More evidence that the recession is winding down: writers and editors are on the move.

Last year was all about hunkering down, sticking with what you were doing, or taking the gigs you were offered even though they might not be your long-term dream assignments.

But in the past few weeks, I’m hearing from writers, editors and publishers who’re making major moves, all of them positive:

• An editor friend got the offer of a lifetime to run a new nonprofit news daily covering a major metropolitan area.
• An author, blogger and ex-newspaper editor got an offer to run a start up being launched by a major magazine company.
• A former daily newspaper business reporter and editor who’d gone to work for a college communication department after being downsized landed a job at the same start up.
• A West Coast media company is looking to full a junior-level website editor and production position on the East Coast as work for their clients there grows.
• A Rocky Mountain area freelance writer and editor reports being crazy busy with assignments, including a series she pitched to a national business publication.
• A Midwest freelance writer is beginning a publicity project for a well-known media training company

I know it’s only anecdotal, but it’s good news all the same.

One more thing: although I don’t know the particulars of every situation, I do know that for the most part, this work didn’t just fall out of the sky for these people. It happened because even while opportunities were frozen solid they were preparing for the day things would start to thaw. How? By staying in touch with their contacts, present and past. By working their virtual and real-word networks. By tinkering with side projects to learn new skills, even if those endeavors didn’t bring in any income.

What’s your good news? Is your business picking up? Are you seeing cracks in the ice? And if so, what did you do to make them happen?

It was the year reporters and editors said goodbye to thousands of staff jobs at newspapers and magazines that downsized or folded.

It was the year conferences went digital, Twitter went viral and the bad economy made every writer a business reporter.

It was the year phrases like hyperlocal, meetup and content aggregators entered freelancers’ lexicon.

It was the year of the mobile app, the multimedia story, SEO tags and crowdsourcing.

It’s only fitting that as we say goodbye to 2009, and with it the first decade of the 21st century, we also bid farewell to journalism practices of yesterday and embraces those of the future as the media business leaves print behind (more or less) for an online-only world and all the changes, risks and opportunities that come with it.

With that in mind, here are my picks for the top media trends of last year, and what they mean for independent writers in 2010:

Content aggregators – They’ve been called mills, farms, and in one case even demonic. I’ll stick with the more neutral-sounding content aggregators to describe sites such as Demand Studios, Associated Content, Helium, and possibly AOL’s new Seed.com. All those sites are hiring freelancers to churn out thousands of SEO-enabled how-to pieces and other “articles” a day in hopes the information will show up high in Google search rankings thereby maximizing the proprietors’ online advertising earnings. The debate over the opportunity these sites present for freelance writers has raged on here and on other freelance blogs for the better part of the year, and media industry heavyweights have weighing in with their (mostly) negative opinions.
Takeaway for freelancers: Content aggregators are here to stay, at least for the short term – although recent changes Google’s made to its search algorithm could affect them in the long run. Also here to stay are a contingent of writers happy for the query-free gigs these sites offer, even if the rates they pay are pitifully low when calculated on a piece-by-piece basis. I remain unconvinced of the merit of doing this type of work, though understand its attraction to someone breaking into the freelance business or with limited time or desire to pitch stories.

Hyperlocal – From the everything-old-is-new-again department. Never have so many been so interested in what’s happening in your Zip Code, your voting precinct, your city block or rural postal route. They are to the news business what nanotechnology is to the tech industry. From biggies like MSNBC, AOL and Examiner.com’s billionaire owner Philip Anschutz to tiny startups, hyperlocal is everywhere. According to Knight Citizen News Network, journalists and hobbyists have started more than 800 hyperlocal sites to date. But will they last? Some are already shutting down. The cofounders of one ambitious southern California hyperlocal project – both long-time journalists – opted to shutter their site at the end of 2009 despite accolades, ads and a partnership with their area’s major metro daily. Why? They couldn’t scale the business to make it profitable without taking on more employees – and the cost that comes with them – a step they were unwilling to take.
Takeaway for freelancers: Hyperlocal remains a viable alternative to working for content aggregators. But like aggregators they don’t pay much. Treat it like the experiment it is. Include work for hyperlocal sites in a broader assignment mix so if a venture goes under you’re not stuck. Or if you go on staff, treat it like a stint at a community newspaper – which is basically what it is – and gauge how long you’re willing to stay for the experience and clips you’ll gain. If you’re interested in starting one of these on your own, you can apply for one of 9 grants of $25,000 each that American University’s J-Lab is awarding for community news sites this year. Applications are due March 1.l

Nonprofit news – This year, everybody who wasn’t busy creating a hyperlocal news site was putting together a 501c3 to start a nonprofit news venture (actually, some were one and the same). According to popular thinking, if nobody’s making money from advertising anymore, why bother, just start out as a nonprofit and hunt for financing through grants, corporate sponsorships, subscriptions and donations. So far it’s working for sites such as MinnPost, Voice of San Diego and ProPublica, which have raised hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars respectively. The bigger question: whether it’s a model that dozens, or hundreds of other ventures can successfully duplicate, similar to the country’s public radio stations. As a matter of fact, don’t rule out the country’s public radio stations as a source of nonprofit news innovation, as stations such as Oregon Public Broadcasting are busy working to expand their coverage areas and the news they dish up on their websites.
Takeaway for freelancers: Nonprofits aren’t the backwater they used to be, especially if an organization is savvy or lucky enough to get backed by Knight Digital Media or another source of major grant funding. Most of these enterprises are being started by ex-newspaper or magazine journalists – meaning if you write for them you’re more likely to get high-quality editing, always good for the clips file.

User generated content – Where to begin. User-generated content is old news if you think of it in terms of YouTube and Facebook. But it’s catching on in new ways. For example, in a different type of user-generated content, more companies are choosing to bypass newspapers and magazines and instead of advertising, starting custom publications, especially online. Expect these types of projects to flourish in 2010 (Disclaimer: I started working on one of them not long ago). Is it journalism? Yes, and no. Sponsored content is after all, sponsored content. But some sponsors understand that for their publications to be taken seriously they have to present information that’s reported and presented like the real deal. The more well-known user-generated content trend is of course the reader comments, videos, etc., that more publications are building into what they do. Expect to see newspapers, magazines and websites do even more of this in 2010.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you don’t already do work for custom publications, now’s the time to look into it. Don’t think you have to pitch publishers of custom publications for the work. If you’ve written for corporate clients in the past, why not pitch them on a news site, or even an e-newsletter. Another options: introducing yourself to one of the growing crop of digital media agencies that produce online-only custom publications. As for the other kind of user-generated content – any writer running a blog or specialized social network has to think about ways to maximize reader involvement.

Entrepreneurship - With so many journalists getting laid off, it was inevitable some would go into business for themselves. Unlike long-time solo writers – such as yours truly – these reporters and editors don’t want to identify themselves as “freelancers,” a word that for better or worse still connotes a lower status word worker in some circles. Besides, some portion of these newly unleashed writers are opting to steer their own destinies rather than wait for editors to answer their queries, so calling them entrepreneurial journalists fits. What are these EJs doing? Creating news apps for iPhones and Androids. Working on the hyperlocal and nonprofit news ventures above. Creating technology platforms or providing the training journalists or newspapers need to their jobs better in the future.
The takeaway for freelancers: There’s never been a better time to start something on your own. The tools are abundant and free or close to it.  In cities such as Portland and New York, it’s relatively easy to find coworking spaces dedicated to writers or start ups or both. There’s also a wealth of information online and

Twitter - At the start of the year Twitter was still Facebook’s little brother, a circus sideshow fun for goofing off on but not really anything you could use for business. At least that was the perception. But as the year wore on and more publications and writers opened accounts, it became apparent Twitter could be used not just to research stories but tell them too. Dan Baum drove this point home when he took to Twitter to tell his tale of being fired from The New Yorker. If that wasn’t enough, there was always coverage of the plane landing in the Hudson, the Iranian election protests and Michael Jackson’s death to convince you Twitter had arrived as a news source.
Takeaway for freelancers: If you haven’t hopped on Twitter yet, now’s the time. Don’t worry about how you’ll use it, at least not at first. Give yourself some time to play around with it and see how things work. Then come up with a plan that fits into your writing business. You read more of my advice on how writers can use Twitter on this blog post and this one.

Other trends: the wave of online-only startup publications on all matter of subjects will increase; blogging will remain big; more publications and writers will experiment with mobile apps; and writers will see publications’ freelance budgets increase, though not all will return to pre-2008 levels.

Got your own picks for the major media industry trends of the past year?

Goodbye 2009 and good riddance. 2010 can’t get here fast enough.

I’ll weigh in on my picks for the highlights and low points of the freelance business during the past year in the next few days.

But first, a present. I’d just started wondering what to write this week that would get people pumped for the possibilities the new year will bring – and I’m optimist there will be a lot of them. Then I read something that reminded me of an email I got right before Christmas. An old friend had sent me a copy of a free e-book from Internet marketer Seth Godin called What Matters Now. I didn’t have time to read it before. But I today I did – and it’s just what I was looking for.

Godin, who’s written numerous marketing books over the last decade, asked 70 people – writers, thinkers, Internet gurus and more – to come up with one word they want people to think about in 2010 and explain why they picked it.

The 82-page booklet is best read like one of those daily inspiration calendars – a little at a time. Wired Editor Chris Anderson expounds on atoms, management expert Tom Peters on excellence, and money makeover radio show host Dave Ramsey on intensity.

Like it? Share it. It’s free and, as usual, Godin’s doing his best to make sure it goes viral.

Because goodness knows we could all use a little encouragement after the last 12 months.

Have you ever been so busy, so overloaded with things that have to get done right now you didn’t know where to start?

I’ve been feeling like that as I wrap up some assignments I’ve had on the books for a while, take on a gigantic new one, and at the same time, juggle a stream of requests to do presentations, take part in panel discussions or give interviews.

It would be easy to turn down the latter because it’s not all paid work. But I’ve spent a lot of time in the last year immersing myself in all things social media and talking about the future of journalism, so I don’t want to pass up those opportunities just when my marketing efforts are starting to pay off.

So how do I prioritize what’s becoming a longer and crazier work week?

It’s not just me. As the economy picks up more freelancers are getting offers of new projects, and after what the recession did to our business this year, nobody has the heart to say no to work. So we’re all in the same busy boat.

Some writers set a timer and concentrate on one thing until it goes off. Others segment every day into specific parts devoted to different tasks. Freelance writer, author and blogger Leah Ingram is the master of this. Even if you read the Q&A I did with her some months back, it’s worth taking a second look just to see again how she’s able to produce magazine articles, books and a busy blog with aplomb.

I was thinking about all this when I walked into Starbucks recently. I was browsing through the store’s bookshelf waiting for my hot spiced cider when I saw a guide to getting accepted into the Air Force Academy. My high school-aged son is interested in the Air Force Academy, so when my drink arrived I sat down and started reading.

A few chapters in there was a section on what first year cadets can expect – lots of classes, little free time. In fact, according to the guidebook, first years are given too much to do on purpose, so they learn to figure out what’s most important. The thinking is that when they’re in combat situations they’ll always have too much to do and will have to be able to prioritize in an instant.

I couldn’t help draw parallels to how freelance writers and other self-employed people operate. We always have too much to do. The trick is to figure out which things demand your attention right now and do those first.

That’s sometimes easier said than done, especially when you have conflicting high priority tasks.

Lately I’ve put all my work and non-work to-dos into one big weekly list and picked off the stuff that’s feels most important first and let the rest sit there. Some things roll over week to week because they’re not that critical. I almost always have 10 to 15 low-priority items waiting to get taken care of (we will replace the ugly green couch in the family room some day, right after I file the piles of papers sitting in my office and hang the pictures we took down when we painted last February). When it’s the end of the day or a weekend and I’ve finished a big project but still have work time to burn, I try to knock a few off the list.

I’m also a firm believer in outsourcing household or work-related tasks to clear the decks for work. I use a travel agent to book business trips. I pay for house cleaners, a yard crew and to have groceries delivered.  I minimize routine chores by grouping them together once a day or once a week.

Still, there are times when even the best time-saving tricks aren’t enough.

So I’m asking: if your schedule’s gotten busier, how do you handle it? How do you prioritize?

Stop what you’re doing and listen.

Do you hear it?

That quiet noise in the background?

It’s almost imperceptible, but it’s there. That little buzz.

It’s the sound of innovation.

Everywhere I turn these days, I’m running into writers quietly working on projects. In their home offices. At the coffee shop with their laptops. In the group that’s huddled at the back of the regional journalism conference.

If I had to pick an indicator of whether or not the media business is bouncing back, this would be it. I’m not talking about newspapers and magazines going back to their glory days. That’s not going to happen. But something is happening. My evidence:

• A former wire service colleague is researching a website project for a consumer-oriented organization.
• Another colleague just pitched a blogging-related start up to a tech venture group in her area.
• Here in Portland journalists and ex-journalists are involved in at least two efforts to form non-profit news organizations.
• A similar effort is in the works in Colorado.
• Another Portland journalist is working on a web-based news aggregator.
• A few other Portland journalists are involved in so many different projects I can’t keep track, including one who dropped out of college because he had too many things going on.
• Several writers on a message board I frequent are investigating opportunities to create mobile apps, either with established publishers or on their own.
• Another freelancer I’m familiar with recently tweeted that she had a great idea for a mobile app, if only she could find the money to build it.

Writers are taking fate into their own hands because face, it, those newsroom jobs aren’t coming back any time soon. There’s something about a rough economy that brings the entrepreneur out in people in every field, and writers are no exception.

Because they’ve already figured out how to work for themselves, freelancers may have a leg up on newly displaced journalists when it comes to doing their own thing. Either way, there’s only so much rejection you can take from editors whose freelance budgets have been cut back to nothing before you start figuring out other ways to make a living.

I’m about to embark on a project of my own. It’s a start up of sorts, though it’s not my start up. But it is something new for me. When the time’s right I’ll be able to share more. For now, all I can say is it’s exciting to be doing something new.

What about you – got a project up your sleeve? If you could embark on something new right now, what would it be?

An article in today’s New York Times, Business is a beat deflated, by the paper’s media critic David Carr suggests the business press as we’ve known it – Forbes, BusinessWeek et al – has fallen on hard times and isn’t getting back up again any time soon, if ever.

Forbes just announced yet another layoff. Bloomberg bought BusinessWeek from McGraw Hill for a song. Fortune’s scaling back the number of issues it will produce next year. The Wall Street Journal is closing its Boston bureau. Advertising in other business publications has fallen precipitously. Carr suggests that a lot of what passed for business journalism was aspirational in nature, showing would-be captains of industry the prescribed formula to follow if they wanted to be the next Wall Street millionaire. Now that the mighty have fallen, he reasons, people have stopped caring about the the publications that praised them.

While I buy into the fact that the print business press has suffered what might be a fatal blow, it’s not the end of the world for business reporting.

For every Forbes or BusinessWeek that’s downsizing or sold, new publications are popping up online. New entities might not have the gravitas of the old ones. But they don’t have the overhead either. That might be bad in the short run – not as much money equals not as many resources to do investigative pieces or go after the important stories of the day. But at least they’ve got a better shot at living to see another day.

Some of these new publications aren’t really new. One of the best business stories of the year was The Giant Pool of Money, a listener-friendly take on how we got into the present economic mess in the first place, that was a collaboration between NPR and American Public Media’s quirky radio show This American Life. It was such a hit NPR is now teaming up with local public broadcasters on EconomyStory.org, a website that will showcase all the parties’ economy-related reporting.

Other new outlets for business news are starting up all the time. Two I’m acquainted with because I’ve done some work for them: MoneyWatch.com, created by CBS earlier this year, and a still in beta start-up on personal finance for women.

The old guard of online business news, sites such as MarketWatch.com, The Street, The Motley Fool and CNNMoney are still going strong, as are newer outfits such as VentureBeat and The Business Insider.

So, while some of the big glossies might be fading into the sunset, the genre can hardly be said to be dying.

If you cover business, where’s your work coming from these days?

Newspapers maybe on the way out, but news isn’t.

The shape news takes, not only the way it’s delivered but what actually constitutes news, is changing.

Those were two of the major takeaways from the first day of the the Online News Association 2009 conference going on in San Francisco.

A sold-out crowd of more than 650 reporters and editors from around the world – mostly the U.S. but also from Canada, Colombia, Norway and elsewhere – packed into meeting rooms at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel to heard Twitter CEO Ev Williams, tech radio host Leo LaPorte, essayist Paul Saffo and others share their views of what lies ahead for the news business and the technology that’s used to produce it.

Because whether you like it or not, the news business is turning into the technology business. That was blindly apparent in a lightening-fast 60 minute presentation on tech trends journalists should know about given by media consultant Amy Webb, head of Webbmedia in Washington D.C. Twitter, Facebook, blogs – it’s just the beginning of a landslide of widgets, apps and other tools reporters, editors and Website managers can and are using to better bring information to their constituencies, and vice versa.

Twitter’s Williams didn’t share much about the little company with the big social network the assembled crowd didn’t already know, with a few exceptions. One: think of Twitter as a network, not a destination, Williams said. In the future, services will be built on top of Twitter so people won’t necessarily realize that it’s what they’re using. Another item of interest for anybody who uses Twitter now: the service is beta testing a lists function that will make it easier to segment groups of people you follow. If anyone reading this knows how to get me into that beta, ping me – I will trade 15 minutes of free social media or editorial consulting in return.

LaPorte, the tech radio guy, has been around the tech industry since the early days of the personal computer. He started out as a radio news reader and wound his way through various radio- and tech-related ventures before starting a network of tech radio show podcasts including This Week in Tech. LaPorte’s story should hearten aspiring news entrepreneurs; after years of pitching shows to radio, TV and publishing companies, LaPorte used the advent of relatively cheap podcasting technology to do his own thing, and it’s paying off. He’s currently pulling in approximately $1.5 million a year in advertising for shows that cost $350,00 to produce (which he does with a staff of seven).

Saffo, a Stanford professor who’s spent his career studying and talking about technological innovation, told the crowd to embrace the uncertainty they face as the media business changes. “The waves of creative destruction are tunneling through every corner of your industry,” Saffo said. “The only strategy is to flee into the future as fast as you can, and avoid the mistakes of the incumbents.”

Stay tuned for more from the Online News Association conference.

Freelance writers may be a small business owners, but that doesn’t mean you have to think small.

Major media companies are working to beat the recession by repackaging and repurposing what they do to get more customers – and you can too. You don’t even have to think of innovations yourself. Just copy what the big boys are doing.

One example – the New York Times recently announced some of its most notable writers and columnists will be teaching online classes through the paper’s Knowledge Network online education center for $125 to $185 per session. If you’ve been in the writing business for awhile, taught a class or two or regularly talk to industry conferences or local groups, you’ve probably accumulated enough background material and experience working in a live setting to offer yourself as a writing coach. Whether you charge as much as the New York Times is beside the point – it’s another potential revenue stream.

Here are a few other examples of innovations big media or online companies are undertaking, and how freelance writers can follow suit:

1. Put on a fresh face. Over the next few months, Yahoo will be giving its various online services a major facelift, including its flagship search engine service. Among other things, the new look is meant to make search results more relevant to what people are looking for, and to tap into information from social networks.
The freelance twist – If you haven’t touched your website or blog design in a while, it’s time for a remodel. If you don’t have the hours, money or inclination for a complete overhaul, at least read through the text on your site’s standing pages to make sure it reflects the current direction of your business, or where you’d like to take it in the next three to six months – all the better to stay relevant to what visitors to the site are looking for. If you have a blog, a minor tune up could include checking to see if links on your blogroll still work, swapping out old picture for new ones, or adding a landing page for new Twitter followers.

2. Go online. Earlier in 2009, a cash-strapped Seattle Post Intelligencer opted to shut down its printing presses and go online-only. The news outfit – you really can’t call it a newspaper anymore – cut its editorial staff but added dozens of neighborhood bloggers.
The freelance twist - If you’re not already writing for web-based publishers or blogs, now’s the time. That doesn’t necessarily mean signing up to write for a pittance for content aggregators such as Examiner.com or Demand Studios. There are plenty of other relatively well-paid online-only publishers in consumer, business, technology and trade magazine niches. As outfits like the SeattlePI.com ramp up neighborhood news coverage, some are looking for experienced writers who can cover hyperlocal beats. You might not make a lot of money at it at first, or by itself, but it could become a launch pad for other work, just as community newspapers have long served as a training ground for young journalists.

3. Team up. Come September, the Los Angeles Times will take over delivering papers for its one-time arch-rival The Orange County Register (no word what affect a potential a bankruptcy filing of the Register’s parent company that’s expected any day might have on the deal).
The freelance twist - Find a couple like-minded freelancers and collaborate on a project. Parenting freelancers Teri Cettina, Kris Bordessa and Jeannette Moninger turned their shared interest into an e-book on successful parenting article queries called Cash in on Your Kids they’re marketing through their respective websites and other channels. Another group of freelance writers spearheaded by Jennifer Maciejewski latched onto the frugal living phenomena and started the Cities on the Cheap franchise, with individual writers running websites that list coupons, freebies and cheap things to do in their respective cities.  It’s a great example of the power of working together to create a whole that’s more than the sum of its parts.

4. Go mobile. From Wired to BusinessWeek to NPR, news organizations ares repackaging content and sticking it on the iPhone. Wired’s app lets you read every gadget review the tech magazine’s every published. BusinessWeek’s has data on 42,000 public and 322,000 private companies worldwide. NPR’s lets you listen to your favorite public radio station whenever and wherever you are.
The freelance twist – Pair up with a local software developer and come up with your own mobile app. Take classes on how to get started from organizations such as Knowledgewebb, News University or the Online News Association. Because mobile apps of all kinds are so popular, you don’t even need to know how to do all the back-end stuff yourself – you can buy pre-packaged software code for functions such as sending messages to users or completing online purchases from mobile app startups like UrbanAirship.

Have you taken an idea from a big company and recast it into something that works for you? If so, please share.

While I’m away from my keyboard this week, I’m re-running a few posts that didn’t get the attention – or web traffic – they deserved the first time around. I’ll return with fresh insights on the business of writing next week. – Michelle Rafter

You can’t control the economy, or the price of gas or what magazine or newspaper will fold next.

In the face of so uncertainty, it’s easy to feel helpless. Especially when you’re an independently employed writer whose livelihood depends on the circumstances of others.

But between the choices of doing nothing and feeling helpless and doing something, I vote for doing something. So here are 10 things a freelance writer can do today to feel better about the economy and your place in it:

1. Update your resume. Ideally, it’s on your Website so the changes are easy and immediate.

2. Update your online presence. Make sure your latest clips are on your Website or blog. Revamp your profile on LinkedIn. Sign up with Facebook or Plaxo. Be sure to list any clients you’ve started writing for recently, writing groups or associations you’ve joined or classes you’ve taken to update your skills.

3. Submit expense receipts. Everybody’s got at least a few expenses that have been sitting around way too long. If you write for publications that reimburse expenses, that’s money in your pocket. What are you waiting for?

4. Send invoices. It’s easy to get consumed with the minutia of getting stories done and out the door. Just don’t forget to send an invoice along with them. And once those checks come in, bank them ASAP.

5. Send out a query. It doesn’t have to be the world’s best, or the world’s longest. The point is to send something and get the process going.

6. Go through your contacts. Look at your Rolodex, Outlook, LinkedIn connections or Facebook friends. Reach out to any who’ve taken a new job or moved to a different company to say hi or reconnect. Not every communication has to be specifically about work, but you never know when a simple “How’s it going?” could open the door to an opportunity.

7. Email every editor you’ve worked with in the past six months. Ask if they’ve got assignments that don’t have writers attached to them yet. Ask if they’re taking pitches. Ask if they know of other editors at their publication who are. In other words, ask for work.

8. Brainstorm. Read through old story notes or pitches from PR agencies for a nugget or conversation thread that you could turn into a query. Take a shower, go for a long walk or a bike ride – whatever activity you use to get the creative juices flowing. Bring a notepad along in case you’re inspired.

9. Clean your office. Go through files and throw away things you don’t use any more or don’t need to keep. Flipping through old papers might flip the old idea switch. Even if it doesn’t, a clean office is like a fresh start.

10. Commiserate. You might work alone, but you’re not going through this alone. There’s a world of freelancers out there in the same position. Talk to them. Share suggestions. Why reinvent the wheel when you can borrow great ideas from people just like you.

What suggestions do other writers have for things to do right now to feel better about the economy?

How bad are times for freelance writers?

At the risk of over sharing, and after spending some time calculating my own revenue for the first half of 2009, my conclusions are: bad, but not as bad as they could be.

Bad, because old clients don’t have as much money to spend. Not as bad as they could be because there are – surprise, surprise – publications of various shapes and sizes out there with money to spend.

Before I get to the numbers, a brief explanation of my writing business. I practice what I call the contributing writer model of freelance writing. For just about as long as I’ve worked as an independent writer, my preferred business model has been to write for a handful of publications – wire services, newspapers, trade magazines and websites – on a regular if not monthly basis. As a former newspaper staff writer it’s what I’m most comfortable with. And it doesn’t require as much marketing effort as constantly sending out letters of introduction and queries to editors I don’t know.

This business model still worked for me in 2008, when my top two clients accounted for 72 percent of my work.

Not so in 2009. In the first six months of the year, work from my two biggest clients fell 39 percent and 71 percent respectively. Ouch and double ouch. Work for a few other regulars stayed steady or increased slightly.

My saving grace: work from new clients, a handful of publications I hadn’t worked for before, which increased 89 percent during the first six months of the year. It wasn’t enough to completely make up the difference, leaving me with a 15 percent decline in revenue for the first half of the year. Not great, but compared to GM, none too shabby either.

Until I did these calculations I didn’t realize how much I needed to innovate and beat the bushes for new relationships. Although it takes me out of my comfort zone – and really, who likes that? – it’s obviously something I must do, and in fact, have already begun. In the past several weeks, I’ve nabbed my first assignment from a national writers’ magazine, and am waiting to hear back from an organization that could throw some interesting work my way.

There’s an upside to pushing beyond the familiar. If and when things get better and work picks up from my old standbys, I’ll have my pick of assignments. If it doesn’t, I’ve cultivated a crop of what I hope will be my new regulars.

What have you learned about your own freelance business this year?