In early June 2011, after (very nearly) five years working at the online news agency and content creation company Adfero (later Axonn Media), I handed in my notice.
During those five years I had produced around 7.5 million words (this is literally true, not an exaggeration) of original, researched breaking news content, static pages and features for SMEs and global household brand names.
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| An artist's impression of what my last ten years looked like... |
At different times in 2006-11 I was varyingly:
- A 'desk head' responsible for a team of 8-10 correspondents.
- A performance-related pay correspondent with additional workload.
- A self-managed correspondent producing headline news for Adfero's own websites.
There was nothing new left to try and I wanted a change of scenery. Which is ironic, as I switched from working at home, to freelancing at home.
On June 30th after taking a few days off to celebrate my birthday, Adfero offered to release me from working the rest of my notice period, and I left without fanfare (or even a 'good luck' card - try not to neglect your homeworkers in the post-COVID years, people!).
The Road Ahead
All of this means that on July 1st 2021, I will officially enter my 11th year as a freelance writer. It's been a blast, extremely stressful at times, but a joy nonetheless, and incredibly satisfying to get away with doing something I love this much for this long.
Even more incredible, some of my current clients have been with me since the very beginning. One Manchester SEO agency in particular was among the first companies I contacted to see if they needed any freelance writers. They had just been let down by their writer on a tight deadline, I stepped in, and the rest is history.
I have clients all over the country (shout-out to Leeds and Leicester, love you both) and around the world. I've written for alcohol brands in Norway, oil producers in Nigeria and microneedling clinics in Australia.
Most of my newer clients are picked up through positive word of mouth or old contacts getting in touch from their new jobs, and this is also very pleasing, as it means I'm either a very good copywriter or a very cheap copywriter. Or possibly both.
I have no plans to quit anytime soon - let's see where the next ten years will take us, eh?
Thank You
To those of you who have been with me from the start.
To those of you I have met along the way.
To those of you who have said nice things.
You make this worthwhile in ways that are more than just financial.
