Welcome to this episode of The Freelance Writing Podcast, where we tackle the critical topic of diversifying your freelance writing portfolio. This episode delves into the significant challenges faced by freelance writers who rely too heavily on a limited number of clients. Melanie stresses the potential risks of having all of your income dependent on just one or two clients, emphasizing the need for a more balanced and diverse client base. Drawing from her extensive experience, Melanie provides practical insights into managing multiple clients across different industries to create a more resilient and secure freelance writing business. Join us as we explore the importance of protecting yourself against market uncertainties and learn how to cultivate a portfolio that can withstand the ebbs and flows of the writing industry.
Transcript
Melanie Green [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the freelance writing podcast hosted by Melanie Green. In this space, we’ll discuss freelance writing and all of the challenges that comes with running this type of business. In this episode, we’re gonna discuss diversifying your freelance writing folio and why that’s very important to your business. All too often, freelance writers will get started with a client or 2, and they really feel that that’s enough, that’s enough clients that they’re gonna be really secure. But freelance writing is not a job. It is not having 1 employer who will pay you unemployment if they sever the relationship. There are natural ebbs and flows to all client relationships, and it’s really important to be prepared that things can change at any time. I have helped many new freelancers become freelance writers for the first time, and I do always advise them to diversify their portfolio However, most of them, unfortunately, do come to a point where they really needed to not have all of their eggs in 1 client basket and they decide for whatever reason that they’re not gonna take that advice.
Melanie Green [00:01:11]:
And that usually causes them a little bit of strife. As a freelancer who’s really only working on 1099s or working just independent of that. It’s really important to protect yourself. And so this does mean even if you love 1 client dearly that you don’t put all of your work every month into only their work. But you have, I would say, at least 3 to 5 clients that you’re working on. It can seem more overwhelming to have multiple clients. A lot of times, they will have you working in their system. So I find that you need your own system in order to manage the needs of all the clients.
Melanie Green [00:01:51]:
That’s an extra step for sure. But what happens is is when one leaves or has a slow season, you’ll be well protected financially. So that’s very important to do. The other thing I wanted to point out is that you can’t really forecast what the future will hold. And so generative AI really impacted blog writing in spring of 2023. And while the blog writing market has somewhat recovered, if you had other types of clients such as resume writing for instance you would have been well protected So in my own business as a freelance writer I’ve really focused on having at least 5 clients in different industries. So that means that the 5 clients I have do not all do blog writing. They do a wide range of things, whether it’s writing books, website pages, SEO work, resumes, or other types of long form white papers.
Melanie Green [00:02:51]:
I’ve been trying to really insulate myself for a long time. With the invention of AI and people using other types of tools instead of writers, it’s important to really have a diversity of the types of industries as well. So, you know, you wanna make sure that you’re writing for, you know, law firms and dentists. And so if any one particular aspect of the freelance writing market changes, you’ll be well insulated. Personally I’ve always done resumes. I have written resumes professionally for about 11 years. And I find that it is very busy, usually from January until March. And then there’s a little bit of a bump in the summer and then it slowly dwindles down throughout the winter months till basically nothing.
Melanie Green [00:03:40]:
And then I it will pick up again. And so I’m a vendor, if you will, for a variety of resume companies that are pretty big. And so when they pick up, they all pick up during that time and they all tend to slow down. So it’s important to find something that really picks up in the opposite times of resumes. So for me personally, one of my 1st freelance writing clients was actually an editing client. It was a university that’s local to me and I was editing dissertations for their doctoral program in engineering and so their busy season was the winter end the summer. And so that’s really what I use to offset the resume, and it’s very important to have that so you have consistent work throughout the year. If you have a partner with a regular job, it can sometimes be easier, you know, so you’re not necessarily the only one responsible for your income.
Melanie Green [00:04:36]:
But it is really important nonetheless to go ahead and take care of yourself and to make sure that you’re protected by having a diverse portfolio and that you’re able to really work as you want no matter this time of year. Thanks for spending some time with me discussing freelance writing. If you’d like to connect with me further, please feel free to reach me on my website at www.melaniegreen.info.