by Joe Wallace

Years ago, I was a bit of an evangelist for Craigslist–it seemed like a very good tool for freelance writers and editors to use in the never ending quest to find freelance jobs. Then the spammers, the con artists, and the annoying minimal-pay-for-maximum-output types showed up and I started ridiculing Craigslist as a means to find a decent freelance job.

But there’s one thing I’ve noticed about the Writing/Editing section of Craigslist, which I do periodically check upon to see what’s out there…there’s one constant in that section that serious freelancers of a certain career path should pay close attention to; the presence of legit ads for trade magazine work.

Over the years, from the salad days of low-spam, high quality job posts to the darkest hours of the scam/spam swamp that Craigslist fell victim to for a while, the trade magazine job ads have been steady, reliable, and consistent. You can find all sorts of decent trade mag jobs out there, from telecommute editing gigs to full-time in house writing and research work.

I’ve seen medical trades, regional business mags, chambers-of-commerce publications and many others there…and the best part is, since many trade magazines are regional in nature, or tend to gravitate toward ads in specific markets, there seems to be less competition for some of these gigs. Freelancers, take note–your regional trade mags could be a boon for you if you know where to look. I wrote pieces for several trades a few years back on an ongoing basis–my relationships with the editors was always pleasant, the direction clear, and the pay decent enough depending on the publication budgets.

Many writers and editors use the trade mags as a secret weapon in their arsenal of income choices, if you haven’t browsed the Craigslist classifieds section for Writing/Editing lately, have another look specifically for trade mags. You might be surprised at what you find.

Joe Wallace writes about vinyl records, pop culture, personal finance, and much more. He’s currently tweaking, editing, and photographing for his book WTF Records: The Turntabling.net Guide To Weird and Wonderful Vinyl. He’s available for gigs and consultation on a limited basis. Contact him: jwallace@joe-wallace.com.