I’m joking about being tired. Really, I am. If anything, I’m still rather amazed at how busy the average month has become for me. I’m not really all that sure how I fit it all into 30 days. However, in some magical way, April was just a bit busier than March was for me. Not that I’m complaining, but it was a whole lot busier for me this month than I realized.
 
Freelance Ghostwriting
 
The bulk of what I do is related to my home-based business, Looseink Freelance Ninja. In April I completed 35 different jobs which break down to a total of 96 articles written. The total word count for the month was 68,175. Comparing that to March and you’ll see what I mean when I say I was writing a whole lot more over the past month. March had 30 jobs which totaled 53 articles written and a total word count of 47,475. Yes, I do get paid by the word, in case you were wondering…lol The majority of the articles written were blog posts and they went to clients all over the world.
 
A New Project I’m Working On
 
Late last month I registered a new domain name for a project I started early this month and added to off and on during April. The Chase Gallery is a brand I am developing for a still-life artist friend of ours we have gotten to know during our weekly vending activities. At the time of this writing, I have a website that is live (with some work yet to be completed), a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. Over the next little while I’ll be developing the project further as we work to promote the artwork of Sherrill Chase. So far, it has been a very fun and rewarding project that falls slightly outside the general boundaries of what I do as a ghostwriter. I like that.
 
Vending And Other Activities
 
I accompanied my wife, Brenda for a total of eight vending days during the weekends this month at our JamBusters! booth in the Oliver Indoor Flea Market. Our numbers in April were strong and we continue to enjoy spending time at that venue. On top of that, my ongoing duties as an elected member of our local Town Council has also kept me busy during this month. My schedule saw me attend a total of 11 different meetings related to the various committees I sit on or have been appointed to. Obviously, I’ve got a lot of things going on in my life.
 
Some Of The Topics I’ve Written About This Month
 
Just like any other month in my ghostwriter career, April saw me write about several different, random topics. To give you an idea, I wrote about camping, data recovery, spring cleaning, automobile towing services and dental health in the beginning of the month. Later on topics covered such things as CBD, accounting software, music, eBikes, scrap metal dealers, cleaning services and more. As you can see, I write about virtually anything that my clients request my services for. I have to admit that it really does keep my skills intact with the broad spectrum of different topics that come across my desk.
 
No Writing For A Few Days
 
It was such a productive month that I have chosen to take an unusual break. I’ve taken a few days off to give me a chance to recharge and get energized again. I find that every few months that it is a good exercise for me to follow. With the high volume of work that comes my way, a cycle of ‘break days’ has to be factored into my schedule to keep everything under control. I remember doing much the same thing when we were in the newspaper business. Once in awhile Brenda and I would just have what I called a ‘play day’ and it did wonders for us. Even though I work-from-home as a ghostwriter, it is still important to get a break from the keyboard every now and then.

​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