You love your day job, but you sometimes wish that it paid more.
You’re in the process of saving up a little extra cash to go on a dream vacation, plan your wedding, or even finally make it out of debt.
So, what’s the perfect side gig?
Taking on high paying freelance writing jobs is a great opportunity for anyone willing to put in the time, work and effort. But how do you make it happen, and how can you improve your writing skills when it comes to commercial writing.
In this post, we’ll tell you all about how to find writing jobs that aren’t only fun, but lucrative.
Read on to learn how to find out about opportunities before anyone else does, and how to establish your own web presence as a writer for hire.
We’ll even tell you how to write the perfect pitch, which often comes down to finding the right idea and purpose for your content, coming up with a reporting plan to document it all, and also knowing how much time to spend on the project.
Once you have a better understanding of how to focus your time and effort, and also where to look for new writing jobs, you may soon find that the world of freelance writing is a lot more lucrative than you originally thought.
1. Follow Social Media Writing Groups
If you’re looking for freelance writing jobs, social media is one of the best places to begin.
Make a list of magazines, blogs, online journals, and even businesses that you love. Also, do a search on social media for accounts related to the writing lifestyle, freelancing, and even commercial writing.
You might be surprised by just how many people post about high paying writing jobs — before these opportunities hit the rest of the market.
At the same time, also don’t discount the power of knowing how different websites, brands, and companies are putting their content to work for them on social media. Take a look at any effective social media strategy, and you will find that it starts with content. Once you start to notice what brands are continually pushing out new content, you may want to approach them directly to see if they are looking for new writers to add to their outsource team.
The great thing about working with big brands that need a lot of content is that they are likely to keep ordering more written work from you for the next several weeks, months, and even years to come.
2. Create a Writing Website
Especially if you’re ready to get into freelance writing for beginners, you’ll need to work to establish your web presence.
Companies are always looking for bloggers — and you want to make sure you show up in their search results. You also want to establish yourself as an experienced professional in the commercial writing world.
Start by including clips to your past published pieces — beginning with the most recently published first. Include your CV with information about your education, any scholarships or fellowships you’ve received, and other accomplishments within the writing world.
Don’t forget to set up a blog on your website dedicated to showing off your writing.
You can also see an example below of how an author bio with a real photo and detailed description can bring your content to life, while also putting a real face and person behind the writing.
Make sure that you include a brief author bio and headshot on your website so that people can get to know the person behind the words you’re writing. For tips on what to include in (and what to leave out of!) your author bio, check out this post. You can see a preview of each of their ten recommended tips below for improving your reach, authority, and success as an online freelance writing or author.
- You will need up to three versions of your bio.
- Go ahead — brag!
- Leave your demographics for the end and keep it brief.
- When listing book publications, should you have any, italicize the title and do not put in quotation marks.
- Refer to yourself in the third person.
- The credibility an award gives a book can change the life of it!
- BS? BA? BIS? MBA? Ph.D.?
- Your bio will change dramatically as your career advances.
- If you can, have a professional (or at least a really good) photographer take a quality author photo of you.
- Browse the Internet and look in the books on your bookshelves for ideas.
Also, include links to your social media profiles — in short, give companies that want to hire you to write for them as many ways to contact you as possible.
3. Check out Writing Job Boards
Knowing where to find writing jobs online is the bread and butter of a successful freelance career or even side hustle.
When you’re just starting out, companies aren’t exactly going to be approaching you with writing opportunities (but hopefully they will in the future!) Luckily for you, there are several well-known and reputable writing job boards that you can scroll through.
In addition to the awesome job board on Freelance Writing Gigs, you will also come across other great ones at ProBlogger Job Board, Dice, MediaBistro and Craigslist.
This makes it much easier for you to find the types of writing gigs that are the best fit for your skill set. Many of these job boards also have an email list. Make sure that you sign up for it so that you’ll get alerts the moment a potential job posting goes up.
Writing job boards will break down the opportunities by category, so it’s easy to find what you’re interested in.
For example, you can choose from copywriting jobs, editing jobs, blogging jobs, and even broader content writing gigs.
While some of these opportunities will be a “one and done” situation? In other cases, you’ll be able to build lasting relationships with these clients. That’s an awesome way to build up your client book for the future!
4. When in Doubt, Just Pitch
So, you’ve followed all of the above tips on how to find writing jobs — but you’re just not getting any results.
In addition to feeling the pain of rejection, you’re also concerned that all of your writing efforts might be in vain. However, just like any profession or opportunity in the world today, it all comes down to those who are willing to put in more work and stand above the crowd.
A perfect example of how to best accomplish this can be seen in finance writing articles. Let’s specifically take a look at the loans with bad credit article and how it breaks down different data points throughout the article.
With the title being “Loans for Bad Credit”, it’s important to actually provide the end user with value, and not just a lot of written text in large paragraphs. We can see this article is actually very well written and laid out nicely as it has bold headlines (the red arrows) through the content, while also further breaking down each point into sub-paragraphs and will bullet points (the green arrows).
This is not brain surgery here, but it makes the world of a difference to the end user, the site owner, and the freelance writer. Way too many freelance writers just want to create 500 or 1000 word articles and move onto the next job. This is great for them, but not so much for the end user and brand publishing the content.
To see more examples like these, be sure to read through some of the top personal websites you want to write for, and see if their content is laid out in this same way. This will allow you to get to know their overall writing style better, and understand the kinds of topics they’re interested in publishing. And again, put in the time to not only write the best content possible but to also provide the right outreach and opportunity for each site as well.
Send out a cold pitch email to a bunch of sites, but make sure they are somewhat personalized and offer real value. Explain the article you’d like to write for them, and discuss why you’re qualified to write it. Include a potential length, as well as the date you’ll provide the first draft for them to edit.
Make sure you include your contact information and a short “author bio” so they can get to know your work.
Above all, don’t forget to include the amount that you’re looking to be paid for this gig. If you don’t bring up payment in your first pitch email, many blogs will try to get you to work for free.
Aim higher than you’re OK with making. This will give the company a bit of room for negotiating with you.
How to Find Writing Jobs: Wrapping Up
We hope this post has helped you to understand how to find writing jobs that connect with your interests, skill set, and your creative side.
As long as you’re willing to stay persistent and to follow up with leads, you’ll be able to build a nice client book in no time.
Looking for the latest writing gigs in blogging, content writing, and even editing? Want to get more advice about how to live the writing lifestyle to the fullest?
As mentioned earlier, if you are still looking for freelance work, be sure to check out the FreelanceWritingGigs job board to see which opportunities might e right for you. Be sure to bookmark this blog for more tips on how to make life as a writer work for you.
