It Ain’t Easy Bein’ a Freelancer

By Amanda Smyth Connor

The life of a freelancer. Oh sure, it sounds glamorous. Make your own hours! Be your own boss! Work from home in your footy pajamas with the funny butt-flap!

In reality, the life of a freelancer is tough, can lack stability and can really cramp your lifestyle if you don’t plan accordingly. Before you quit your job, burn your business suits and throw caution to the wind, be aware of what you are in for.

Freelance writing isn’t just a career path that you jump into. It’s no good saying “hello world! I’m a freelancer now! Hire me!” It takes hard work and dedication, as with any job, but it also takes intense self-motivation, self-discipline and a TON of networking. Not to mention that you also need to be an incredibly reliable and consistently solid writer.

Freelance-Zone has loads of wonderful posts devoted to how to become a freelancer, how to break into the biz and how to get better assignments, but this post serves as a warning to any timid newbies out there considering making the jump. This is not a career choice that is to be taken lightly. I would recommend holding down that stable day job while making this transition and getting your feet wet in the field of freelancing before making any serious life-changing decisions. I would also recommend having an healthy savings account and/or a spouse/partner with a great salary. Freelancing is not for the faint of heart. … Continue Reading

How to Publish a Children’s Book

by Erin Dalpini

Think back to when you were five years old: coloring and make-believe filled up your days, naptime was a daily requirement rather than a luxury, and if you were anything like me, you probably listened to (and soon read) a lot of children’s stories. As a budding young writer, perhaps you even made up some of your own. And maybe, deep down, you’ve had this itch to write a children’s book, but never had the chance to publish due to fear of rejection, rejection or repeated rejection. (Ugh!)

Now there’s a way to realize that dream, thanks to BigDifBooks.com, an online publishing company that is changing the way kids’ books are published. Freelance-Zone caught up with Tom Watson, the founder of BigDifBooks, to find out what makes his company so special.

Freelance-Zone: What is BigDifBooks?

Tom Watson: We’re an online publisher of children’s books with two specific goals: we want to provide really inexpensive–sometimes even free–original stories for kids, and we want to provide writers a chance to share a children’s story without jumping through the hoops of the traditional publishing world. … Continue Reading

Try This: Write a Greeting Card

Happy birthday! Although it’s more likely in this digital era that you’ll receive Facebook posts and texts acknowledging your day of birth rather than a hand-written greeting, the average American still receives more than 20 greeting cards each year, contributing to an industry that grosses an estimated $7.5 billion a year, according to the Greeting Card Association.

I venture that’s because there’s something special about giving or receiving the perfect birthday card. You know, the one that fits to a T the personality of the recipient, the birthday card you receive that makes you laugh out loud. But who writes those funny or sentimental messages? Who keeps them fresh?

Enter Oatmeal Studios, a humorous greeting card company, and their pool of freelance writers and artists. Do you have what it takes to be a greeting card guru? Dawn Abraham, Editor at Oatmeal Studios tells all . . .

Freelance-Zone: Oatmeal Studios has been around for about 25 years. Can you tell writers a bit about the company?

Dawn Abraham: Actually, Oatmeal Studios has been around for more than 30 years. It started as a family-owned business with a few designs and grew into a large, alternative humorous card company with sales internationally.

FZ: How did you come to be involved with the company? 

DA: I started writing for Oatmeal in 1986 and because I lived nearby, it was a natural progression for me to start working in the company part-time as an assistant editor in 1987; I have been working here since then (with one break when my kids were little)…

… Continue Reading

6 Freelance Job Resources You Haven’t Thought Of

by Joe Wallace

Looking for freelance gigs? You’ve probably been all over the map in search of more steady work, but there are a few places that haven’t been beaten to death by the scraper sites..though they probably will be after we publish this. Best advice? Keep your BEST job resources to yourself as long as possible to avoid the bandwagon syndrome.

That said, here are a few that haven’t been ruined by scraper sites yet…and some that NEVER will be due to the nature of the job sourcing:

Reddit Jobs is pricey for editors to list gigs on–300 a day for 30 days–so you won’t be troubled by a bunch of spammy ads from the usual places offering you three bucks a post or “revenue sharing”. At press time, the problem with Reddit Jobs for freelancers is that some fields are underrepresented, but that obviously changes depending on supply and demand.

Artisan Creative. The reason why Artisan won’t be scraped out of usefulness for a busy freelancer? They have a screening process for candidates. This isn’t an “all-comers” source of freelance jobs, it’s a situation where talent actually matters. Artisan is a creative staffing agency that places writers, coders, designers, and many other freelance specialties. The jobs are heavy-hitting, too. Major companies, household names. I have personal experience with Artisan Creative and am very happy with them.
… Continue Reading

The Problem With Job Boards

Freelance gigs are posted and reposted like crazy on your favorite writing sites. Even we have posted jobs here when the mood strikes us. While we enjoy doing it when there’s time, we fully recognize one overriding problem with getting leads from “the usual places”.

If 75 people who are all looking for freelance writing opportunities look at a single job post, the editor is likely to get 75 query letters or resumes. That’s some pretty stiff competition.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t use the freelance writing job boards, just be prepared for a lot of no-reply situations unless you can get on the bandwagon early and beat the rush.

I have a dirty little secret I use for just such purposes, and it involves looking at the freelance writing gig sites, taking a few notes, and then not responding to ANY of the items posted there. My secret? … Continue Reading

Using RSS to Snipe Freelance Jobs on Craigslist

by Joe Wallace

Some writers I know swear by Craigslist; I used to swear by it myself until the advent of the CL scraper sites where “freelance jobs” means every CL post known to mankind along with all the other popular writing job sources. Now those who post jobs on CL are flooded with a massive amount of replies from writers from every skill level. Some who used to post jobs on Craigslist have given up and while there are still legit jobs to be found there, you have to wade through such an enormous amount of crap that it hardly seems worth it from where I sit.

But there are PLENTY of people who still love Craigslist as a source for freelance jobs. And in spite of the clearinghouses (a nice way of saying “Craigslist scraper sites) there is a way to beat the system. It’s so obvious that I’m sure many of our readers here are already doing this…but for those who aren’t, let me explain why you absolutely DO NOT need to rely on ANY third party website to get the Craigslist info you need. … Continue Reading

Putting a Price on Your Work

by Mike O’Mary

Hello Friends! Throughout my career as a writer, I’ve done creative work (mostly for fun) and corporate work (mostly for income). On the corporate side, I’ve worked as a corporate employee who sometimes hired freelancer writers and editors, and as a freelance writer and editor who sought work from corporations. 

One of the things I learned by working both sides of the corporate fence is that corporations think in terms of budget, whereas most freelancers think in terms of hourly rate. Even I made the switch when I went from being a corporate employee to being a freelancer… … Continue Reading

A Little Freelance Job Hunting Secret

Here’s a quick little secret you can use to lower the bad search results when you’re hunting for freelance jobs. Ever notice how many crappy search returns you get when you search on the plural of your freelance specialty? Try Googling the phrase “freelance writers” in your favorite job board. When I do this kind of search, the results are absolutely POLLUTED with the content sites that have spammed the job board with every different kind of ad they can cram in there.

Aside from being totally annoying (and perhaps I’m not using the same kind of freelance job boards you are and you’re getting different results) this is very much a waste of time if you try … Continue Reading

Freelance Jobs Made Easy With iGoogle

Freelance Folder has an excellent post about simplifying your freelance job search using iGoogle to aggregate your favorite freelance job sources. Using iGoogle makes the entire process quick and easy.

Which begs the question–what does this do to freelance sites that depend heavily on pulling freelance job information from other sources (like we do for our own Freelance-Zone.com job posts)?

It seems to make our freelance jobs posting–and other sites more dedicated to freelance jobs–totally irrelevant in terms of offering a useful service. iGoogle has this angle completely covered for those who invest the time to actually set it up and check the feeds. So what’s a freelance site to do? … Continue Reading

Things I Learned About Writing From Record Stores and Whole Foods

By Joe Wallace

As I drive across America travel writing and blogging about my adventures, I keep seeing these little parables about the writing life. Today’s discovery came after a morning drive from Dallas to Austin, Texas. (The day before I was in Springfield, Missouri so I probably come off a bit punchy in these recent posts).

One of my travel blogging stops in Austin was Waterloo Records–a local fixture in the indie music scene for many years. Waterloo began its stay in its current location as one of several tenants–it shared the building with two other shops. But now, the others have moved out and it looks as though Waterloo Records is poised to take over the entire building. Not sure if that will happen, but it did get my gears turning. Operating a writing business successfully should happen much the way Waterloo’s success did. … Continue Reading

Writing Jobs for Thursday September 24 2009

Time for another round of hand-selected freelance jobs and full-time opportunities for writers. As always, we personally comb through these positions and while we don’t catch every great freelance job lead that comes along, we do manage to snag a good variety of interesting gigs. If you have a freelance job to post, why not get in touch?

Just a friendly word of warning–we don’t post job ads for online survey takers or people hiring ghost writers for topics like payday loans or other bad-for-consumer products–if we know about that stuff up front, we don’t run the job listing.

Universal Media Group needs a freelance writer for a temp contract gig writing music-related trivial questions for a mobile quiz game. This gig is via JobFox and could turn into a half-year writing opportunity for some music-obsessive writer.

An unnamed company seeks a ghost writer who can polish up rough drafts. This one’s a bit mysterious–they have topics that range wildly–the music industry, networking, trade magazine topics. Stranger still, you’ve got to ring 310-422-2112 extension one, and ask for Cara rather than submit a resume or fill out an online application form. We’ll be calling that number later in the day to see just what the fuss is about simply to satisfy our own curiosity. … Continue Reading

Submissions Wanted: The Freelance Job Site Honor Roll

by Joe Wallace

The search for freelance jobs is never easy, and those who search for them by hand don’t have an easy time of it. I’ve been on the warpath in the last few months about hand-picked freelance jobs, and it dawned on me today that there really ought to be some kind of central list of hardworking bloggers and webmasters who offer hand selected freelance jobs instead of letting software do the scrapin’.

So I make it official–Freelance-Zone is compiling an honor roll of freelance writing sites that regularly offer personally selected freelance jobs (at least one post of freelance jobs per week). Submit your own site or someone else’s to the Freelance-Zone Scraper Free Honor Roll with HONOR ROLL in the subject line. You should know there’s a fun little incentive for doing this–we’re sending the owners of the top three submissions we like best a great prize—the top three on our Honor Roll get a Starbucks gift card for being so damn cool. How much will be loaded on it? $10? $10,000? We aren’t telling.

It’s not enough to say thanks for working against the grain with your hand-picked freelance job selections, we want to pump you full of coffee, too! We haven’t settled on an end date for this, but it will be a quick one–within the next few days we’ll post a reminder about this and let you know when the final day for submissions will be–in the meantime, send your nomination with HONOR ROLL in your subject line to jwallace242@gmail.com.

Remember, the criteria for submission is simple–your blog must post at least one collection of freelance jobs per week, and they must be hand-picked. That’s all! Be sure to include a mailing address where we can send your Starbucks prize if you make it into our top three.

Writing Jobs for Monday, September 21 2009

It’s time for another round of hand-picked writer and freelance writing jobs. Let those other sites scrape Craigslist, they’re doing a great job. We prefer to bring you our picks based on something more discriminating. We don’t always catch the goofy ones– sometimes a clown company slips under our radar and we thank you for pointing out when we’re found what looks like a promising freelance job that turns out to be something less than what it promises. Together, we’ll find the GOOD gigs. As always, thanks for reading.

There are lots of higher education writing gigs available lately. Want to go back to academia? Columbia University in New York needs a writer/researcher. You need a Bachelor’s and a background in PR or news writing. You’ll be working in the office of Columbia U’s president and there’s a lot of internal communication mentioned for this position. Apply online at Columbia via their Human Resources page.

St. John’s University needs a writer for the Office of Communications, Division of Institutional Advancement in Queens, NY. You’ll write for St. John’s University Magazine, plus internal communication, advertisements and create content for the St. John’s University Alumni and Friends official site, among other things.
… Continue Reading

Freelance Jobs for Wednesday September 16 2009

Writing jobs are all over the map in this edition, but there’s something sure to bring a smile to at least some gig-seeking freelancers.

In spite of this job ad being shameless sign-up bait for ProductionHub.com, it does sound pretty tasty for the right applicant. Brandstar Entertainment needs a writer who can work on a high-level television program to be aired on the Lifetime network. Got television writing experience? This is for you, especially if you already live near Pompano Beach, FL.

Krop.com advertises a gig for a writer for VSA Partners–they seek someone who can do client communication writing–but this job is not about writing ad copy.

A Humble, Texas company seeks a telecommute copywriter. E-commerce, online or print catalog experience preferred. To apply, send samples, links to published work and a link to your online resume to info@catalog-copywriting.com. … Continue Reading

Finding Leads for New Freelancers

by Carol Sponagle

If you’re just getting started in the freelance market, you already know how hard it can be to find freelance jobs. In the beginning, any work that pays can seem like good work. Experienced professional freelancers will tell you they’ve written blogs, articles, and books on a variety of topics, because you don’t make money being choosy.

Once you get rolling and you find publishers who call again and again, you might start to feel like you should be more discriminating. After all, why write about pets and motor homes when you really want to write about music?  … Continue Reading