Comments on: Monthly Assessment: July 2011

By: Gabriella F.

Gabriella F. — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:46:45 +0000

Thanks again, Lori. I didn't think you forgot. A little bit of selective amnesia, it seems. Funny!

My July was adequate, but not great.

Existing clients--Came through for me again. That's what's keeping earnings from being too weak this year.

New clients--You know that potential client that was interested and then went radio silent, finally telling me she didn't have money? Well, she's found money! So we're working to get software installed on my laptop so I can begin. That'll be a good, solid monthly paycheck if they like my work (and I'll make sure they do!). Yippee!

On top of that, a source I've interviewed several times contacted me on Facebook and said he's now gone in-house at a trade association, and they're reworking their mag. He's sending me a RFP for my involvement. How lovely is that?! Lesson: Always be polite and professional to sources because they could be future clients!

Earnings--Well, I'm inching up. Better than the past few months, but still not where I was each month last year. But I'm heading in the right direction.

Enjoy your vacation, Lori. What with all the marketing you're doing, you've earned it!

By: Jake P

Jake P — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:33:06 +0000

Queries/LOIs: Sent a blind query yesterday, for the first time in forever. I've not had much success with blind queries in the past, but I'm giving it a shot based on a fun idea I conjured up while on vacation. If magazine #1 doesn't bite, there are still a few more in the genre. And I just received an assignment this morning based on an LOI sent a few weeks back.

Vacation: 100% successful. Didn't do a lick of work.

Halley's Clients: Two blast-from-the-past clients contacted me right before vacation for quickie projects. I couldn't say no.

Earnings: I took a full 2 weeks off plus long weekend over July 4, but even so, my instinct is "probably above avg. for July." I was frightfully busy while in the office.

By: Paula

Paula — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:43:05 +0000

My July was pretty good.

Queries/LOIs: I sent 8 queries to 4 magazines, most of which aren't assigning for those issues yet (yes, I target queries to specific issues whenever possible). Sent one LOI but need to follow up when that editor returns from vacation.

Postings: 0

Existing clients: Only turned in one column (they owe me for three published columns so if they want more they have to pay up). Contacted the person in charge of the blog - they haven't posted anything since May and have a backlog of roughly 40 posts (only 5 are mine), so I'm holding off on new blog posts for now. Turned in five articles and picked up two new assignments.

New Clients: 0

Earnings: Slightly over my modest monthly goal.

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:33:01 +0000

July was one of my busiest yet. And, as often is the way, it also brought more techie problems.

My monitor blew out, which Dell thought was my hard drive/motherboard. Only because I decided to test it on my laptop did I find out it was the monitor.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am having all kinds of trouble lately with Google Chrome, especially not playing nice with Wordpress. When I switch to another browser, I'm okay.

Anyway, enough whining. July was good.

Existing clients One of my anchors (forever love that word) has really come through-besides my regular monthly blogging for them, starting in July they signed off on 5 new projects.

Another long-time client who had dwindled down to a regular ghostwriting article gig is discussing a white paper and proposal activity. Not finalized, but looks promising.

Had another former client get in touch for a rush job-couldn't meet their deadline due to my work volume so lost out on that.

New clients Delivered a marketing brochure for a new client. Waiting on review and editing.

Another "new" client was my contact at the existing client with all the projects. She's VP at a new company and wants a white paper before the end of the year-woo-hoo-love breeding new clients from old. :-)

Earnings July made up for June (which was down). It exceeded my monthly target by 33%.

I have some big projects for the rest of the year, but taking time off for the two 3-Day Walks in September and November.

Life is good. :-)

By: Damaria Senne

Damaria Senne — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:43:12 +0000

My earnings were low by about 40%, but that's because I spent most of the month working on a long-term project yet. I've invoiced, and payment at the end of October should push my earnings up quite a bit. The big thing I have to do is make sure that this project does not take over too big a chunk of my time, because I do need to make sure I have other sources of income so when it ends, my business can continue to grow.