I recently blogged about my balance of freelance work, and thought I'd add it here as a permanent article. I believe this will help some new freelancers to see how freelance work, and the different types of freelance work, tend to balance out. I do consider this a "good" balance, for whatever value that adds! It tends to work for me, in that I earn a full time income working a part time schedule of about 20-30 hours per week. To understand this particular freelance work balance, you need to understand the different kinds of freelance work available. My work load is currently made of:
- Ongoing regular contracts- This means contracts and work for clients that are regular (meaning they have regularly-timed work that is due on a regular day) and permanent (the arrangement does not have a definite ending, and the work doesn't seem in danger of stopping).
- Ongoing sporadic contracts- Contracts and relationships that are permanent, but not regular at all, meaning that the work doesn't come very often, nor is it paid on a regular basis.
- One-off projects- Projects that are one "to do" and then over with, often with the client not needing anything else (although, it's good for you if you can convince them that they do!).
- Magazine pitches- This is querying or pitching magazines, and then the resulting assignments.
- Passive income- This is writing an item one time, and then continuing to collect "royalties" or payments for that income. It is considered passive as you then don't do anything with that piece again.
Of the above, here is my current, personal freelance work balance:
These are my ongoing, regular contracts: I write and maintain this site that you're currently reading (About.com), which requires a set number of articles per month and maintenance. I have worked as an editor for a local quarterly publication, which pays a fee for every issue produced (and we print every four months).
These are my sporadic but semi-permanent clients: I review books for a major book review publisher, but don't get very many books per month. I write press and media items for a state-based nonprofit. The contract specifies that I may work for no more than 12 hours per month at an hourly rate, but so far they haven't used me more than 10 hours.
These are my "one-off" projects: I get short "one-off" projects from the freelance writing job lists I recommend there, such as Online Writing Jobs and MediaBistro. These generally last about two weeks, and I aim for projects that fall between $300 and $1000 budgets.
Pitching Magazines: I am constantly sending out pitches, but I tend to publish a lot more often (about 5 times per year) with trade titles. Trade magazines seem to stay with their pool of freelancers a little longer. I speculate that this is because the nature of the magazine doesn't need them to always be searching for "fresh meat" types of ideas, which is how many glossies seem to be.
Passive Income: My passive income is from website content that I wrote several years ago. I was actually paid a fee per article, but have continued to collect an extra per-page-view payment over the last couple years. Finding a tidy little payment in my mailbox from Google advertising a couple times is also a nice little passive surprise. This comes from Google ads that appear on various websites that I own.
Understanding the different types of freelance work, what they offer, and how to balance them helps me to ensure that I have a constant flow of cash, and an ongoing stream of clients and work. I'm also hoping this helps you, as a new freelance writer, to see the different types of work and to plan how to structure your client searches.
