​One of the things I have always found interesting about my freelance ghostwriting is that there rarely seems to be an end to the work that comes my way. Yes, I know, it has taken years and thousands of jobs to get to this place. On one occasion during the month of March I was what I considered ‘caught up’ on existing writing jobs. Let me explain that a little further.
 
The freelance jobs I get come in three basic categories: Ongoing, Sporadic and New.
 
Ongoing Freelance Jobs
 
These are what I would consider ‘regular’ clients. Some book ongoing projects with me from month to month or sometimes quarterly. Others will send me jobs off and on throughout the month. Others are clients I have worked with before but may only send me work when they need something written. It can be days, weeks, months and years between writing jobs for them.
 
Sporadic Freelance Jobs
 
These are the ‘semi-regulars’ but not really consistent in their ordering. An example may be someone I write a series of articles for and then pick up a job here and there from them in the next year. These are clients I don’t normally hear from unless they need something written and I may see work from them again, but sometimes I don’t. I may get a referral, though.
 
New Freelance Jobs
 
These are the ‘newbies’ to me. In other words, a client I have never worked with before but thought they’d give me a try. Often these clients are single job ones that I may never hear from again. Oddly enough, the bulk of my freelance work has been with clients I would put in this category. Fortunately, regular clients are taking over the top spot in recent months.
 
The Month In Review
 
So, I mentioned that I thought I was ‘caught up’ at one point during the month. That meant that I had finished all outstanding writing jobs with the exception of two. Typically, I rarely get down to two jobs left. Well, as has happened in the past, the following days filled my schedule up with new and additional work. The numbers for March will give you an idea of the volume.
 
I completed a total of 30 different writing jobs. That included 53 articles totaling 47,475 words. While that may sound like a heavy load, I did have some days where I only wrote about 1,000 words. On those days I had other commitments to attend to. However, I also did have some 5,000+ word days. It really depends on my schedule and the types of writing jobs.
 
Looking Ahead
 
I know I have a handful of projects already booked for April. I also have a shorter month to write in due to a seminar I will be attended for a few days at the end of the month. Otherwise, I already know what some of my ‘regular’ clients are putting in place and I’ll still be able to accommodate the ‘sporadic’ and ‘new’ jobs as per usual as they are received.

I’d be lying if I said that the shortest month of the year has been the lightest one in ghostwriting. In fact, since I started keeping better track of my daily/weekly totals I am a bit amazed at the volume of work I have accomplished during this month. I only started tracking more than just job and article totals to give me an idea as to whether or not I am increasing or decreasing work.
 
By The Numbers
 
So, for the month of February, with one more day to go, these are my totals. I completed 28 different jobs during the month and may add one or two more before the month actually ends. Out of those jobs I wrote a total of 78 different articles. Most of them were in the 1,000 to 1,500 word range with my word count for the month coming to 62,810 with more to come.
 
My average daily word count according to these numbers is in the 2,300 range. Over the past week I have had daily totals in the 4,000 to 5,500 word range. What does that really mean? Well, I know that on weeks where I have a lot of additional responsibilities to take care of, such as meetings and other business related to my elected position, the numbers dip a bit.
 
I also know that there have been a few projects this past month which have been sets of 5 articles, 10 articles and more. I find that with some of these jobs I can produce quicker results as the topics are usually the same or have something in common. I also find that by grouping smaller sets in a day I can finish a number of jobs covering various subjects.
 
Call It An Expansion of Services
 
This past month I have also taken on a new client where I am focusing on anything but writing content. This particular job is going to be ongoing and involves me working closely with social media to build a profile for this person’s product. It isn’t really anything new for me as I used the same basic principles during my election campaign – feeding traffic to a website with content.
 
I’m rather excited to be able to explore this concept again and apply it to something other than one of my own projects. I like making use of social media as a means of directing traffic somewhere and the potential reach from social media makes it a very attractive option to any other form or marketing or advertising. If you know my history, you can imagine my interest.
 
It was during this past month that I started working on the ‘outer ring’ of profiles for this client. I’ll continue to add more in the coming months and then will go back and start to flesh them out by adding new content and see where it goes. I’ve already seen very positive results in something I put in motion for a short five-day promotion online and I’ll be learning as I go with this.
 
Moving Forward
 
I see no end in sight for my ghostwriting work and I continue to pick up new clients and am also receiving more and more work from regular clients. I guess you could say that I am in a place now where the work seems to just generate and gravitate towards me. However, I wouldn’t have minded so much if this was a leap year. At least I’d have one more day this month…lol

New Year’s for many is the point where they start something new. It’s often attached to a resolution of some kind. You know, I’m going to do something for my health/family/personal wellbeing or whatever. The start of a New Year just lends itself to new beginnings of all kinds. For me, the start of a New Year is an Anniversary. It was actually January 4, 2014 when I started my freelance writing/ghostwriting business from the upstairs of our home.
 
It was originally meant to generate some extra cash to help get us through the slow season in the newspaper business. For those of you who know my wife, Brenda and I, you’ll know that we had been involved in the local newspaper business. It was February 2004 when I bought the Similkameen News Leader, a weekly local tabloid – one of just a handful of independently-owned and operated community newspapers left in British Columbia at the time.
 
Writing Seemed Like A Perfect Fit
 
Ten years into the newspaper business the advertising landscape was changing. Social media gave small businesses the means to advertise and promote their services for free. There were free classified ad websites popping up everywhere and even large corporate customers were shifting their advertising budgets to the new technology of the internet. This continued to put pressure on smaller publications that relied on these revenue sources.
 
So, I determined that with some spare time in the evenings I could possibly pull together some additional business as a freelance writer. I joined an online community designed for this purpose and started bidding on jobs. It took a couple of weeks to get my first order and over the next six months writing on the side was becoming a steady flow of additional business. In July 2016 we closed the doors to the paper and that September I started ghostwriting full-time.
 
Many Goals Have Been Hit
 
Since that start in January 2014 I have worked as part of three different marketing agencies and have had hundreds of private web developers seeking content for websites, blogs, eCommerce sites, books and even audio scripts. To date I have clients in over 40 countries in the world with most of my work going to websites in Australia, the UK, United States, Canada, India and Romania. My daily workload sometimes resembles an international holiday itinerary.
 
Also, in those five years I have created several of my own websites that I use to promote myself and products I am associated with. One of those products is eBooks. I have published a total of seven different eBooks since launching my freelance writing business. It may sound like a lot of work, but it has taken five years to get to this place. It is something I truly enjoy and actually thought was not going to go much longer than six months or so. Clearly I was wrong.
 
Where You Can Find My Stuff
 
Two of my top website projects are Looseink Freelance Ninja (www.looseink.ninja) and JamBusters! (www.jambusters.ca). For a few of my eBooks I have websites including Surviving Midlife Career Changes (www.midlifecareerchanges.com) and The Foodie Guide To Farming Insects For Protein (www.insectprotein.net). The latter is my top selling eBook to date. I also have a personal website launched a year ago at www.georgeelliott.org.
 
If I Can Do It, So Can You
 
One of the messages I have tried to get across in my eBooks is that there is nothing wrong with walking away from a career and starting over with something new. I was 55 when we shut down the News Leader. It was scary and exciting at the same time to make a change before we were forced to make one. If you have a hobby, hidden talent or even an interest in something that you enjoy, you could make it your new career. I did and now five years later, it’s keeping me busy.