Your Turn: Freelance Writing Goals

Target

I’m not talking about a monetary goal, I’m wondering what you hope to achieve as a freelance writer. For example, my goal right now is to be entirely self-sufficient and earn a living as a writer – but writing for myself and not for others. I’m at the point where I could give up client work if I wanted to, thanks this blog and my ebooklet. However, I’m not at the point where I would like to be yet. I have some projects and collaborations in the works to help me achieve my ultimate goal.

Is your goal to:

Enjoy the freelance writing lifestyle as long as you can so you can continue to work at home and on your terms?
Enjoy a successful residual-based income?
Become a published book author?
Earn money through your own blogs and websites?
Work at home, not necessarily as a freelance writer but doing anything that will allow you do stay home.

What are you doing to achieve that goal? For example, I switched things around this year with my freelance writing. Instead of working for clients full time like in the past, I’m working for myself full time and taking on part time client projects as supplemental income. This has enabled me to focus on my own self-sufficiency. I also have a somewhat successful part time social media consulting business going and taking these occasional projects help to fund my personal writing. I know this approach doesn’t work for everyone and if I haven’t been building this blog for so many years, I wouldn’t be able to do this.

What steps are you taking to achieve your ultimate freelance writing goal? Are you working to make ends meet, or do you have your eye on a particular prize?

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Posted

February 28, 2010

Freelance Writing

david

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12 responses

Kathryn Lang

February 28, 2010

Self-sufficiency! That is a goal I definitely want to reach.

I will be persistent in my pursuit of more speaking opportunities. I will post more blurbs from my speeches on youtube and link to them on my website then I will send out a notice to friends, family and contacts that I am looking for speaking opportunities.

I will be consistent in my website content so that readers can find me. In all that I want to accomplish, consistency is a necessity. I need to create a time budget and do better with managing that time.

Thanks for sharing your goals. Often, just writing down the goals and admitting them to others are all I need to get it done.
.-= Kathryn Lang´s last blog ..Writing Despite the Tough Times =-.

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1. Cecilia Fernandez
  
  February 28, 2010
  
  I am trying to ssee if I can support myself and my three kids (college age and need help) through a combination of freelancing, teaching at a college and a part time job. I have a full time job in sales which is not very fulfilling, in additiont to having to work over and above my selling time with the customer. I don’t know if I can make ends meet, so I am doing research to see which sites I can use to get myself the work I need to freelance. I was a reporter in print and broadcast for several decades so I have a lot of experience. It’s the fear factor of finding myself unable to meet my financial obligations that is holding me back.
  
  Reply
kimberlee

February 28, 2010

My goal is to go fulltime freelance, so definitely self-sufficiency. I believe freelancing will give me greater freedom and flexibility. I want to eventually (hopefully by the end of the year) fire my boss.

To achieve these goals, I’ve put myself on a writing schedule, begun building a list of potential clients and sending out queries. I’m excited and nervous but I know this is what I want to do so I’m going for it.

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Jason Naas

February 28, 2010

I’m just getting my feet wet as a freelance writer/blogger, after months of daydreaming, research, and generally being too poor to do much of anything. But I’ve reached a point where I feel an intense readiness to begin, and my first tentative steps have been taken. It’s a great feeling.
My goal, first and foremost, is to support myself by doing something I love, on my own terms. I don’t have crazy dreams of being a millionaire with a book deal; I’m content with the idea of paying the rent with writing. That, in and of itself, would make me feel rich.

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Anne Wayman

February 28, 2010

Enjoying residual income… my retirement plan… actually taking steps toward it including plans for blogs, online classes that can repeat almost without me and staying open to whatever else there might be out there for me.
.-= Anne Wayman´s last blog ..Author Somaly Mam – Videos About Writing =-.

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Heiddi

February 28, 2010

Hi Deb,

My goal is to make my writing a second career. This year’s goal is to break into a regional or national parenting magazines. I’ve researched local markets so far and have been working on one idea. I’ve taken notes on it already. The next step for me is to write that query letter. So, I’ll be working on that this week. I don’t need to make tons of money. I want to establish myself as a magazine writer. I also want to expand my writing to include creative non-fiction. I’ve been reading up on that and sent out a submission to a book in the Chicken Soup series. I’m so excited to see myself grow as a writer especially in the last few months. 🙂 Thanks for letting me share. Great post!

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Jules – Big Girl Bombshell

February 28, 2010

My first goal is to get started with some income to supplement my offline job. The bigger goals are several that you mentioned about.

1. To be able to earn money with what I enjoy doing.
2. To help others succeed through my writing
3. To become a published author offline with articles, a column, AND a book.
4. Earn money through my own blogs, website and product development.
5. To feel secure enough to work at home.

Currently, i am taking the first steps to freelance while continuing to develop my writing and research skills through online writing.

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Genesis

February 28, 2010

My main goal is to not have to deal with clients anymore. To do that, my smaller goals are to become a successful teacher/author and have full-time income from my ebooks and blogs. At this point, my blogs earn me a pittance, but I can’t dedicate the time I need to because I have to work to feed my family and while we aren’t doing badly (I’m the only earner at this point), I’m not comfortable just leaving off some client work while I focus on my own things. It’s kind of a vicious cycle!

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LIsa

February 28, 2010

wow… I love Anne’s goal of building up residual income, and Deb’s of writing exclusively for yourself. Right now, though, my goal is simple: make a crapload of money as efficiently as possible to pay insurance bills, mortgage, food bills, heat bills, education bills, clothing bills… and have a little left over to go out with my sweet patootie who is NOT making enough in his own business yet.

Lisa

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allena

February 28, 2010

I can’t see past my short term monetary goal right now (which lasts thru July 2011). OH NO! Bad sign!
.-= allena´s last blog ..Multiple Streams of Income =-.

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Jessie Haynes / JHaynesWriter

March 1, 2010

I’m a big fan of goals, Deb. Most recently I completed my platform-building plan for the next three months, and I set some very specific goals for these three months:
1. I want to book 25% of my billable hours by the end of May 2010 (for the month of June) to total a gross revenue of $1,650.
2. I want to expand my network at a rate of 10 contacts per full working day by the end of May 2010, for a sum of 600 additional contacts.
3. I want to be published at a total of 20 blogs other than mine by April 15, 2010.
4. I want to have a free report available by March 15, 2010 and a paid ebook available by April 1, 2010.
5. I want to have at least 36 more posts on WhichPlanner.com and 12 more posts on my company blog by the end of May 2010.
6. I want to have 30 articles on Ezines to attract clients and improve my search engine ranking by the end of March 2010.

Those are my specific, right here, right now goals. In the three months after that, I’m hoping to get to 50% of my billable time and to continue building my contacts, my blogs and my exposure (but not with more Ezines articles, definitely blog guest posting and contributions, though) and such.

The big picture look is to be able to support my family so my fiance, Walt (and we’re getting married this weekend!!) so that he can pursue his dream careers–comic book shop owner and science fiction writer. I want us to be able to work from home and raise our children.

I really enjoyed reading and responding to this blog post, Deb. Always good to look at our feet–and then look at where we want them to be. And keep on walking in that direction!

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Walker

March 1, 2010

I quit my job at the end of 2009 in order to pursue my writing career. Ideally I’d like to find a way to generate income and stay at home while I work on the book, for as long as it takes! So, I’m starting a freelance career as part of my overall work on writing. I’ve just submitted a piece of my memoir to a literary magazine and today I submitted my first article through textbroker.com. It’s a small start but is hopefully just the beginning of this new phase in my life.
.-= Walker´s last blog ..Monday Morning =-.

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