How to Eliminate the Feast and Famine Freelance Writer Cycle
Ever get stuck making good money only to find yourself with no writing work a few months down the road? You, my friend, like myself and many other writers, have fallen into the feast and famine cycle. Here, we'll talk about how to get out of the cycle that you're, in avoid it for the future, and steps to take to keep your business continually running.
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If you're like me and a lot of other freelance writers, you've gone through the feast and famine cycles. So it can be really tough and you're working really hard and you're like, yes, I'm making all this money. And then like a few months down the road, you're like, Oh no, I finished all my deadlines and all my clients are done with their work. So what do I do now? It can be really, really frustrating and really hard to break that cycle. You know, you get sucked into all this work and you're trying to deliver for your clients and make sure that everything is done right. And that you're paying attention. And that you're delivering quality work. But man, when you hit that famine cycle, it feels really, really rough. So we're going to go over a little bit of how to kind of eliminate that as a freelance writer, how to kind of move beyond that and make sure that you have work coming in, that your pipeline is filled, that you are able to continue as a freelance writer without having to quit or get a part-time job or worry about money all the time.
And you know, some of us, like, I still worry about money. So even during, even during the famine era, I mean, even during the feast parts of the cycle, you know, sometimes I worry about money. It's just like something that I work through, but this will kind of alleviate that a bit. It'll kind of make you feel like you can take a deep breath. So what we're going to go over is how to eliminate the piece of famine cycle. So number one, we're going to talk about marketing. So one of the things that I find a lot of freelance writers do, and one of the things that I used to do was that I wouldn't do enough marketing. I would end up in this, in this horrible hole, basically where I would have a bunch of work. I would do a bunch of work. I would be stressed out, meeting my deadlines and trying to get everything done.
And then boom, it was just like a ghost town. There's nothing there. I didn't have anything to work on. And I was like, well, I guess it's time to start marketing now. Now we need to be always marketing to make sure that our pipeline is continually filled. So that means that we are, even if you're really busy, that means sending, you know, one LOI a week. That means sending maybe five, but it means that you're consistently marketing all the time. And then, you know, eventually what happens is you'll end up getting a bunch of work or you'll get referrals, you'll get inbound leads and it won't be as difficult to manage all that marketing because you won't have to do it as often because you have more work coming in. But when you're first kind of starting out and you're getting through the first few years of freelance writing, marketing is really important.
So the way that I do it is I end up collecting a list. I have a Google spreadsheet of all these companies to reach out to, and I collect them over time. I collect them from Crunchbase. I collect them from press releases. I collect them from LinkedIn. I find companies that make that kind of butter zone, that five, at least five to 50 million in revenue right now I've been kind of shooting for companies that have at least 20 to 50, probably like closer to 50 just cause I kind of want to ramp up my business a little bit and also I want to work on more complex projects. So I'm kind of going that way, but that kind of, you know, I look through different niche lists that that revenue kind of informs who I pick off of those lists. So that means that I'm looking at travel startups or prop tech startups to watch, or I'm looking at top 100 lists or I'm looking at niche publications about who's getting funding or who's making money.
Or I look at, you know, tech crunch or Crunchbase or like the angel lists or LinkedIn or fortune 500 or, you know, the Inc 5,000. I look at all these different lists to make my own. And I find that if you have that list, you have that spreadsheet to go off of. It's a lot easier to do your marketing because they're like, Oh, I need to do my marketing today. Oh, I'll just pick this one company off here, find them on LinkedIn, send them an InMail, and then I'm done. So I find that if you have the list that makes it a lot easier to consistently do your marketing, which means your pipeline is filled, which means you don't have as many or any family in your business. So always be crafting that list, always be on the lookout for up and coming companies or places, getting funding or different types of places that you know are in your niche that you could reach out to add them to a list and keep going from there.
If you're really starting out, if you're a baby freelancer and this is kind of your first kind of foray make that, make that list huge like mine, I usually tap at 50 and then I kind of send a bunch out. But if you're just starting out, you need to be sending a lot of marketing. So like make a list of a hundred and then do that and then make another list of a hundred and do that. But the key here is that we are always marketing. Even if it's one LOI, like I don't think anybody can convince me. They don't have time to send one LOI, especially if you have templates. And if you have a way to kind of shorten the process, which is that you already have a list and you have a quick template to send out, that's basically like, Hey, do you need help?
I do these things. I'm in this niche. Here's my past clients love to chat with you by if you're looking for templates, I have them below. If you're willing to check them out. Those, those I've developed over years and lots of freelance writers and bought them and use them and found them super helpful to make sure that their freelance writing business is, you know, chugging along. And it also has contracts and other stuff in there too. But the whole point here is that we have to keep up with our marketing. Even if you can only, even if you're super, super busy, you can send one LOI, just send it as an InMail on LinkedIn or, you know, do just send it by email, but you can do at least one one of the things I'll give you guys like an insider thing.
So what I do now, a lot of the times is because my business is a little bit different. I have more inbound leads. My workflow is a little bit is typically this year has been a wild ride for me. But typically what happens is I have a bunch of work and I do marketing kind of like quarterly now. So I ended up doing a bunch of marketing kind of the first month of the quarter and then kind of leave it. And I might do a little bit throughout the quarter, but I usually do a chunk in the front and then kind of let it play out. That's just kind of like what I've kind of evolved in over time. I used to do it every week. I used to pay, you know, do it every day when I was looking for work. When you kind of get more under your belt, you still need to do that marketing because you know, that's kind of how you earn more and move up to more clients and kind of avoid that famine part of the cycle. But I think that consistent marketing, like I've never really dropped it. I've never really like, I, might've not done it for a little while, but it's always something that kind of comes back and I end up doing it to make sure I have work and that I'm also moving up and working on more complex projects or working for clients who have a lot more in the pipeline. So that's number one. Number one is that you always have to be marketing. That's how you eliminate that feast and famine cycle. Number two, sorry.
Number two. And you're eliminating the feast and famine cycle is that you need to work on projects that have a longer timeline. You can't be working on 10,000 articles a month and then have nothing. That's what I used to do. I used to have a ton of articles like publications or blog posts. And it used to be just like one month and then it would stop. And then I would try to, I would have to send all these pitches and I'd have to do a ton of groundwork just to make sure I ended up having work them the next month. But you have to hop on the train of basically like you need longer projects. Well, how do you get those? I get that asked that a lot. What you need to do is to ask the company when they first reach out, or when you get an answer from an LOI, you get on a call with them and you're talking about projects.
You ask them like, what do you, what else do you have in the pipeline? Like, it sounds like you need help with blog posts, but do you have anything else in the pipeline? You can also ask them like, how do we build this relationship? You know, I'm trying to move my business in a direction in where, sorry, I'm trying to move on. Yeah. In a direction where I'm developing relationships with people rather than just kind of a one and done, what are you doing? You know, what do you think about building this relationship? What else do you have in your pipeline? Does there anything quarterly or in the rest of the year that you feel like you can need help with? These are questions you ask before you ever sign a contract. Before you ever move ahead with them, you want to know where they're going.
Because a lot of times what happens with, you know, this happened to me, it happens early in your career where you think like, Oh my gosh, I just need the work. Yes, I'll do it. And then, then you're in this famine cycle where you've done a ton of work and that covers you for maybe a month or two, but you're, you know, you did the work one month and you have money for two months and then the next month you just have no work and you kind of have to scramble again. So you gotta ask them when you get on the call, like what's going on? You know, what are you guys thinking? And if like, Oh, we're trying to do just like a, like four blog posts or, Oh yeah. We just need this one case study. And that's it like there, you can take that work, but you have to know that that's not helping you build your business into something where if you talk to someone, they're like, yes, we have a content marketing strategy.
We're thinking about rolling out this in quarter one, this in quarter two, this in quarter three. And then that's how you have more, long-term work. It's places where you already know that. Even if you do this one project, if everything goes right and you feel like you guys are a fit and they like your work, you can continue working together. You know, they might hire you for other stuff. These are questions you gotta ask. It helps you avoid that feast and famine cycle because you have a longer stretch of work instead of having to scramble all the time and trying to get more projects. And, Oh my gosh, I need more clients. Like I need thousands of clients every year. You need fewer clients who have a longer stretch of work. And the only way you can find this out is to ask them when you get on a call with them.
And I like doing calls, I used to hate it a lot. But I like calls now because I feel like that's the best way to feel somebody out. Are you a fit? Like, can you have a conversation with them on the phone? Or is it really uncomfortable? Is it really stilted? Are they trying to be your boss? There's a lot of things you can feel out on the phone. And if you ask them like what's in the pipeline and they pause for a long time, and then they're like, Oh, well, right now we're just doing this. Or like, they're not talking about their strategy. Like, even if let's say it doesn't work out, right, let's say you're working for them. It doesn't work out. And you go your separate ways, at least that if it didn't, you know, if that didn't happen, you at least have the chance of more work and that helps you eliminate the cycle.
So we ask about that for upfront. We see where they're going. You can also check, check this out on their website. So their website will show like, are they doing case studies? Are they doing blog posts? Are they doing white papers? Are they doing downloadables like eBooks or fact sheets or checklists or guides. Are they having thought leadership on LinkedIn? There's a lot of things that you can check out before you even get on the call of what they're doing. If it looks like their content is funneled into just a blog, then, then you either have to get a super long-term blog contract, which I try to make mine just 90 days to see if we're a fit and see if the blog content is working for them. Or you end up basically doing a few blog posts and that's it. So make sure that when you are trying to get work, that you're asking questions upfront, that you are getting these longer complex projects.
Like you want to hear someone tell you about their content strategy. You want them to go through, like, here's how our marketing works. Here's the audience we're going for. They respond to eBooks and they respond to emails. We need a drip campaign and three eBooks. Like you need to hear that they understand the content to create for their actual audience. When you, when you start hearing that they have a plan, like that's a good thing. That's all like, don't stress out that it's going to be too much work and you're getting get overwhelmed. Like companies usually move a lot slower than we do. So they're going to roll it out slowly. So number two, in, in what way we're doing here to eliminate the feast and famine cycle is to get those longer complex projects. Number three, here, I'm going to try to make it like, just part of the things.
Cause I'm like almost at halfway. So we're just going to go over part of it. I'll make a part two to this later. So number three, when you're eliminating the feast and famine cycle is your mindset. I found that this is really important when you're thinking about it. Like a lot of writers get stuck in this point of like, Oh, I have a lot of work. I'm fine. Their mindset is like, Oh, I'm fine for now. Like they don't think far enough out where they're like, how am I going to pay for kibbles in six months? They're just like, Oh right now I have a ton of work. I'm stressed out. My hair is falling out and I haven't eaten in three days because I'm too busy with my deadlines. So when you think about your mindset in terms of this feast and famine cycle, it needs to be a long-term thing.
You need to think like three, six months out. If you can look at your calendar and it's not filled up or you're looking at it and you're like, okay, I've got a couple of things like on the pot to boil basically. Like I've got a couple of things in the pipeline I'm knowing, you know, I don't really have a ton of signed contracts and you look six months down the road and you're like, scared. You're going to run out of savings or you're scared about your money, which I have been many times I didn't, I didn't realize the mindset piece, but you have to pay attention to that. You have to like get out of what you're doing right now and focus more on a long-term thing. You're like, okay, this is what I'm working on right now, but what am I going to work on in may?
This is what I'm working on right now. But what am, what is my Q4 gonna look like? Sometimes I found that it helps people to break it out into quarters. So if they're like, Hey, this year, I want to make $82,000. Break that out into quarters. And how close are you this quarter? So let's say your first quarter, I should've picked a different number. So let's say $80,000 because that's easier math for me. So let's say your first quarter, you're like, cool. I got $21,000. Cool. So your next quarter needs to be that other $20,000. Well, let's say you're you're in April because we're still in Q1 right now. So let's say you're in April and you're like, Oh crap. I've only booked $1,000 worth of work. Okay, cool. And let's say a couple of weeks go by and you're like, cool. I booked $10,000 worth of work.
You're halfway, but you still have no work planned for may and June. So let's say April is like sweet. I got a 10 K month or 11 K month. This is going to be awesome. And then you're like, Oh, I don't have anything to do for may in June. How am I going to get $20,000? That's where the marketing comes in. That's where we got to focus our mindset on like zooming out a little bit and looking further into the future. Like what's going on with our business. Your mindset needs to be focused on not just, just being a writer, but being, being a business owner and forecasting where you're like, where your is headed and where are you going with your goals? And are you working for the clients that you want to? So your mindset needs to also be like, this is kind of a second layer here.
Your mindset also needs to focus, not so much on like what you can get now, but what, what might you get in the future? I, this sounds confusing. So what you have now is the work you're working on, right? Let's say you have some publication work and maybe like one retainer, or maybe you have all retainers and you want more publication work. So you need to focus, not so much on what you're doing. Like w what is it in your business, right? Your, Oh my gosh, I have five deadlines this week. And then I have this ebook due at the end of the month. Like, not so much on that, but on like, huh? Am I actually working for clients? I love. Hmm. Am I actually getting to the place I want to be is my content strategy, or it is, are my projects working in the longterm?
Am I moving in the direction that I want to be in terms of like where my business growth is? So you have to think you have to pull out of this area that you're in and not so much focus on. Like every deadline you have and all this stuff, you need to work on. Like, cool. I have this stuff to do, but what's coming later. So the mindset piece also, like this is another time to add in the mindset piece also goes into, there's a book by Jeff goings or Jeff Cohens. I never can pronounce his name. Right. But he has a book called real artists. Don't starve. And I find a lot of times, there's this mindset with writers where they're like, Oh, I get to do it. I do my thing. I get to be creative. I get to write the things I want to write.
Like, I shouldn't be paid well, like, this is the, I can't believe this is happening to me. I shouldn't be making money. And if you have problem with that, like I did, like, you need to read real artists, don't start. And you'll learn about all of these people in history, like Michael Angelo. And I don't know. There was tons of different people that he mentioned that didn't start, they live rich lives. They made tons of money. They, they made art. They did all these things and they made huge piles of money. Of course, you know, they're very famous artists, but still the point is that just being artists doesn't mean you have to start just being a writer. Doesn't mean you have to take all this low paying work. Cause thank God you get to do the thing you like to do. Writing is a very special scale and I think it gets under it, it gets that liberal arts thing where people are like, Oh, you got an English degree.
Like, what are you doing with that? It gets back kind of thing. People think because they write emails every day. People think because they did a project a while back where they wrote some stuff. People think that because writing is so ingrained in our society, that we do so much with that. They're good at it because they do it all the time. They're not, they're not, I can tell you that from experience that you'll get things from clients where they're like, Oh, we did this. And it's great. And you're like, Oh my God, this is terrible. Like, I can't, you had people read this. Like there's a lot of times where we forget that because we can write well and better than most people. And because we do it all the time that we shouldn't be paid because it feels like stealing, or it feels like cheating because we're like, Oh my gosh, this is so cool.
Like, I can't believe I'm doing this. And Oh my gosh, this is way easier than I thought. Like, I can't believe there. You know, maybe I should charge them less because it's not taking a lead. You know, it's taken me less time. Or it's, it's like less effort than I thought, but you know what? Like you're getting that's, that's the same thing we're getting paid for value. The value that you have is that you're good at writing. You're good at relaying messages. You're very good at speaking to an audience you're good at breaking down complicated topics, making them easy to understand. You're good at research. You're good at interviews. There's a lot of skills that come in with being a writer that, that are really important and thinking that you shouldn't get paid well, or that you should be in this feast and famine cycle, because you're like, that's just how it is.
Like I'm being a freelance writer. That's how it is like, Oh, you know, I'm in this part. Like, no, no, there are plenty of writers who are never in the F the feast and famine cycle. Like, you know, never, they figured it out. They've got a good rhythm. They're doing their marketing. They've got their mind. Right. They're looking ahead. They're paying attention to more complex projects. They're not out there like trying to get, you know, very small, temporary assignments. They're out there trying to make sure that they have all their ducks in a row and that they don't end up in that famine cycle again. So those are what I'm going to go over today. I'm going to add a part two to this. Cause there's more to the feast and famine cycle. But if you can remember that, you need to do always do your marketing.
Even if it's one LOI, you need to look for more complex projects. And that means talking to your prospect and hashing that out before you get started, like asking them what they have in the pipeline what's going on. And then your next one is your mindset is like those three different facets of your mindset that you need to pay attention to. So I hope that was helpful. I'm going to give a little pup date here because they're over there being snugly and they're little they're little balls. They're a little fur balls. Oh, someone heard that. The tree container. Good job here. You want to treat him now? He's asleep. He'll go to sleep. He just, he's tired. This is what they look like after dealing with, with all the Texas stuff and all the snow. Charlotte. Yeah. Hello, lean over all over Charlotte like this.
No, she thought it was fine. Bow. Not so much, but it was kind of, oops, they'll follow her. But it was kind of override. He gets cold really easily and he just is not, not about it. He just wants to like run around a little bit and then come in. Charlotte had Chuck had a good time. So if you guys have any questions, you can pop them in the chat. I'll go back and look through them real quick. So yeah. So there's one thing in here that says, Tommy said, this has working on your business versus working in your business. Yeah, this is a lot of times. The problem with the feast and famine cycle is people end up working in their business way too much. They don't actually work on their business and then they don't leave themselves time to work on their business.
And I did this for a long time. This was a problem I had for years. I didn't know how to fix it. Now I have a better system. But the, the feast and famine cycle is like, you're always in your business. You're always the feast part is like, you're in your business, you're working on your deadlines. You're doing all that stuff. The famine part is because you weren't paying attention to the, on your business part. There's just the marketing and making LinkedIn connections and joining groups and you know, growing your network on LinkedIn, like all of the things, or like, you know, what we used to do is like in-person networking or whatever. So yeah, so there's, there's a lot of pieces here where people think this is normal, the feast and famine cycle. It can be normal in the beginning, but it shouldn't last a super, super long time.
I wish mine didn't last, as long as it did. I just didn't know how to figure it out. I didn't quite get it. I didn't understand how to do everything at once. And I didn't really, I didn't have a good way of, of marketing quickly. I didn't have a system of like, find your prospects, put them in this spreadsheet, make sure they have enough money, reach out on an InMail. Like I didn't have a process that was really quick and easy and made sense. So I feel like that also helps too. If you can think about getting a process for both working on your business and in your business, you know, what works for you might not work for someone else, but what someone else does may not work for you or, you know, it may work for you. Try to figure out a way to make it more systematized so that you can move along and not have to spend so much time in every little piece. So if anyone has any questions, you can pop them in the chat. If you feel like this has been helpful so far, make sure to give it a thumbs up. And if you feel like you want to hear more about how to basically build a successful freelance writing career, you can subscribe below. I have dates. So I'm going to give you one more. So they're kind of sleepy right now. I woke them up from an app.
You go, Oh
Buddy, what happened? Did you fall off your bed? If you guys see Bo's tail, he has that red spot. He has a happy tail. So he often ends up being his tail against something and then it bleeds. So we're going to have to clean that up, but you know, happy tale has been a thing of his, for his whole life.
Good job. So, yeah. All right.
No one has any more questions and if everything's good, I don't see anything else in the chat. Cool. All right. Well if you have questions about feast or famine, you can drop them below in the comments. I will address them and hope you guys have a great Friday and I will see you guys next week. Bye.
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