Can you make a living as a freelancer?

I have a friend and former boss who went freelance. He loves it. It also doesn't hurt that his wife pulls down six figures. The only problem he's run into is that its hard having tell himself to fuck off.

 

Avoid the Freelance Work Exchange at all costs. If you look them up on the Better Business Bureau website, you'll see a ton of complaints. They make it virtually impossible to cancel your subscription.

I signed up for the $2.95 trial, cancelled it on day 5, and then found a $29.95 charge on my credit card bill the next month. I spent three weeks talking to Customer Service, which was an absolute joke.

Avoid FWE like the plague...

 

Leave Idaho out of this... ;D

 

To make it as a freelancer, you better be...

a. damn good
b. well-known
c. established
d. have great connections
e. able to deal with lulls when work isn't coming in...

I know people who are "part-time" at their current jobs only because it allows them to freelance at will, something you can't always do as a full-time staffer...

I have a friend who made $100K freelancing one year and barely made half that the next year...

 

So they got customer service training from AOL.

 

dennis victory of the bham news is a freelance whore. He probably has triple the number of bylines in a year as most fulltime staffers. One of the hardest working men in show business, but I'm not sure how much of a life he has outside of work.

 

I know this feeling. You go from busting it all school year and making decent money to being unemployed just like that. Sucks.

 

Yes.....if.....

 

Thanks for all the input. This was about what I figured. About to make a geographic move into a tough market, so I am preparing myself for not having a job when I get there.

As a side topic, does having a job when you are looking for a new one look better to a potential employer than being out of work? Or does that not matter?

 

Sure, six years ago, back when dotcoms, you know, paid people to write.

Now? Not so much.

But Sept. 1999-Aug. 2000 was the best year of my life.

 

If I made barley half of $100K where I am at freelancing, that would be quite a living. He/she must have been in a swanky area.

 

few tips ...

1) A lot easier if married. That way, you can bite off the wife's insurance. Otherwise, you'll looking at about $300 a month just for insurance.
2) As others have said, be prepared for lulls. I wouldn't give it a crack unless I had about $10,000 saved in the bank. You want to be able to float for 6 months if nothing is coming in.
3) Build your own website. It's easy. And makes life much, much easier to market yourself to editors.

I have some freelance experience over the last few years, feel free to PM me.