june freelancing recap

the monthly TLDR (annual TLDR at the end):

let’s start with the obvious rose shall we?

my earnings! i made the most, by far, that i’ve ever made in a month of freelancing. $3306 is almost $1000 higher than my last best month (may) and my average pay per piece was roughly $275. no, i didn’t suddenly start making a lot more for each piece that i wrote. but i did file a piece that i’ll make $1058 for when it goes live, which is almost $1 a word. i’m celebrating this win, but also being realistic that that sort of rate seems really really hard to come by, so i’m not expecting a repeat of these earnings in june.

and then the not so obvious roses:

my piece on mahjong for The Everymom went a bit viral on Instagram, clocking nearly 14,000 shares on IG.
i got accepted to Pitchcraft, an amazing community of journalists and editors. you have to apply, and i didn’t get accepted the first time i applied (which makes sense, i was pretty early on and didn’t have a website or many clips). proud that i got accepted this go round, and i’ve already made great connections and had some great ideas come from it.
I LANDED A PIECE WITH SOUTHERN LIVING. yes, this deserves all caps because it’s a goal i’ve had since college. fun fact: i really really really wanted to work at southern living after graduating, but at the time they required all new grads to start with a six month unpaid internship, and i just couldn’t swing that at the time. i’ve been in touch with a very kind editor who has always made time to explain why a pitch isn’t a fit, but this time my piece on “mosquito buckets of doom” fit the bill

while june had its fair share of major roses, there were a couple of thorns:

i significantly increased my pitch volume in june, but i’m only walking into july with 4 confirmed assignments. usually i’ve been walking into a month with 6-7, but my response rate / take rate was really low this month. not sure if summer is slower, especially around the 4th, or if it’s just bad pitches on my part. hopeful that it’s the former and not the latter, but we’ll see how july shakes out
two outlets i contribute to are on a temporary pause for freelance pitches. the good news is that they’ve both said they think the pause will lift around mid-July, and that it isn’t a financial reason, just internal changes, but i’m anxiously waiting to see what happens.

don’t be a one hit wonder. i’d really love to prove to myself that i’m not a one hit wonder for a few outlets where i’ve only published one piece. my goal for july (and will be an ongoing goal TBH) is to land a second piece.
keep pitching. i’m going to keep my goal of pitching 2 or more pieces a day in the hopes that it’ll turn into more assignments in july or beyond.
pitch 10+ new outlets. this is an arbitrary goal, but i feel like i keep pitching the same set of outlets over and over. i don’t think this is a bad thing, but i’d ultimately like to expand the number of outlets i write for so i need to make it a habit of pitching new places.