I’m slowly coming back after a long hiatus, and I need to rebuild my client base. Currently I have a few clients who I do small jobs for from time to time, but I’ve lost my backbone clients.

Backbone clients are the ones who provide the bulk of monthly income for any freelancer. They are the recurring contracts that help a freelance writer budget from month to month, knowing they will do at least XX number of hours at XX dollars per hour. Because I could not commit hours over the past few months, I have been unable to retain these backbones.

Time to start over.

In the meantime though, while hustling to score new regulars, I’m walking the dark alleyways of freelancing, using services like Elance, Textbroker and Demand Studios to drum up pay-per-piece jobs. They don’t pay much – sometimes mere pennies per word – but do enough of them and you’ll make some fast, generally easy money. Believe me, though, this is the difference between being a crackwhore or being a high class escort. My normal hourly rate is $25+, but with places like Textbroker I’m making maybe $13/hr. Yes, I feel dirty, but momma has bills to pay!

Another bit of word whoring is Examiner.com. This is an online news source which pays per pageview. I have been the National Republican Examiner for almost a year. I haven’t updated in ages, but I’m currently working on an article to get back into it. If you can post a relevant article 2-4 times per week based on news in your area, you can be an Examiner, too! Click here to find out more about becoming an Examiner (Tell ‘em Wendy Sullivan, Examiner 3339 sent you! Yes, I will be paid for successful referrals.).

The thing with freelancing is that even when the chips are down, there’s always some menial, McDonald’s-esque job you can do for fast cash.