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Topic: How long does it take to "succeed" at freelancing?
| Author | Message |
| rivkie100 | Posted – 4/28/2008 11:31:32 PM | show profile After a harrowing year at ill-fitting job, I've decided to go out on my own. I'm pitching and networking, trolling for new markets and calls for submissions (including a few lower paying jobs that will beef up my portfolio), and I'm wondering, well... how long does it take? While I don't expect success to come quickly, I find the lack of feedback challenging. Specifically, how do I know if I'm basically doing everything right and just waiting for lady luck to smile upon me or if something is off in my approach? Should I be looking for a 10% positive response rate? 60%? I'm sure it's different for everyone and every industry, but any feedback is welcome. I'm largely targeting editorial stuff--print and online (both small and large markets)--though I'm also keeping an eye out for research and corporate copy writing gigs in an effort to keep money coming in. Thanks to all. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 4/29/2008 1:54:30 AM | show profile The first question is how you define success. |
| mkelly | Posted – 4/29/2008 9:44:14 AM | show profile When you're too busy freelancing to look in the help wanteds for a full-time job, and you tell people off at cocktail parties when you say 'I freelance' and they say 'until you find a real job?' -- then you're successfully freelancing. |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/29/2008 9:57:32 AM | show profile My hit rate is about 50 - 60% (number of stories pitched vs number of assignments landed). I've asked around and that's a pretty good rate compared to other freelancers I know. When I first started out it was about 10%. |
| Canadiana | Posted – 4/29/2008 10:02:10 AM | show profile My friend, who is a successful freelance writer, told me it takes about a year to really get on your feet as a freelancer. She's right: I've been doing this full-time for almost a year now and finally have the high-paying, good-quality clients I've been searching for. I've even had the luxury of turning down a few gigs. So, stay busy, keep pitching, networking and learning. You'll get there! |
| writesonwater | Posted – 4/29/2008 10:20:24 AM | show profile For me, by the time I was in my second year I'd hit my stride. But I didn't do it some easy way. I developed three or four good clients, and my per word rate ranged from decent to sad. Continue to develop new markets until you get a comfortable, paying workload. But you can't measure it in time. Instead, measure in effort. |
| DQ102 | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:13:01 AM | show profile First of all, good for you for leaving the ill-fitting job. It just isn't worth it to stick with a situation that isn't working. To survive as a freelance writer, you need regular clients. I have a few magazines and one Web site that I can count on for regular work, and I continue to pitch new clients for supplemental income. I actually built up my business while I was still a full-time staffer, which meant I worked around the clock, but when I went full-time freelance about four years ago, I was on steady ground, and I even picked up a couple of new clients through cold pitches. I would recommend you develop a specialty--even a few--if you don't have one already. That definitely helps. Good luck! |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:17:01 AM | show profile Agree with dribble - depends on how you define "success." For me it's about earning approximately a part-time journalism salary while I work around my kid's preschool schedule. As for success rate - percentages - hard to say. I don't do a lot of blind pitching. I have a few steady clients who feed me assignments and accept or decline my pitches (but those pitches take much less work than a blind pitch.) As for the blind pitching I've done, I'd say it's about 50/50. Some of my blind pitching led to my longterm clients. It took me about 3 years to get here - but I can't work all day because of aforementioned kid. Sounds like you have a good plan - those low-paying jobs can lead to other work and keep the rice on your table in the meantime. Do you feel like you are succeeding? |
| chucho | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:25:19 AM | show profile I'm interested in doing this. I have almost enough money saved up to last a year without work in any city in America. I am considering the New Orleans area. If you are currently a self-sufficient freelancer and were in my situation, what would you do? I was thinking if I lived near a city that has some kind of tourism industry I could write for airline mags. And I am interested in outdoor activities and NOLA crime. Also: my main concern is health insurance. I am considering taking a basic, lowly reporting position just to have health insurance, then use what free time I have to develop enough contacts to afford my own health insurance. How do freelancers deal with this? |
| WordyBird | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:26:19 AM | show profile My gut reaction is to say, "However long it takes to land a few steady, repeat gigs." Don't stress over lack of feedback, though. You could be doing everything right and are just contending with what the market will bear. Not long ago I answered a listing on another service in which the contact included his phone number and invited people to call. When I spoke to him, he said that he received 40 calls in the first hour the listing was up, and by 3:00 (I called at 3:30), he had received about 250 e-mails. With that kind of volume, it would be almost impossible to provide feedback to all who weren't selected. Keep plugging away--and don't forget the value of face time. Answering listings and networking on-line only go so far. Talking to people and putting your business card in their hands can make a huge difference. Good luck! |
| chucho | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:26:43 AM | show profile PS: Does any full time freelancer here break $40K a year? I'm curious. How many monthly assignments does this entail, roughly speaking? |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:43:09 AM | show profile Three years ago I made nearly $100,000 freelancing that year. Yeah, that was a great year. I had some corporate work that really boosted it. The next year slipped, and this year was worst of all, around $50,000. Yuck. My definition of success is about $75,000/yr and at this rate I won't hit that in 2008 unless I find some corporate work quick. I'm also thinking about finding a wage slave job and cutting my freelancing back to the places I'm under contract for, so I'd be spending my time writing instead of pitching. |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:44:52 AM | show profile Forgot to add that I average 2-4 pieces a month. Usually that's 2 big features and some smaller stuff (plus admin work and pitching). It's a heavy workload with almost no margin for error (missing a deadline, getting a big rewrite, etc) so it's a challenge to manage. |
| jcpatterson | Posted – 4/29/2008 11:47:13 AM | show profile I freelanced part time for two years, then went full-time. At the time, my blind marketing pitches had a hit rate of 1% (yes, that's not a typo); when I hit 3%, I started being able to retain clients long-term, so each hit usually spun off months or years of work (I've had one client now for 10 years, and two others for 7-8 years). So I focused even more on retention than I did on blind marketing. After 10 years of freelancing, I'd say 95% of my work now comes from repeat clients, some of which I send pitches when I come across an interesting idea. My blind pitch hit rate is probably now something like 25%, but since I'm not depending on this for the bulk of my work, I can take more risks and pitch more experimental things. And churcho, the short answer to your question is "yes." |
| chucho | Posted – 4/29/2008 12:28:36 PM | show profile What does "corporate work" mean? Is that writing for internal publications? I've made decent side money designing corporate internal publications. Are we talking about writing articles for internal newsletters and magazines? |
| chucho | Posted – 4/29/2008 12:30:57 PM | show profile And can this be done from anywhere? Or is it preferable to be located where you can meet face-to-face with your clients? How many freelancers out there do work for clients located far away? |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 4/29/2008 12:34:00 PM | show profile chucho, how are you going to live on $40,000 -- and save for retirement and (although you say you'll skip it) and buy health insurance? Yes, some people here make $40k a year and some make a lot more than that. The monthly workload can depend on the stories; if you can snag a $4k or $6k assignment every single month, then one a month should be enough. How many people do that? I think most freelancers juggle a mix of things, short, easy hits with no revisions and few(er) sources with more complex pieces that may require a lot more reporting and much more detailed writing. Some mix in PR or corporate work, teaching, a column, essays, whatever. Some months it's six stories, some it's three or only one. But if you have a $1,000 month you better have a $5k or $8k month to even out your annual income... Finding repeat clients saves time and hassle; you know what they want, what they pay and how to produce it quickly and well. Blind pitching seems a real time-suck and I suspect the busiest freelancers do very little of it. I usually pitch editors I know and who reply quickly. You need a lot of momentum to keep cash flow flowing with a steady stream of checks. It takes time to weed through the editors and pub's who beat you to death with revisions. It's an efficient way to go broke because you won't get paid 'til they're satisfied -- and some are extremely difficult to satisfy. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 4/29/2008 12:36:06 PM | show profile It was a year. My first year I knew really nothing and no one (which I don't recommend to anyone) and was a struggle. After that, you get regular clients and life is much better. So, save for a while, make contacts and then jump in. c. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 4/29/2008 12:41:14 PM | show profile I've worked for years for editors I've never met face to face; I suspect that's very common. jcpatterson makes a crucial point -- no room for error!! And, as someone facing shoulder surgery this week (and a possible month in a sling) ^%$## happens. If you don't have health insurance and need hospital care, you could face bankruptcy. If all you do is get a lousy flu, (or worse), you need savings for those lost days of work and you really have no downtime built into this sort of life -- planned vacations are one thing, but unplanned injury or illness, not so much. Revisions and questions can keep popping up even when you have no extra time to deal with them. Then you face the challenge of working 7 days a week, which is is insane. While it is deeply unfashionable to admit weakness, we all can get sick and some seriously sick -- and you cannot work when you are sick or in major pain. So significant savings have to be considered, no matter how great your year's income when healthy. |
| chucho | Posted – 4/29/2008 1:04:07 PM | show profile >> chucho, how are you going to live on $40,000 -- and save for retirement and (although you say you'll skip it) and buy health insurance? << I've been working on a budget for a quite a while. I am working from memory, but basically my budget includes: - 35% off the top from the start to cover taxes and health insurance deductibles (in the case of working in a staff position where it comes out of the paycheck -- I have no idea how much it would cost to buy it myself). You think that's enough? - $900 a month rent in a smaller city; $1250 a month rent in NYC (Inwood shoebox or with a roommate). I'm pretty sure I can fit this -- I've done it before. - In a smaller city: $200 for car insurance monthly; $100 for gas money. (In NYC, no car. In smaller city: car, for which I've budgeted $18,000.) - $600-900 for groceries and leisure (depending on location). - $300 minimum for savings. $50-100 to annuity on a principle of $5,000 initial (may have to be part of the $300, but preferably not). Again, I'm working from memory (don't have my spreadsheet right now) but basically to be self-sustainable in a small city: about $43,000 and to do it in NYC, about $53,000. And this includes saving a modest sum, plus auto deducting into a annuity. But in the first year of this my expenses are paid -- if I live in NYC I don't have to buy the car or pay the insurance and gas, which covers the difference plus the cost of a monthly subway pass :) I think that's a fairly realistic budget. The question is whether it's possible to pull at least $43,000 in a place like New Orleans -- which is where I'd like to end up. I could probably get a lowly reporting gig at a small paper for $25,000 per year and hopefully be able to culture freelance contacts in that year. The key is in the first year, all income is savings, so it doesn't have to be a lot -- but after the first year it has to break $40,000 -- otherwise I have to make adjustments. Or i could just take a soulless job somewhere for a flat income. But I'd like to try freelancing in NOLA. And I have made a considerable amount of money designing publication for corporates, so I'm thinking I could probably supplement my freelancing with that as I try to find writing work. Is this realistic? |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/29/2008 1:28:01 PM | show profile "Corporate work" for me means writing for corporations and either self-published, controlled-circulation pieces for their clients or for their Web site. I don't live near NYC, but I work for magazines and book publishers there. It is cheap and easy for me to get to NYC for the day. That way I can get face time when I need it, but my sources and perspective are from somewhere more "exotic." |
| chucho | Posted – 4/29/2008 1:32:54 PM | show profile I appreciate the input because it's helping me figure out the next fork in the road. I like the idea of being close to the clients, but I gotta be in a warm place or in the city. I fear NYC is flooded with competition, too, esp. if I intent to supplement income with pagination work and publication design. (Though I much prefer to write, people pay me more for design.) |
| sophiesMOM | Posted – 4/29/2008 1:38:08 PM | show profile i think a lot of this depends on your rep when you start freelancing. i worked for 13 years as a reporter/editor, then quit for a year to have my daughter and move to a new city. when i was ready to start freelancing it wasn't that tough to get work since my name was sort of well known in my coverage area. the bulk of my income (70%) comes from corporate work which of course pays much better. I maintain my journalism chops by doing one feature story per quarter, usually for the same client. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 4/29/2008 1:46:45 PM | show profile Chucho, it sounds like you're putting a lot of thought into it, and no one knows better than you do what kind of lifestyle you'd like to live. I can say, though, that $53K in New York City is going to be tight. I made more than that in D.C. and because my own personal preference was not to live with roaches and because I have pets (birds, go figure), it got tight at times. D.C. is expensive, true, but it's less expensive than New York for a lot of things, like dining, entertainment, and transportation. Also, health insurance here is expensive. I've yet to see a decent plan for less than $325 a month, and that's with a high deductible. Granted, you may be in a different age group and have different needs, but still. I'm freelancing and am currently also looking into temp work as a supplement because on Long Island, I don't think that billing out less than $5K a month is going to do me much good, and I'm averaging about half that because I'm starting out full-time. Ideally, I'd like to bill out $6K a month, which comes to $72K a year. |
| amodgirl | Posted – 4/29/2008 2:25:20 PM | show profile re: networking this is a great thread - thanks for everyone's thoughtful responses. in regards to successful networking strategies, how exactly are you all doing this? are we talking friends of friends at parties? industry events? classes? asking editors to lunch? |
