Freelancing as a parent

Well, as you can see, I haven’t posted to this blog lately. Pregnancy really took a lot out of me. Two weeks ago I had my beautiful baby boy, and motherhood takes a lot out of me as well.

But I am looking to balance my life and start blogging again as well as ease back into working. I am slated to take six to eight weeks off of my freelance writing, which will be a good amount of time to learn how to manage taking care of a baby as well as do all the other things I need and want to do (like shower, eat, sleep…you know, the basics.)

In eight weeks, I’ll be a pro at caring for my boy (I hope!) and will be able to manage my writing load again. I will also be able to say that I’m a work at home parent.

But until then, I’ve decided to work on my own writing. I mostly want to experiment with passive income and learn some ways to increase my earnings each month. Writer Gig shares her residual income results each month, and she definitely inspires me to increase my earnings. She earned over $600 this past month in residual income. I would be more than thrilled to be earning that much.

My goal is to be earning $100 a month in passive income by the time I am done with maternity leave. Can it happen? I don’t know, but I’m going to give it my best shot. I signed up for eHow a couple of months ago and haven’t done much with it. I think I’ll get going on that and see how it goes. I’m also going to look into writing an ebook, promoting my blogs better, and getting involved in affiliate programs.

I’ll update here with more information as I get it.

Doubling my income in a month

The month of March was pretty crazy around here. I worked hard at increasing my writing income, but like all things, it didn’t exactly go as planned. As I said before, my goal was to double my income in one month. Looking back on that goal, it was quite foolish! But that was the goal, so let’s see how I did.

One plan was to ask existing clients for more work, which I did. It worked quite well, for the most part. I greatly increased my writing income with some clients. However, I have one client who has so far supplied most of my monthly writing income. This client didn’t give me any projects at all this month, which means I had a huge deficit to overcome!

Another plan was to apply for more writing jobs. This is the area in which I missed the mark the most. I didn’t significantly increase my job applications, and as a result, got no new clients this way. I will work on this in April.

I did, however, advertise my writing services on craigslist. I received several e-mail inquiries, and one potential client from this. We’ll see how that plays out. I will be trying it again, though.

I looked into PLR income, but so far haven’t made that a reality yet. I’m not sure how lucrative it will be anyway, but I am going to give it a try and I’ll let you know how that goes.

So, did I double my income in one month? That’s the big question, isn’t it? Well, from the methods listed above, no. I actually greatly decreased in income because of the big client I mentioned. However, I did do something unexpected that I hadn’t counted on: I sold a blog.

I didn’t sell it for a ton of money (see Daily Blog Tips for that kind of thing), but I did sell it for a reasonable amount, considering that it doesn’t even have its own domain name. And because I made this sale, I can say that yes, I DID double my income in the month of March.

I have no more blogs to sell (or at least I think I don’t – I’d like to in the future though!), so it will be a bit trickier in the month of April to maintain my income goal. But I think I can do it.

Upgrading my writing business

I started my freelance writing career five months ago in October 2007. I had kind of a lucky, random start that came when I wasn’t really looking for it. I am proud of the fact that my income has been slowly increasing, though slower than I had hoped.

Despite the fact that my income is not what I’d like it to be, I got a bit complacent in my business. I applied to fewer writing gigs, and eased up on writing for current clients. Most of that was health related, but it didn’t bode well for my business.

In the last couple of months, a financial crisis of sorts caused me to reevaluate my business plan. My husband is a PhD student, so his income for the next couple of years is limited with no potential to increase. It’s really my income that has the possibility to keep us in the black every month.

For several reasons, it took almost two months to get a paycheck from my biggest client. Suddenly, we were out of money and in panic mode. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, and I understood a lot better why you should never put all your eggs into one client’s basket. Because of this experience, I have decided to kick my business (and my butt) into high gear.

What is my plan? Well, the monetary goal is to double my income by the end of March. Lofty goal? Yes. Achievable? I think so, but it requires a lot of work and dedication on my part. Here are some of the avenues I plan to pursue in order to reach my goal. If you have any other ideas, feel free to share them with me!

1. Ask existing clients for more work. My health over the past few months hasn’t been so great, so I haven’t worked as much as I could have. I plan to ask my clients for more work if they have it.
2. Secure new clients (especially higher paying clients). This involves searching websites and trying out bidding sites. Here are a few of the places I plan to search for jobs:

   Freelance Writing Gigs
   About Freelance Writing
   Sitepoint
   Digital Points Forum
   LinkedIn
   GetaFreelancer
   RentaCoder
   Scriptlance
3. Investigate PLR income. I know this method is somewhat controversial, with some writers heavily condemning it. I don’t personally have any objections to it, and mainly view PLR as a stepping stone to get to where I want to be.
4. Advertise my writing services. Any suggestions where? I’ve heard that craigslist, sitepoint, and digital points forum are options. Anyone know of better places?

That’s my tentative plan for now. I’m getting a bit frustrated with my current income, but I know that with hard work, I can change things and make it better. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them! I’ll be posting my progress this month to let you know how it goes.

Setting goals for your business

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” -Stephen A. Brennan

Do you have freelance writing goals for 2008? Goals can help you focus on what is important. If you know your priorities for your writing business, you can better decide how to use your time, and you’ll eventually see the results you’re aiming for.

Goals should be measurable, actionable, and achievable. Writing them down and reviewing them regularly is also important. If you haven’t yet chosen goals for yourself, now is the time to go for it!

My freelance writing business goals for this year:

Organize – I’m going to set work hours (and stick to them!), avoid procrastination, and get my personal life in order (laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.) so that these things don’t interfere with working from home. Getting organized is easier said than done, but I’m planning to do it.

Market myself - I haven’t done much marketing yet (okay, none besides starting this blog), but in 2008, that will change. I plan to:

• Build a business website and move this blog to my own domain
• Create business cards and other promotional materials so I can market locally
• Submit to article directories and network more with other writers and bloggers
• Advertise online

Educate myself - I’m going to research some of the writing classes out there and take a course in order to improve my writing skills.

Double my income – I started my writing business in October of 2007, so my income has a lot of room to grow! Some of the ways I plan to increase my writing income:

• Passive income – I plan to look into ebooks and PLR for starters.
• Find new clients – As I said, I plan to market myself locally as well as focus on applying for quality writing jobs online.
• Submit to print media – I’m sure the print market isn’t easy to break into, but these writing gigs can pay very well.