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 The Problem With Job Boards→
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 Using RSS to Snipe Freelance Jobs on Craigslist→
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 Putting a Price on Your Work→
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 A Little Freelance Job Hunting Secret→
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 Freelance Jobs Made Easy With iGoogle→
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 Things I Learned About Writing From Record Stores and Whole Foods→
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