Thursday, January 22, 2009

New Year, New Goals

Hello readers!

I'm so sorry I haven't been regularly keeping up with this blog. I hate making excuses for myself, but the holidays were busy and then all of a sudden I started getting a ton of work, so I let this blog fall by the wayside after Thanksgiving.

But.

It's a new year (and I'm way late with the New Years resolutions, but better late than never), and one of my goals for this year is to update this GrammarScribe blog on a regular basis. I have so much to talk about on the freelancing side of things, plus I miss updating with regular grammar tips.

Freelancing is going extremely well lately. I'm about to break a huge barrier: by the time I'm paid for all the work I've completed in January, I'll have made more than $1,000 for the month.

Now, I know that number probably looks small to any more experienced freelancers that may be reading this. But it's a huge deal to me. It's the first time that I can realistically seeing myself making a go of this full-time. I'll have to make a lot more than this, obviously—$1K a month won't get me far without another job to supplement it—but it's more than I've ever made in a single month.

Compare that to my income for January 2008: $15.64.

I've come a long way.

And yet I still have a long way to go. So that brings me to my 2009 freelance writing goals. I've already met one of them—to seek out new clients. I scored a new client early in the month and I'm already getting steady work from them.

Other goals:
  • I want to exceed my freelancing income each month. Near the end of 2008, each month's income was a little higher than the previous months' paycheck. I'd like to continue that streak for as long as possible into 2009.

  • I resolve to update this blog on a more regular basis. Exciting things are happening here, and I want to make the time to talk about them. Early ideas for posts include tips on how to get started writing for the Internet. And I'll be offering a GrammarScribe Grammar Tip every Monday to help you start your work week.

  • My last goal is to break into commercial writing at some point this year. Press releases, brochures, direct mail, advertisements, etc.

What kinds of goals have you set for yourself this year? How have you been so far at sticking to them? Leave a comment and let me know!