​October 2019 saw a huge change in my ghostwriting business. Following the signing of my first-ever contract with a web content business based in Chicago, it put a very different slant on what I had been doing previously. I started my first set of articles under this new arrangement on October 7. Although I have worked with – and continue to work with – different web content services, I have never been offered a contract. This one guarantees a specific amount of money per 1,000 word article and provided I write weekly, I can get paid weekly.
 
The volume of articles I have seen so far with this contract has ranged for 8 to 12 per week, which is manageable with my current regular clients. However, I did end up pausing my Fiverr account once more on October 3, 2019 and will likely keep it paused only taking work from established clients and not from new clients there. I am still adjusting my workload to focus on the contract work and to use all other writing jobs from regular clients as fill in. I had been using Fiverr jobs as fill in around the work I was getting from my regulars.
 
The Numbers – October 2019 Stats
 
.Although I had a light week the first week of the month, October 2019 saw me complete a total of 58 jobs which amounted to 90 different articles for a total word count for the month of 69,500. That compares to 35 jobs, 90 articles and 58,405 words in September 2019 and 48 jobs, 77 articles and 63,600 words in August 2019.
 
Splits And Busy Writing Days
 
Another obvious difference since I started the contract work appears in the splits of where work came from over the past month and the busy writing days. The early pause on my Fiverr account during this month has contributed to the split that saw 52 jobs come from non-Fiverr sources and just 6 jobs from Fiverr. As for daily writing volume, my busiest day was October 28, 2019 with 4,250 words written followed by October 24 with 4,200 words. These numbers are down considerably from my usual daily volumes simply because the contract jobs take a little longer for me to complete at this time, but I anticipate that changing as I get used to the change.
 
Where The Jobs Came From
 
Thanks to the four web content services I work with in a normal month, most of my ghostwriting jobs came from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Other writing jobs for the month originated in Canada, Romania, Israel and Thailand.
 
The Many Different Topics
 
Once again, I wrote about a wide variety of different topics for clients during the month. They included dental care, health care, casinos, music, animal health, house cleaning services, clothing and data recovery. I also wrote product descriptions for unique giftware items and sports collectible display cases.
 
To Find Out More
 
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​My ghostwriting work took a bit of a twist during the month of September 2019. I started a huge job for an old client and had only three weeks of writing time available for it and all the other work that I had either already booked or received as the days passed. Early in the month I could see a logjam developing so I ‘paused’ my Fiverr account on September 10, 2019 to allow me time to catch up. I was scheduled to be away the last week of the month for a conference so the early pause gave me room to clean everything up before going away for this event.
 
The Numbers – September 2019 Stats
 
Although I only accepted Fiverr orders for a few days in September, a number of my direct clients kept feeding me work throughout the month. My totals were off slightly from the previous month. In September 2019 I completed a total of 35 jobs (down from 48 in August 2019), and 90 articles (up from 77 in August). My total word count was 58,405 compared to 63,600 from August. Looking back to July 2019, this month was on pace with that one where my totals were 34 jobs, 74 articles and 52,050 words.
 
Splits And Busy Writing Days
 
Because I had paused my Fiverr account so early in the month I was not surprised to note that the 35 completed jobs for September 2019 were split with a slightly higher total for Fiverr. The numbers were 20 Fiverr jobs and 15 non-Fiverr jobs making a 57/43 percentage split for the month. What I found most interesting was the daily volume I was writing with my busiest day of the month being September 11, 2019 where I wrote 11,000 words. It was a long day at the keyboard with September 19 clocking in at 8,450 words.
 
Where The Jobs Came From
 
The majority of the jobs I completed in September 2019 came from the United States. Several of them were from two regular clients. Other work came from regular clients in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Romania. I also picked up new clients in the United States plus a new one in Saudi Arabia. One of the new US clients is a marketing firm and I have been picked up as a new in-house writer for that company. I am also in discussion with another US-based company looking to add me to their stable of writers.
 
The Many Different Topics
 
This is always the most interesting part of what I do as a ghostwriter – the various topics I get to research and learn a bit about in order to deliver content that sounds knowledgeable and has value to the user. Topics in September 2019 included music history, carpet cleaning, office productivity, various product descriptions, rewrites for editing, self-help, hair care, dental care, cannabis, pet products, social media, gambling addiction, entrepreneurship, landing pages for geographic SEO purposes and some blog articles.
 
eBook Sales
 
September 2019 saw a total of 4 of my eBooks sold. Three of them being my most popular title, “The Foodie Guide To Farming Insects For Protein” plus a copy of “Someone Stole Our Rhubarb” which talks about how we started one of our home-based businesses and teaches you how to do the same. I have decided to skip writing another eBook for the time being. I was trying to release at least one title per calendar year but I’ve been so busy with other projects I doubt I’ll get another one completed, but you never know.
 
Mentoring
 
This is an interesting development in my ghostwriting career. A couple of people have come to me online asking for a bit of advice related to ghostwriting/freelancing. I’ve been coaching them gently at this point as I have limited time available to focus on this but am excited to be looked upon by others as a mentor. One has the desire to become a freelancer and the other is already creating some great online content and needed some ideas for an upcoming project. I’ve enjoyed being able to share some of my insight to help someone else!

​I wasn’t too sure what to expect as far as my ghostwriting was concerned after having put a 20% increase on my rates last month. Well, as it turned out, not only was August 2019 still fairly busy for me, the increased rate didn’t seem to have a negative impact whatsoever making this my best revenue-generating month so far in 2019. That’s pretty incredible when you consider I usually just write four days per week. I even stopped talking new orders the last week of the month so I could catch up on the jobs still waiting to be completed.
 
The Numbers – July 2019 Stats
 
For August 2019 I completed a total of 48 jobs which included 77 different articles for a total word count of 63,600 words. That is up from the 34 jobs, 74 articles and 52,050 word totals of July 2019 and close to the 46 jobs, 103 articles and 78,500 words completed in June 2019. My heaviest day was August 7, 2019 where I wrote a total of 6,500 words. The split this month was very different to last month where jobs were 50/50 Fiverr/Direct Clients. In August there were 40 jobs from Fiverr and only 8 from Direct Clients making an 80/20 split for the month.
 
Where The Jobs Came From
 
In August 2019 the bulk of my work came from North America. Most of my ghostwriting jobs were for web entrepreneurs in the United States followed closely by Canada. Australia and New Zealand tied for third place with Romania and Israel tied for fourth. Other countries I received web content writing jobs from included Spain, the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.
 
The Many Different Topics
 
This is probably the most interesting part of the job for me. That’s because I rarely know what topics I will be writing about with few exceptions. While I did get some repeat business during the month as well as work from a couple of ‘regular’ clients, the bulk of the writing I did in August 2019 covered a wide spectrum of topics. They included SEO, camping, air fryer reviews, data recovery, house cleaning, insurance, food, dental care, VoIP services, relationships, music and home renovations.
 
A Big Job
 
A client I have written for off and on over the past few years contacted me early in the month to check on availability. He has just finished writing another of his entrepreneurial eBooks and wanted me to write a series of long-form articles for cross promotion. That job will start in September and will probably last a few months which I am looking forward to starting as soon as I can. I get a few of these kinds of writing jobs and I like that because it breaks up the rest of the random work I see on a regular basis during a typical month.
 
It All Can’t Be Silver Linings
 
The only downside to my writing during the past month (August 2019) came from my eBooks. For a change I sold just one copy for the entire month. That’s not all that unusual as I’ve noted that my eBook sales will take a dip at a couple of times in a year. Summer seems to be a fairly common one so I’m quite sure that the eBook sales will once again pick up in September. As to whether or not I’ll write and publish one for this year is unlikely at this point. However, that can always change.