Is The Climate for Freelancers Tougher Now?

Over on the Well Fed Writer Blog, there's a discussion going on about whether or not it's still possible to achieve financial self sufficiency as a freelance writer in six months or less. Bowerman first wrote his freelance writer's Bible about eight years ago, and he wanted to know if his "six months or less" promise was still possible today.

Some of the responses to this post were eye-opening. Especially Karen's. If you'll scroll down in the comments, you'll see that Karen has had a freelancing career for seven years now, and she's seen her client list drop significantly in the past few years.

Should we be scared? Is the market for freelance writers taking a nose dive? Here are some thoughts on why it might be--and why it might not be.

More freelancers = more competition. Books like Bowerman's and Bly's really increased public interest in freelance writing. Now there are so many books about it, websites devoted to it, e-books and business coaches and classes and all sorts of businesses that market to people who want to become freelance writers, it's no wonder writers are seeing more competition. And new freelancers price low. It's possible seasoned pros are seeing more competition from new, eager writers who'll do anything for that first clip--even work for free.

Global outsourcing may not be good news for freelancers. The Internet is both a blessing and a curse to freelancers, in my opinion. Clients now have access to writers all over the globe, for better or for worse, and some of these folks work for extremely cut rates. Hiring these people is like outsourcing your factory to China and paying six cents a day for work you'd have to pay a living wage for in the States. Freelancers face the same competition all workers in America face from low-wage workers in other countries.

Elance, Guru, et cetera. Job bidding sites give clients who are looking for a price break a single, easily-accessible place to find cheap work. I used to work on Elance, and while I charged high prices compared to the rest of the pack (and still got work), I was not the norm. Perhaps before these sites became popular, it was tougher for clients who wanted cheap writing to find cheap writers. Not anymore.

More businesses than ever need good freelancers. However, the Web has created an insatiable market for businesses looking for writers. Natural search is pretty much all writing--only a regular stream of content will get you at the top of the SERP's and keep you there. Savvy businesses understand that quality writing is the only thing that really works--you can't use $5 articles as link bait and expect to get anywhere. This is a huge market for writers.

Economic downturn = more companies hiring freelancers. Life is scary nowadays. Gas prices are up. Wages are down. The economy is stagnating. It's good news for freelancers--companies that would ordinarily hire full-time writers cant' afford to, but they still need to market their products or they won't get paid themselves. So they hire freelancers, who are cheaper than full-timers. Don't let the economy scare you.

The web gives us access to more clients. It used to be that you were stuck in the town you lived in when it came to finding clients. But the web means we can work for clients anywhere. I have clients in the U.K., in South Africa, in Canada, and even in China. When you're an online freelancer, you're not constrained by the businesses nearby--the world is your marketplace.

I'm not scared yet. The market may be changing--but I think there's still plenty of business out there for good writers.