Here are some new blogging jobs for Monday, December 15th:
- b5 Media Needs Lifestyle Bloggers
- Technological or Lifestyle Blogger
- Taos-Area Ecology Blogger
- Business Blog Writer – $7 per post
- Soccer / Football Bloggers
- Bloggers for New Teen-Focused Blog – $10 per post (20 posts per month)
Are these freelance writing gigs not what you’re looking for? Search for more freelance writing jobs or blogging jobs.
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Nice blog! I found it, oddly enough, from your review on 6-Figure Freelancer. I just have to ask – would that be your top recommendation for someone getting started in the business who really needs to earn a living writing – and needs to get to that point quickly? I ask because in my research I’ve seen an awful lot of these “make lots of money freelance writing” books and ebooks – and quite often, the pages promoting them are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. I just want to make sure I’m spending my money wisely, because it’s tight at the moment.
I’m a newbie, just laid off from a subcontracting position as a construction project manager (another victim of the housing crash), and I need to start generating income right away. So far, I’ve applied for a few things here and there and written a marketplace article at Helium (still in review). What I have going for me is a love of writing (and learning new things), basic competency in writing, and 25 years of experience doing writing in a number of different professional capacities. I’ve written grants, fundraising letters, and newsletters when working for nonprofits; campaign fundraising letters, brochures, and ad copy when working as a political consultant; sales letters and textbook correlations to state educational standards when working as a publisher’s rep; I’ve done research on buildings for National Register of Historic Places nominations and writing of the nominations; construction estimates and proposals; and a huge amount of blog commenting over the past 5 or 6 years. In short, I have a wide variety of experience writing to the purposes of fairly diverse fields. In addition, I’ve had my own home-based business for 10 years, so I have the self-motivation and running a business aspects already sorted out.
What would be your specific recommendations (tips, books, anything else) for someone in my position who needs to break into this field, and quickly climb into the “living wage” category? Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for your response! I agree with your approach on building business and certainly don’t expect to be earning as much as I have been for at least several months – this is not my first time at the rodeo with regards to starting a new business venture, so I know it takes time to market yourself and build clientele. I just wanted to know that it IS possible to get there fairly quickly if you’re focused and working hard, and you’ve answered that question along with providing me some good info on business and marketing plans – as well as steering me in the direction I want to go, which is more professional, higher-paying gigs.
I really do appreciate you taking the time to respond. I’ll be a regular visitor here!
Glad to be of help, and glad to hear that despite the urgency a lay-off might create, you’re keeping the big picture in mind. :)
Take care, good luck, and hope to see you around. :)
“I just have to ask – would that be your top recommendation for someone getting started in the business who really needs to earn a living writing – and needs to get to that point quickly?”
That’s a tough call. First of all, while I think it’s an excellent e-book covering the topics it covers (bidding sites), I don’t personally like that method and the types of rates that often come along with it. That’s why I wrote the Web Writer’s Guide e-book which does go over the start-up practices I personally believe in (always focusing on the long-term rather than potentially setting yourself up for burnout or failure overloading on lower-paying gigs).
That said, Drake’s e-book will probably have you earning some money quicker than my own would. However, I don’t believe in launching a successful freelance career “quickly.” We all want to earn as much as we can, and fast. That just isn’t the way it works for the folks who have really made a long-term and successful go of it. My goal is getting more people into that camp, rather than putting a few quick bucks in anyone’s pocket.
“I’ve written grants, fundraising letters, and newsletters when working for nonprofits; campaign fundraising letters, brochures, and ad copy when working as a political consultant; sales letters and textbook correlations to state educational standards when working as a publisher’s rep; I’ve done research on buildings for National Register of Historic Places nominations and writing of the nominations; construction estimates and proposals; and a huge amount of blog commenting over the past 5 or 6 years.”
I’d suggest you worry less about e-books, and start by looking at blogs and job listings. There’s a lot of info here for example (look for my article on getting high-paying freelance writing gigs and setting your rates the right way specifically – I believe they’re both featured in the right column of the blog right now). Look at the job listings here. Look at the job listings at FreelanceWritingGigs.com. Look at sites like Journalism Jobs. Visit my e-book’s blog – Web Writer’s Guide – when you’re there, go to the sales page and scroll down. I have a link somewhere there for a .pdf of a one page business plan from the e-book which is available for free. You can use that to get you started in the right direction. Then visit my business blog and search for the one page marketing plan guide (or just click the marketing category and it should be in that list). There you’ll find a .pdf of a general one page marketing plan template to complement the business plan template.
Join 2 – 3 communities where you may find your target market hanging out (not necessarily writing communities). Get posting (quality posts contributing to the discussions – not going in to blatantly advertise early on). The more reputation you build there, the more likely you’ll find people coming to you looking to hire you.
Get a professional website setup. When you’ve chosen a specialty, launch a niche blog. It’s a growing portfolio piece, and it can lead to a lot of natural gigs (not to mention earn some decent income if you monetize and market it well enough).
Create something you can give away for free as a marketing tool (like a free 5-page report in your specialty for example). Link to it on your business site to get traffic there, or use it as an incentive for people to join your email list (so you can pitch them on specials and such later).
It’s unlikely you’ll be earning a nice full-time income immediately, because you’ll be investing a lot of up front time marketing yourself and building some visibility to get work. Just don’t scrimp on that in order to take low-paying gigs, or you’ll likely find yourself stuck in a common cycle of wanting to earn more but never having time to market to higher paying clients, because you’re too busy with jam-packed days of low wage work just trying to get by. It’s not pretty.
That said, getting there in a few months is certainly realistic (I did it when I started my PR firm, and even faster when I went PT to FT with my writing). Just push the marketing hard. Get a site up. Get a portfolio up. Set your rates realistically instead of undercutting yourself. And start networking!
And good luck. :)