​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.

​Actually, July 2019 was anything but an endless string of words. That’s because I did take a few days off of ghostwriting mid-month. I didn’t really stop writing for more than five days but I stopped taking orders for a few days longer. That gave me a chance to catch up on outstanding writing jobs and to do other things for a change. It also gave me time to examine what writing products are getting the most activity and I used that to review my pricing schedule.
 
The Numbers – What I Charge
 
By now you should know that I have two primary sources of writing contracts. I have clients who deal with me directly and I have clients who hire me through an online freelance platform called Fiverr. On Fiverr I have changed my rates a few times. This month I made another increase but focused that per word rate change to the most active of the packages I promote on Fiverr. I have six different ‘offers’ and they are based on word count ranging from 500 and 1,000 words up to 2,500 and 3,000 words. So I upped the price on the three packages that are my best sellers and when I started accepting orders again, those rates were in place.
 
The Numbers – July 2019 Stats
 
Because I took a few days off, all of my typical numbers took a slight dip. For example, my total word count for the month was 52,050. That compares to 78,500 for last month and 46,175 for May 2019. The total number of jobs I completed this month was 34 and I wrote a total of 74 articles. That is down from 46 jobs and 103 articles in June 2019 and up from 24 jobs/64 articles from May 2019. There were two interesting things from this month and they included an increase in contracts following the mid-month price increase and a 50/50 split on job sources. I had 17 jobs from direct clients and 17 from Fiverr.
 
Another New Country
 
As I stated last month, I promote that I have clients in 40+ countries in the world. This month saw the majority of my jobs come from Canada for a change. Other top countries were Australia, the United States and United Kingdom. I also received work this month from clients in China, Sweden and Kenya. A new country to add to the list is Costa Rica. As for actual content, I completely rewrote all the website content for a Vancouver company, wrote blogs on chocolate, monsters, dental care, dehumidifiers, SEO and female hair removal products to name a few.
 
Other Sales
 
My eBooks continue to sell and in July 2019 I had a total of 5 copies sold of my most popular title, “The Foodie Guide To Farming Insects For Protein.” There seems to be a great deal of interest in that particular eBook and always has been since it was first published. I’m not too sure what August will bring but I know I will continue to be busy. I currently have 10 jobs in the queue as I write this and 8 seems to be the norm lately and I would imagine that will continue to be the case in the next month. I am still working on focusing my writing to take place just Mondays to Thursdays and some weeks that works. Having to finish a couple of jobs early Friday is no big deal at this time.