JRJWrites

Hey all,

I've been prowling around this subforum looking for motivation almost everyday now. With my new 'repurposing in IM' I've decided to create a challenge of my own: earn $750 in freelance writing by the end of November.

I've already got a guaranteed client who will be paying me $140 a week (which equates to around $600 for the month).

So, basically, I'm gonna try to earn $150 in new clients for my freelance writing this month. For some of you 'gurus' this is a pittance; just an article's wage.

I'm just charging 2.5 cents per word as of right now, meaning that I'll need to write a total of 6000 words for new clients.

Hopefully, that will be doable. Wish me luck!

EDIT: This challenge is now closed. I was able to generate $649 in revenue, falling $101 short of my original goal. However, I am quite happy with my efforts and what I was able to accomplish (see below).

Colin Palfrey

Good luck, you should fly through this challenge.

Maybe as you get the new clients describe how you get them. Not their details though, of course.

That would be useful for the newbie writers, so they can hear what works for you as you do it. Add their own success stories, etc.

elaineandfrankie

As you work more and get more samples you can show your clients and charge more. For more professional writing like medical or anything you have to make much research you charge more. Once you are getting good reviews you will earn more.

JRJWrites

NEW CLIENT ALERT!

Well, that's good! I just got a new, possibly long-term client in the computer-repair niche. He's a member of the WF as well, and hired me based on my signature. I knew that would come in good some day!

I think that I should be able to make at least $50-$100 with the jobs he gives me...hopefully.

NEW MEMBER ALERT:

Yesterday, I talked to a fellow freelance writer about teaming up together and sharing our jobs. This way, both of us can get work and we could probably eventually form a large team. Clients are probably more likely to purchase from an established business than a sole freelancer. So far, we haven't talked much, but I think we will both do well together.

P.S. I'll be out of town for a couple days, so I won't be able to work on my writing then. So far, I have earned a total of $46 this month . That's not too good. The long-term client I mentioned who gives me $140 per week needs to get his keyword list together. After that, I'll have a steady stream of work, and hopefully I'll be able to write for more than $140 a week, in order to make up for this week's losses.

Apart from freelance writing, I'm also doing some sort of website creation/content creation for a guest house in Tennessee. My client has money and is paying me well for my work. From that job, I should be able to glean another $250-$300 this month. So, in total, I hope to be around $1K for the entire month together.

P.P.S. I also earned a $50 commission with HostGator. Yay!

brittlesnc

I'm rooting for you jrjohn...keep up the good work!

JRJWrites

UPDATES!

Sorry, I kinda forgot about this post, and it's almost been a week since I logged back on. Ugh.

Anyway, LOTS has been happening. Lots.

Accepted Into Writing Team
I was officially accepted into a full-time writing team, known as CopyorDie (you might see their WSO somewhere around here). Just goes to show that building a portfolio, offering review copies and creating a sales pitch really do help. I have yet to receive my first assignment, but the pay is actually quite low, but it's constant work.

New Website
I finally got around to self-hosting my own domain that advertises my writing services. Yay!

2 New Long-Term Contracts (possibilities)
One person approached me for my writing services, having been referred by one of my previous clients. I've written a sample for him and I'm waiting for him to decide whether he likes my writing style or not. If he does, that's an extra 20 projects for me at $0.02/word.

I've also approached another potential client (a fellow WF member). She asked me to do a 250-word custom sample, which I submitted within a few hours turnaround time. I'm waiting for her to approve/disapprove it. If she decides she likes my writing, I will take over as her main content provider. Pay is $3/100 words.

Transcription Job
I know that this isn't part of the above freelance writing, but I managed to earn a nice little $32 transcribing an hour of audio. It took me approx 2.5 hours to complete, which works out to a pretty decent rate (for me). Plus, the audio file was about garnering traffics to websites, meaning that I was also able to learn a LOT!

Website Building Project
I'm currently building a website for another long-term client. I haven't started yet, but he has already paid $200 in advance. I've earned $50 writing his product descriptions. When I start on the website, he'll pay me more. No set rate as of right now - I have to discuss that with him.

Other
Unfortunately, the long-term client supposed to pay me $140+ a week hasn't been giving me any work. He's trying to get the technie stuff figured out, after which he will give me his keyword list. The other long-term client with the computer repair website is also getting his list together.

Total $$ earned so far in November - $136

Business is neither steady nor lucrative - I'm almost certainly going to fail my goal. Plus, I will be MIA from Nov. 19 - Nov. 21 for health issues . Maybe I should reconsider the goal and make it $500.

laurencewins

NEVER change your goal. If you do, you'll be satisfied with $500. Shoot for the $750 or $1000 and you never know what may happen.

I have a regular goal and sometimes I don't hit it until the last day of the month but it's not often I miss it.

Cheers, Laurence.
Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

coluden

I agree. Do not change your goal. Bend your circumstances to your will, they will bend! All the best,

JRJWrites

UPDATE:

$59.50 yesterday! $52 came from writing product descriptions, and the rest came from a 250-word sample. Good news too!
The potential client I did a review sample for liked my writing, and she's ready to pay me $3/100 words. I've got a few projects to do today, so you might not see me around WF.

Total earned, thus far: $199.50 (I did a couple other things as well).

JRJWrites

UPDATE:

I've decided to post my daily results in the evening before I go to sleep, which would be right now.

Well, another good day. $38.50 in revenue, plus a guarantee of $24 worth of work for tomorrow + others. It's been a good day, and I'm happy with the results.

What I Did:

To earn $20, I wrote 100-word product descriptions for 5 different Chinese products. For the $18.50, I wrote 2 articles for a client, who pays $0.03 per word, or $3/100 words.

I started the website creation for another client, who's quite happy so far. I created three pages of it and customized the theme.

I also got access to Elegant Themes (a client bought membership for me in exchange for work), but I'm having problems with the site - the themes cause a 500 internal error. I'm getting HG answering that now. Hopefully, I can add my first blog post to my website tomorrow.

Total earned, thus far: $238

JRJWrites

UPDATE:

Absolute banner day! Most money I've ever made in a single day!

Today, I was able to earn $238. Two hundred and thirty-eight bucks. That's more than I have ever done before, by FAR.

$32 came from product description. $4 from transcription.

But $202 came from creating and designing a website for one of my customers. I got paid at a $35/hr. rate. Great, huh?! I've got a few more hours of work for the website, and after that this awesome cash flow will probably stop.

So far, so good.

Total earned, thus far: $476

drem

The goal here is networking. You are making vital connections that will turn into return clients and future clients. This is what the writing business is about. Return clients will come and they are more valuable than the one-off clients that equate to money trickling in every month. You have made strides in such a short time and will continue to do so!

JRJWrites

UPDATE:

Today was a pretty average day, as far as work goes. I was able to earn a total of $42.50. The good thing about that is, I only worked for about 60-70 minutes, so I'm average an hourly rate close to $40. That's good. For me, that's VERY good.

What I did today:

Plenty! I didn't do much in terms of actual freelance work, but I was totally able to spend nearly the whole day on my site. I have a paid membership to Elegant Themes (which one of my clients bought me in exchange for my work), and I'm using the Foxy theme, and it looks great. I've written up testimonials, added an order now page to buy directly from the site, added samples, contact me, etc. I've only got FAQ and About Me left to do.

My Plans:

Within this website, I'm going to be starting a blog related to Internet marketing, SEO and freelance writing. I've started thinking about promoting it, but for right now, I hope to garner traffic solely through SEO, and possibly article syndication (thanks @brittlesnc for the idea!). I'm also going to build a list, possibly promote a few products, do e-mail marketing, and I also envision a few freelance-related eBooks coming up soon. I'm planning to create a Warrior for Hire thread VERY soon (just as soon as my blog is up and running with regularly updated content).

I know that it isn't likely, but I certainly hope to achieve big - very big things with this site. It started out as a 'my writing services' site, but I think with a blog, products and the like, I could turn this into something pretty big. Pretty big.

Another plan: I'm also considering selling this site. It's in a pretty profitable niche. I would do some more work on it, excepting the fact that I simply don't have a desire to . I want to concentrate my efforts on my up-and-coming blog and freelance services.

Thanks for all the support and encouragement! I've loved this thread, and I'm planning to open a new one soon about a blog posting challenge or an article syndication one. Let's see if anyone joins. Special thanks to brittlesnc for her post - I've never seen anything so motivational!

Stay tuned, people! JR John is gonna do something big!

Total earned, thus far: $518.50

I'm gonna be MIA for the next few days because of a surgery. Hopefully, I'll be able to come back sometime around the 23rd, hit the ground running, and reach my $750 goal with relative ease. THANK YOU PEOPLE!

Maestroo

Good Luck Wish you success.

JRJWrites

UPDATE:

I did ZERO freelance jobs today = $0. However, I'm more than satisfied with what I was able to accomplish.

I worked approximately 3-4 hours today, solely on my blog. I created three high-quality, very useful posts that are SEO-ready. I plan to write anywhere between 2-5 posts per day.

Starting tomorrow, I'm gonna be stuck in a hospital with some medical issues to take care of for a few days (probably till Wednesday). No wifi, so what I'll be doing is writing - pure writing. I'll try and write 10 great posts in multiple categories tomorrow. And then, inspired by Brittlesnc, I'll approach websites in my niche (plentiful) about article syndication for my best one. I'll look to build my list and go from there.

Thanks for all the support. Wish me luck.

Total earned, thus far: $518.50

Woodsusa

I just wanted to add my congrats and support to the rest...I'm a freelance writer who earns most of my money from content mills and a couple of private clients. I know firsthand that it's either feast or famine in this industry, and it can be so easy to just not look for the work! But, it sounds like you are taking all the right steps to ensure your success!

If I work three hours a day, I can usually manage to scrape in $250-300 per week, mostly lower paid stuff that I can grab whenever I can because I've got three kids and a husband always underfoot!

It's always super motivating to see someone determined to succeed...I know you'll do well!

Jess

Let's make some awesomeness happen!
Looking for Excellent PLR at great prices?

laurencewins

I hope your surgery went well. I know the feeling as I have had 3 surgeries in the last 6 months. It plays havoc with your income...especially the recovery time.

Cheers, Laurence.
Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

infopreneurexpert

Hope I'm not joining late. I'm a freelance writer who specializes in self improvement/ motivation. I will be posting my updates of freelance job secured and earnings.

JRJWrites

It sure does. I'm hardly able to do any real work right now - the surgery went well, though, and I'm recovering steadily. I think it'll be another 3-4 days until my brain is ready work again.

GREAT! I hope you succeed, and congrats for joining!

Great to hear from you, Jess! Wow - you're earning quite a bit more than me even when working less . Congrats - I wish you all success in the coming months.

JRJWrites

UPDATE:

Yeah, yeah, this post is a long time coming. I've been putting it off, but today has been the first day I've really been able to get back on my feet IM-wise.

I got a lot done today: revisions for articles for another client, contacting my old ones, a little bit more marketing and blog commenting, etc. But, most importantly, I've completely redesigned my website (I had come to the conclusion that the other design was ugly (and it was!), and I've used a new, simpler design, added a new font, changed headers around, etc.

I also created a few new Internet marketing goals for this month for myself, and sent them to my mentor, RW Biggs (over at Get Leads - Drive Sales). Once again, a BIG shoutout to him - he's the guy who refocused my IM career and got me on the right track.

After reading Brittany's post over at BrianOwens.biz, $2,500 & Counting From Article Marketing Challenge | BrianOwens.Biz , I've been motivated once again. Thanks!

I've secured another long-term client for my copywriting services. An absolute pleasure to work with. Values my times, values my abilities, and values premium content. The best client a freelancer could ever ask for.

Stuff to do tomorrow:

Work on that $35/hr. web design job. I've also been putting that off.
Work on a few more articles for another client of mine (just found out she's also a Christian, awesome! )
Start work on a new post for my blog.
Submit a guest post pitch.
Ask around if anybody wants to guest post on my blog.

That said, I'm still not 100%, so we'll see how it goes. Cheerio!

oceania

Despite all the odds you succeeded,what a great post. Congrats and don't give up.

oceania

Despite all the odds you succeeded,what a great post. Congrats and don't give up.

TimothyTorrents

Good luck John! I know from the guest post you wrote for my website that your writing is top-notch and you should have no problem reaching your goal.

I would like to join in this challenge as well, it seems like something that will help me put more effort into marketing my services. I will check this thread regularly.

Looking for a Copywriter? Try Me!

JRJWrites

UPDATE

My goals from yesterday:
Work on that $35/hr. web design job. I've also been putting that off. - Nope.
Work on a few more articles for another client of mine (just found out she's also a Christian, awesome! ) - Nope, but that's because she hasn't put up any more jobs for me just yet.
Start work on a new post for my blog. - Check!
Submit a guest post pitch. - Nope
Ask around if anybody wants to guest post on my blog. - Check! Guest post published as well.

I was able to earn $52 today as well, writing product descriptions and rewriting a small copy. The client who purchased the later was very, very grateful to me (I have him $21 worth of freebies just because he was so great to work with). I've strengthened my reputation on Fiverr with yet another positive rating.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get to the client's website today. However, I was able to get a lot of stuff down outside of IM, so the day was quite productive, overall.

This is gonna be a quick post, so here are my goals for tomorrow:

WORK ON THAT WEBSITE FOR THE CLIENT!!!
Finish the blog post and start work on a new one.
Contact a website owner about article syndication OR build a relationship with one.
Build a relationship with another freelance writer.
Post a new thread on the WarriorForum (it's gonna be a really helpful one, I promise )

See ya!

Luke Dennison

Thanks For Accepting My Post!

Earn $100+ Per Day (WSO)

JRJWrites

UPDATE:

I just got back after a 12-hour drive, and was able to work for a couple hours. Yesterday, I had no Internet access and was thus unable to work. Thankfully, no one ordered - that would have caused problems turnaround-wise.

Goals From 2 Days Ago:

WORK ON THAT WEBSITE FOR THE CLIENT!!! - Nope
Finish the blog post and start work on a new one. - Yep!
Contact a website owner about article syndication OR build a relationship with one. - Yep!
Build a relationship with another freelance writer. - Yep!
Post a new thread on the WarriorForum - Nope, I don't want to do it until I have enough time to make sure it's REALLY helpful.

I was able to earn $12 today doing a tiny, tiny bit of copywriting + writing tweets for a HUGE corporation - one that starred Hugh Jackman. Definitely gonna be a great feather to add to my cap when I post my Warrior for Hire thread!

I also completed $20 worth of writing for a fellow warrior. I had started on this weeks back, but it progressed slowly, since both the employer and I want the articles to be absolutely perfect.

Goals for Tomorrow:

Build up my website's social profile.
Work on the client's website.
Pitch to one new potential client.
Ask fellow Warriors if they would like review copies of my writing. (PM me)
Complete a $30 re-writing task assigned.

Total earned, thus far: $546.50

I MIGHT be able to still reach my goal of $750 for November if the website design thing takes as long as I think it might. Otherwise, I won't be reaching it.

HOWEVER, I'm still super-happy about my results. Why?

If you look at the start of my post, I say that I wanted to earn $150 in new clients. While I may not have earned $750 total, nearly $450 of my income thus far has come from totally new clients. Furthermore, every single one is happy with my work - and that's the best thing of all. I'm building relationships, creating trust, and more.

PLUS, I wasn't even planning to have my own website/blog. With the advice of my mentor and the much-valued advice of fellow warriors, I realized that this was an important step. I'm also planning to drive traffic with SEO (targeting long-tail keywords), social media (it'll be a biggie for this site, hopefully), and article syndication (thanks, Brittany!). I'm yet to start work on article syndication, however.

After the close of this thread, I will be posting a new challenge for December 1-15 (I'll be out of town for Dec. 15-30) to earn more (I'm thinking between $250 and $500, I will finalize my goal later). Hopefully, I'll also be creating a Warrior for Hire thread, which could really rocket sales if I time it right and have an incredible copy.

I'm also gonna have a challenge within that - write 30 articles. That's 2 per day. Usually, I'll have at least one to work on from my clients. The other will be a blog post. I don't plan to release a new blog post everyday (bad idea, according to CopyBlogger), but I can use these as 'stock' for the next time I'm out of town and short of time.

Whew, that was a long 'un! Sorry.

JRJWrites

CLOSED:

Tada! And now, sadly, it is time to rename this personal challenge closed. It's been a good long month, and I've profited greatly - this has been my best month, ever, even though I didn't reach the overall $750 goal.

Total earned: $649.00

$101 short of my initial goal, but completely fine since the main income stream I was counting on didn't work out - yet, I was able to earn $584. I'm completely satisfied with the results and my blog.

I look forward to next month!

laurencewins

If you hadn't set a goal, you wouldn't have pushed and probably wouldn't have earned the money you did earn so well done!

Cheers, Laurence.
Writer/Editor/Proofreader.