Freelance Writing

[m18pak]

I'm asking any and all freelance writers out there to give me some advice on how to start out in the pursuit of this as a source of income.

I am a complete noob, with no clue whatsoever as to the workings of the writing/publishing world. I'm basically looking for the writers with experience out there to tell me what they themselves wish they had known when they first started out.

Thanks in advance.

[hkalchemy]

I'm also interested in the information revealed by this thread. You can try getting your work published at higher traffic blogs - I recently had an article published at The Change Blog. You can also submit to services like Triond.

[mlc82]

I'm in the same boat as you, and would love some info from freelance writers as well. One thing you might want to do if you haven't already is to start posting some of your writings around online, blogs, message boards, etc, just to have them out there and maybe have them noticed. I recently wrote an article for a PC game website I'm (kind of) working on, posted it on a game message forum to see what the reactions were, and ended up being invited to write for an e-magazine dedicated to the game series because someone saw my work and liked it. This is a far cry from freelance writing, but could make for a great example of work I could do if someone wanted to see it.

More than likely this is a totally obvious idea that you've already had, but sometimes I tend to think too hard and not notice the obvious things.

[Apple Eye]

Originally Posted by m18pak

I'm asking any and all freelance writers out there to give me some advice on how to start out in the pursuit of this as a source of income.

I am a complete noob, with no clue whatsoever as to the workings of the writing/publishing world. I'm basically looking for the writers with experience out there to tell me what they themselves wish they had known when they first started out.

Thanks in advance.

I just joined this site, and was thinking of posting a similar thread, when I came across this

So, if you didn't already guess, I'm also looking for some advice on how to get some freelance writing work online.

I have actually been working as a freelance writer for a few years, but my problem is that I can't seem to find decent-paying work. I tried Elance but mostly the web content work is low-paying, and I'm getting tired of writing tons of articles just to barely get by financially.

It seems like the demand for good writing on the Internet should be high, although I'm having trouble finding worthwhile opportunities. I must admit, I think my business and marketing skills fall way short of my creative strengths. This is one of the areas I want to improve in my life by participating on this site, so hopefully I can get some help from anyone with experience freelancing (or make a few connections?)

There were already a few suggestions I may check out

[Ali from The Office Diet]

Something which has worked amazingly well for me (compared to all my previous attempts of short stories/magazine articles) is freelance blogging.

I started my blog The Office Diet in January, hoping to make a bit from advertising revenue (I think I'm up to a whole $17 now...) but from that, I quickly got a guest post on Diet Blog then a staff position there.

A month or two after landing that job, I wrote to Daily Writing Tips to offer a guest post -- they took it, and I got offered a staff post there too.

The money isn't amazing, but it's certainly a decent, professional-standard wage.

Some great blogs related to freelance writing are:
Freelance Advice and Freelance Jobs - FreelanceSwitch (freelancing in general)
Copywriting tips for online marketing success from Copyblogger
Daily Writing Tips (writing in general)
Skelliewag.org (web writing)

Good luck!

Ali

[MsKarma]

Hi! I'm a freelance writer ...

I would recommend 'beginners' to read about the profession first. About.com has a freelance writing section - AboutFreelanceWriting.com is also a good site.

(if you google the topic, you will find many more sites)

To get experience, volunteer or work for lower paying gigs at first. Once you have experience, 'move on up' to higher paying markets.

FreelanceWritingGigs.com, WritersWeekly.com and AbsoluteWrite.com are also good sites to check out ... :-)

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

[MisterEThoughts]

Go to Absolute Write: freelance writing, screenwriting, playwriting, novels, non-fiction