Freelance Writing Jobs for Monday, August 17, 2009
August 17, 2009 by Deb Ng
Filed under Writing Gigs
It’s clean slate Monday, how will you make a fresh start today?
Speaking of a fresh start:
I (finally) answered a bunch of emails this weekend (Thanks for your patience). About 95% of them were from new writers looking for advice for getting started. My number one tip for getting started as a freelance writer is to research. Research types of jobs, research the various types of clients, research formatting, and research rates. I never recommend jumping into it blind.
If you had to offer your best freelance writing tip for a brand new writer, what would it be? How would you recommend someone get started?
Leads…
Content Writing Jobs
- Freelance Writer – Shopping – $50 – $75 post
- Easy Web Content Writing
- Content Writers – Las Vegas
- Content Writer for Online Retailer – Hollywood FL
Blogger Jobs
- Blog Herald is Hiring International Contributors
- Music Related, Motivational Blog Post
- Data Storage Writer Wanted
Proofreading/Editing Jobs
- AMA Proofreader - Parsippany
- Freelance Proofreader
- Freelance Writing/Proofreader
- Editor Needed ASAP – Chicago
- Looking for Editors & Writers – Michigan
- Wanted: A Ruthless Editor
- CDE Proofreader – Minneapolis
- Critique Editor Needed
- Editor Needed for Manuscript
- Write Articles About College Life
Copywriting Jobs
- Experienced Freelance Copywriters
- Freelance Copywriter - NYC
- Copywriter – Wheeling IL
- Creative Copywriter Needed – Jacksonville
Journalism Jobs
- Reporter – Paid Internship
- Experienced Journalists & Subject Matter Experts
- Hollywood Weekly is Looking for Staff writers - Telecommute OK
- Freelance Journalists
Technical Writing Jobs
Foreign Language Jobs
- Japanese Translator Wanted
- Portuguese Translator Wanted
- Translation Needed for Adult Content Website
Green Writing Jobs
Ghost Writing Jobs
Business Plan/Proposal/Contract/Grant Writing Jobs
- Federal Grant Writer – Detroit
- Business Proposal Writer - Oakland County MI
- Contract Writer
- Proposal Writer Needed
- Experienced Business Plan Writer
- Business Plan/Media Kit Writer
- Business Plan Writer
- Business Plan Writer
Travel Writing Jobs
Food Writing Jobs
Sports Writing Jobs
- Sports Writer – Cape Girardeau
- Sports Betting Articles
Resume Writing Jobs
Screenwriting & Scriptwriting Jobs
Research Jobs
Education & Academic Writing
General/Misc. Freelance Writing Jobs
- Feature Writer
- Word-Smith Talent
- Part Time Researcher/Writer – Telecommute OK
- Policy, Procedure, Process, Documentation Writer
- Freelance Position – Tyson’s Corner
- Creative Writer Needed
- Press Kit Needed
- Looking for Writer with a Background in Dance - .05/word
- Freelance Writers Needed – Shoes & Fashion
- Freelance Writer – Houston Nightlife
- Writers Needed
- Writer Who Understands Comedy
- Freelance Writers Wanted
- Need Help Writing a Biography
- In Need of Someone to Create a Reference List from Articles
- Forensics Speech Debate Writer – Raleigh
- Experienced Writer to Write DIY Loan Modification Course
- Real Estate Writers – San Diego
Good luck!
When people ask me how to get started, I generally advise that they start by collecting work samples in a portfolio. You need to be able to show prospective employers/clients what talent, skill, or special knowledge you have to offer. If you don’t have published work, give yourself a few assignments.
The second step – which you didn’t ask but I offer gratis [:-) – is to figure out how to display or distribute them, whether on the Web or in a set of clips.
Good advice, Hazel. I used to have a website with links to all my online articles, but as you can imagine it got a little unwieldy. Now I just supply a few relevant links in the body of my email. Links to all of my blogs and the places I work are listen on my resume if the client wants to delve deeper.
I do something similar, including 3-4 relevant links when applying. So if for technology writing, it will be links to 3-4 tech clips; for financial writing, links to 3-4 financial clips; and will specialize it even more if situation dictates.
Patience is a virtue when starting out. At first, don’t be afraid to write for no pay – the clips are important. The more clips you get, the better your chances of paid work and moving on to bigger and better things.
Oh, and read as much as you can about anything to stay familiar with the Zeitgeist of it all!
Market your services constantly. Market to your local market, as well as online. Doing so consistently will keep the work coming in. Never relay on having only one or two clients (I know, that’s two things).
Thanks, Kimberly. Marketing online as well as offline is important for freelance writing success.
My tips:
— Don’t work for free. If you don’t value your own work, why should anyone else (and I’ve heard all the arguments for getting clips and having to start somewhere).
— Be reliable . . . never miss a deadline; keep an editor informed if you run into problems (i.e. contacting a source for an interview).
— Learn other skills, such as photography, to make yourself even more valuable to an editor.
— Become knowledgeable about rights and copyright.
(I also agree with Kimberly who advises to market your services constantly)
All great advices, thanks PJ
Expect to work hard and be a professional before you are a professional.
It’s like I always say, Kenna. We’re only as good as our reputations! Thanks for your input.
Thanks for the leads, Deb! Some good stuff in there!
You’re very welcome, Christi. Hope you land a cool gig!
I’ve never had any writing jobs before, but I’m considering getting into the field, so I really am as green as they get. When you guys say to get some samples ready, what kind of “assignments” should I give myself? I’m not sure what potential employers really want to see. Thanks!
Hi Ashley. In which areas do you shine? What are your specialties? Pick their areas where you have the most expertise and take it from there.
Good luck to you – this community is so helpful and very generous with the advice so please don’t be afraid to ask qustions!
My two tips:
To be a freelance writer, you need to breath writing. Simply “wanting” to be a freelance writer is not enough. Secondly, you have to be able to write well; anything less and you are simply typing.
If there is a third tip (I know only two were asked), I would recommend anyone hoping to become a freelance writer learn to develop a very tough skin.
Can’t argue with any of it, Ed.
Persistence is important. At some point, you’ll come across a client who doesn’t pay as promised. Chasing them down repeatedly, sending reminder invoices and following up on reporting them if they use your article without paying is important. I’ve been pretty lucky, but I did have one guy who had me do $150 in articles once and then closed his email account and didn’t pay me. I never did get the money, but I did contact the company that hosted his website with proof that I’d written the articles and they shut down his site.
Other times, stating that I was going to contact their web host was enough to get payment.
Fortunately I haven’t had anyone try and stiff me. However, i once read the folks who try and stiff writers do so because they think you’re going to eventually give up. Don ‘t. If someone owes you money do everything withing your power to get paid. Contact Angela Hoy at Writers Weekly for help if needed.
I had this happen a few years ago with The Boston Metro. They were going through editors like most people go through Kleenex and I think that a lot of freelancers fell through the cracks. I wrote two pieces for $75 apiece and it took me six months of harassing them to get paid! But I finally did.
To follow up on Anne’s point, read or talk to others to get some business acumen. I came into this straight from a job, with no plans to do this long-term (he says 17 years later). My job had left, my wife was pregnent. But if I hadn’t done a lot of business reading beforehand, and learned some stuff by osmosis (I was a business writer), I don’t know that I would have been successful.
Invoicing, billing and collecitons, as Anne says, are critical.
Phil, I think something that helped me is that I read about being a freelance writer for several months before actually taking the plunge. Reading about other writers’ experiences helped me a great deal.
Research the business side of things, because it will help you a lot in the long-run, like Phil suggests.
Other than that be patient, and understand this isn’t a get-rich-quick industry. It takes time to get going, but it’s an absolute blast.
Be persistent. Never take no for an answer. Have a thick skin, and don’t be afraid to test yourself, even if you aren’t sure.
Enjoy!
Think of what kind of other jobs you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them, how you could write for them, and the people you know from those other jobs. I’ve been freelancing for I think almost eight years and the majority of my work STILL comes either from people I worked with in an office situation, or people who were referred to me by my office contacts.
This may sound limiting, but I don’t mean it to (I am writing horribly today, btw…first half-day off in about a month): find a niche. It’s great to be multitalented and say, “I can write anything,” but if there’s something you know about and have experience with, at least pursue that first. I think too many people say, “I’m going to be a freelance writer” and have this vision of themselves writing articles for glamorous national magazines and pieces for newspapers. The truth is, though, that almost every industry, even as weird or narrow as it may seem, uses writers for something. If you worked in creating packaging for pharmaceutical products, you can parlay your contacts in that industry to write for a trade magazine covering packaging for pharmaceutical products (I wouldn’t have believed these existed unless I saw them), and build up at least some clips that way.
Okay, I ramble on…
For the job posting “Hollywood Weekly Is Looking for Staff Writers,” the posting asks you to sign up with Examiner.com so that you can post articles and have the magazine monitor how popular your articles are before they offer you a position. Do you think this is a legitimate oppurtunity? Is it possible that other freelance jobs will use Examiner.com as a “test” to weed out those who can’t write online or product SEO-saturated articles? And, what about samples? I’ve written several music articles (non-SEO, although my full-time position is as an SEO copywriter) that appeared in print first before appearing online, so, essentially, I find writing for Examiner.com before getting a position is just writing all samples from scratch.