It’s a fact. I find it a little difficult to believe that in a few days, my freelance writing career will hit the seven-year mark. It was on January 4, 2014, when I “officially” launched the career by joining an online freelance community. Two years later, in April 2016, I joined another online freelance community and have been working steadily since. While I don’t see as much work as I used to from either of those sources, the exposure brought me in contact with several regular clients over the years. Some of whom I still work for from time to time.

How It Started

Our business was starting to dip at the newspaper my wife and I owned and operated. At the time, Brenda was spending a fair deal of time at her work computer doing not much of anything. She was working half days or not coming into the office at all as she didn’t have much work to do. I remember us talking to an acquaintance a few months before who had indicated that they were making a decent living with online work. I seem to recall this person was providing medical transcription services so one night I started searching for possible solutions for Brenda. I learned that there was a course she could take to become a medical transcriptionist, but it didn’t appeal to her. So I looked for other possibilities. At one point, my search terms changed and I started using the word “freelance.” This is where I started to get some very interesting results. Only now, I was coming across search results that had my interest.

I Took It From There

By this time I was intrigued. I came across several online platforms which offered options for freelance writing from home. I was quite certain that I could do that and I picked one platform that I had never heard of before and posted a very basic profile. My goal at the time was to do some research on the platform but I couldn’t see job listings unless I became a member and had a profile posted. So I did that. I liked what I saw and bid on a few jobs. Within days I got my first freelance writing job. You could say that I got bit by the bug. Within the first few years, I was working on both online platforms and with clients that were referred to me aside from these online sources. It didn’t take me too long to see that I could make a decent part-time income just by being a freelance writer.

September 2016 Changed All Of That

After the first quarter of 2016 was tough on our existing business, Bren and I decided to close the newspaper. At the time, she was spending more time with her home-based business we named JamBusters! and we were on the road most weekends during the warmer months selling her products. We had found an interesting niche and took her “spicy, fruity and (later) boozy” jams and jellies, salsas, and other preserves to nearby communities at local farmer’s/community markets. Both of us enjoyed doing this and saw potential in it becoming a serious venture. Once we closed the newspaper in July 2016, we had to come up with a plan. One morning at the kitchen table we both decided to try to flip our respective hobbies into careers. That was September 2016 when I decided to freelance full-time and Bren decided to can and vend full-time. Neither of us has looked back since.

So, How Did It Work?

Well, that’s a good question. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to find enough freelance writing work to stay busy. As it turns out, I was wrong. There are companies out there that have writers on staff who create content for websites daily. There are also web developers who turn to freelancers to provide web content for their new customers. It turns out that there are very few days that go by where I don’t have at least one job of 1,000-words to complete. As for Bren’s venture, we vend weekly at a location 125-kilometres away from our home and it has been very successful for us. I am at a point in my “new” career that I don’t take every job that comes my way. It’s nice to be at a place where I can pick and choose if I want to. I am also very fortunate to have some very good customers who keep me busy. Most of my work these days goes to a content company in the United States. The balance of my business comes from web developers in the UK and Australia. I have customers in 40+ countries but my regular business is from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and from one online freelance platform.

How Long Will I Do This?

I don’t have a grand plan. All I know is that as long as I have the interest, I will keep freelancing. I can see it eventually getting cut down to a part-time career, but not anytime soon. I think that’s partly because I’m having so much fun doing what I’m doing and I can see Bren truly enjoys what she is doing. You know what they say. If you have fun doing something, it doesn’t seem like work. And that is probably why I sometimes find it difficult to believe I’m now seven years into my fun hobby-turned-career.

I know I would not be alone in stating that I’ll be happy to see 2020 finally come to an end. It has been one of those years that has impacted all of us in one way or another around the entire planet. COVID-19 is the main issue, in my mind, but I also experienced some serious health issues early in the year that was carried over from late 2019. I’ll be dealing with these well into 2021 but I am much stronger now than I have been so I’m not too concerned about my recovery following my next procedure. I think I can also point to COVID-19 as having an impact on my freelance business. My numbers continue to slowly dip and I think that uncertainty in the online marketplace - where I get all of my writing business - has had something to do with this. Not only are web developers not spending as much on contracting out for services like mine, but some are also switching to creating these things themselves in-house. At least that’s my take on it.

Let’s Look At The Numbers

In December 2020 I completed a total of 14 jobs. That amounted to 36 articles and 34,225 words. Although December does slow down, my stats are not far off of November 2020 (17 jobs, 44 articles, and 31,400 words) and just down slightly more from October 2020 (20 jobs, 49 articles, and 47,500 words). So when I look at the work through comparisons of previous months, the dip is not quite that significant. Maybe this is a sign of stabilization on the horizon. I should point out that during December I did spend some extra time “cleaning up” my Fiverr profile and adding a few new Gigs to my profile there thinking it could generate some more activity. I did get a job out of that so maybe more is on the way. My job split for the month saw 5 of the 14 I completed coming from Fiverr. The remaining 9 jobs, except one of them, were all from regular clients.

Where The Work Came From, What I Wrote About

I saw a slight shift in where my business was coming from this month. I had 6 jobs from Australia and 4 each from the United Kingdom and the United States. The majority of my work during the month came from a contract I have in place with a US-based content service that I have been working for since October 2019. As for topics, December 2020 is another mixed bag of subjects. I wrote about sailing products, healthcare concerns, sports gambling, collectibles, dental care, unusual fonts, how to furnish a man cave, and coin collecting for beginners. With very few exceptions, I have little idea of what sorts of topics I am going to encounter on any given day. I say that this is one of the things I find that makes freelancing so interesting as it is never the same thing two days in a row.

Interesting Developments

One of the regular clients I have has been making good use of my years of experience in the newspaper business. I have rewritten and edited several news releases this past month converting them into 1,000-word articles. It has been a lot of fun to be able to put that skill back to regular use. I suspect that I’ll see several more of these types of jobs from this client in the coming months. I also interviewed for a contributor spot with a US-based firm that has developed a medical device. The interview was just before Christmas break so I may hear more about it early in January and I’ll be able to say more about it at that time. I will say that the firm sought me out after following me on Instagram and liking some of the content I have posted there. The fact that I am a freelance writer made me a bit more attractive prospect.

An Anniversary Coming Up

It will be in early January when I will mark my 7th anniversary as a freelance writer. The time has gone by rather quickly and I have to admit that I have truly enjoyed what I have been doing in this, my third career. I didn’t turn to freelance full-time right away as I was using it at first as more of a side hustle than anything else. However, there was a time when making it a full-time career made sense and it still does. Hopefully, I will be able to continue to write and be in demand for my web content for several more years. And as I have noted above, it will be good to close the door on 2020 and hopefully, the New Year is going to be filled with positive things for all of us.

Although I have not experienced a complete shutdown of my internet-based ghostwriting business, there is sure evidence that the pandemic has impacted the business of those I write for. As an example, one regular client of mine based in Australia has indicated that during the months since the coronavirus was identified as a pandemic, he has shifted his focus onto websites where he is selling products as opposed to working for clients developing websites. I get a lot of my business from web developers who require new or fresh content as they either build or rebuild web pages. Another client of mine, based in the UK, has been working a great deal on video services which has pulled him away from web development projects. These are just two examples I am aware of. Thankfully I have several more clients I work for.

The Numbers Show A Steady Dip

I completed a total of 17 jobs in November 2020. That's down slightly from 20 in October and quite a bit off from the 27 jobs I had in September. This past month I wrote 44 articles for 31,400 words. In October 2020 it was 49 articles and 47,500 words. In September 2020 it was 110 articles and 53,925 words. I did see a slight increase, percentage-wise of work coming from Fiverr this past month with 7 jobs. That compares to 8 the previous month. I also picked up a job from Upwork in November. I decided one night to check out some of the job listings there and submitted two proposals. One was accepted and I got a writing gig out of it. However, I'm having issues claiming my payment through that platform and may not use it again. At least getting paid from Fiverr is easy.

Where My Work Came From/What I Wrote About

November saw me pick up work from clients based in just four different countries in the world, which was a little unusual for me. Typically I see business from all over the globe. This time around the majority of jobs (nine, to be exact) were from the United Kingdom, five came from the United States, two from Canada, and one from Ireland. I don't think I've worked for more than just a couple of clients in Ireland so it was nice to see that country pop up on my list this time around. As for topics, I wrote about music, data recovery services, online sports betting, landing pages for three different services, collectibles, data loggers, gift-giving, and SEO.

December Is Off To A Good Start

As I am writing this on the last day of November, I can tell you that I already have a couple of jobs lined up for December. I plan to keep my writing schedule as consistent as possible during the month. Although that may change as I am still waiting to hear on at least two medical appointments that will involve trips out of town. I am currently still writing what I call "half-days" Monday through Saturday where I work from 9AM to about 1PM, with a short lunch break. Some days I will work to 3PM to finish projects that are time-sensitive. I also take work outside of the platforms I usually use to get contacts. For example, if you are a web developer looking for a content writer, I spend most of my time writing blogs but I also do other things. To find out my rates and other details, you can email me at [email protected].

In Conclusion​

Although 2020 has been a difficult year for businesses of all kinds, I have managed to stay busy with my ghostwriting business. To find out what I'm writing about today, give my Facebook Page a LIKE and you will be able to follow my daily schedule.