A client of mine runs a series of social sites meant to spark debate and to build a community around a specific topic. They use the Ning platform, which is a great social website platform that can turn your community and passion into a business if you do it right. But, I digress. This particular client notified me that, effective TODAY, mine and another nine of their social sites would be closed, and that they wouldn't need any more articles from me at this time. These sites in particular were not getting as they had hoped. I was shocked. Not because I'm losing some good, money-earning, work for a little while, but because I was in the bottom half of their social sites. My topic was Hawaii (hence the picture) and I thought I was doing a good job with the site. I'm now stressed and panicky because I'm wondering what I've done wrong and what I could have done better.
The client also said that they will be replacing those 10 sites with another 10 sites on different topics, so once those topics are decided, I would have the opportunity to write for them again. I hope one of those 10 is something that I can do. Hawaii was such as good fit since I am from Hawaii. But, alas, I must move on for the meantime.
This serves as a good lesson as to why, as a freelance writer, you should always be marketing and on the look our for new markets and new clients for which to write. You just never know when a job will dry up, as mine did today. It may seem like job insecurity, but if you are always marketing and always on the hunt, a situation like this easily becomes job security. I'm not out of job, nor have a taken a significant cut in my freelance pay. It's a bummer to have lost the site, but I'm not up the creek without a paddle. I can easily bounce back, find something new to cover my losses. And, as I had mentioned, I have a strong possibility of retaining this client and working from them again in the near future. So, I might not have that much of a loss after all.
Perhaps I just might need a good squeeze from Lilo.