Honestly, there was a part of me that didn’t even want to do this post, because 2020 just felt like a big fat fail in so many ways. But, thanks to my obsessiveness to finish out what I start, here we are, talking about how I did on my 2020 goals. Usually, I would be doing quarterly freelance income reports, but, 2020. Also, stay-at-home-mom status. Actually, SAHM status combined with being around my preshus children 24/7 without any real breaks and a brain that is just mush.
Freelance Income Report (Q1-Q4 because I suck at life)
Wins
The wins are the hardest section to write on this post because so much didn’t go the way I planned this year. But when I think back on the stuff that I did succeed at, I can come up with a few. I had wanted to branch more and more into content marketing, which basically is writing for brands and businesses versus publications. There is more money and more opportunity in it for consistent work and gives me more of a chance to get away from parenting essays (which I love writing, but don’t want to be my main source of work). This year, I managed a 50/50 split between content writing clients and publications, which was more than last year.
I wrote a personal essay for Vox on all the money I spent to have a baby and was paid $550 for it. Even though I initially was offered a great rate, because I make it a rule for myself to always ask for more, I could negotiate this one. And the editor I worked with was incredible and easy to work with. She helped shape it into a piece I’m proud of.
By far the most challenging piece I wrote was an in-depth piece on the bladder medication Elmiron and the emerging adverse effects on a person’s eyes. It’s not the most riveting read, and initially, I wasn’t going to take it on when it was assigned because I know zilch about eyes from a medical perspective. But I negotiated more money and put a good amount of research into writing it. It was insanely difficult finding a source for it, since so many experts didn’t want to touch it probably due to the nature of new adverse drug reactions, but my editor was helpful and accommodating and I ended up pulling in $615 for the piece.
I also just completed my first piece for a national cancer treatment client that I’m hoping leads to a lot more assignments in 2021. I also have some work lined up with three new clients that all came in the last few months.
I’ve gotten (a little) more comfortable with negotiating my fees with clients and publications, and pushing myself to know what I’m worth.
I’m also dabbling in some web design and worked with completely building up author and freelance writer Leah Campbell’s website in preparation for her children’s book launch. THAT was a learning curve, but was a lot of fun and allowed me to use another area of creativity.
Finally, I took a virtual writing conference through ASJA, which is the American Society of Journalists and Authors. They always hold this three-day conference in New York, but this year, they offered it virtually, and I hope they continue to do this. They had a Journalism track, as well as a Content Marketing Track and Books track and I attended almost all of the seminars. It was a fantastic experience.
Boos
Well… I didn’t work that much. With the baby here now, I have zero kid-free time except at night when I’m too exhausted and emotionally drained to do any sort of writing. I’ve always worked best during the day, especially in the morning, and bonus points if I was out at a coffee shop. So covid was especially difficult for me in this realm, but truth be told, I knew things would be a lot different this year anyway with a baby with me 24/7. I brought in just under $4,500 and I’m not happy about it, but I’m hoping to do better next year, especially when summer starts and both Emelia and Olivia can *hopefully* go to daycare together two days a week or so and I can have regularly scheduled workdays again.
I had just taken on what was supposed to be a great traveling clinician client with regular work writing blog posts when covid hit. My contact was furloughed and the new contact was so swamped, that everything, including payment, was delayed. Finally, I just stopped attempting to pitch since it was making me too nervous about when I would see payment.
Most of my pitches have gone unresponded to. In March and April, editors were only looking for covid-related pitches and I just didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to jump in there. That hiatus from pitching just snowballed and while I did start sending in pitches again, I don’t know. I may have lost some of my mojo and inspiration, especially since I was having terrible luck getting my pitches accepted.
The Income Report
Quarter 1, 2, 3, 4:
- 16 projects completed for 9 clients
- 4 were content marketing clients
- 1 was for web design
- 4 were articles for publications
- Sent 30 pitches
- Sent 25 Letters of Inquiry
- 8 out of 9 clients were new-to-me
Income total: $4,436.50
My 2020 goals: Revisited
1. AIM HIGHER IN FREELANCING.
See above.
2. PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG.
I was supposed to have a FAQ part of my blog, but I have yet to it. And I have been crappy at sending out monthly newsletters, even after stepping away from my Facebook page since covid. I did completely revamp my blog with a new theme and colors which has been great. I worked a ton on getting my entire portfolio of work housed on my site instead of on Contently. I wished I could have written more posts on our daily lives (more so like a virtual baby book than anything), but… covid. I can blame everything on covid, right?
3. HEAL MY BODY.
I ended up losing 17 pounds earlier in the summer/fall, but that seemed to fall apart over the last two months. Which is unfortunate because I was really feeling good. Even drinking 100 oz of water has fallen by the wayside and being that I’m nursing, is probably not a good thing. I’m just having a lot of difficulties resetting my motivation again.
Getting a diagnosis of moderate-to-severe-early arthritis in my knees has been a huge bummer, both physically and mentally. Knowing the only real way this is going to go away is by surgery is depressing. Having a husband in the prime of his life when it comes to his physical fitness and here I am knowing I’ll never run again is depressing. We’re gearing up to try to afford the $1400 price tag for injections.
The good news is I am finally going through pelvic floor therapy which has been a process that is LIFE CHANGING.
4. MAKE A BUDGET FOR REAL THIS TIME.
Erm. No. Haven’t done this yet. Probably spent more money than I should have on yarn for crochet projects. But Chris and I just had a conversation about doing a budget for realsies this time.
5. MAKE A LIST OF “SOMEDAY” PROJECTS I NEED TO ACCOMPLISH AND ACTUALLY WORK THROUGH THEM.
Two big things on my “someday to do” list was finishing up my paper scrapbooks up through 2014 and then do Shutterfly books yearly from 2015 on. I’m proud to say it’s been five years and I haven’t done it. And now making five digital scrapbooks sounds daunting (and expensive).
But I did accomplish another big project which was to redo my office and have Chris do his (though his is half office/half storage). I spray painted my grandma’s old bookshelf from an 80s dark veneer to a mustard yellow. I got a yellow office chair and rearranged the entire layout of my room. Man, it was looking amazing initially with the new white dresser in there with the apothecary table, but then I inherited my grandma’s old sewing machine and we needed to keep the table in my room because of Emelia being in Chris’s office so much. Since it’s not that big of a room, it looks a bit more stuffed in there now. But I love this office and am spending more time in there since I put my desk under the window.
6. SELL THE BABY STUFF.
Done. Well, as much as I could. I sold at the fall kids’ consignment sale and made a few hundred dollars. I have a bunch of summer clothes of both kids that I’m planning to sell at the next sale but was able to sell the bigger baby things. There’s a part of me that wishes I could just take all this to the thrift store just to clear out everything. All the bins and hangers and toys just take up so much room but it’s so nice getting good paychecks twice a year at these sales. I find the hardest things to get rid of are the ones both Olivia and Emelia wore or played with.
7. STRENGTHEN OUR MARRIAGE.
We’re now together all the time. All the time. Honestly, we don’t get sick of each other *too much*. I married him because I love spending time with him. So while we’ve been doing really well, we could obviously do better. Not just spend time with each other, but spend quality time.
Our wine time has gone by the wayside. I think so much of it is that we spend all day talking to each other at different intervals. So by the time bedtime is over, we head downstairs and watch TV. I’m usually crocheting something or on my laptop, and he has his phone. Or we’ll be in our separate offices and he’ll be finishing up more work (he works way more now from home than he ever did in the office) and I’ll do whatever in my office. We haven’t been out of the house just the two of us in… 11 months?
Olivia spent the night at my parents two months ago, but we still had Emelia. We haven’t done a “date night” with take-in after the kids go to bed in several months. And of course, all this sounds really depressing, but I promise we’re good. We could be better. We need a date alone. So. Bad.
8. DECLUTTER THE HOUSE…AGAIN.
When the thrift stores opened up this summer, I was able to bring eight trash bags of stuff to them. I recently did a few more bags, but could seriously scour the house again and get rid of more. Especially the toys.
9. HAVE OLIVIA SEND OUT SNAIL MAIL ONCE A MONTH.
Pretty big fail on this. We sent letters to three friends this summer and recently sent a picture each for my parents where Olivia wrote out Merry Christmas herself. But that’s been it.
10. PARENTING.
So let’s see. We wanted to try to limit screen time with Olivia. Insert maniacle laughter. Moving on.
Nighttime potty training. Check. Done. Kid’s amazing and that’s all to say on this one.
Trying to get Olivia to think beyond herself. Errrrr, well this one is so-so. Let’s look at the positives. I took her shopping at Target to pick out three Toys for Tots gifts for Christmas. While she was internally battling wanting to look at toys for herself, she did fantastic at looking beyond her own wants and helped me find toys. We also recently deposited all her change from her piggy bank which ended up to be some $80. We divided it by three and told her a third was going into her savings, a third would be money to donate somewhere, and a third is her own spending money. She was able to pick out an extra toy for Toys for Tots with it, and then also got some new toys for herself.
But she still has a tendency to act pretty entitled, and I know this is partly my fault. For instance, she earned a Jasmine doll for….something, I forget what, and then goes, “Well now I need Abu and Rajah!” Never mind she has Aladdin and Jafar as well. Really, a lot of this just comes down to too many toys. See #8.
