As blogging has become one of the most interesting and fastest growing online source of making money these days among youth, it is now attracting several creative jobs either, most of which are freelance based. With huge demand of freelance writers, creative designers, developers and other skill based experts, there are a lot of new resources being developed to match the demand and supply of these kinds of services.
In this article, I'll try to discuss how the freelance writing market is getting expanded with each new day and how can a freelance writer get to know where to find freelance writing jobs , how to become a successful freelancer and earn money writing online.
In this article, I'll be discussing points like:- How is freelance writing different (and sometimes better) than blogging?
- How to develop writing skills and meet the quality demand?
- Where to find freelance writing jobs?
- Where to get free content for your article writing job?
- How to optimize your article for Search Engines?
- If you are new in this sector and are still confused about blogging, you can check my article upon How to create a money making blog here.
Blogging and Freelancing : Were Just Friends.
Now, when it comes to be a freelancer, there are a lot of reasons you might not be confident enough to approach big media companies directly and this is where having a blog or a personal website helps. When you've a blog, you basically have an effective portfolio of yours as a freelance writer as well as an online presence of yours.
Another thing you might not be totally aware of is the kind of topics you may be asked to write upon. This is where we come divide almost every freelance writer in this world into two categories :
- Content farm laborers
- Expert freelance writers
The difference between these two kind of writers is that basically the first section gets more work, less payment and no name at all, whereas the second section accepts less work, gets super high payments and are known by their big names.
I must, however, mention that the second section isn't in actual a freelance writer club. Its a big league. Its big names. Go to magazines like
Entrepreneur.Com and checkout their articles. Most of the articles that you'll read there will have big names in the written by section.
Blogging may help you in getting a little ahead in your journey to become a person of first section to a name in second section. This is something that perhaps you've not started thinking about yet. Many a times, people take writing as something they learnt while doing their school projects or home-works. Well, unfortunately, clients don't want you to do something they can do by themselves. When they hire a writer, they want delivery of something they can feel worth paying for.
Now this is where, Ill explain to you another difference between content farm laborers and expert writers. Content farm laborers aren't mostly asked to deliver quality content but mostly are paid to write content that can fill a certain website enough to attract readers, mostly following one the magic rules that I personally believe in More content, More Traffic.
This is the reason that these articles aren't always helpful as much as readers expect when they click the link to open the page. Google, these days, has launched its war against these kinds of content farms. However, still, to a great extent, quantity rule sometimes works over the quality rule.
Some of the basic requirements to become a successful freelance writer which you need to have are :
- Appealing Writing Style.
- Ability to research and propagate the result well.
- Knowing how to communicate with readers.
- Ability to sit for long.
- Better handling of rejection and curses.
- Reading too often, more than you write.
- Being more helpful and professional.
Now, when you've prepared yourself enough to at least begin your career as a freelance writer, there comes the big part finding freelance writing jobs. Lets talk about how can you get writing jobs online easily and make a good amount of money for helping out people with your content generating capacity :
Where to find freelance writing job?
Now this is where I have to bring out my books of websites. Well, luckily we now have a very amazing list of websites that pay for writing articles either. But before I list those websites, here is a list of portals where you can find freelance writing jobs. Not easily for sure, but if you meet the qualities that I have listed above, I think you might get a heap of awesome article writing gigs out there.
PeoplePerHour.Com : This one website comes on top when you search for the term find freelance jobs, which of course is a very stupid statement to consider making while listing websites, but still. Yes, this website has an honor, I think. Click here to go to their writing job section. Hope it helps.
Upwork.com : This is a big name, trust me. Or may be you already know a lot about this website. Basically, the story is that Elance got merged to oDesk which later was relaunched as Upwork.
Guru.Com : Not a very different website, but yeah, they have a beautiful layout an amazing reviews when it comes to payment. It provides you with all tools you need in order to manage your work, schedule tasks, chat with employer, share documents etc. So, basically, its worth giving it a chance. Have a look there too.
Freelancer.Com : This one came late but is still a very famous portal for freelance work finders as well as for those who want to get their works done (oops!). Its basically a bidding based portal where you are in race with other freelancers. Many people apply, you impress the employer, and you get the job! That's it.
Some other websites that allows freelancing writing are:
Toptal.ComIFreelance.ComContentmart.comThese websites are actually job boards where employers meet writers. Being here helps you in a lot of way. You learn how other freelancers are approaching their clients by looking into their profiles. You check their skills as they list and the presentation they have about their work. You also get to know what an employer seeks from a freelance writer and how much does a certain type of writing job pays.
So basically, before applying to a certain employer directly, you must be at least on one or two of these above listed portals and get a little bit of professional skin on your own.
However, lets not bother too much. Its time to find the work directly and do it the smart way. Here is a list of websites which have a Write for us section and which actually pay for writing. Check out this list of websites which pay for article writing (Search them in Google) :
- The Atlantic’s
- BlogHer
- The Daily Beast
- Expatics
- Dorkly
- Gawker Media
- Bitch Magazine’s website
- Cultures and Cuisines
- Gothamist
- New York Observer
- Penny Hoarder
- OZY
- PsychCentral
- Salon
- Upworthy
- Vice
- A Fine Parent
- Babble
- The Motherlode
- Cosmopolitan.com
- Guideposts
- Everyday Feminism
- The Establishment
- The Toast
- Back to College
- DailyWorth
- Mirasee
- Modern Farmer
- The Salt
- PsychCentral
- Penny Hoarder
- Indeni
- Treehouse
- WordCandy
- Funds for Writers
- WOW! Women on Writing
- Writer’s Weekly
I am to add two more topics to this article which will tell you where to find content for your next article and how to optimize your article for Search engines. However, till then. I hope the resources I've listed help you in beginning your freelance writing career. Let me know more about your questions, reviews and advice in comment box below.
Happy Writing, Happy Money Making.