Tag Archives: find freelance jobs

A Job Opp You May Not Have Considered

By Amanda Smyth Connor1151807_to_do

Being a freelance writer means staying on the ball regarding finding new job opportunities and clients. It also means staying flexible in your job search. One job opportunity you may not have considered is within the community management and social media realm.

Many major corporations are outsourcing their community management needs and many of these job skills encompass what you are already good at: writing, planning and coming up with creative ideas.

What does this role call for specifically? Community managers are in charge of developing and maintaining the style and tone of content that is posted within a community. They develop editorial calendars and make recommendations for specific content. They gather feedback from the community and make decisions about how best to engage the community. They suggest various means of revenue. They control most of the social media channels and messaging, and they develop content – from marketing messaging to blog posts. Community managers straddle the marketing departments, member services departments and editorial departments. They may even have a say in product development. For being a relatively new field, community managers are in greater need now that major companies are realizing the need for such a diverse position.

While networking and job hunting, keep this position hot on your radar!

Freelance Jobs Are Just A Network Away

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Yuwanda Black wrote an article many moons ago for CopyBlogger called Where Have All The Freelance Jobs Gone? Where indeed? I’ll tell you where. They’ve mutated.

Once upon a time, freelancers–especially writers–needed a set of skills directly related to putting words down to tell stories, report news, or sell products. They also had to sell themselves in cover letters, queries, and proposals.

Then came the web, SEO content, blogging, and an explosion in online copywriting. The notion that “everybody’s a writer” gave way to “everyone’s a blogger”. Some get paid, some do not, but the cliche is there for a reason.

Freelance work for writers seems to be subdividing into two basic categories, at least for now. I tend to think of it as skilled and unskilled labor. There’s a certain point in a successful writer’s career where a decision is made or a path is taken to an important collection of skill sets beyond the ability to write well. Those who don’t take the leap wind up stagnating. They don’t make it out of content land, instead remaining trapped like prehistoric dragonflies in amber.

Continue reading Freelance Jobs Are Just A Network Away

Top Ten Ways To Find Freelance Work

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One thing about this list: you’ll notice that Craigslist is nowhere to be found. That’s because A) the goofball quotient on CL is very high and while you may find a decent gig on CL, you’ll have to waste too much time finding the diamond in all that sludge. B) With the over-abundance of freelance sites all scraping CL job ads, Craigslist is now flooded with responses to any ad–good luck getting your clips reviewed since every “day one” writer from here to the Atlantic ocean will clog up a poor editor’s inbox with replies.



10. Ask a friend or colleague. Surely one of your other writer friends knows someone who needs some writing help.

9. Check the Careers section of big sites such as AOL.com, Verizon Wireless, Tribune Broadcasting, etc. Contract jobs are often listed side by side with full-time gigs. Or who knows, maybe you’re ready for some steady paychecks? You might be surprised at what’s out there for writers in the regular gig department…not that we’re advocating you go back to working for THE MAN, but sometimes it’s good to get a reminder of why you went freelance in the first place.

8. Look at the news section of your favorite magazine/publishing/advertising mags. See those listings of new magazine announcements? New publications need HELP.

7. Look in your local online phone directory for non-profits. The money isn’t huge with non-profits, but you may find an opening for a wordsmith, however temporary.

6. Call your local churches. Times are hard, staffs are shrinking daily–do local churches and charitable organizations need a freelancer to handle newsletters, bulletins and other material? You might find a secret market lurking in your own back yard.

5. Join your Chamber of Commerce. I can’t tell you how valuable this can be for networking and making friends on the local economy. It takes time to discover new writing opportunities this way, but it is often well worth the investment.

4. Call your Mom. That’s right, your Mom. The right parent who knows the right people just might have a foot in the door someplace you might not otherwise get access to—in today’s economy can you afford to pass up any opportunity to land another writing gig?

3. Use LinkedIn to spread the word that you are for hire. Maybe your direct contacts can’t help, but what about your friends and their contact lists? Find out who is doing what and whether your skill sets apply–you could find an excellent match somewhere in the local business community.

2. Make yourself more discoverable–don’t just use Twitter to stay in touch with your friends, add professionals in your area of expertise to your Following list and put a link to your resume site. Don’t use Twitter JUST for job hunting, but consider it an extra avenue that could come in handy when other gigs become scarce.

1. Forget all the freelance job boards and just pick five companies you’d like to write for. Research them, put custom resume and published clip packages together for each one, and make your presence known. Target each company individually and be persistent without being a pain.