Freelance Writers: Your First Quarter Check-up

It's mid-March. And that means we're nearly through with the first quarter of 2011 already. How are your goals and resolutions for the year shaping up? Is your freelance writing business growing? Do you need to pick up the pace a bit?

So far I'm reasonably happy with my progress for the year. I've:

  • finished outlining the first book in my novel series;
  • gotten my hands on the first draft manuscript of The Query-Free Freelancer;
  • launched my indie publishing blog;
  • launched a genealogy blog;
  • started a month-long virtual blog tour;
  • come up with a plan for a new author research service / site;
  • and put together a mockup for the AFW redesign coming a little later this year (more on that later).

I'm sure I could have done even more, but I seem to be on track with most of my goals. I'm set to launch three fiction-related sites later this spring and a site for my intended fiction pen name. So we'll see how that goes. Check in with me again in June to see if I made it through all of the launches.

How about you? What are you working on? Did you use your first quarter of 2011 to start something new? It's not too late! If you're a bit behind on your business goals, give them a fresh look. You still have plenty of time to make them happen.

Profile image for Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer, consultant, and indie author. She runs numerous websites & blogs including All Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Pros, NakedPR, and Kiss My Biz.

Jenn has 25 years' experience as a professional writer and editor and over 20 years' experience in marketing and PR (working heavily in digital PR, online marketing, social media, SEO, new media, and thought leadership publication). She also has 19 years' professional blogging and web publishing experience (including web development) and around 18 years of experience as an indie author / publisher.

Jenn also writes fiction under multiple pen names and is an Active member of the Horror Writers Association.

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7 thoughts on “Freelance Writers: Your First Quarter Check-up”

  1. Thanks for reminding me to look back on those goals! 🙂 Time tends to get away from me. I’ve still got some work to do when it comes to my guest posting goals, but everything is on schedule–it’s a good feeling.

    Reply
  2. I’m a bit off my goals, though January and February were pretty good. March is a little slower, but that’s because I’ve sunk time into a particular project (two, actually) that will be sources of ongoing revenue. I don’t mind taking the time for that.

    Reply
  3. My business picked up this month. It was steady through Christmas and into February, but is really taking off now. So that’s a good thing. I need an upcoming strong quarter.

    I’m behind in my goals for my blogs. I totally stalled out – for some really silly reasons – but I’m on track now. If only I had more time in the day, or could think and type faster! 😉

    Jenn, the new comment feature is cool!

    Reply
  4. I originally said I was going to try to send three new queries per week this year.

    Wow, that was ambitious. And maybe a little nutty.

    There were some weeks, though, that I really did manage to do that. Other weeks, I was buried with actual assignments and didn’t follow through.

    I’m hoping to be a little more methodical about sending out more queries and pitches in the future, though. I wonder if I was perhaps aiming a little too high this past quarter.
    When I wasn’t getting any takers, it was easy to get discouraged. And thus it became easy to slide the goal onto the back burner, particularly if I got busy.

    Reply
    • Setting goals too high can definitely be encouraging. Just remind yourself that it’s okay not to meet every goal. And think about other things you might have done that weren’t originally planned for. It’s not likely that you just slacked off. Other things come up over time, and sometimes they take precedent over earlier goals we set for ourselves, and sometimes it’s for the better of our business to let goals go or scale them down a bit. Nothing wrong with that. 🙂

      Reply

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