Instead of a lumpy mail with a soft offer (like a special report), I'm going to send out lumpy LOI's. A gift in the envelope that ties in with one of the main reasons people hire me. I hired a virtual assistant to call 64 hand-picked prospect companies for me, and she managed to get the names of marketing/creative directors for 58 of them. I'll send the letters out in batches and follow up by phone a week later. Last time I did this in 2008 I was too chicken to do the follow up phone calls, but this time, I'm not intimidated at all. Chalk it up to experience and confidence in one's offerings.

I hear you on the remodeling, too. We're about to have the wood floors in the entire downstairs sanded and refinished. I'll be working from McDonald's again.

Don't dread it, Paula. Examine it. There's something in there that's going right and probably something going wrong, too. Where could you shift your focus and get better results?

Queries: Sent a dozen or so ideas to Favorite Editor. Nothing assigned yet, but she e-mailed the other day apologizing for being so slow – she was swamped trying to get the May issue out. I also applied at a job sourcing site another writer recommended. It vets applicants and matches writers with clients. She said the vetting process can take 4-6 weeks.

LOIs: Sent three new LOIs; followed up by snail mail on three others. The biggest surprise? I've only heard back from one. It was "we have no need for freelancers at this time." Not the response I was hoping for, but at least it was a response.

Listings: Replied to five job listings that sounded like good fits for me. Heard back from two, but the "competitive rates" one offered fell far below what I consider the lowest end of competitive, and the other was vague about their expectations. (If there's not much leg work, their rates are acceptable, but I fear they expect way more than they indicated. I asked for a clarification and never heard back.)

Social Media: Darn it. I keep forgetting to track it. But I have increased my LinkedIn activity a bit. I added at least one more connection. I'm also trying to use Google+ at least once a week – and build from there.

Existing Clients: I turned in some listings for a long-time client (published this week!); my editor there also assigned me a story she had planned to write. A fun one! Finally finished off that darn Construction Managers article for my career-planning client. Wrote four columns.

New Clients: Had a call this morning about two résumés. I guess you'd call it a referral – a neighbor met for coffee with an acquaintance who happened to mention she needed to update her résumé. We'll see if this person follows through.

Earnings: Pathetic. Barely 1/3 of my monthly goal. That really stings during tax season.

Bottom Line: While I haven't had a true dry spell in over a year, I still need additional clients to help fill the gaps.

The biggest surprise this month? An utter lack of basic courtesy from several editors.

Seriously, how hard is it to hit "reply" and say yes or no? One local editor told me two weeks ago she'd be assigning stories within the week. She even told me the topic, and I said it sounded interesting. A friend of mine got a couple assignments for that issue, so the very same day I contacted the editor again asking if she was ready to make assignments yet. No reply. She could have said, "Sorry – we only had X-number stories this month and everything's already been assigned," but she chose not to reply at all. That's just plain rude.

You can probably tell…I'm more than ready for Writers Worth Month to start!

One fun item is that I was contacted to be the keynote speaker about the business side of freelancing at a conference (www.communication-central.com). It's on September 27-28 in Rochester, N.Y., if anyone wants to roadtrip!

My main challenge the past 2 weeks is that we're having our house re-tiled. Lots of racket and dust, the dogs have to be driven to the kennel every day, and we moved everything we own into the backyard. I will be glad when we're done…

I do know how long it take with the LI connections. It's nice though, as you know, because they trust you at that point.

Let us know when you launch! Neat stuff. 🙂

Sounds productive, Anne. What are some of the surprises you've found with the coach?

Lots of projects with a few carrying over into May. I had my 2nd highest month of income and am hoping May will be even better.

I am receiving more queries about my services. Mostly from LinkedIn connections. We know how long it can take for some of those to produce but I am very hopeful on at least two of them (with one who could be a real boost due to his industry cred).

I am hoping to launch my 60 Mile blog (officially) in May & its Old Lady Walking store at Zazzle. Foreign territory for me so I'm excited to see how that goes.

My existing clients are keeping me busy. Two have added about double the projects as normal – woo-hoo!

I did a postcard and email marketing campaign so we'll see how those shake out.

Bottom line – happy to see earnings back up and looking forward to some of those queries coming through.