If you are considering starting a career as a freelance writer, you may be aware that one of the best ways to ensure you enjoy a stable income is to work with several different clients on a regular basis. However, you may have also heard from some clients can be a real pain to deal with. They may request numerous revisions from you, make incredible demands of your time without compensating you for that time, and more. It may seem like locating good clients and working with them on a regular basis may be more trouble than it is worth. So do freelance writers really need to work with regular clients?

The Benefits

There are some great benefits associated with working with regular clients. For once, you can spend a great deal of time searching for work as a freelance writer, and this is time that you are not getting paid for. When you work with regular clients, you simply sit down to work each day, knowing exactly what is required of you, and getting paid for your efforts right from the first word you type. Further, as you continually work on the same type of writing projects over and over, the work becomes second-hand to you. You may find that you start working more efficiently. This can either free up more time in your day, allow you to work more and earn a higher income, or sometimes both.

The Alternatives

If you don’t work with clients directly, how else can you earn money as a freelance writer? More importantly, will these other work opportunities provide you with a source of steady, stable income. One option to consider is to self-publish your own articles on the internet. When you self-publish on various websites, you may earn an up-front fee, a per-view rate, or some other similar method of payment. You may also write your articles and sell them to clients directly. There are also several websites that allow you to peruse boards requesting specific articles or web content to be written, and these can provide you with stable income as well.

Making the Choice

If you are already working with clients, you have the luxury of trying out a few of the alternative income sources first before “quitting” your job with your clients. If you are new to freelance writing, you may benefit from trying these sources out initially as a way to get your feet wet and start earning income as a freelance writer right away. While some freelance writers may choose to work entirely with direct clients or entirely without them, many other freelance writers prefer to structure a work schedule that includes both.

There are pros and cons to working directly with clients. Provided you choose to work with great clients, however, the benefits far outweigh the negative aspects of working with clients. When making your decision, consider how beneficial any existing client relationships you already have established are. If you determine that these relationships are not beneficial, you can certainly try out an alternative source of income while you consider ending a specific relationship.