Expert tips from a nurse-turned-writer

Hello writers,

I took some time off last week to hang with family, and I’m so incredibly grateful to be my own boss at these times! In today’s newsletter, I’m talking about final checklists and safeguarding your income stream. Hope you’re all having a fantastic week!

Talk soon,

WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK

Final draft checklists

I write about 10,000 words each week, mostly in the form of 1,000- to 2,000-word articles for my health content clients. Because all these words go to different clients, each with their own style guide, voice, and tone, I follow a client-specific checklist before I turn in my final draft.

For example, one client’s checklist looks like this:

• Inlinks

• Takeaway graf at bottom

• Style guide double check

• Check expert credentials format/linking

• ProWriting Aid

• Expert emails

• Meta-description

• References [Source: ___ Title: ___ Author: ___ Date: ___ URL: ___]

Where another one looks like this:

• ProWriting Aid

• Check to make sure doctor’s name, practice name, links, and practice locations are all correct. 

• Meta titles Should be exactly 41-60 characters in length

• Meta descriptions Should be exactly 121-156 characters in length

These final draft cheat sheets save me gobs of time. If I didn’t use them, I would miss important client requirements and have to sift through pages-long style guides with every article. (No thanks!)

This also comes in handy when you get feedback from an editor. Just add it to your final checklist, and you can be sure never to make the same mistake twice.

TRIVIA-PALOOZA

The most words

Your trivia question for the week is…

💡 How many words are in the English language (which has more words than any other).💡

(The answer’s at the bottom!)

FREELANCER/INDIE AUTHOR CORNER

Spreading out my income

Around Christmas, when I found out my biggest, most stable client was dropping all their freelancers, I decided on a theme for 2025: “diversify.”

Never again will I rely on one client for over 50% of my work. Ideally, I’d love 5-7 regular clients equally spread across my calendar, so no one client loss will plunge me into cold-sweaty panic. (This number is much higher than other freelancers prefer, apparently.)

I’ve built up my client list this year, and with one more, I will finally feel comfortable with the diversity of my client list. Clients come and go, and I know I will have to keep my lead pipeline warm, but I’m happy with my progress so far!

Here’s where I stood at the end of 2024:

• Client #1: 45% of my work

• Client #2: 45%

• Client #3: 5%

• Client #4: 5%

Then I lost Client #2. 😳🫠

But here’s how it’s going now:

• Client #1: 30%

• (New) Client #2: 30%

• Client #3: 5%

• Client #4: 20%

• Client #5: 5%

• Client #6: 10%

How many clients do you like to keep on at once? Reply and let me know!

‘Til next time

Thanks for reading and see you in a few weeks!

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MY AUTHOR BOOKSHELF

💡 Find the trivia answer HERE 💡