I've been a freelance web developer, off and on, since I graduated from college in 2003. My latest "freelance stint" has just recently passed the one year mark. In between I've had full-time jobs for people who eventually became steady freelance clients. So that's my background.
Until recently, I had seen a huge drop off in requests for proposals and the few I did get were dead ends. In hindsight, this started happening during the early winter of last year. But in the last few months I've been picking up more odd jobs so on that front, at least in the short-term, things seems to be getting better.
I haven't had to go out and actively seek new clients in quite awhile because I've put together a steady stable of recurring clients. Most of my client base is in the professional sports field and even in down economic times, teams still need to keep their websites up and running. So that's my "secret" to freelance success in a bad economy: have good clients in stable industries.
Aside from freelance web dev work, I've also put together a decent network of sites earning money through advertising. At this time last year those sites were on pace to make a respectable amount of money each year. It wasn't a living wage but some months it came awfully damn close. Since the economy went to the dump I've seen a huge drop off in revenue from these sites. Some earn 50% less now than they did at this time last year. This income was, for lack of a better term, unnecessary for me to pay my bills and live so while it's a bummer I can live without it.
This was a bit rambling but that's my experience so far with the poor economy as a freelance web developer.
