3 reasons your freelance income dropped (and what to do about it)
Income swings can feel random, but they rarely are. Here are three common causes and how to fix them.
Recently, I spoke to someone who’s been freelancing for several years. He’s a strong writer with articles in national publications and has steady work. Sounds good, right?
Not really — his main client is paying him peanuts per article, and he was struggling to get by financially. He was sending cold emails and trying to drum up new business, but it didn’t seem like anything was working.
This isn’t unusual — it’s a pattern I see play out all the time. And often, it’s not due to a lack of skill. On the surface, this writer was doing everything right:
He was working hard and without complaint
Delivering strong results consistently for his clients
Actively posting on LinkedIn and building connections
Had a writer’s website set up that clearly articulated his experience
So why was he struggling so much and what can this situation teach other freelancers? Let’s look at the three most common reasons this happens and how to fix them.
1. You’re settling for the wrong clients
There are a lot of benefits that come from writing for publications, especially in the early days as a writer. What do I mean when I say publications? I’m talking about Business Insider, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, USA Today, Bankrate…you get the idea.
Look, I’ve written for every single one of those publications, and they really helped me in the beginning. People like to hate on writing for exposure, but let’s face it, exposure can be pretty useful when no one knows who you are. Publications help you build credibility, but unfortunately, they’re no longer a good source of stable income.
This was what happened to many freelancers after the Google updates in 2024. Writers who were relying on publications for the majority of their income suddenly lost 70% of their clients overnight. Honestly, I was one of them — not only did I lose a client that paid me around $3,000 per month , but I also lost dozens of portfolio pieces when that site shut down.
That’s why these days, I focus on working with companies that offer a product or service. I’m also regularly auditing my clients to make sure no client accounts for more than 25% of my total revenue.
So if you’re struggling to make money as a writer, start by auditing your revenue sources. What percentage of your income comes from publications? Don’t get rid of clients who are still paying you money — even unstable or low-paying work is better than no work. But you can move to start replacing those publications with companies that align with your skills.
I recommend doing this through cold outreach. Let me know if this is a topic you’re interested in learning more about — I’m considering talking about it in a future post.
2. Your positioning is sending mixed signals
Can I be honest? I always hated it when other freelance writers would talk about positioning. Every time I bought a course about freelance writing, another writer was telling me to write out my unique value proposition, and it was my own personal hell. The same goes for coming up with an elevator pitch. I will skip that exercise every time.
But what I’ve learned over the years is this: Positioning isn’t about coming up with a clever elevator pitch. It’s about whether your work, online presence, samples, and outreach reinforce what you say you specialize in.
For example, if I say I’m an experienced writer but send samples as a PDF or Google Doc, it subtly undermines my credibility. If I connect with a potential client on LinkedIn and only have 35 connections or no profile picture, that sends a strong signal that I don’t know what I’m doing.
If you’re not sure whether you have this problem, my best tip is to ask another freelancer to review your online presence. But here’s the key - don’t ask them to review your website. I know as writers, we get very precious about our website, but I’m sorry to tell you, it doesn’t matter. Have them start with your LinkedIn page and portfolio, and ask them these questions:
Can you easily tell who I work with?
Can you figure out how to get in touch with me?
Do my samples reflect the work I want more of?
Is my portfolio easy to navigate?
From there, you can align your LinkedIn page and portfolio to match your target clients. When you get your positioning right, it builds trust and makes it easier for people to say yes to hiring you.
3. You stopped feeding your pipeline
Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar: you decide you’re going to get serious about finding new work, so you ramp up your outreach. You start engaging with people on LinkedIn or sending cold emails. Maybe you attend a conference or start intentionally following up with old clients you haven’t talked to in a while. And it works — in a couple of months, you’re completely booked with work. And because you’re so busy with work, you stop the outreach.
I’m guessing you know where this is going. It’s a tale as old as time — because you stop the outreach, eventually, a good portion of your work dries up. This can happen slowly, but when it finally happens, you’re forced to resort to panic pitching.
Another trap many freelancers can fall into is relying on a single client for the majority of their work. I touched on this in point 1, but it’s worth repeating. You get one really great client that pays well and gives you a steady stream of work every month. It feels stable, and in many ways, simplifies your life since managing one client is easier than managing six.
The problem is, you basically have a job without any benefits. Because you’re so reliant on that client, you don’t have much leverage to negotiate for better rates or assignments. And if that client decides they need to cut their freelance budget, you’re left scrambling to find new work.
Letting your pipeline dry up is the most common cause of a freelance income drop, and even experienced freelancers fall into this cycle, including me. But one thing that has helped over the years is focusing on cyclical marketing.
One of the things I’ve learned is that I can’t expect to have a steady workload — some weeks are heavy client work weeks, while some are lighter. So during those busy weeks, I focus on minimum pipeline maintenance. That looks like:
Replying to editor or client inquiries
Responding to email leads
Commenting on an editor’s LinkedIn post
Following up with a client after I’ve completed a project
Sharing a recent article I wrote on LinkedIn
Basically, I’m doing enough to maintain my pipeline so it doesn’t dry up. Once I move into a lighter work week, I focus more heavily on marketing. During those weeks, I tend to focus on cold emailing and scheduling calls with potential clients.
This isn’t inconsistency, it’s energy allocation. Instead of expecting myself to have the same level of marketing output week after week, I realize that marketing ebbs and flows. The only thing that really matters is avoiding total inactivity.
Conclusion
Having your freelancing income suddenly drop feels demoralizing, but in my experience, it’s rarely a reflection of your writing ability. It’s about market selection, positioning, and pipeline discipline. And fixing these problems isn’t about working harder, it’s about rethinking how you find clients and present yourself to them.
If you made it to the end, thanks for reading. I’ll be exploring more ideas like this every week and focusing on helping freelancers build predictable income. Tell me — which point do you think you struggle with the most?