All freelancers have this fear. I am a freelance blogger, and I do have this fear of losing all my clients one day. And it is a must to have a little bit of emergency cash somewhere.

On few occasions I, did lose few clients, and it was tough. We freelancers must learn the art of getting new clients as fast as possible.

Thank you.

Dean, are you talking about the companies that farm out website content, usually blog posts? They can be a place to start, but most don’t pay well. You want to get to $50 an hour as quickly as you can, and then move beyond that, and that usually involves working directly with clients.

Lori, I agree about point 3: it is directed at skilled and experienced writers. And you’re right: it’s best to do some marketing every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes.

Tom does nail it in number 4, and it’s a key reason why many freelancers never make a lot of money. They get stuck working full time on low paying projects in a specific niche and they never expand to better niches or better clients.

I’d say point #3 can be a dangerous one for newer writers. Those first five years can be a yo-yo career time. It would be too easy to lean on that point and say “Well, it’s about to change for the better!” I know he meant for writers who have been in the trenches a while, but I did want to throw out that warning.

That said, I totally agree. I’ve had times where one client was holding up the bulk of my work. Of course, that’s also when I’ve reached out for magazine assignments to tide me over (never stop thinking of the drought!). But within weeks, there was so much work I had to turn things down.

And #4. Bottle that, patent it, and sell it. That slow time is an excellent opportunity to gain more clients at better rates. It’s not a loss if you look at it that way!