Hi Elna I’m so happy and greatful to come across this site. Writing is one thing that has been disturbing me for too long,I was wondering on how I would start but write after reading the 20s I hope it will work. Thanks for the share and God bless you.Reply to Ogutu
Beginner-Friendly Ways to Find Freelance Writing Jobs (2022)
1. Create a Writing Portfolio That Kicks Butt
Further Reading: How to Create a Writing Portfolio That’ll Wow Potential Clients walks you through everything you need to craft an online portfolio of your work, from portfolio sites like Contently to using your own blog. It also offers tips for building a list of writing samples if your portfolio is a bit sparse.
2. Supercharge Your Writing Skills
3. Ask for Testimonials
Most writers who do freelance work, either due to ignorance or fear, don’t ask for testimonials. Our own Jon Morrow says he’s only had a small handful of writers over the years ask him for a testimonial — even though he would’ve been perfectly happy to give one to them.
Karen offers everything I look for in a freelance writer: Her work is excellent, she finishes on time (if not ahead of schedule), and her attention to detail is wonderful. I enjoyed working with her so much that, as soon as her first article was completed, I asked her if she’d like to write for us again. I happily recommend her.
Note: You can count me among the poor, unfortunate souls who missed out on Jon’s generosity. Before becoming Smart Blogger’s Editor-in-Chief, I was a freelancer. I wrote five posts for Smart Blogger as a freelance writer, which means I passed on five opportunities for Jon to say nice things about me. Don’t repeat my mistakes — ask for testimonials at every opportunity.
4. Learn How to Craft a Killer Author Bio
5. Know How to Write a Pitch
6. Learn the Legal Side of Freelancing
The legalities can seem so scary and daunting that many freelance writers choose to stick their heads in the sand and ignore them — or, worse, give up on their freelancing dreams rather than have to deal with any of it.
Chapter Two: 16 Hacks for Finding Under-the-Radar Writing Opportunities
Some of the results will be scams, but most will be legitimate. Many will be for remote writing jobs, but some will be location-specific (usually New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, Washington D.C., Dallas, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Portland, Oklahoma City, Greenville, Atlanta, and other major cities in the United States). Just skip over the ones that don’t apply to you.
Want to find guest blogging opportunities (since many websites these days pay for guest posts)? Enter “guest post” into the “this exact phrase” option and you’ll see every tweet written by someone looking to promote their latest guest blogging masterpiece.
2. Follow Leads on Social Media
3. Check Out Agency Job Postings
One of the best potential clients is agencies because they usually have an ongoing need for writers. Instead of only getting paid once, you can develop a relationship with a few and get new freelance blogging gigs for months or even years into the future.
How to Become a Freelance Writer, Starting from Scratch
4. Find (and Woo) Clients on Their Turf
Most members of these groups are looking to be hired, not looking to hire writers. And when someone wanting to hire a writer does come along, the person who raises their hand first is usually the one who gets the job.
Skip the Facebook Groups. Go Straight to the Sources.
After reading one of her posts and admiring her writing style, I connected with Henneke Duistermaat of Enchanting Marketing through a humble blog comment. The same was true with Syed Balkhi. I connected with Pamela Wilson via Twitter. For Jon Morrow, the man who would one day hire me at Smart Blogger, I got on his radar by becoming a student in one of his online courses.
When you’re their student, an influencer is invested in your future. Your success is their success. You’re a walking, talking testimonial. So many — not all, but many — will do everything they can to help you succeed.
5. Pitch to Software Company Blogs
You want to work with businesses that have money to spend on marketing. Chances are, those companies are subscribed to various apps for email marketing, analytics, and so on. Most software companies in the marketing space (like HubSpot, Sumo, PayPal, Ahrefs, etc.) also publish a great deal of content. So, who better to write for? You’re instantly getting in front of thousands of the right clients. Many of these blogs will also pay you to write for them, so in many cases, you can get your first client while also prospecting for clients.
e-Commerce companies with blogs tend to publish a lot of content. After all, every article they publish tends to pay for itself (and then some) thanks to the traffic it brings to the website — traffic that often leads to sales of their product.
6. Don’t Be Scared of Ghostwriting
You mean I get to spend weeks pouring my heart and soul into a piece of content, infusing every syllable with my very essence to the point I no longer know where I begin and my words end, and no one will ever know I wrote it?
7. Find Clients Who are Already Hiring Successful Freelance Writers in Your Niche
So where should you look for online writing jobs?
1. Freelance Writers Den
A great resource for freelancers, this membership site is so much more than a job board. For $40/month, you get access to more than 300 hours of “bootcamps” that teach you how to make money as a freelance writer and hundreds of forums where you can get any question answered. Whether you want to listen to the expert guests on their podcast, access the 24/7 community of writers, or check out video and audio training materials, the Den has everything a freelancer needs to grow their career — all in one place. Plus, they have direct job referrals to quality writing gigs in the Den 2x program.
2. FlexJobs
One of the top job boards for freelance writing jobs and remote work, FlexJobs enables you to create a custom job search profile to meet your specific needs. Select your categories (there are several under “Writing”), your preferred work schedule, your experience level and more to hone down your search results to those that best fit the freelance writer job you’re looking for. You can also set alerts so you’re notified when new jobs matching your search criteria are posted.
3. SolidGigs
SolidGigs is part job board, part productivity tool. Why? Because their team literally saves you hours of scouring job boards. They hand-pick the best gigs from around the web and compile them into a weekly email, including remote opportunities.
4. Opportunities of the Week
Sonia Weiser’s bi-weekly newsletter has become a must-have for freelance writers. She gathers dozens of calls for pitches from Twitter and emails them to her community twice a week. She offers the service through Patreon, where she asks for a membership contribution of up to $10 (and also offers sponsorships for those who can’t afford it). If you can only make a one-time contribution, she provides an option for that, too.
5. Working In Content
A platform that’s still in its beta phase, Working In Content aims to connect organizations with passionate content professionals. As a bonus, it values diversity, equity and inclusion, and it encourages the employers it works with to do the same.
Whether you’re a UX writer or a content strategist, this site is a great option to find work in content design, marketing, management and more. It offers full-time and contract roles that are either remote or in cities like Seattle, New York City and San Francisco.
6. ProBlogger Job Board
Created by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, an authority site on blogging, the ProBlogger job board features part- and full-time, contract and freelance writer jobs across a wide variety of locations, industries and writing specialties.
Plus, given ProBlogger’s high profile in the blogosphere, it’s likely you can often find jobs posted by some big-time blogs and employers who have an idea what good writing is really worth. Besides content writing, it also lists a healthy dose of copywriting jobs.
7. Content Writing Jobs
This site content writing job board includes remote, freelance, contract and full-time jobs. To peruse these hand-picked writing opportunities, visit the site online, sign up for daily job alerts or subscribe to its paid newsletter that shares brand new openings once per week for $10/month.
8. Behance Creative Jobs
Behance allows you to upload your past projects to quickly create a visually-pleasing online portfolio, making it a great resource for writers without a website . It has its own job board which you can browse to find your next career move or freelance writing job!
9. MediaBistro
Be sure to check out the freelance job board section of the site, as well, for a wide range of jobs for all experience levels from industries like TV, PR/marketing, magazine and book publishing and social media — a little something for everyone.
10. Morning Coffee Newsletter
With exclusive job opportunities as well as posts pulled from sites like Indeed and Craigslist, the job board consolidates a variety of gigs for everyone from newbie to seasoned freelancers. Save yourself the time of scouring numerous sites and let this newsletter bring the decent jobs right to your inbox.
11. Who Pays Writers?
Who Pays Writers? is a crowd-sourced list of publications that pay freelance writers — and it’s a gold mine. The list has hundreds of publications to explore; it not only shows you which publications are accepting submissions, it also tells you how much they pay per word.
Freelance Writing Jobs – 20 Simple Ways to Start
First you need to locate businesses to cold pitch to. Maybe you noticed they don’t have a blog – but should. Or, on Twitter you see they are trying to grow their online presence and you think your content can help with that.
Some companies are huge brand and it would be difficult for a brand content writer to find a job that way. So get a Gsheet and mark some companies, but then niche down to get smaller companies that would need help with your writing. Some examples:
Bonus #21: Use a Job Search Website
1. Are Freelance Writing Jobs Legit?
2. What Kinds of Freelance Writing Jobs are There?
3. What do Freelance Writing Jobs Pay?
4. Can Anyone do Freelance Writing?
5. Can You Make Money Freelance Writing?
6. How Does Freelance Writing Work?
7. Who Pays for Freelance Writing?
8. What are the Highest Paying Jobs For Someone Who Loves Writing?
For example, copywriting is a high-paying freelance writing job, but you have to learn the art of selling and write compelling, but also, conversational writing for businesses. Companies hire copywriters to write landing pages, email funnels, sales pages, brochures, press releases and more.
But, you can learn how to write specialized forms of writing and you know what? I can help you with that on my blog. Here are some beginner posts on how to write white papers, case studies, and press releases. All of these freelance writing jobs are high paying and can start at 800,000.
9. Do You Have to Have a Degree to Be a Freelance Writer?
10. How Much Should I Charge for a 500-Word Article?
Sources:
https://smartblogger.com/freelance-writing-jobs/
https://thewritelife.com/find-freelance-writing-jobs/
https://elnacain.com/blog/20-ways-find-freelance-writing-jobs/