What would you do?

[Courtney Keene]

Hello ladies,

I know I posted here a while ago with some success, and for about 6 months I pretty much had the perfect client. Paid my expenses with the work I was doing and I was able to live comfortably after spending a little over a year scraping together pennies and balancing which bill was allowed to run overdue this month so I could pay another.

Unfortunately that client is unable to provide projects any longer. There is some very, very small hope of smaller projects in the distant future, but right now it's just not realistic.

I have two more clients that I've secured relatively quickly (through Elance, actually, surprise of surprises!) and they've been great to work with. But I can only count on about $150-$200/week from them.

I need to make at least $300, but I'd prefer $500/week so I can set some aside for the inevitable tax-crush coming up soon, and maybe get ahead on some bills. I know it's doable, I'm just trying to figure out where I should focus my attentions.

I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for money right now, but I could potentially swing a Warriors For Hire ad. But I was considering just revamping my portfolio to include a personal sales page and linking that from my signature, then spending a bit of time each day posting to forums where folks are looking for writers.

I'm still bidding at Elance. I stick to my guns there, and only bid on projects that look legitimate, where I know the client is most likely not a cheapskate. I've been working at $0.05/word which I know isn't a lot to some, but right now it's what I can comfortably do at the pace I need to write good content and still get paid fairly.

I've been trolling Craigslist, but it seems like a waste of time. There's so many... questionable gigs there, and the pay is usually atrocious. I have been finding sites in my niche and sending out emails to market myself and ask if they are in need of a writer when I see that they're lacking something. I've had some favorable responses to this, but they weren't willing to work with me at all on rate, so I moved on.

I'd like to devote a couple hours a day to finding and following up on leads. If you were in this position, where would you devote this time?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

[CJWrite]

Ugh...I was in the same boat you were a couple weeks ago. I went from a decent income to a big fat $0 in one morning.

That same morning, though, an old client contacted me and asked if I still wanted to write. I also went through every single site on the Master Content List, plus EVERY single site on another webpage. I can't remember which - I'm sorry If I find it again, I'll let you know. I also applied to every CL gig I could find, even old ones.

It took me about three days, but I finally picked up stuff here and there, plus some overflow from here.

You can try this list: 50 Places that Hire Freelance Writers ? Freelance Writing Jobs | A Freelance Writing Community and Freelance Writing Jobs Resource

And ProBlogger.net has a job board.

I haven't tried the WF ad yet, but that's next on my list.

Good Luck!!