How I Earned Almost $16K in December 2023 as a Freelance Content Marketing Writer
Yes, I know I am really late on this. But better late than never. I spent most of January dealing with family emergencies so I have a good excuse. But I committed to do this every month and I’m going to do it – even if it’s late.
December was a good month. A very good month. After a lower November due to launching my newsletter GoForth & Freelance, December put me back in target income range. And it set me up for one of my best Januarys I’ve had, income-wise.
Here is how the month turned out for me. And you can check out all my previous monthly income breakdowns here.
December Breakdown
Agency 1
Project 1
3 Blog posts 700 words each
$2100 total
I landed this project last year with a major telecommunications company and it’s been sporadic but seems to be increasing in volume. I’ve worked for the agency for about 8 years now. This is a good example of not giving up – at first these were time consuming, and I got a lot of revisions, but I stuck with it and have gotten a lot faster. Each one takes me about 3 hours with revisions, which gives a rate of $233 an hour.
Project 2
$1200 for 900 word blog post
This is a brand new project for me. I got it from a referral from a fellow writer. And I am super excited about it. It has one week turnarounds and is regular work. It’s a perfect fit for me. The client wants me to do one or two a week. I am hoping this turns into an anchor client. The brand has a hard tone to hit, but thankfully it’s very close to my natural writing style so it’s very easy for me. Most of the articles require an interview, but this one didn’t. It took me 3 hours to write it so I earned $400 an hour.
Agency 2
Multiple copywriting projects
$6,665
I’ve worked with this agency for a few months now and they have turned into an anchor client. I work on a giant tech company project and it’s a great fit for me. Interestingly, the projects are mainly copywriting, which I’ve been really enjoying. For this project, I did a customer brochure, a flyer, a FAQ for the sales team and a battle card for the sales team. I spent about 22 hours on them, which earned me about $300 an hour. I hope to keep doing work for this client – right now I’m on 3 different client teams so hopefully that will continue.
Agency 3
6,000 word report
$5,000
This was the perfect project to round out the year. And while at first the rate may seem low, the client provided me with a 9K word outline so it was basically editing/rewriting a draft. I did it between Christmas and New Years, which was the perfect time to do it. I spent 12 hours on it and my hourly rate was $416 an hour.
Agency 5
Blog post revisions
$750
This was a great example of asking for more and getting it. A client changed the scope to a whitepaper so I asked the agency for more money. And I got it. These revisions took me 3 hours, which was $250 per hour.
Total earnings for December — $15,715
The Good and the Bad
What worked this month:
- Letting clients know I was available – I emailed all my clients about midway through the month and let them know that I was available during the holidays. And I landed the 5K report from that email. If I’m around for the holidays I always do that and almost always land work.
- Referrals – Once again, my wonderful writer referral network sent me a client. The best way to get referrals is to give them. And then other writers will think of you.
- Taking time off – I took the perfect amount of time off. I hung out with my college kids. But did a bit of work when they were sleeping in. I didn’t get bored and I didn’t have a slew of work to return to.
- Writing these monthly income posts – I really think I had a much stronger year in 2023 because of these posts. It kept me accountable. And also made me really think about what worked and what didn’t. I was also able to see things about my business such as too much of my income in one client that I would have otherwise missed.
What didn’t work for me:
- Nothing – I really had a great month. I struck the right balance between income and time. It felt fabulous to end the year on a high note.
And that was a wrap for 2023!
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This is great info. It’s encouraging to see. I’m trying to step up my work time and set goals for this year. Thanks for sharing what’s working for you and what isn’t — I should look at my months with a similar critical eye and see what happens.
It really made a huge difference to me to look at it from that view. I realized how much time I was wasting as well as how I had a big risk with too much work in one client.
Absolutely. I’m realizing where I was wasting time in prospecting; some of my best clients came from unexpected places and I need to do more strategic thinking about how I maximize my relationship-building and outreach. This critical analysis is one way to get there; it seems like your December is better than a typical month for you in 2023, so there’s some interesting data there.
December was higher than some other months in 2023, but mainly because I took a lot of time off in 2023 and had emergencies. I had four other months in this range. I took A LOT of time off in 2023, especially May, September and October. You can see my breakdown here https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/monthly-income/
I’m impressed with how little time you take to get your writing projects completed. Three hours to write a 900-word blog is speedy. What I appreciate is my prices are similar to yours for several and somewhat lower for others, but not by a lot. The difference is that I’m doing well if I’m making 100 USD/hr when all is said and done. You appear to write 3x as fast. I’d like to know your secret…
Yeah, if it’s taking you 9 hours to do a 900 word piece then you need to increase your speed. I am fast, not ridiculously fast. Here is a post I wrote on it https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2016/02/17/write-faster-10-secrets-increase-income-without-raising-rates/ The secrets to me are writing about topics that I know well and working for clients who have a tone of voice that I can write well. I evaluate tone of voice before taking a client.
Thanks for the link to this post! I am going to experiment. I often try to make my first draft as good as possible, thinking that I will save time on editing later. I’m intrigued to try your strategy of writing a $^# first draft quickly! I love playing around with different approaches!
I’m happy things are going so well for you, but man, is this depressing. For me, three blogs at 700 words each usually lands me around $200, and my clients complain that’s too high.
What niche are you in? There are higher paying clients out there. You just have to find them.
Looks like my response got deleted. I’ve done a little of everything, with sports betting and travel being my biggest strengths. Anyone I’ve found that pays more than 0.10/word invariably goes out of business or runs out of work within a few months.
Awesome, thanks for sharing, Jennifer! Really liked your tips elsewhere on using LOIs for connecting with potential clients. Would recommend that for those looking to drum up more work this year!!
Glad you found that helpful advice.
This article was very good to read, definitely inspiring. I am an inspiring copywriter looking to land some clients. I will be sure to keep my LinkedIn profile updated and let them know I am open to work until I’m able ro get a client. Thank you Jennifer!
I’m glad you found it helpful!
I’m really struck by how much of your work comes from agencies. I’m in higher ed content and have been wanting to reach out to agencies within my niche. Do you have any advice for how/what to pitch them? I’ve collaborated with several agencies previously but the work has an NDA so I can’t share it.
Here is a post on finding agencies https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2023/03/20/how-to-land-freelance-writing-work-with-content-marketing-agencies/
Does your NDA specifically say you can’t share the clips? Most NDA’s just say you can’t share client secrets. But in most cases, publicly available content should be fair game to share. I share almost all of my agency clips, very few have that specific NDA clause.
What are ‘agencies’?
A company that helps other companies produce content. Sometimes they are content marketing agencies, marketing agencies, PR agencies. Here is a post on how to get work https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2023/03/20/how-to-land-freelance-writing-work-with-content-marketing-agencies/
I need to bookmark these and read in a quiet moment with a cup of tea. Looking to connect with agencies has been on my “to do” list for far too long. This post published on my birthday. Thank you for the gift!
Wow! This is so inspirational! I’m a journalist and top-notch writer from Kenya and I hope I’ll get to your level some day.
Thank you so much for sharing this.
I’m sorry Jennifer, I just don’t believe the figures.
I could send you a list of my work over the month and show you that all of them amount to a third of just one blog post.
People don’t pay this sort of money.
I’m not shitting on your amazing work I would just love to see it be real because I can say as someone who works his ass off, either I don’t have the right clients, I’m what my therapist tells me I’m not (a loser) or I just need to give up. I’ve written for presidents and can’t find anyone who would pay for anything of these values.
It’s absolutely true. You can see my posts for the last 13 months. And yes, clients actually do pay that kind of money. But they take effort to find. You are neither a loser or need to give up. You just don’t have the right clients. It takes years to build to this level.
I say this not to denigrate Jennifer or you, but I have easily made more than $20K a month for most months of the past two years. I work with mostly luxury clients or very large brands, all located in NYC. They have the $ to pay decently, and I have the background and connections to get these clients. I have recently dropped down to much less per month, more like $10 – $14K, and I feel depressed about it.
So, yes it is definitely possible to make a lot as a freelance copywriter. And, although I suppose I am lucky, I often feel like a loser too. You can make plenty of money and still feel that way. I am trying to change my thinking and not judge myself so harshly.
I really appreciate you sharing your hourly rate on each project. I often feel guilty if I’m paid a high rate for something that doesn’t take me very long. Anytime a project works out to an hourly rate of $100+/hour, I start feeling like I’m charging too much. It helps to know that as long as you’re turning in quality work, it’s okay to be fast and earn good money for it.
Are these rates typically ones you propose or does the client offer them?