Even though it's been about a month since I decided I might try to write for my next career, I've only been pursuing and working gigs for a couple weeks (the "day job" kept me busier than normal before then). Both of them were well-received; I hope to receive a link for the first one soon. The second one was a bigger job, involving more coordination with my clients (I think I've been on Skype more in the past four days than in the past seven years), and has turned into an offer of recurring work and a title as one of their site's writers.
They plan to launch their site in 2-3 months. It's for research and planning ski trips, which is a nice match for me. The work at this point is ghost-writing, as I won't get a byline, but they tell me they'll offer references as they appreciate my position in my nascent writing career. There will also be more opportunities to write for them in about 5-6 months.
I'm excited to receive such positive feedback, and grateful for the opportunity to get recurring work and the chance to refine my craft. That I can write about something I enjoy is a rather nice bonus. It seems to be a nice start.
And with that, I'm off to make revisions at my clients' request, and start on my second project for them.