hour on these. The client gave me detailed instructions on exactly what they wanted, which made a big difference. 

Agency B
Project 1
$6300

I’m so excited about this new client. I got this through a referral from a fellow writer. I love the people at the agency and their clients are a perfect match for me–ginormous tech companies. This project was copywriting and I really enjoyed it. Because it was a package for the same campaign–an infographic, three social media ads, three flyers, a conversation starter and an email–I was able to earn a higher hourly rate because I only had to learn the topic and the style once. I spent about 25 hours on this project, including revisions, which turned into an hourly rate of $252. 

Agency C
Project 1
$1600 for 4 one-pagers

This client reached out to me through LinkedIn and then sent work over to me a few days after the introduction call. I wrote four one-page flyers on four different products and it went very smoothly. The client was easy to work with and the topics were right up my alley. I expect to do more of these after I get back from Australia. When I asked the client how he found me, he said he searched “freelance writer” and “cloud computing,” which is a good reminder to keep all your sub-niches in your LinkedIn profile. 

Agency D
Project 1
$1400 LinkedIn posts

I landed this project in July through a cold LOI. And I was earning over $200 an hour writing these posts. Sadly, the agency lost the client so I lost the project. But I am hoping to get more work with the agency. But regardless, I earned $2800 over two months from sending a single LinkedIn message, which is not too shabby. 

Agency E
Project 1
$5000 5 blog posts and an e-book

I started this project last month, but most of it was done in August. I did 5 700-word blog posts plus a 2,000 word e-book. The blog posts were pretty easy because they were on similar topics but for different industries, so the first one took me five hours, but the remaining took me 2.5 hours each. The e-book was on a similar topic so that took me 10 hours. So my hourly rate was $200 an hour on these. The client was pleased with these so I’m hoping to get more work on this project in the future. And I totally wouldn’t have gotten it if I hadn’t reached out in early August letting the client know I had availability.

Total Earnings for August – $16,150

The Good and the Bad

Overall, I felt really good about August. I had a good balance. I made good money and I also enjoyed my projects. 

What worked this month:

• Pretty much everything. It has been a long time that work actually felt good. It felt easy. And it was the perfect amount of busy for me. I also started feeling relieved that my slowness was just the typical summer slowdown, not that technology was now a terrible niche or that I totally sucked as a writer. (For reminders on how to keep imposter syndrome in check, read this post.)
• Staying in touch with clients. A big chunk ($6000) of my monthly income was simply from staying in touch with clients and letting them know I was available. I think so many writers overlook this or think that they are bothering their clients. But it really is one of the best ways to earn a high income. 
• Doing packages. Three of my projects this month were packages, which made my hourly rate MUCH higher because I really got to know the topic. I didn’t plan it that way or seek it out but now I know the benefits and will be more likely to suggest packages to my clients. 
• Being open to copywriting. I’ve been slowly drifting into more copywriting, which I enjoy. More than half my income this month comes from B2B copywriting. I decided while writing this post that I need to market myself more for copywriting, especially since I think that it’s more AI-proof than other types of writing. I also realized that I’m a lot better at it than I thought. I used to think I was just okay at it, but I now have more confidence. 
• Spending time with my kids. Even with a $16K month, I managed to spend a good amount of time the first two weeks of the month with my kids. My son was home for two weeks between interning abroad and going back to college and I spent as much time as I could with him – although I did work a fair amount while he slept off two months of fun traipsing around Europe. And I helped move my daughter back to her campus. My son fit all his earthly belongings in his Honda Accord in typical boy style, while moving my daughter back involved multiple vehicles. 

What didn’t work this month:

• Taking in nine (yes, 9!) dogs into the rescue in one week. I didn’t get a lot of work done that week because the homeless dachshunds just kept coming. One had a giant bladder stone, another a giant mass on his spleen, and still another had infected flea bites all over his body. But they are all doing well now and getting ready for adoption. 
• Not launching my training. I’m going to keep posting this until I finally do it. That was the one downside of work finally picking up this month. 

How’s September looking?

Really good. I had two brand new client calls this week, one of which should make a fantastic new anchor client. And I already have two assignments with existing clients waiting for me when I get back from the conference. September will be slower since I’m taking two full weeks off – one for the conference and the other to visit Tasmania. And this week was slower because I’m getting my keynote ready and trying to get ready for the trip. So I expect September will be good in terms of setting myself up for a great October, but will be low in actual income – if that makes sense. 

How was Your August? How is September looking so far?