Your Website: http://www.patch.com/

Compensation: 50 per 500 word article

A new online local news publication, Historic Annapolis Patch, is seeking writers and columnists to contribute. The website is locally focused so we are specifically looking for contributors who live in or near the Annapolis area and know it well. Writers should have journalism experience. Columnists can come from all walks of life but should be interested in writing about a specific topic of interest, whether its food, wine, boating, arts, etc. Interested candidates should send writing samples and a resume to: marym@patch.com.

The Freelance Writing Jobs

1. Ghostwriter – are you a rapper? I sure as heck am not. But if you are, and you can write good punchline verses, there’s a rapper who would love to pay you to be his ghostwriter. This freelance writing job pays $250.
2. Copywriter needed – do you write compelling copy? If so, this job pays $.10 per word, and they want someone who’s out of the box, daring, and original. You know–the usual when it comes to copywriting. This freelance writing job pays $.10 per word.
3. Travel writer – if you’re a travel writer but you can’t seem to find gigs that pay well, look no further. Cracking the barrier at $.50 per word, this job will very handsomely reward you for travel articles. This freelance writing job pays $.50 per word.

Freelance Job Tip of the Week

I may have said this before, but I’ll say it again: when you own your own business, there is no such thing as no opportunity. Anyone you meet is a potential client, business contact, or vital asset. Any business you patronize is potentially hiring someone freelance. You will do very well without these aggregated job lists so long as you remember that there’s a job around every corner. But there won’t be a sign listing it. You will have to ask for it, charm it out, and market yourself aggressively. So long as you can do that, you will be great. And I know that you will be great.

Worst Freelance Writing Job of the Week

In order to bring on our next travel blogger, we’re going to do something a bit different. We’d really like to connect with the travel blogging community and get to know all of you out there who have travel blogs. We pay our writers between $75.00-$100.00 per post and our end goal is to build a top notch travel blog. Hopefully that will give all of you out there an incentive to participate in our hiring campaign.

Note: If you are an SEO/Keyword article marketer, please note that we are specifically looking for bloggers who can write engaging, compelling content that people love. We want you to showcase your personality in your entry.

The Benefits to You
- If you are selected as our next writer, you’ll be among good company with at team of excellent bloggers. Check out our writers page to learn more about them.
- Exposure: Ultimately Flightster will turn into a flight booking engine which receives thousands of visits a day, and your writing will be exposed to that audience.

In order to give as many travel bloggers as possible an opportunity to participate, we’re going to run the contest for two weeks. The deadline to enter will be Friday July 30th. The following travel Tuesday will do a roundup of all the entries and we’ll narrow it down to the 10 finalists. We’ll feature the articles of the finalists and the readers will vote on who should be the next blogger on the Flightster Staff.

- Write a Blog Post About Anything Travel Related on Your Blog: The first thing that we’d like is for you to write a blog post on your own blog about anything travel related. We figure why keep you from doing something you’re already doing
- Link to Flightster In Your Post: In your blog post, find a way to incorporate any of the current articles on Flightster or even this post (http://www.flightster.com/2010/07/20/how-to-become-the-next-paid-writer-for-the-flightster-blog/) as a link. This will enable us to know that you want to be considered for being chosen as the next member of the Flightster writing staff. We’ll be doing a roundup of all the entries as part of the contest and return the link love back to you.
- Tweet Your Post with the hashtag #FLIGHTSTER and follow us on twitter to to keep track of what we’re doing. We’ll also retweet your post to all of our followers
- Subscribe to the Blog: I encourage you to subscribe to the Flightster blog since we’ll be announcing all of our updates on this campaign via the blog.
- Become a Fan on Facebook: We’ll also be running many contests and cool travel giveaways via our Facebook fan page, so check out our fan page.
- Get our Attention: If you’re even more eager to get on our radar put up videos, podcasts, pictures or anything on your blog and share them on twitter with a mention of @flightsterblog. The main thing we’ll be looking at is your blog post, but if you’ve got some really creative ideas that will definitely get our attention.

So basically you want to increase your Google Pagerank but you think to yourself, hmmm. How do I do this while appearing to have an artificially high number of readers? I know! Why don’t I run a contest to see how many suckers I can get to jump through hoops like a job application is a damned circus. Then, once I’ve gotten a ton of Facebook fans, Twitter exposure, and go from maybe a pagerank of 1 to 2, I’ll hire the idiot who jumped through the greatest number of hoops by sacrificing the largest amount of his dignity. Awesome!

By the way, their pagerank is currently 0. Don’t help them. I already did just by looking at the dang thing.

Anyway, I’m still the resident humor writer so don’t expect me to be too far gone. I hope to be making you laugh every week now, so this isn’t goodbye. It’s just so long to the job lists. FOREVER!

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

1. PR Writer – if you are PR writer who works in beauty/fashion and you’d like to make money, then you should apply for this job. Per placement, you’ll be compensated so hit this one up if you like money. This freelance writing job pays a minimum of $50 per placement.
2. Hip-hop ethnographer – I don’t know what an ethnographer is. If you do, and you are one, then you should apply for this job. I would also encourage you to like hip hop, as that’s something that you’ll be covering. It pays well! This freelance writing job pays $500 for the assignment.
3. Art writer – prerequisite number one: you must know art. Prerequisite number two: you must like art. Prerequisite number three: you must write about art. Seems pretty easy! This freelance writing job pays $50 per page–just be sure it’s 500 words or less.
4. German translator – können Sie Deutsch sprechen? Wenn ja, dieser Job ist Ihnen ideal! Schicken Sie einen Email mit früher Arbeit und Seiten. Danke! Dieser Gig zahlt $800 dem Job.
5. Website writer – a spectacular About Us section is needed. Can you write it? Only your body of work and application to this job will tell. This freelance writing job pays $50 for the assignment.
6. Script writer – have you ever made a commercial script before? Do you love the Museum of Sex? If you said yes to both then apply for this job. It’s a great opportunity! If you’re into that sort of thing. This freelance writing job pays $250.
7. Screenplay writer – this freelance writing opportunity involves helping write a screenplay that’s a sequel to a thriller. To forewarn you, this job sounds like it could go either way. Be assertive, ask a lot of questions. Make sure that it’s not going to consume your life for not much pay. But it could be awesome, so that’s why it’s here. This freelance writing job pays $5,000.
8. Real estate blogger – this topic is making me fall asleep just by writing it, but if it fascinates you then kanpai! It pays well, and I hope you know a lot about property taxes. This freelance writing job pays $50 per post.
9. Wedding planner – are you a writer who has experience planning weddings? Specifically, your input would be needed on second marriages and how children are treated for that arrangement. If this sounds like you, then you’re probably the only one out there. But it pays well! This freelance writing job pays $0.20 a word.
10. Songwriter – I will simply quote from this but the singer is looking for someone to ghostwrite a song that is something “like Prince would write”. If you have enough funk in you then by all means, this is the job for you. This freelance writing job pays $200 flat.
11. Arabic/Cantonese/Hindi translator – if you speak any of those languages, there’s a need for a translator. Unlike virtually every other translation job I have seen out there, this one pays a decent wage. Please feel free to apply. This freelance writing job pays anywhere from $600 to $3,000, depending on the language.
12. Local news writer – if you live on Long Island and you like news, then you should start getting paid for it. You will need, and I am quoting here, “a computer with internet” so I hope you’re not reading this blog with your psychic powers or anything. This freelance writing job pays from $350 to $1,300 per week–find out the per word rate!

For this tip of the week, I want to turn things over to you, the readers. What would you like more tips on? What would you like to see less of? And more importantly, do you even care about the tips? I would like to know!

This one’s a doubleheader because there’s two of the exact same kind. I will indicate which is which.

Medical Transcriber for a busy private practice. You listen to a recorded dictation by our Doctor and you type a diagnostic report based on it. Part/time (relatively flexible schedule, you can negotiate to do some reports at home). Compensation by check: you will be paid per report (average of 50 reports/day, often more), rates TBD based on experience level, nice neighborhood in Manhattan with plenty of transportation options. Expect a brief training period of about 2-3 days.

AND

Brooklyn Playwright is seeking a Secretary with EXCELLENT computer skills for 1-3 weeks and/or possibly long term.

My outrage at these ads is not that they seem like bad jobs. In fact, they seem like quite good jobs. I would sure as hell apply for them if I were a secretary (really? people still say that?) or a medical transcriptionist. In fact, had I the training, I would have applied for these jobs because they sound interesting, fun, and look like they both pay well.

But why am I not applying to them?

Oh right, because I am a ding dang WRITER. I am not a medical transcriptionist. I do not get paid to listen to audio recordings and then write them down. That is not writing. That does involve writing things down, but that does not involve any creativity on my part. If you want a transcriptionist, you do not want a writer.

Similarly, Brooklyn playwright, I am disappointed in you. You of all people should know that writing doesn’t involve hitting keys on a keyboard. It involves creativity, prose, grammar, and style. Why the hell are you idjits posting damn secretarial work in the writing section anyway? Unless you like getting flamed by the already angry writers on Craigslist, you ought to move your inquiries for work elsewhere to a more fitting section. Like anywhere else.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

1. Standup writer – are you a comedy writer? You can get paid pretty handsomely for a 10- to 15-minute gig that someone will buy off you. My tips, in case you haven’t done this before: write more than you think you should, and push for the higher pay on this gig. Writing standup is friggin’ hard. This freelance writing job pays $250 – $500–and you’d better not ask for less than half a gee!
2. Calabasas reporter – do you live in Ventura through Calabasas? I don’t, and I have only the vaguest idea of where it is. But if you do, then maybe you ought to consider being a freelance reporter for this publication. They’re paying decently, and they seem pretty dang legit. This freelance writing job pays a minimum of $50 per assignment.
3. Business plan writer – first off, you’d best have some experience writing business plans. If you’ve written to angel investors or venture capitalists, all the better. You’ll be writing a business plan for this gig, which I guess you’ve already figured out. This freelance writing job pays $500 for the business plan.
4. Dermatology reviewer – if you have your MD or DO (and I’m going to be sort of surprised if you do, but you never know) then this is the job for you. If you do not, skip to the next job. If you specialize in dermatology, all the better. You’re doing medical content review, and the pay is pretty decent, although more than likely a pay cut if you’re a doctor. This freelance writing job pays $50 per hour.
5. Port Chester reporter – just like the Calabasas gig above, you’d best be from Port Chester, NY. Get ready to be a freelance reporter, and try to find awesome stories that don’t suck. Seems easy enough, right? This freelance writing job pays anywhere from $50 to $200 per assignment.
6. Hindi video blogger – we don’t necessarily have  set rate for being a video blogger, but I happen to have experience doing video blogs. They count roughly the same as per article, although they can be easier to write. Heck, they don’t even necessarily have to be scripted. This freelance writing job pays $200 per five video blogs at one to five minutes each–and at that rate, I’d keep it at the short end.

Never, ever, ever work for ‘exposure’. Is this obvious? Absolutely. But let me tell you why. The thing is that you might find this job that pays nothing but exposure. Awesome, you think. I’m writing for a blog that can at least get me some visibility. A lot of these sites claim that they can’t pay you jack, but they can get you seen. Oh, but then you find out the Google Pagerank. Are you not supposed to obsess on pagerank? I suppose. But if you’re writing for a blog that’s at P2–and this is the painfully obvious part–you are not getting goddamn exposure. You are working for free for a tiny website that is not making it. Sure, the site might explode tomorrow and reach P6, but you are still not getting paid. If the site’s that big (even at P2), then they should be able to sell ads at a premium and pay their dang writers. If they’re not, they have a poor business model. And if someone has a poor business model, do not work for that person.

Hot damn am I sick of these coauthor jobs on Craigslist. You’ve seen the type–I’ve got an incredible story, blah blah, we’ll both make a million, kid, you’re gonna be a star! Well, this one is the straw that broke the comedian’s back. I cut some pertinent info, but the basic sentiment is there. I’m gonna break this one down for you. He’s in italics. I’m in bold.

Presently I am working on the second edition and have already added quite a bit of new material. However, the basic structure of the new version has yet to be determined, as it will be changed dramatically from the original.

Translation: be prepared to be my editor!

After self publishing the second edition, I plan on investing some capital marketing it, including a book tour/vacation with plenty of business expenses to be written off.

Oooh, he’s investing capital. That is a fancy word for money. Clearly, this man knows what he is doing.

The book was classified as political science by iUniverse. I would classify it as antiestablishment if there were such a classification.

If you want to classify a self-published book on how to get 200 miles per gallon out of your car as antiestablishment, I guess that makes more sense than political science. I am guessing iUniverse didn’t create a nutty bastard category yet.

This is a part time gig. I request that you spend 4 hours per weekday for a total of 5 weeks working with me on the book at my apartment probably first thing in the morning.

Oh boy! Spending time with a retired engineer/conspiracy theorist! It will be like The X-Files, only Mulder and Scully have been replaced with a loon and an underpaid writer!

I am looking for an educated, enthusiastic, rebellious, bohemian, to assist me in several capacities.

Bohemian translates to ‘willing to work for nothing’.

You’ll be compensated at the rate of $10.00 per hour, payable in cash at the end of each day of work. I will also credit you in the published version when our work is completed and will guarantee you in writing a minimum of 10% of the profits, depending on how much I feel you have contributed.

I love the line about how your pay will depend on how much he feels you contributed. Personally, I’m on the fence about being between 15% and 16.7%.

That means when I sell my first million copies you will earn roughly $100,000, assuming that I earn $1.00 per book sale. A little work now could mean a huge payoff a few years down the road.

Yes, and I suppose buying oceanfront property in Arizona will eventually pay off, provided California conveniently slides into the Pacific.

This is your opportunity to get published and change the world. A building may last 500 years, but a book lasts forever.

As does bullshit, and I don’t mean the bovine kind.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

The Freelance Writing Jobs

1. Music writer – are you based in NYC? There’s a sneaky little assignment waiting for you; you’re going to go to four stores in the city as a secret shopper. It’s a 2,000-word assignment but pays well, so hit it if you’re a music aficionado as well as a super spy. This freelance writing job pays $250 for the assignment.
2. Cover letter writer – basically, you’re going to be writing the best cover letter you have ever written to help this guy get a job. If that sounds like it’s up your alley, have at it. This freelance writing job pays $50.
3. Teen magazine writer – if you’re down with Justin Bieber and the Twitter and the YouTubes then I suppose you ought to try for this one. The pay’s good but you do need to be fast–they have a tight deadline. This freelance writing job pays $50 per article.
4. EcoBlog writer – do you love the environment? I mean, I guess, more than you should? Well, then why not get paid for it? Keep these articles short and sweet and you’ll be well compensated. This freelance writing job pays $200 for five short articles–that’s under 400 words each!
5. Fashion PR writer – my background is about the furthest thing from PR, but yours shouldn’t be if you want to book this gig. A boutique PR firm is looking for writers to do press releases, bios, and pitches. This freelance writing job pays $75-$100 per press release, $50-$75 per bio, and $25-$50 per pitch.

I see an awful lot of retaliatory Craigslist postings where people bitch about the quality of articles, or even attempt to call out a bad employer or job. While that’s noble, it also looks whiny. The posting is likely to get flagged and removed anyway, so although you might feel like you’re doing good, you aren’t doing much good. In addition, you just clog up Craigslist with pointless entries, making it even harder to navigate. Leave the kvetching to professionals (like me!) and just chug away. If you need to feel like you’re doing something, send me some of the worst and I’ll eviscerate them for you. Like this next one!

Men’s Weekly, an online men’s magazine, is searching for talented writers to write about technology – Cell Phones, Laptops, Alternative Fuel Vehicles, New Gadgets, etc. We are searching for someone who can write grammatically correct articles that are optimized for SEO while maintaining journalist quality as well as keeping the articles in an easy to read, entertaining format. This is an opportunity to get in with an aspiring men’s magazine that is on track to compete with Askmen, Men’s Fitness, and several other publications. The first month will be considered a probationary period in which your skills as a writer will be analyzed. Once the probabtionary period is over, compensation will begin.

Any interested persons should email their resume and writing sample for immediate response.

Regards,

Men’s Weekly

So you’re telling me that I get to work for you for free for over a month period and then after that–after careful consideration–you will at last condescend to pay me? Oh happy day! Thank you, benevolent employer! I appreciate your magnanimity, and hail you on high for your wisdom and care. Give us this day our daily bread, O Men’s Weekly, and forgive us our sins!

In the meantime, I have an idea with what you can do with all those free articles. I think you guys out to print them out, tie them carefully into a large bindle, and then cram them up your rear. Anyone who agrees to this must be a masochist of the highest order, who maybe gets off on being abused in the workplace instead of the bedroom. The most you should ever send any employer is a few clips of work you’ve already done. Basically, this is indentured servitude. Even crap office jobs pay you during a probationary period, and even interns get free lox with their bagels. Men’s Weekly, get bent.

Most very sincerely yours,

Clint Osterholz, genius, esq.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

The Freelance Writing Jobs

1. Technical writers – if you don’t know much about science or chemistry, you’d best skip this one. It’s heavy on the science and light on the fluff content. You’d be compensated well for your specific knowledge, but be sure you have some. This freelance writing job pays $250 per article.
2. Investigative reporter – a father’s rights advocacy group is looking for a reporter who can work on a contract basis. You need to be comfy with confidentiality. Your work will be plastered throughout the web. This freelance writing job pays $250 per article per assignment.
3. Medical script writer – in addition to writing good scripts, you need to have an impressive medical background. If that sounds like you, then you’d be ideal for this job. I get the impression that the medical part’s more important than the experience writing scripts part, but that’s something I’ll leave up to you. This freelance writing job pays $1,000 per script.
4. Business writer – you wouldn’t be doing a business plan, but you would be writing about business. Is that something you’d be fine with? Hit this gig up in a hurry. This freelance writing job pays $.10 per word.
5. Market: Sinn & Skinn – this is technically a market, although it is not one we have yet listed here on AFW. Sinn & Skinn is an adult community dedicated to providing sexual and provocative content. You would not be writing erotica but rather discussing aspects of sex, sexuality, and dating. The ideal submission is 750 – 1,500 words. This freelance market pays $100 – $250 per submission.

Freelance Job Writing Tip of the Week

Maybe you’re not a collaborator, but I’ve become one. I know I’ve done enough barking in the job tips on reaching out to people but I can’t stress it enough. Since having reached out to other writers, my work has grown by leaps and bounds. Not only have I found more work, but I’ve gotten better. I relaunched my website because it was woefully inadequate compared to others’ (well, and it still ain’t great, but I blame that on other factors now), and I met a ton of great people in the process. If you don’t have at least one or two regular partners in crime, get them. They are vital for your business.

Worst Freelance Writing Job of the Week

Ok, finding writers has been harder than I thought, so I’m reposting. If you have problems with doing research or doing academic essays, then please don’t apply.

We’re looking for Professional Freelance Writers. However, we are a new company, and cannot afford to pay outragsous salaries, and we don’t have the money some have to dish out. We can afford to pay $300 per article or project. Writers must be business professionals are knowledgable of business process, and the business world. We need specialist in accounting, business, economics, marketing and management. If you have the experience, or the skills needed, then please apply. If not then please don’t! Base pay is not negotiable. It’s $300 per article and nothing more!

The pay ain’t bad, so why am I posting this job? Well, it’s quite simple. Read all the attitude. Would you date someone who posted a dating profile that was this snotty and rude? I think not. Then why would you waste your time working for someone who talks to you like a jerk? If you’re looking to be paid an outragsous salary (namely, one you can live on) then you might want to look elsewhere. And with good reason.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

The Freelance Writing Jobs

1. Laptop writers – normally, I tell the people who want to use your blog for exposure to get bent, but if they pay well, they pay well. This gig offers a decent rate with little else in the way of expectation. If you’re willing to give your baby to sponsorship, feel free. This freelance writing job pays $.10 per word.
2. Alumni magazine writer – are you a top-notch journalist who can produce good content quickly? This alumni magazine might just need you! The gig looks really good, so get it while the getting’s good. This freelance writing job pays $.25 to $.40 per word.
3. Film writer – if you know what a logline is, you’re already 50% qualified for this job. This is a low-budget sequel to an original indie film that was produced. You can catch it on Netflix if you’re concerned about what you’ll be signing up for. This freelance writing job pays $5,000 for the project.
4. Website/auction writer – you’d be writing up quick 100-word entries for online auctions as well as producing content for this company’s host of sites. The minimum that they are willing to offer is $.05 per word–but you’re not going to settle for that, right? This freelance writing job pays between $.10 and $.25 per word.

Freelance Writing Job Tip of the Week

Do not be afraid to ask for more. Business is always about negotiation, and you shouldn’t shy away from discussions of payment. Think about it this way: if you think you’re worth it, why wouldn’t you fight for yourself? You’re selling a product here, and you have to convince the employer that you’re gonna be worth your weight in gold–their gold, by the way. I have lately been posting gigs with slightly less than our minimum because I expect you (and you should expect of yourself) to play hardball and ask for more. If you aren’t, then this site is not going to be very helpful for you, and you’ll be getting underpaid to boot. What objections do you have to asking for more? Let me know in the comments below.

Worst Freelance Writing Job of the Week

I don’t ever link to bad gigs, but…

Well.

Write content that does not already exist on the site ehow.com, you will submit articles to me along with 5-8 keywords for each article. 300-500 words per article. Drawing on your personal experience/country/culture is a definite plus. A couple hundred articles would be great!

Awesome. This comes to me from Brian Orelli, who apparently exists solely to make my job that much easier. You would be working for someone who in turn works for a content mill. This gig sort of reminds me of dogs who eat their own poo, because it stinks and is completely unnecessary and will only lead to something that stinks even more. Avoid.

Also, it’s on Elance. I mean, really.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

Okay, okay, come back. But seriously, watch it. Anyone else got any summer favorites to share with me?

The Freelance Writing Jobs

1. Technical writer – Intuitive Surgical is looking for a technical writer to provide documentation for a whole bunch of programs. A design background would be ideal, as you’re working on manuals here. This freelance writing job pays $50 an hour. Contract expected to last 6 months.
2. Fitness/nutrition writer – Last 5 Pounds is asking for an easy-to-work-with writer who has fitness/nutrition experience to help write a 20- to 30-page booklet to accompany their weight loss program. This freelance writing job pays $1,500 for the project.
3. Business plan writer – do you have experience writing business plans? You’d be creating plans for startups and clean energy tech firms. This gig says it will pay up to $50 an hour. I think you know what I’m about to say–don’t settle for less. You are worth it. This freelance writing job pays $50 an hour.
4. Tutorial writer – Mediabistro is looking for people to create short tutorials for other writers. There are nine different topics to choose from, so hit the link if you are ready to show off your Lynda.com-style skills. This freelance writing job pays $375 per project.

Freelance Writing Job Tip/Worst Gig of the Week

I swear that I’m not combining these two features this week out of laziness. Instead, it’s for illustrative purposes.

ATTENTION BLOGGERS: 
We are also hiring Bloggers. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR OWN BLOG AND IT MUST HAVE A PAGE RANK. We would pay you based on your google page rank. Here’s how it would work. I would assign you a topic. You would write about that topic on your blog and link to our site.

If you’re interested, please email me the URL of your blog along with the page rank.

Submissions that don’t follow instructions will be disregarded.

These are terrible jobs. Always. Basically, they want you to do all the work that’s actually their job (namely, getting readers and traffic) and then they get you to work for them. If you would like an analogy as to why this is a huge ripoff, here it is.

Let’s imagine that you’d like to build a building. I don’t know why, seriously, but you just do, okay? So you build a building. Then this guy comes along and he’s like, “Oh wow, what a lovely building! May I use it?” And you’re an agreeable sort so you say yes. Then he says, “Wow, this is a wonderful place. Listen, I need to use this building every Monday. Is that okay?” You had your heart set on living in this building, but why not? He seems nice enough. He even offered to pay. “Great,” he says. “Here’s the thing. I need you to redecorate the entire place for me every Monday, as I must have low mood lighting and beige walls. I cannot stand vibrant colors. If you don’t, I will not pay you.” Unfair? Yes. And this is the worst part: it’s your damn building! You’re the landlord, not them. If they want the traffic so damn bad, then they should build their own blog a little better.

The tip of the week is to never take a job like this. Especially when they fail to list a rate.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

The Freelance Writing Jobs

1. Resume Writer – do you know how to write resumes? How’s about resumes for people with a technical background? If so, this is gonna be a pretty sweet gig for you. Personally, resumes are pretty quick for me to blaze through, but they do take some important back-and-forth with the client so be prepared to email/call. This freelance writing job pays $50 per resume.
2. Technical medical writer – do you have technical experience, specifically with a background in medical studies? I sure hope so because this is a really high paying gig that should take you no time at all to finish. It needs IRB approval, whatever that means. If you don’t know what that means, you probably ought not apply. This freelance writing job pays $150/hr. or $1,500 for the project.
3. Course writer – you’d best break out your continuing education shoes on this one. You’ll be developing courses for people who don’t have the time to hit up the adult education center in their town, so it has to be useful and applicable to someone of the Baby Boomer generation. It looks like the gigs pay decent, but it says that they pay from $125 on up to $325 for 2,500 words–so don’t work for less than $250. This freelance writing job pays between $250 – $325 per course.
4. Data geek blogger – if you eat up blogs like Freakonomics and FiveThirtyEight, this certainly is for you. You’d be working for a site called OrganizedWisdom. Now, they state that their articles fetch $25 to $50. Which do you think I’m going to tell you to demand? This freelance writing job pays $50 per article–because you’re going to ask for it.
5. Site reviewer – Bizpocket wants writers who can review websites for internal assessment purposes. Nothing really else to add here except apply if you’re interested! This freelance writing job pays $25 for 250 words.

Freelance Writing Job Tip of the Week

This week reminded me of a pretty important thing to point out to you. Just because a job posts a lower rate doesn’t mean that you have to bid that low. Lower rates can help you determine if an employer is on a budget, certainly, but that’s not necessarily what they’ll end up paying you. You will not ever make the big bucks if you don’t ask for them. Employers will not just volunteer to pay you more unless they just fell from heaven. You have to ask, you have to deliver the goods, and then you have to ask for more. It might be uncomfortable–so hell, if it’s hard, ask a friend to help you try asking for more money from them. But you will not make more money if you don’t make it clear that you want more money.

Worst Freelance Writing Job of the Week

I think my favorite worst jobs are the ones where they pretend to be professional but really seem to be interested in screwing you out of every last cent you ought to earn.

Nationally-known Wealth Manager based in Seattle seeks a finance-oriented writer/editor/collaborator for his John Wiley book project  Author currently has publishing deal, but requires experienced writer to polish his ideas and complement his points with research and factual background information. This is an excellent opportunity for a budding financial writer to gain exposure in finance journalism. Through John Wiley’s distribution network, this book will be in stores like Barnes and Noble, Borders and most everywhere financial books are sold. This is NOT some hokey self-publishing situation, and therefore we need a serious writer who wants to be a part of a potentially career-making book. You will be given front-cover credit for your work, and $2500 upon manuscript acceptance by the publisher. You must be knowledgeable about the Federal Reserve (policies and history), foreign exchange markets, the euro-zone, global trade and fiat currencies. You will also be expected to be conversant on current financial topics such as those making headlines in major financial newspapers. To be considered for this position, please send at least two writing samples, each covering financial market topics (i.e., topics relevant to Wall Street). Preferably, your work has been published, though we are considering a wide range of experiences for this role. Due to the significant amount of face time the author requires, we are only considering local candidates (Seattle, Portland and Vancouver).

Frankly, if you know so damn much about money, you ought to know that no idiot would work for free until the book is published–and even then, for $2,500? Even a budding writer could do better than that. And significant face time? What is this, 1957? It’s called Skype. Good luck finding your indentured servant, fella.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

The Freelance Writing Jobs

1. Interviewer – do you live in the New York metro area? Do you have experience interviewing people? Are you familiar with the cosmetics industry? If you said yes to all of those questions, then this is the job for you. Interviews start tomorrow for the perfect interviewer, so hop on this pronto. This job pays $0.40 per word.
2. Romcom script co-writer – this gig could either be a great job or a complete ripoff so let me preface this article by saying that. The posting is short on details so ask specific questions in your letter of interest. You’d be doing punchups on female dialogue, where the writer says he is weakest at writing. This job pays $500–so it had better be 5,000 words or less.
3. Market: The Progressive – left winger? Love to talk about political issues? This is a great market for you. The payouts start at around $500 a pop and don’t stop. Be sure to have well-written and informative articles to submit, because they are not joking around when they say they want quality.

Freelance Writing Job Tip of the Week

I know that I have said this time and time again, but it’s worth repeating: do your own job search too. I know things have been a bit lean in the past month or so, but that’s just for jobs with listed rates. I have found an awful lot of great jobs that don’t post a rate, which you wouldn’t see on this blog. Think of this site as a finely curated list of gigs that you may have otherwise missed, but do your own regular searches too. I know it’s goofy to bring up over and over again, but as a cub writer, I didn’t do my own searches and relied too much on sites. As a result, I know for a fact from other writers that I missed good jobs because I was being lazy. Don’t get me wrong–we have a lot of great info here that you cannot get anywhere else. But jobs? That you can find virtually anywhere.

Worst Freelance Writing Job of the Week

Im looking for a someone to write articles for me in the field of medicine. 
Your English/grammer must be great. 
I would need to see some samples of your work. 
$11/hr. 
Can also work from home. 
part time to full time. 
My goal is to write 500 articles over the next one year.

Remember how I said that I don’t like to list gigs with an hourly rate? Because almost without exception, this is what they look like. Let’s presume that you’d still be working under the same conditions I set out above–it will take you roughly two hours to write these articles. Multiply by four in a regular eight hour work day, then five days a week, then 52 weeks a year. That’s roughly 1,000 articles you can write, which means that working for $11 an hour, HALF your total output would be consumed by this one job. Do you really want your biggest paying client to pay as well as a movie theater or Starbucks? Didn’t think so.

Also, if you’re freelancing and voluntarily working eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, take a damn vacation.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.