I hate to call anybody a liar, but some of the people that place jobs on freelance writing bidding sites are just that. Over the past several years I have been burnt several times by these people, but finally, I am beginning to see through their simple tactics. The fact of the matter is this: there is nothing wrong with what these people are doing (within reason), but at the same time, they are lying to writers who may not know any better.
The most common lie that I have seen is this. A buyer posts a job stating how many articles they need as well as a tag line that reads, “This is a low paying job, but the next one will be double the pay.†Like many, I fell for this several times thinking that I would eventually get a raise in pay. Do you think that this ever happened? The answer is no. Although there may be some buyers who honestly plan on paying more, the majority have no intentions of doing so.
Another common lie is the ever popular, “Write me a sample article on a specific topic, and if I like it, I will give you more work.†This may sound fair enough, but this is far from the case. Do you know what these people do? They get as many samples as they can, and then they simply use those instead of actually paying to have the work done. This is a deceitful act, and one that is going to get these buyers nowhere in the end.
Bidding sites are a great place to find freelance writing work, but unfortunately, there are some buyers who have to ruin it with lies. The best way to avoid these buyers is to be extremely cautious with the jobs that you accept. And of course, never agree to write an article unless you are going to get paid for it!Â
Journalismjobs.com is one of the largest portals for people interested in finding a job in the journalism industry. With the opportunity to search by location, anybody in any state can find jobs in their area that pertain to this field. But if you are a freelance writer, Journalismjobs.com has some benefits as well.
A few years back when I started freelancing I used this service to find a couple of clients that I still work for today. Since then I have not found much, but there are many freelance writing gigs available through this service.
To find freelance writing jobs on Journalismjobs.com you need to know where to look. Instead of searching one particular state, you will want to search for “all locations†or “telecommute†under the location tab. This is where you will find 99 percent of the freelance writing jobs. Of course, if you have the time, check in the individual states as well; particularly the one that you live in.
As a freelance writer, Journalismjobs.com is a great site because you do not have to pay to find jobs. Each ad will have contact information included, and all you have to do is follow the directions of the poster.
Journalismjobs.com even gives job seekers the ability to post a resume free of charge. This way, interested employers can search the database and see who is available for work. If you have some time you might as well do this. You never know who will come calling.
You may not find hundreds of freelance writing gigs at Journalismjobs.com, but from time to time there are a few good ones. Taking a few minutes each morning to check for new listings is not going to kill you!
Now that you have a better idea of where to find freelance writing and blogging jobs (see the last post), you must now know how to win these coveted positions.
I recently ran a test experiment of sorts at freelancewriting.com. Since I was a bit behind with some articles, I wanted to find an experienced writer to crank out a couple pages for me; not a huge project by any means. So I posted the job, with a detailed description, and waited for the responses to roll in. Within five hours or so I was barraged with more than 30 emails. As you can imagine, I had a hard time sifting through all of these to find the best writer.
So what was the point of this experiment? Outside of actually wanting to find a writer, I also wanted to see what type of competition was out there. The bottom line is that if you want to move to the top of a buyers list, your email better stick out.
Here is what I looked for when going through the emails.
1. First off, anybody who made a typo in the subject line was immediately out of the running. It is this attention to detail that buyers are going to notice first.
2. Upon opening each email I began to look at sentence structure, grammar, etc. As soon as I noticed a mistake, no matter how small, I deleted the message.
3. Finally, I took a close look at what the remaining writers had to offer. Are they experienced? Did they follow my directions? These, among many others, are questions that I asked myself.
As you can see, if you can put together an error free email you will be able to move onto the final round with most buyers. From there, your past work and current skills will determine whether or not you get hired.
The point is that you need to take each email you send very seriously. If you make even one mistake, you may miss out on a great job that could have netted a big paycheck. And remember, spell check is not enough. You need to read and reread each message to check for typos, grammar mistakes, and anything else that may raise a red flag!
