New to freelance... Help?

Some will advise against it, but for a steady 'job', apply to Demand Studios. If you're accepted the account stays open whether you use it or not. The pay is not stellar by any means- but without experience it is a lot better than some chump offering you $1 for 500 words.

Next sign up at www.seed.com - no application like DS.

HubPages might bring in some Adsense revenue- a friend of mine averages at least $400 a month from her Hubs.

Scour Craigslist and www.online-writing-jobs.com

Contact local businesses and offer to barter your writing for goods, if possible or sell your services.

If something in your community happens and you are there to see it, write a story on it and pitch it to your local paper. If you know a particular subject, try to pitch a column.

Check out local magazines. Nearly every state or major city has local special interest mags. Read a few at your local library or online and see if you can come up with an idea to pitch. Write a full submission if they do not take queries.

Read every sticky in this forum for links to subjects like query letters, pitching and more.

Good luck!!

Here are two for you Jacquelyn'
http://intl.textprovider.de/ pretty easy work, but it can get boring. They pay in Euro's so even though it is low its not as bad as it sounds, and they do pay on time so its nice.

http://www.internetbrands.com/ This is pretty easy to join, the money isn't great but most articles should take less than an hour so its not a complete insult. The biggest problem is that they've apparently gotten a lot of new writers so editing and letting you know if you're accepted has slowed to a crawl. But once your in it can help pad the bank account.

Good luck with everything.

Jacquelyn Hyde said:

Anyway! Long story short: Having extra cash would put my mind at ease... slightly. I'm moving soon, so searching for another job seems kind of pointless. Since I'm a writer, freelance writing comes to mind, but... I'm not at all experienced with it.

I'm a young fiction writer without much (practically zero) experience in nonfiction. I have one published (fiction) story to my name and a couple of E-how articles I wrote just for the heck of it.

Any advice what-so-ever on where to start? I have no delusions of making up for the income I've lost, but even a little extra grocery money would be nice at this point.

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Well, nobody's said it, so I might as well be the one. Girlfriend, you need a better boyfriend.

In lieu of that, since you didn't indicate what kind of fiction you wrote and you have no experience in writing nonfiction, I'm going to suggest the first thing you do is look at what websites, publications or newspapers you read.

For example, if you read The Huffington Post, they don't usually pay for submissions, but the somewhat similiar Daily Beast does. But of course, that makes them even more selective and a tougher nut to crack.

Depending upon what your interests are or your area of speciality will go a long way in determining where you might find the best place for your work. You've come to the right place in terms of finding working freelancers who've been where you want to go.

You may earn enough as a freelancer to buy groceries if you two don't eat much. I've made slightly over $600 so far this year freelancing, the most I've made in several years. Obviously I have to keep my fulltime gig to pay my mortgage. Some very talented, hardworking, and occasionally lucky people can make far more as a full-time freelancer.

I would advise you learn as much as you can about freelancing and then once you have, study the markets and publications you think you'd be interested in writing for. You must know this because if you're writing a 1,500 word essay about how to improve your golf swing, you wouldn't send it Rolling Stone or TIME.

I'd like to be more helpful, but I would need to know a bit more about your abilities, interests and goals as a writer before I could suggest the appropriate outlet for your talents, Jacquelyn.

Best of luck to you. Same to your boyfriend.

Hmmmm... I make a living as a full-time writer and I wouldn't consider myself exceptional. I make $1500-2000 with DS alone every month. Querying magazines can pay off in the long run, but it won't pay the day-to-day bills, especially if you're just starting and only writing for small publications.

I, for one, have enjoyed Demand. As long as you have a few published pieces to show them, you should be good applying. At first I didn't make too much, but I only write in one specific area. I would pick up a $5 piece here, a $7.50 on there. Now I pretty much do $15 articles and can do 5 a day, at least. Some articles pay more, depending on the subject.

Also since you said you write fiction, and have even sold a story, I would go to the paying markets section. They have some good posts in there depending on what you are looking for. Not sure what you write. You could also search out some e-pubs. Many take short and long submissions, if you feel you have something to sub soon. You will probably get paid faster that way. Not a whole lot, but it is something.

Good luck with finding something, and with the move.

NewKidOldKid said:

Hmmmm... I make a living as a full-time writer and I wouldn't consider myself exceptional. I make $1500-2000 with DS alone every month. Querying magazines can pay off in the long run, but it won't pay the day-to-day bills, especially if you're just starting and only writing for small publications.

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One of the reasons I like DS, is that they pay twice a week. They have been exceptional to work for. No problems ever getting paid on time.

Domoviye said:

Here are two for you Jacquelyn'
http://intl.textprovider.de/ pretty easy work, but it can get boring. They pay in Euro's so even though it is low its not as bad as it sounds, and they do pay on time so its nice.

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Can I ask how much does TextProvider pay? Can't seem to find any information on it.

NewKidOldKid said:

Can I ask how much does TextProvider pay? Can't seem to find any information on it.

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They don't list the prices on the site, they e-mail various projects with the rules and prices so you would have to join to find out the exact payment.
For me the two projects I've worked on were 5.5 Euro for 250 to 300 words, and 9 Euro for 450 to 500 words. Not bad for a beginner and good practice. There was another one that I believe said 4.5 Euro for 350 words, but I ignored that one as too low.

Since no one has explicitly said this: If you need money now, you are looking for web content work and potentially business writing. Don't bother with magazines. That's not to say you should NEVER bother with magazines - on the contrary, I work for them almost exclusively - but they take between 6-9 months to pay in many cases. You will be writing on the cheap (a penny a word is not unheard of) and learning on the fly. As you get comfortable with the web content, maybe after your move, visit your local library and check out some books on magazine freelancing to expand your income slowly.

I just applied to Demand Studios. I wrote a how to-type article for the writing sample, which I am generally happy with. I had to create a resume for this though, and since I am a student and new at this, it's kind of small. I thought I should just include the things that are relevant to writing and possible freelance jobs (editor-in-chief of newspaper, journalism awards, etc), but it turned out kind of skimpy and probably looks like I half-assed it. I realized upon reading the FAQs again that I maybe should have included all of the horse-related things to show my experience for writing about equestrian topics, etc.

Did I just make myself one of the 90% of applicants who eliminate themselves?

Kelsey said:

I just applied to Demand Studios. I wrote a how to-type article for the writing sample, which I am generally happy with. I had to create a resume for this though, and since I am a student and new at this, it's kind of small. I thought I should just include the things that are relevant to writing and possible freelance jobs (editor-in-chief of newspaper, journalism awards, etc), but it turned out kind of skimpy and probably looks like I half-assed it. I realized upon reading the FAQs again that I maybe should have included all of the horse-related things to show my experience for writing about equestrian topics, etc.

Did I just make myself one of the 90% of applicants who eliminate themselves?

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You'll find out soon enough, but I'd say their 90% fail claim is BS.

WildScribe said:

You'll find out soon enough, but I'd say their 90% fail claim is BS.

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You didn't ask if you could get one, but here it is anyway: AMEN.

Does anyone know of sites like www.seed.com that do not require an application to sign up? I like the look of the site, but it is only open to people in the United States. Are there any worldwide or United Kingdom equivalents?

Domoviye said:

Here are two for you Jacquelyn'
http://intl.textprovider.de/ pretty easy work, but it can get boring. They pay in Euro's so even though it is low its not as bad as it sounds, and they do pay on time so its nice.

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I've looked over their site and tried Googling and have had little luck, so exactly what sort of work would a person do for textprovider? What sort of experience do you need to be excepted there?

@ Kelsey:

My own resume isn't particularly long either. It got beefed up when I included my unpaid internships and volunteer work. If you did anything like that and it's relevant, just add it.

I'd like to second WildScribe's comments on business writing. I am a newcomer to freelancing, but am working on both business and journalism assignments. The business assignments provide steady work and pay much faster! If you're new to business writing, you can build up your portfolio by offering to do projects pro bono. Some of those folks might turn into steady clients.

m00bah said:

Does anyone know of sites like www.seed.com that do not require an application to sign up? I like the look of the site, but it is only open to people in the United States. Are there any worldwide or United Kingdom equivalents?

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I'm wondering the same thing. I know about Triond.com, but I'm not sure if that's the same type of website.

SouthernFriedJulie said:

Some will advise against it, but for a steady 'job', apply to Demand Studios. If you're accepted the account stays open whether you use it or not. The pay is not stellar by any means- but without experience it is a lot better than some chump offering you $1 for 500 words.

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LAtest Craigslist job I found: $0.01 for 100 words. Beat that?

I hope ya'all don't mind a tiny bit of self promotion here, but I've got a list of freelanceing sites that accept international writers on squidoo.
http://www.squidoo.com/notanamericanfreelancer

Of course, most of them accept American writers too! There are plenty of sites that don't require an application, but they usually don't pay especially well.
Squidoo is in fact one of the better ones, IMHO, but it requires much more work than the ordinary residual site. From memory, hubpages and bukisa don't require an application either.
Suite101 can be very good as well if you have the time to put into it. They have a fabulous writers forum and are worth it just for that. They do require an application, but it is not very hard to get in I think.
Brighthub doesn't require a formal resume, but they want an application letter and a sample article. They pay residuals and an upfront fee and they are a friendly bunch. Plus they offer smarter than the usual fare of upfront articles, at least in my experience.

I would also suggest sites like Freelancer.com and Elance.com and so forth, particularly if you need money quicker rather than later, as they list one off jobs from individual providers. Some of the rates are very low, but you can find the occasional gem.
Good luck

Hello,

Also trying to get into freelancing. I'm based in Ireland, so I don't seem to be able to join Direct Media. I'm trying to join textprovider, but it's bringing back an error message - Payment Method Bitte geben Sie eine deutsche oder SEPA-Kontoverbindung an - something like you need to prefer a German bank for payment!

Can anyone help me by telling me how they got connected to textprovider, or help me with a few names of companies who accept Irish writers?

I do think that textbroker's only takes writer's from the U.S. They only pay out with Paypal. The pay is sometimes horrid and will really depend on your star rating that they give you. They are grammer Nazi's but do pay every 2 weeks.

The Content Authority is another place some of you may want to try. Pay is also very low but once again will depend on your rating. They do pay every monday so that is nice.

The Writer's Accesses may be on of the highest paying places i have seen. They do pay once a month though, so that part is a drag.

London brokers, i hear is like Textbroker's and also pays every week

These are all content houses, so the work may be a tad boring but it is steady work and can help to build a resume.

hope that helps
Cyndi
www.writingbycyndi.com

writingbycyndi said:

These are all content houses, so the work may be a tad boring but it is steady work and can help to build a resume.

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Wrong. You just can't build a resume with content work. Unless you're only building a resume for more content work.

Wild-

I agree.

But I have something else to add: Most freelance writing jobs don't require a resume. One thing those content sites get is clips or samples (depending on how you want to view them...) which can be very valuable for beginners.

For anyone worried about having a thin writing resume, I wouldn't worry much. Quality writing samples/clips and a strong cover letter count for so much more. I've rarely had private clients request a resume and it's never included with a query letter.

Dawn