In October I told you about a very positive development that took place with my home-based business. The following month things went sideways on me. In mid-November, I got ill with what we originally thought was food poisoning. After a week of home treatment, I went to the local ER and the next morning got transported to the nearest ICU. Things were not looking good.
 
When I was able to write, and I have to tell you that there were a few days where I struggled to just send a one-sentence text, I notified all my clients that I was not going to be doing much work for a while. Fortunately for me, all my existing clients were okay with just waiting until I got better. That included the contract I signed in September for long-term content writing.
 
What Little I Remember
 
I was not exaggerating when I said I had difficulty putting together a short text message. By the time I was admitted to the local ER I was in a bit of a fog. My wife, Brenda says I was slurring my words. I recall very little about my time there other than sleeping. The 100-kilometre trip to the ICU in the next town over went by quickly and I know I was “in-and-out” for days.
 
Without getting into extensive details, I ended up with several complications and a C-Scan revealed that I was dealing with a bowel blockage rather than food poisoning. After a week in the hospital, I rested at the home of friends with Brenda about 45-minutes away from the hospital. It helped a lot and then we went home for a week and I tried to get back on track.
 
It Will Take A While
 
I discovered during the week at home that I was still far away from a full recovery. I was still weak, or I ran out of gas part way through the day. We determined that I was in no shape to shovel snow and hired a local company to handle that for us. I spent a lot of time resting and by the weekend attended the vending site Brenda and I sell her JamBusters! products at.
 
The first weekend wore me out. Even though I was just sitting and observing, plus visiting with vendors, customers, and friends who stopped by to check on me, the day was longer than I expected. For a few days, I thought I wasn’t making any progress but those around me could see improvement and that helped me to see that I was getting better than I could see myself.
 
Back To Writing, Sort Of
 
Although I was on a good pace in November before I got sick, my writing output has fallen considerably as I recover. In the past couple of weeks, I have completed a few small projects with my total word count in December probably closer to what I used to finish on a normal day in October. However, at this point that words and numbers of words don’t matter.
 
I am slowly getting back on track and in the past week have gained a great deal more strength than I have noticed in previous weeks. I am sleeping better, eating a little more and my mind is functioning to where I can write a 500-650 word blog post in a couple of hours. Thankfully, my clients have been supportive as I work my way through the path to recovery.
 
Keep Up To Date
 
To find out more about how I am doing and whether or not I am writing today (and what I’m writing about), follow my Facebook page HERE.

​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
 
To see what I am writing about today, follow my Facebook page HERE.

​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!