As Sara Horowitz, founder of the Freelancers Union, once said, “One of the challenges for all freelancers, though, is it can be feast or famine.” Sometimes you could be raking in the assignments; at others, editors could be strangely silent when you want to hear from them the most.

In the latest Mediabistro feature, magazine veterans give tips on how to foster your relationships with editors to keep the assignments, and the paychecks, rolling in.

Read more in 6 Tips for Landing Repeat Writing Assignments.

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Being a freelancer comes with many perks: working from home, flexible hours and the ability to pick your own projects. But it can be difficult to figure out how much your work is worth. Should you have an hourly rate or a per-project one? New writers might want to accept a lower rate to build clips, but how do you know when a rate is too low? Is the project even worth your time?

In the latest Mediabistro feature, seasoned freelancers share their experiences, so you can learn from their mistakes and maximize the value of your work.

Freelancer Aubre Andrus says she set a salary goal for herself and calculates her hourly rate from there. For her, the fact that she isn’t working on income-generating tasks 40 hours a week was a determining factor.

“This rate helps me devise my per-project fee and helps me decide if a project is worth my time,” explained Andrus. That, along with tracking her monthly earnings, has helped her stay on target to attain her salary goal.

Read more in 4 Things to Consider When Setting Your Freelance Writing Rate. [subscription required]