My experience is different than most because my first two clients were my last two employers, so I had steady income right away. Had to, my wife was five months pregnant.

Ups and downs in income are common, especially early. But I’ve run into more of it now after 17 years than ever before. Best way to avoid that is a wide, long client list. But that’s easier said than done.

I try to find clients with ongoing needs rather than looking for a lot of one-shot deals, and provide rate breaks for regular work. Best are retainer clients, but those are few and far between.

You have to be stubborn. Colonel Sanders was turned down several hundred times before being successful.

You might want to buy (or borrow from the library) a few Tony Robbins tapes (he will try to sell you more). I pick up business tapes from library or plunk down a few bucks for them at a book store every so often.

I like the “treat it like a business” tip too. I have to fight to have time to do my freelance writing everyday because it seems like everyone wants a piece of me – I have to be stubborn and relentless.

The one thing in common ALL my clients have is the type of website they are running: home theater reviews. Writing in-depth reviews of high-end audio components is what I love to write about as well as excelling at it. This type of writing has turned into my basic foundation of financial independence and I am going to expand on that initial client base as much as possible.

So that would be my #11 tip: Write what you actually LOVE to write about and eventually you will find clients banging down your door to pay you a decent income to write about what you love.

I’ve read Zig Ziglar and Carnegie, too, but Ziglar might be too hard core sales for some to start with.

One great book I’d add, especially for new freelancers, is Rockstar Freelancer from Freelance Switch (link goes to my review of the book). That one has a decent balance between business concepts and the nuts and bolts of freelancing.