One of the biggest issues of a career in freelance writing is finding new jobs. Not only can this be difficult due to the competition, but many of the leads that are floating around are “dead.” What is a dead freelance writing lead, you may ask?
I categorize a dead lead as one that has been posted for several days, and really offers no hope of converting into a job. Even though you may still want to apply for a job a few days after going live, your chance of getting a response is quite low. The reason for this is that most freelance writing job posters get bombarded with emails within minutes of adding their job to a popular website such as Craigslist or Freelancewriting.com. In the past I have posted smaller jobs on these sites, and over the course of two to three days received more than 50 emails. As you can imagine, the pool for the hiring party to choose from is quite great. This is why I say that a lead is as good as dead after a couple days.
Unfortunately, there are some leads that start out dead because the person posting the job has no intention on hiring anybody. If you visit a bidding site such as GetAFreelancer, you will see this time and time again. One of the oldest tricks in the book is for somebody to ask for a sample on the topic that they are going to “hire” you to write about. This allows them to get samples from several writers, in many cases 10 or more, and then never hire anybody. In turn they can collect a large number of unique articles without having to pay for them. And since every freelance writer is trying to win the job, the quality of the samples are usually good. There is nothing wrong with sending a past sample, but writing one just to have a chance at a job is a bad idea. More times than not, those asking for these types of samples are trying to get articles for free.
There are a lot of dead freelance writing leads floating around the internet. But remember, this does not mean that all leads are a waste of time. As you become more comfortable as a freelance writer, you will be able to quickly determine which leads to follow up on and which leads to ignore.
Being a freelance writer does not mean that all I do is write all day. While I wish this was the case, it is far from the truth. I spend a lot of time on administrative tasks, and of course, trying to locate new jobs from time to time.
There are two ways that I get new work. A client either comes to me via my website or a referral, or I find them in one way or the next. But no matter what, I will have to work with them in order to come up with a mutually agreed upon price. The best clients are those who ask for my standard rates, and then do not attempt to negotiate them. Unfortunately, this does not always work out.
Weighing a freelance writing job offer can be difficult for a number of reasons. While payment is always something to consider, there are other factors that should go into your decision.
1. When it comes to payment you need to be careful. There is nothing wrong with taking a lower paying job if you have the time for it, but you do not want to find yourself in this habit. Remember, if you complete one low paying job for a client, they will expect the same treatment for each subsequent project.
2. Does the client come across as difficult to work with? If you get a bad feeling about a client from the start, you may want to walk away instead of accepting the work. Of course, make sure that your concern is valid. In the past few months I can think of two occurrences when I went against my gut, and then ended up burnt by an unruly client.
3. Anytime that you take on a new freelance writing job, you need to have time to complete it as specified. Even though an overloaded work schedule may sound like a dream to some freelance writers, take it from me when I say that this is not the case. I have done this to myself in the past, and the result has been 10 to 12 hour work days.
When you receive an inquiry to complete a writing job, use the tips above when deciding whether or not to accept.
There is no denying that a few big jobs make up a large part of my monthly freelance writing income. But guess what? I also believe that smaller jobs are every bit as important. Sure, I would love to work on high paying jobs only, who wouldn’t? But the reality of the freelance writing industry (at least for me) is that this is not always possible. For this reason, I always think twice before I turn down any small jobs that I am offered.
What does a small freelance writing job mean to me? First off, when I say “small” I mean small in the way of payment. But when you add three and four small jobs together, you end up with one big job. This is why taking on small jobs that will not consume a lot of your time is very important.
Take for instance one specific pet related project that I work on every morning. This project consists of one article per day of 300 words or so. For this, I receive $10/day. That may sound small on the surface, but by months end this has added up to $300; which is a nice sum to bump up my monthly total.
When I finally get to a point where my workload has become too much, I then start to cut back on the smallest of small jobs. But of course, I only do this when I am completely out of time. In the example above, it would be foolish for me to leave $300 on the table when it only takes me about 15 minutes a day to complete one of these articles.
I read a lot of blogs, and one thing that other freelance writers always touch on is that you should get paid a solid wage for your work. And while I agree with this, I think it is foolish to pass by a project just because you are not being offered $.20/word or more. This is especially true if you are new to freelance writing, and are simply trying to get in on the ground floor.
Simply put: do not always turn down the small jobs. Several of these could add up to more money than you ever imagined!
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For most freelance writers, obtaining new clients is the lifeblood of their business. If you are capable of securing new work on a regular basis, you are going to succeed. Of course, you will also want to work hard at keeping the clients you currently work for. After all, recurring business is the best kind.
I have been lucky enough to secure some pretty big contracts over the years, but one of them sticks out head and shoulders above the rest. About 15 months ago I came across an ad on one of the many freelance writing job boards that I check every morning. From what I can remember, the ad was actually posted on several different boards including the one at journalismjobs.com.
The job description was simple and to the point. They were looking for somebody who could write approximately 500 words per day on real estate. Being that I had experience with this type of content in the past, I fired off a quick note with some samples and my resume attached. Not expecting to hear anything back for a few days at the least, I began to move on to the rest of my work. But much to my surprise, within five minutes, I received a call from the company that I had just emailed. They liked what they saw, offered me the job, and gave me some basic details on getting started.
But while all this was going on, I was still wondering about one very important detail. What was the pay for this job? The ad did not mention the rate, and the client had yet to say anything. Right then, he said to me, “What is your going rate for a job like this?” I quickly responded that I would be glad to help at $.10/word. He said great, I said awesome, and that was that.
Each month, like clockwork, I receive $1,000 or so from this client. I always wonder how I got so lucky as to secure this client. It is obvious that the hiring individual was reading emails at that time, and mine happened to roll in. Talk about great timing!
Wouldn’t it be easy if every contract was this simple to secure? These are the ones that every freelance writer dreams about, but of course, the ones that are most difficult to capture!
How much money can you earn by working full-time as a freelance writer? This is a question that most aspiring freelancers ask time and time again. But unlike some jobs that have set salary ranges, this is far from the truth when it comes to freelance writing. The fact of the matter is that earnings change from person to person, and are based on everything from writing skills to marketing prowess.
To give you a better idea of what type of money you can make as a freelance writer, I am going to detail some of the projects that I work on each month. They range from high paying gigs that I located on journalismjobs.com to lower paying website content articles. Although everybody would like the high paying jobs, even full-time freelance writers have to give in from time to time.
First off, let’s take a look at one of my highest paying jobs. Generally speaking, this job entails writing at least one article per day. That sounds easy enough, right? Well it gets even better. The article can be on any topic I want, and it is up to me to determine the length and direction. What does a gig like this pay? This particular one gives me $.10/word. As you can imagine, this is a nice deal because for a 500 word article I can pull in $50. And since it only takes me 15 to 20 minutes to complete these, I make out just fine in the end.
On the other side of things, there are some jobs that I take on that do not offer nearly as much in the area of finances. But of course, there are a couple of reasons that I stick with these jobs. There are two requirements that I consider before taking on a low paying job. The first one is ongoing, steady work. As long as the client is always sending work, the small pay will add up in the end. The other requirement is that I must feel that the articles can be written at a highly fair rate of speed. After all, I am not going to work for $5/hour or so.
One example of this is a client that pays me $.012/word. Does this sound like a rip-off to you? If so, I don’t blame you. But even though this is far from being the best pay, it usually works out to right around $50/hour in the long run.
As you can see, you will have the ability to make up your mind on which freelance writing jobs to accept. Remember, the faster you write, the more you can write. And in turn, you can increase your average hourly rate. But of course, you should never give up delivering quality work just so you can make more money. If you do, your clients will see through this, and your job will be gone before you can blink an eye.
Determining how much money you will make as a freelance writer is not possible. In fact, it is not even possible for me and I have been doing this for quite some time. There are some months that I earn nearly $10,000 and others that are around $5,000. My goal is to get as close to $10k a month as I can, without having to sacrifice more time. No matter who you are, you should have earning goals in mind for your freelance writing career.
I have received many great jobs from GetAFreelancer in the past, and hope to continue this for years to come. But as of late, it appears that more and more low paying jobs are being posted. While these do not bother me, because I will simply ignore them, there are others who may fall prey. After all, this happens to even the best of us.
I have been meaning to write about this problem, and a recent job posting on GetAFreelancer pushed me into doing it today.
Check out this job at http://www.getafreelancer.com/projects/156007.html. I think that the title pretty much says it all: Full Time Work – Max $2 Per Hr. Is this a joke? Does somebody really think that they can find somebody to work full-time for $2 per hour? That works out to a whopping $4,160/year based on a 2,080 hour work year. Even in the poorest countries in the world, this is an absolute insult.
If you do not have the chance to read the post, they are looking for a bidder that feels that $50 to $60 a week is an acceptable income. The job title is quite extensive as they are looking for a person who can handle CSS, customer service, link building, content writing, and more. In other words, they want a highly skilled, full-time worker that will work for peanuts.
When I first saw this post I figured that nobody in their right mind would place a bid. But guess what? After one day on GetAFreelancer, there have been 29 bids with an average bid price of $46.
Do yourself a favor, and get paid what you are worth. Working full-time on your own website or blog will go much further than taking a job like this.
I hate to call anybody a liar, but some of the people that place jobs on freelance writing bidding sites are just that. Over the past several years I have been burnt several times by these people, but finally, I am beginning to see through their simple tactics. The fact of the matter is this: there is nothing wrong with what these people are doing (within reason), but at the same time, they are lying to writers who may not know any better.
The most common lie that I have seen is this. A buyer posts a job stating how many articles they need as well as a tag line that reads, “This is a low paying job, but the next one will be double the pay.” Like many, I fell for this several times thinking that I would eventually get a raise in pay. Do you think that this ever happened? The answer is no. Although there may be some buyers who honestly plan on paying more, the majority have no intentions of doing so.
Another common lie is the ever popular, “Write me a sample article on a specific topic, and if I like it, I will give you more work.” This may sound fair enough, but this is far from the case. Do you know what these people do? They get as many samples as they can, and then they simply use those instead of actually paying to have the work done. This is a deceitful act, and one that is going to get these buyers nowhere in the end.
Bidding sites are a great place to find freelance writing work, but unfortunately, there are some buyers who have to ruin it with lies. The best way to avoid these buyers is to be extremely cautious with the jobs that you accept. And of course, never agree to write an article unless you are going to get paid for it!
Journalismjobs.com is one of the largest portals for people interested in finding a job in the journalism industry. With the opportunity to search by location, anybody in any state can find jobs in their area that pertain to this field. But if you are a freelance writer, Journalismjobs.com has some benefits as well.
A few years back when I started freelancing I used this service to find a couple of clients that I still work for today. Since then I have not found much, but there are many freelance writing gigs available through this service.
To find freelance writing jobs on Journalismjobs.com you need to know where to look. Instead of searching one particular state, you will want to search for “all locations” or “telecommute” under the location tab. This is where you will find 99 percent of the freelance writing jobs. Of course, if you have the time, check in the individual states as well; particularly the one that you live in.
As a freelance writer, Journalismjobs.com is a great site because you do not have to pay to find jobs. Each ad will have contact information included, and all you have to do is follow the directions of the poster.
Journalismjobs.com even gives job seekers the ability to post a resume free of charge. This way, interested employers can search the database and see who is available for work. If you have some time you might as well do this. You never know who will come calling.
You may not find hundreds of freelance writing gigs at Journalismjobs.com, but from time to time there are a few good ones. Taking a few minutes each morning to check for new listings is not going to kill you!
Now that you have a better idea of where to find freelance writing and blogging jobs (see the last post), you must now know how to win these coveted positions.
I recently ran a test experiment of sorts at freelancewriting.com. Since I was a bit behind with some articles, I wanted to find an experienced writer to crank out a couple pages for me; not a huge project by any means. So I posted the job, with a detailed description, and waited for the responses to roll in. Within five hours or so I was barraged with more than 30 emails. As you can imagine, I had a hard time sifting through all of these to find the best writer.
So what was the point of this experiment? Outside of actually wanting to find a writer, I also wanted to see what type of competition was out there. The bottom line is that if you want to move to the top of a buyers list, your email better stick out.
Here is what I looked for when going through the emails.
1. First off, anybody who made a typo in the subject line was immediately out of the running. It is this attention to detail that buyers are going to notice first.
2. Upon opening each email I began to look at sentence structure, grammar, etc. As soon as I noticed a mistake, no matter how small, I deleted the message.
3. Finally, I took a close look at what the remaining writers had to offer. Are they experienced? Did they follow my directions? These, among many others, are questions that I asked myself.
As you can see, if you can put together an error free email you will be able to move onto the final round with most buyers. From there, your past work and current skills will determine whether or not you get hired.
The point is that you need to take each email you send very seriously. If you make even one mistake, you may miss out on a great job that could have netted a big paycheck. And remember, spell check is not enough. You need to read and reread each message to check for typos, grammar mistakes, and anything else that may raise a red flag!
Time and time again people ask me how I find regular freelance writing and blogging jobs. While there is no hard and fast rule for seeking the best positions, there are several options that anybody can look into.
Two of my favorite places to hunt down freelance writing gigs are:
1. freelancewriting.com
2. getafreelancer.com
At freelancewriting.com, buyers post jobs ranging from business plan writing to keyword articles. Make sure that you search both the “high paying” and “low paying” boards so that you do not miss out on anything. While you will find a lot of tire kickers on this site, a few good jobs do sneak into the picture on a regular basis.
Getafreelancer.com (GAF) is quite similar to elance.com; just not as popular. The main reason that I like GAF is that you do not have to pay anything to bid on jobs. In fact, the only time that you are forced to pay is if you win a job. Even then, you are only charged 10 percent of the total winning bid. For example, if you win a project worth $100, GAF will charge you $10 and you will net $90. This may seem like a lot, but it is actually a great deal once you begin to win more and more projects.
Check out my GAF page at http://www.getafreelancer.com/users/180681.html. Although some of the contact information is out of date, it does not really matter at this point. Since joining I have won 18 projects, and on all of them I have received perfect “10 of 10” feedback from the buyer. Getting good feedback is essential if you want to get repeat jobs. Now that I am established I usually get a couple requests to bid each week from interested buyers.
Are you thinking that 17 projects won is not worth the time? Before you do, keep in mind that a lot of these jobs have turned into regular clients. In fact, one of my biggest clients found me through GAF. Over the last year alone I have done over $5,000 worth of work for them.
Blogging jobs are often times more difficult to find. But with that being said, they are not impossible to land. Although I guest blog for three companies right now, all of them were referrals from different clients of mine. If you are interested in a blogging job, check out http://jobs.problogger.net. This is a great place to find some of the top blogging jobs with the top blogging networks.
As you can imagine, this does not even scratch the surface as far as to what is available in the freelance writing and blogging industries. Simply put, this is where I started to find jobs, and still do from time to time.
