Good morning! Yesterday’s run was my longest one since surgery and I am definitely feeling it. Although, I’m feeling it in my hamstrings with absolutely zero pain in these wonderful feet of mine (I’ve had surgery on both in the past year and a half). I guess I will be resorting to my favorite piece of paper in the world…my PT exercises. I should probably just have these exercises memorized by now, but I don’t!
I went to go get started on What I Ate Wednesday until I realized I had absolutely no pictures of anything I’ve eaten recently, so I’m thinking we will be skipping that one this week. Upon a few comments and requests, I’ve had individuals ask me where I find my freelance work.
The first thing I did was create a resume specific to freelance writing (I currently have two resumes- one for when I look for freelance work and the other for when I get the urge to apply for a 9-5 job). Be sure to make the objective of your resume specific to freelance writing. For me, a majority of my writing is in health/fitness/nutrition, which coincides great with the 2nd master’s degree I am almost finished with (M.S. in Exercise Science and Health Promotion).
Now that you have a fancy, freelance-specific resume, where do you send it? You have some options.
- Pitch your favorite magazines (national or local) or online publications. Just a warning, you may send out a lot of pitches and never hear anything back. Just another warning, start local or online if you are new to the industry. Build up your clips before pitching national magazines.
- Use Craigslist. I’ve found a number of local freelance writing jobs on Craigslist. The best part about local work is that you can actually meet with your client face-to-face.
- Try online job boards specifically designed for freelancing. Freelancewritinggigs.com, ProBlogger, BloggingPro, JournalismJobs.com all have job listings for freelance/part-time/full-time writing/editing gigs. Again, you may do a lot of applying with few responses, but honestly that is just the name of the game.
- Consider a site like Elance.com. Warning: many of the employers on this site are looking to get dirt cheap work as a result they hire individuals from 3rd world countries to completed work at a rate that wouldn’t even feed an American at a fast food restaurant. If you are willing to do some searching, you can find some decent paying jobs. My advice to you is to work with North American employers only. I’ve found gigs that pay $50/hr and even one that landed my $500 for an hours work (that was extremely rare, so don’t get too excited!).
- Include a hire me page on your blog (although, I’m still waiting for this to work for me!).
Once you start writing for one company, chances are they will turn to you again if they enjoy your work. They may even refer you to friends, who own other businesses. If not, you’ll start developing a collection of writing samples that can be used to secure future freelance journalism opportunities.
Once you land a freelance gig, make sure to sign a contract. This way you won’t have to worry about a client disappearing after you hand over the completed work. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for a portion of your payment up front.
Happy writing! 
