Freelance writer and strategist earning $180,000/year

Welcome to another post in the $100k Club series. You can see the full series here. This is "My Morning Routine" for content marketing folks making six figures. The goal is to shed light on the skills and habits that enable people to achieve lucrative jobs and help get more people in this club.

These will be anonymous and updated regularly. If you make more than $100k/year and want to contribute, email me.

For more info on content marketing salaries, check out our salary report.

If you'd like to see more info on salary by job title, check out these resources: Content Marketing Manager Salary, Content Strategist Salary, Head of Content Salary, and Content Director Salary.

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What was your first full-time job in content? What was the salary?

I got hired as an entry-level contract worker for an SEO agency. One of my tasks was to submit and collect about 20 articles per week to Textbroker.com. They paid $10-12 per $500 post and it was essentially unreadable. My 2nd week there, I pitched them on paying me $15 per post to get something readable, and that was my first content marketing gig - 80 articles per month on pest control, carpet cleaning, and scrap metal for $1,200.

How much do you earn today? What's your job title?

I'm a freelance copywriter and content strategist. I've averaged around $15,000 per month over the last 4 years. I do a mixture of one-off projects tackling website copy, long-form content, or content strategy, and then I work with one or two retainer clients at a time doing more full-service content marketing for companies in that initial, pillar content stage.

What's the single biggest salary jump you've made? (either from job-hopping or a promotion/raise)

I went from around $7-8k per month to $13-15k per month in about 30 days after following some higher-ticket packaging advice from a consulting course.

What is your most valuable skill?

From a content marketing perspective, my most valuable skill is my ability to structure and write long-form content in a way that keeps people reading. Most of my long-form content averages around 7 mins time-on-page (prior to adding video), and I think that is the main reason I've been able to rank consistently for competitive keywords, frequently beating much bigger brands with much bigger budgets.

What's the best book you've ever read on writing, marketing, sales, business or productivity? (Feel free to suggest more than one!)

I really liked Content Marketing For Traffic And Sales by Daniel Daines-Hutt.

Have you had a career mentor/coach? If so, how did you find them and what have you learned from them?

Brian Dean, Bryan Harris, Benji Hyam, and Daniel Daines-Hutt have all had a big impact on my career development. I've purchased incredibly helpful products from all four of them, and then Benji and Daniel have consulted with me directly on specific challenges and helped me solve them.

What skills or habits help you thrive at work?

Having a north star metric is huge. And then having at least one major metric that is entirely in my control. I'm trying to get my personal blog to 100k visitors per month right now, but my "in my control" goal is to publish 200 long-form blog posts, and I think the latter will lead to the former.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to join the $100k club?

Noah Kagan once mentioned that 75% of Sumo's marketing budget is dedicated to building what works consistently over time, and then 25% is devoted to trying new things. I think this is the perfect framework for building a career. Spend 75% of your time and resources being consistent in building on what you know works. Spend 25% of your time and resources experimenting, which translates to learning, growth, insights, and innovation.

What is your gender and ethnicity? Where do you live? (optional)

I'm a white male living in Redding, CA.

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