Real Words

When you work as a freelance writer / blogger, the basic idea is that you are working for yourself since you are an independent contractor who can pick and choose your jobs, your work schedule and so forth. However, the reality is that you are working for clients who will have demands and procedures that you will have to follow to some extent if you are going to continue to do the job well. This differs greatly from being someone who branches out into launching a blog or a web writing service in which the writer sets the terms.

This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I’ve been trying to make the transition from working as a contract writer to working on my own plans for launching a new business. Some of the issues that have come up as I have been dealing with this transition include:

• Money. I do love to write but I also write for pay and so money ends up being a big consideration. The reality is that I can make a whole heck of a lot more money just getting good, steady, high-paying jobs working as a writer for the blogs of other people. The money is much less stable and sure and steady when it comes to trying to formulate my own business plan. Plus, it requires a capital investment which means that I have the potential to actually lose money doing this type of work.
• Creative Fulfillment. Writers do write because they want creative fulfillment and I am no exception. For the past six months I have been putting in long working hours to make a whole lot of money and I’ve had to acknowledge the fact that there’s this constant nagging feeling that I’m missing out on something in life because I don’t love the actual work that I am doing. I am excited about the creative potential in a new business despite the concerns that I have about it.
• Comfort Zones. I am an excellent blogger. I can command high rates, I do my work well and I’m satisfied to know that I get great results for my clients. I’m comfortable in that role. It’s not nearly as comfortable to launch a business and to not know if it’s what I want to be doing.
• Moving Forward. The reality is that I probably don’t want to just write blog posts for other people for the rest of my life, day in and day out with no other forward motion in my career. On top of the fact that this sounds stagnant, I believe that the future will bring changes to the Internet that ultimately make that type of job either obsolete or far less lucrative than it is today. As a result, I’m inclined to start thinking about moving forward with my own business.

These are just some of the ideas that I have been thinking about as I’ve been mulling over my options. Ultimately I’m leaning towards a combination of the two - continuing to do steady work for some clients while branching out on my own. But I think that balance is something that you always have to deal with because you’re always going to have clients on some level which you’ll need to accommodate in some way.

Question of the Day: How can writers balance the need to be creatively fullfilled with the need to please clients in their line of work?

There are many times in a freelance writer’s life when it becomes necessary to track down new work. Here are eighteen ways that you can start bringing in more freelance jobs today:

1. Check the classifieds. Craigslist is the best of the sites out there for daily advertisements by people seeking to hire freelancers. Be sure to check for telecommute writing positions in multiple cities and not just the ones posted on the Craigslist site for where you live. Other good sites include Performancing and Online Writing Jobs.
2. Check sites that offer job links. There are several sites that will troll through Craigslist and other advertisements for you and provide you with links to the good opportunities for freelance writing. Freelance Writing Jobs, Freelance Hub and Freelancing for Blogs are good places to check. There are also job links here on Real Words on Saturdays and Sundays.
3. Check the job boards of sites that advertise open postions for their own sites. For example, Word Press has listings when bloggers are needed for any Word Press blogs. Likewise with the Creative Weblogging blog network.
4. Advertise on your own blog or website that you’re available for work. Let people know what you’re seeking to do and provide them with links to relevant samples. If you don’t have a blog / website that gets noticed, you’ll want to get it some attention. Run a contest asking other bloggers to mention your site.
5. Advertise on writing job sites that you are available. You’re able to post your resume or write an ad that you’re available on numerous sites including Online Writing Jobs (see link above) and Blogger Jobs. Take advantage of that.
6. Get active in social networking. Make contact with people on sites like LinkedIn and let them know that you’re looking for new writing work.
7. Identify online sites that you would like to work for. Put together a great cover letter as to why you would want to work for them along with a sample of your writing ability. Contact the people who head the site with this information. They may not be hiring immediately but they’ll surely think of you when they are.
8. Cold call local businesses. Nobody likes cold calling but it can be a really effective way to start getting new writing work. When you’re in the famine time of the feast-and-famine freelance world, you should consider trying this out.
9. Put together a media kit and/or brochures and send them out to local businesses to advertise your writing skills and availability. This can be just as effective as cold calling and can be a lot less intimidating for most people.
10. Send out an email to all of your contacts. This can go out in the form of a general update about what’s going on with you but may briefly mention that you’re seeking work. Someone might bite or may at least point you in the right direction of new freelance work.
11. Add announcements on all of your social bookmarking sites (such as Mixx or Digg) that you’re always on the lookout for new work. Describe what type of writing you do and encourage people to get in touch with you if they know of availabilities.
12. Teach a class. This is a great way to earn money by doing something relevant to your writing and possibly get new writing work as well. Think of an aspect of the writing business that you know well enough to speak on. Hold a class (you can advertise locally and through sites like Craigslist) and charge a small fee for your efforts. At the end of the class, pass on your contact information and encourage anyone in the class that is seeking writing help to get in touch with you to discuss your rates. You may end up doing writing, editing or consulting as a result of this work - and if not, at least you have something new to add to your resume!
13. Drop a hello to previous clients. A simple “hey, how’s it going” can remind previous clients that you’re still around for work and may get them interested in hiring you for a new project.
14. Work on submissions to magazines and anthologies. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get paid for this work but it pays well if it pays off. And it’s better than doing nothing at all when you don’t have work flowing.
15. Write content articles for sites like HubPages. You can earn revenue for the articles that you write. On your profile, you should state that you’re seeking writing work. Make sure that the content you create is representative of the kind of work that you would do for your clients.
16. Ask other writers if they know of work that’s available. You should try to put together a social group of writing friends. That group can be through an online forum or a community networking event. Either way, you’ll have a group of people who will send work your way. Sure, they’ll keep the jobs they want but they may suggest jobs to you that don’t appeal to them (for example, if you do music journalism and a writer friend doesn’t, she might send a client who wants that your way.)
17. Circulate a press release. Come up with something stellar that you’ve done related to writing and write a professional press release about it. If you do a good job on the release, you’ll be proving that you’ve got what it takes to be a good writer and someone will likely take notice.
18. Offer to write for free. It’s not typically recommended that you write for free because it takes away from your other writing time. However, it’s better than not writing at all. If you’re in a position where there’s not a lot of work flow, volunteer to do some writing for your favorite charity. You help them out, you get a tax break, and you may find that it leads to a paying writing job with the place that you’ve volunteered.

The main thing that you should get out of this is that jobs come along when you put yourself out there. There’s always writing that can be done in order to secure new jobs down the line. Don’t get lazy and don’t burn bridges and you can make a career out of this type of work.

Question of the Day: What are some other ways to find freelance work that I’ve forgotten to include on this list?

[Tags] freelance, writing, jobs [/Tags]

I recently wrote a post here on the site called How Raising Freelance Rates Boosts Creativity. In it, I mentioned that I used to write 500-word keyword articles for $5 each. That drew a lot of emails from people who couldn’t believe that I would accept  such low rates for my work. However, I didn’t really think of them as low at the time.  I could easily write three or four articles per hour which meant that I was making between $15 and $20 per hour. That’s not a rate that I would work at now but this was when I was living in Tucson, Arizona and still in college; that kind of pay wasn’t even possible anywhere else in the city at the time.

Even today, when I post job links on the site here on the weekends, I try to post only those links which are going to lead to lucrative jobs. I ignore anything that looks to be lower than $5 per post but I leave it fairly open after that. I really think that how much you can make depends on a lot of factors other than just the price-per-article that you’re getting paid.

The first thing that I try to figure out when determining whether a job is worth the stated pay is what amount of research is going to be required. You can’t always tell this off the bat but there are some pretty good clues as to whether something is going to take you a long time or not. First, consider whether this is a topic that you know through and through and have some strong opinions on or a topic that you’re going to need to read a lot about. Second, consider what the point of the article is; keyword articles can typically be pretty basic articles off of the top of your head whereas a magazine article is going to need to really interest the readers of that magazine and will take more time and editing.

The next thing I think about is how much extra work is going to need to be done other than just writing the article. Am I expected to promote it through social bookmarking sites to continually gain traffic. Is it a blog post that requires me to respond to comments that are posted after I’ve written an article? Do I need to include links to anything in the article? Do I have to use a certain number of really difficult keyword phrases in the article? All of these things add up to more time. There’s a big difference in the number of 500 word articles that you can write if you’re just writing them and emailing them as a chunk as compared to when you have to write,format, link, and promote them.

Finally, I’ll look at the amount of work total that I’m going to be receiving from this client. I still have one job that is a really low-paying job if you look at it from a “per post” price. However, it requires that I write over forty articles per week which means that I’ve gotten to know the topics and format through-and-through. I know where my research is coming from; I know what my opinions are on the issues. And because of that, it doesn’t take me all that long to write the articles so the hourly rate works out to be good even though the “per post” rate isn’t. There’s a big difference in the amount of time a job takes when you first start it and learning all of the ins and outs as compared to when it’s a steady job that you’ve done for awhile. And there’s also something to be said about workflow when you have a steady job that you just know you’re going to be doing all of the time. I factor that all in because the regularity of the paycheck is worth it to me.

In the end, it boils down to an hourly rate for me. I have a basic minimum hourly rate that I won’t work below and I have a target minimum hourly rate that I aim for on each new job. Because I’ve been doing this for awhile, I’m usually able to fairly accurately assess the amount of time that a project will take and have it pay me accordingly. Of course, there are times when I’m wrong and the work takes more time than I thought. In some cases, I’ll just suck it up and cut my losses. But there have also been times when I brought it up with the client and said that I needed to either terminate the job or get a higher pay rate. I have almost always gotten the pay I needed to keep the job.

Question of the Day: How do you determine what you should be paid for a freelance writing job?

Related link: How to Steadily Increase Your Freelance Income

[Tags] writing, writer, freelance, rates [/Tags]

Every once in awhile I come across an article or blog post listing the “Top 100″ of something for writers or bloggers. Every time that happens, I’m a little bit impressed. After all, it is common to see “Top 10″ lists but it takes a lot more effort to compile a list that includes 100 things. However, it makes more sense to be thinking in terms of hundreds and not tens when it comes to freelance writing.

With thousands of new blogs launching every single day, there is a lot of material online for people to be reading. There’s certainly far more than ten authority sources on any particular topic. So, in an effort to be ambitious as well as to provide others with information about the best writing tips and sites out there, here is my Top 100 collection of “Top 100″ lists that others have put together. That means that you’ve got 10,000 tips/articles/ideas to read here. There are lists about books, lists about blog tools and lists about everything in between. That should keep you busy during your downtime!

1. Writers Digest Top 100 Listings
2. The Top 100 Freelancer Blogs @ Bootstrapper
3. 101 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog @ Vandelay
4. Top 100 Blogs @ Make Money Online
5. Top 100 Articles on Writing @ Writing Information
6. 100 Tools Freelancers Can’t Live Without @ Bootstrapper
7. 100 Writing Tips @ How to Write for the Web
8. 100 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Blog @ InternetBabel
9. 101 Best Sites for Writers @ Writers Digest
10. Make Money Online: 100+ Tools and Resources @ Mashable
11. 101 Ways to Create A Powerful Web Presence @ Hello, My Name is Blog
12. 100s of Resources for Finding Blog Content @ Lorelle on WordPress
13. 101 Reasons Freelancers Do It Better @ HR World
14. Top 100 Books of the Last 25 Years @ UK Telegraph
15. 101 Ways to Monetize Your Blog without Irritating your Readers @ Inside CRM
16. 114 Ways to Build Links @ SubHub
17. 100 Niche Job Boards for Web Workers @ Bootstrapper
18. 100+ Untapped LinkBuilding Strategies @ ZanyPixel
19. Top 100 Essay Sites for Students
20. 100 Ways to be Better Entrepreneur @ Entrepreneur.com
21. Top 100 Social Bookmarking and Social Networking Blogs @ Virtual Hosting
22. 100 Web Apps for Freelancers @ Codswallop
23. 131 Legitimate Link Building Strategies @ SearchEngineWatch
24. Over 100 Best Firefox Extensions @ LifeHack (many of which are great for improving writing productivity)
25. 120+ RSS Resources @ Mashable
26. Top 100 Highest Paying Adsense Keywords (post dated May 2007 but still relevant)
27. 101 Great Posting Ideas To Make Your Blog Sizzle @ I Help You Blog
28. Top 100 Action Verbs for Resume Writing @ ESL Teachers Board
29. 100 Best Green Bloggers @ Daily Maybe (because green writing matters)
30. 101 Blog Posting Ideas @ SEO 2.0
31. 100 Web Design Tips @ Web Watch
32. 104 Ways to Get Backlinks @ SEONoobs
33. 100 Ways to Make Money Online @ Jawaan.com
34. 100 Ways to Make Your Blog Famous @ Bloggletype
35. 100 Tips to Improve Your Web Presence @ Business Zone
36. 101 Ways to Improve your Blog @ Connor Wilson
37. 101 Essential Blogging Skills @ Skelliewag
38. The WAHM’s Toolbox: 100 Links & Resources @ Bootstrapper
39. 101 Free Ways to Increase Blog Traffic @ Can I Make Big Money Online?
40. 101 Resources on the Web for Writers and Bloggers @ JenWriter
41. 101 Ways to Write and Finish your Screenplay @ SearchWarp
42. 100 Ways to Get More Traffic @ Programming Talk
43. 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger @ LifeHack
44. 100 Writing Topics @ Red Ravine (writing prompts)
45. Top 100 List of Make Money at Home Blogs @ Freelance Folder
46. 101 Tips I Learned from Blogging @ Etienne
47. 101 Resources for Self Published Writers @ Self Publishing
48. 100 Best Works by Women Writers @ Madison Public Library
49. 101 Ways to Monetize your Website or Blog @ Lets Blog
50. 100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick @ MakeUseOf
51. 101 Best WordPress Plugins @ One Man’s Goal
52. 101 Essential Freelancing Resources @ Freelance Switch
53. 120+ Resources for Bloggers @ Mashable
54. Blog 100 @ CNET
55. Top 100 High PageRank Free directories @ Blogging Tips-n-Tricks
56. 100 Ways to Increase Web Traffic @ Web Pal
57. 100 Most Misspelled Words in English @ YourDictionary.com
58. 101 Essential Blogging Resources @ Blogtrepreneur
59. 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes @ Smashing Magazine
60. 101 Ways to Better your Blog @ SEO 2.0
61. 100+ WordPress PlugIns @ Geek Glue
62. 100 Tips to Speed Up Your Software @ CNET
63. 150+ Online Video Tools @ Mashable
64. 100+ Writing Prompts @ ScribeTime
65. Top 100 Blogs on Technorati
66. 100 Resources or Entrepreneur-Writers @ Bootstrapper
67. 101 Tips and Ideas for Writing on the Run @ Writing on the Run
68. 120 Self-promotion Ideas for Freelancers @ Design News
69. Top 100 Social Networking Sites @ DulceNegosyante
70. The Top 100 Business Blogs @ The Kiss Business 2
71. 100 Ways To Ruin a Corporate Blog @ Business Blogwire
72. 101 Links to Better Blogging Articles @ DeWitt’s Media
73. 101 Tips for Writers @ Young Writers Society
74. 101 Blog Tips @ DailyBlogTips
75. Squidoo’s Top 100 on SEO
76. Top 100 Speeches @ American Rhetoric
77. 101 Ideas to Generate More Freelance Work @ Freelance Switch
78. 101 Ways to Jumpstart Your Traffic @ David Macor
79. Top 100 Classic Websites @ PCMag (many of which are on writing, business and social networking)
80. Over 100 Great Productivity Tips @ Instigator Blog
81. 100 Basic Writing Prompts @ CanTeach
82. The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines @ ReadWriteWeb
83. 100 Best Last Lines from Novels @ American Review
84. 100 Web Development Cheat Sheets @ Virtual Hosting
85. 101 Ideas to Write About in Your Money Making Blog @ Malima
86. 100+ Tools for Flickr Addicts @ Mashable
87. Top 100 Web 2.0 Sites @ Web 2.0 magazine
88. 100 Tips to Defeat Content Thieves @ Virtual Hosting
89. 100 Google Adsense Tips (Links is to part 1 of 5)
90. 100 Legal Sources for Free Stock Images @ Virtual Hosting
91. 101 Ways to Brew Up a Great Idea @ Marketing Profs
92. 100 Web Development Tips and Tricks @ DotSauce
93. Top 100 Blogs @ BlogBridge
94. 100 Tools and Tips to Tap the Facebook Market @ Inside CRM
95. 101 Ways to Market Your Small Business @ Andrea Goulet
96. 101 Ways to Get More Traffic @ Dart Creations
97. 100+ Markets for Writers @ Bella Online
98. 100 Ways to Create, Package and Sell Ebooks @ Software Blog
99. 101 Ways to Improve your News Site @ CyberJournalist.com
100. Top 100 Motivational Blog Posts of All Time @ Bootstrapper

Looks like Bootstrapper, Virtual Hosting and Mashable win the prizes for putting out the most Top 100 lists! Thanks guys!

Question of the Day: Did I manage to miss any other great “100″ lists for writers?

[Tags] top 100, writing, freelance, lists, resources, links [/Tags]

I have been a freelance writer for quite a long time now, working primarily (but not entirely) in web writing and blogging. Part of the way that I maintain this career over time is to steadily increase my freelance rates. (Read this article to learn how to do it yourself!) And having done this consistently over the years, I’ve seen a pattern develop: my creativity rises in direct proportion to the increase in my rates.

Here are some of the reasons that I think raising your freelance rates will boost your creativity:

• More time per project. When I first started out doing freelance writing from home, the majority of the jobs that I get were SEO / keyword article jobs that paid approximately $4 per 500 words. In order to be able to pay my bills, I had to write hundreds of articles per month. No matter how many times I tried to convince myself that I could infuse those articles with some creativity, it just didn’t happen. After raising my keyword article rate, I was able to drop down the number of articles I’d write monthly. This let me devote more time to each article and that allowed me to actually get creative with some of the pieces. Sure, they were still keyword-driven articles but I could take the time to write more creatively and research new aspects of each project. I learned more, was more interested in the work and wasn’t so pressured to produce quantity that my quality improved because of it.
• Better projects. When you start charging higher rates, you’ll actually start to get higher-quality projects coming your way. Basically, people figure that they get what they pay for and you’re going to draw a higher-quality client from a higher pay requirement (assuming that you can follow through with quality work). Better projects tend to not only allow you more creativity but actually demand it of you. They don’t want just the standard “fit this many keywords in” kind of article. They want a unique perspective and a fresh voice and that means that they want you to be more creative. They’re paying you for exactly that!
• Time for non-work creativity. When you raise your rates, you can decrease your workload and actually take time for yourself. This may mean that you have the time to actually work on creative writing projects like that novel that’s been hanging over your head for years. Or it may mean that you have the time and money to attend art gallery openings, indie film screenings and other events that inspire you to be more creative in your own life. At the very least, it means that you have some time to read and that can be one of the most inspiring things for a writer!
• You’re more likely to demand creativity of yourself. No matter how hard you may try not to, you probably have a tendency to treat each job in relation to what it pays you. If you get paid $5 to do an article, you just aren’t going to feel motivated to put a lot of effort into it. If you’re getting paid $500 to do that article, you’re going to pressure yourself to give it some more time and attention. You will hold yourself up to a higher standard of work in accordance with the higher pay and that means that more creative work is likely to come out of you.
• Better feelings in general. We may not like it but this society tends to value us based on what we earn for our work. Unless you’re truly enlightened, your own self-esteem and energy levels can be greatly impacted by what you’re earning for your freelance writing. When you’re earning more for your work, you feel like it has more value. This translates into feeling better about your work overall and that can give you the extra enthusiasm that you need to boost your creativity.
• Quality networking. Although getting paid more for your work doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to be better at social networking (online or off) it does mean that you’re going to be in a position to meet other people who take their writing work (and yours) more seriously. This opens up the doors to networking with others in the writing field. That kind of networking can serve as a diving board for entering a new area of creativity and focus on your work.

Raising your rates alone isn’t going to suddenly flood your life with creativity. But it can certainly play a key factor in freeing up your time and energy to do more creative work. It can also improve the way that you approach your work and network about it which can make you feel more inspired to do a better job at what you do.

Question of the Day: Do you agree or disagree that raising your freelance writing rates can directly mean that you do mroe creative work?

[Tags] freelance, writing, blogging, creativity, rates [/Tags]

It’s incredibly rare for a freelance writer to not be looking for new work. In fact, even when I have plenty of work to keep me busy, I make it a point to keep my eye out for new opportunities in case there’s something better out there that I want to try to grab. Because freelancers are always looking for those new positions, there are a plethora of sites available for finding those jobs.

Following you’ll find some of the best ones. Note that the list includes direct ads and job boards advertising work but does not include sites where you have to bid on jobs. Although many freelance writers and bloggers do get great work from these types of sites, I’ve never been a fan of the bidding process because I believe that it drives down freelance rates. As such, I’ve left those off of the list in favor of my top sites for directly applying to get the work.

Here are the top ten sites for finding freelance writing jobs and freelance blogging jobs:

1. Craigslist. In my opinion, this is the number one spot for finding freelance writing and blogging jobs. Tips for doing well on this site are to check both the “writing gigs” and “writing jobs” that are advertised. You should also make sure that you’re not only checking the job listings posted in your own city but also those posted in other cities. San Francisco, New York, and Boston are top cities to check daily but you can peruse the other cities for regularly posted jobs.
2. Right here on Real Words. Of course, not everyone wants to take the time to flip through city after city on Craigslist. That’s why there are some of us out here who will do it for you. If you’re looking for work that’s been posted on the weekends, right here on Real Words is a great place to start (see the post previous to this one for an example of what’s available today). It doesn’t only include jobs from Craigslist; there’s also a selection of available jobs posted all around the web. However I do make sure to check all of the top US cities on Craigslist for paying writing jobs posted on the weekends so you can come here instead of Craigslist to get that information.
3. Freelance Writing Jobs. This is probably the number one source for aggregated job listings during the week. Like what I do here on the weekends, this site posts links to various jobs found around the web so that you can easily locate the work that’s available without having to go from site to site. The site has been up and active for a long time so you can count on the fact that they’re going to be dependable with daily job posts (Monday - Friday) and that they know what they’re doing. On the downside, they post a lot of jobs that aren’t strictly telecommute jobs so work-at-home freelancers will need to sift through those. To their credit, they recently started more clearly identifying which ones are and aren’t telecommute positions.
4. Problogger. If you’re seeking strictly blogging jobs, this is the best place to go. There are only a few posted every day but it’s a good resource to check for this kind of work. Plus the blog that goes along with this site is really helpful to bloggers.
5. Online Writing Jobs. There are a lot of jobs posted here that are no-paying, low-paying and scams. However, there are also a lot of great jobs available here. The site clearly separates low-paying from high-paying jobs and it has a section where you can report scams so it’s getting cleaned up despite its flaws. I’ve gotten several long-term jobs through ads placed here so I’d recommend it albeit with a cautious eye. (Of course, that’s true of all job postings, isn’t it?)
6. Absolute Write Forums. There are usually one or two jobs posted here daily. It’s a mixture of actual jobs, contests and calls for submissions but it’s a good resource for writers to keep bookmarked. It’s particularly great for diverse writers who delve into fiction writing because there are lots of posts for stories and anthology submissions.
7. Performancing Forums. This is a place for blogging jobs so if that’s what you’re looking for, head here. Some of the jobs posted here are no-or-low paying but there are a wide range of different jobs available. You do have to sign up for a free account with the site in order to respond to most of these ads.
8. Copyblogger. This site has just started posting available jobs so it’s hard to tell yet whether or not they’re a good resource but it’s a reputable site and they have a nice layout for their job listings.
9. Journalism Jobs. The downside to this one is that there aren’t too many telecommute jobs here. The upside is that it’s easy to find them when they do post because you can search location by “telecommute”, “all locations” and “United States” to turn up those work-at-home positions. And the real upside is that a majority of the jobs you will find here are high-quality, high-paying jobs.
10. MediaBistro. Like Journalism Jobs, you have to sort through the site to find those few positions here that let you work from home. Unlike Journalism Jobs, it’s not as easy to sort them and you have to spend some time browsing through the site to find them. Additionally, you have to sign up for a free account to get the details here. Despite this, it’s a good site for the freelancer who has some time to look for new work.

Related posts: How to Steadily Increase Your Freelance Income and 10 Signs That Freelance Job Might be a Scam

Question of the Day: What is your favorite resource for freelance writing or blogging jobs?

[Tags] freelance writing, blogging, jobs, gigs, employment, job boards, freelance [/Tags]

One of the most frustrating things that happens regularly to freelancers is that they take the time to apply for a job and then find out that it was a scam. In bad cases, this can lead to both money and time lost. And even when it doesn’t get that bad, it does make you feel like you wasted a lot of energy on an application for nothing. Plus it just leaves a bitter taste in the mouth when the people in your chosen freelance field are scamming you and your peers in the industry.

Following you’ll find ten signs that indicate that a freelance job offer that you’re looking at might be a scam. This doesn’t mean that every job post that meets one of these qualifications is indeed a scam but rather that you should proceed with caution when applying for any job that seems like it falls into one of these categories. There are certainly good jobs out there that might fall prey to one of the mistakes outlined here so don’t dismiss them immediately but definitely protect yourself when you’re applying for these jobs.

The top ten signs that a freelance job might be a scam are:

1. It sounds too good to be true. This is the biggest indicator that a freelance job isn’t going to turn into a true, steady, lucrative opportunity for you. If the rate being offered is ridiculously high, if they’re saying that they’re going to give you all sorts of benefits for what seems like very little work or if something else causes you to leap at the opportunity then there’s a good chance that something is a little “off” about the job. Great freelance jobs do come along but they usually require hard work for fair or above-average pay.

2. The ad contains a link to an outside site where the additional information can be obtained. This is one that primarily refers to freelance gigs placed on Craigslist and it’s one that doesn’t always hold true. People sometimes do link out to their professionally websites where they have posted more details on the work. However, scammers also frequently link to “more details” which turns out to be a job bidding board or a site that you have to pay to apply through. The main warning sign to look out for is that scams will normally hyperlink within the text (as in This is a Great Freelance Job) whereas legitimate links will be posted outright (as in visit us at www.ourbusiness.com).

3. The ad or initial email from the business requests a highly specific writing sample. Most places should be content with your existing writing samples if they are relevant to the job. Some legitimate places do have writing tests which you’ll have to decide whether or not you want to invest time in. However, these tests should always be fairly basic (“write 500 words on a topic related to fashion”). When a company requests writing samples that have a very specific format, use of specific keywords a certain number of times or links to specific business, there’s a good chance that they are trying to get you to unwittingly do free work for them that they’re going to make money off of without ever hiring you. One thing that I’ve found useful in cases such as these is that you can offer to write the first paragraph of the piece with the specifications required and explain that you don’t want to give away more work than that for free. A legitimate company will take you up on that in most cases.

4. The ad says it’s great for “students”, “work at home moms”, “SAHMs”, or “new writers”. That may be true. It may be a job that’s willing to offer you pay that’s fair compensation for your experience when you don’t have a lot of writing experience yet. But it could also mean that they want you to do a whole lot of work for not much money at all so you should proceed with caution.

5. The ad exaggerates how great the company or publication is. Any ad that says “we are going to be bigger than Rolling Stone” or “you could make thousands of dollars in revenue because our site is so awesome” or anything like that is probably a site that’s not going to be great for you. Sure, there are emerging sites that are eventually going to be big names. But a truly good company advertises for the writers it needs right now (and may say “potential for growth”) not for the expectations the company has for down the line. In most cases, these aren’t scams in the traditional sense but instead reflect businesses that don’t have a realistic approach to their development – and that can mean that you might not get paid.

6. Misspellings and typos in the ad. One does happen now and then but if you’re looking at an ad from someone who obviously didn’t proofread and who has a lot of spelling or grammar errors, you may want to think twice. It just speaks to the professionalism of the business which can also speak to the likelihood that you’re going to get paid on time and at a good rate.

7. You’ve seen the ad a dozen times before. Chances are that you look at the same job boards and job links sites again and again. (Hopefully one of those is the weekend job links that are provided here on Real Words every Saturday and Sunday!) If you do, you’ve probably noticed that there are one or two jobs that seem to be posted all of the time. Maybe the wording changes a little bit you’ve come to recognize the ad. Even though it’s well-written and seems fair, this could be a warning sign that it’s really a scam.

8. Information in the ad is minimal and the company doesn’t have a website. Not all businesses or clients that are going to hire you will have a website. However, the combination of a non-informative ad and a lack of website info could indicate that you’re looking at a scam. Make sure that you get detailed information and a contract before signing up to work with a company in this kind of situation,

9. Requirement that you sign up for a website. Sometimes you’ll apply for a job that seems totally legitimate and then you’ll be told that you need to sign up for a website that they operate in order to continue being considered for the job. In many cases, this will be a site with a forum which they’ll ask you to leave comments on, supposedly as a form of writing sample. Usually, this turns out to be a case in which the company is really looking to boost activity on its site and forums and doesn’t turn into a paying job. There are some legitimate jobs that ask you to sign up for a free account on their sites but you should be wary of any sites that require you to create extensive profiles or post comments anywhere.

10. You have to pay for anything. There are a myriad of different versions of this scam but in the end the warning is the same: don’t do it. You should never have to pay someone to get yourself a paying writing job.

As noted before, a job that has one or two of these problems isn’t necessarily a scam. It’s just a warning sign to really think carefully when applying for these jobs. Don’t let yourself get swept away by the need for money or the appeal of what sounds like a job that is too good to be true. Proceed with caution and protect your own work so that these scammers can’t continue to invade the industry.

Question of the Day: What has been the worst freelance scam you got caught in?

[Tags] writing, freelance, scam, tips, jobs, gigs [/Tags]

I’m by no means someone who is rich. But I am someone who manages to afford to live in a nice apartment in the North Beach neighborhood in San Francisco, pay my bills on time and accumulate very little debt between paychecks. For someone who works entirely doing freelance, that’s an accomplishment. Although there are many different reasons that I’ve been able to achieve this sort of steady income, one of the biggest ones is that I continually work to increase the amount of money that I am earning. The main way of doing this is through a job ranking system (described below) but there are also other tricks I implement to make sure that I’m regularly raising my income.

Here are some writing tips that you can follow to steadily increase your own freelance income:

• Aim to make the majority of your income steady income. It takes up a lot of time to hunt down new freelance writing jobs, learn the specifications of those jobs and start earning an income from them. Although one-shot jobs are great for additional freelance income, you should be actively seeking out jobs that are going to provide you with a steady stream of work and a regular paycheck. With a handful of steady jobs, you can organize your time better and get more done which means that you are going to be earning more hourly after just a short period of time has passed.
• Always keep an eye out for other opportunities. Even when you have a steady set of gigs, you should be spending a certain chunk of time each week looking for new freelance jobs. These may be steady or they may be one-shot jobs but either way, they’re out there. You don’t have to apply to everything you see. The goal is to find those jobs that are really going to add benefits to the working situation that you already have.
• Know what you make hourly. You’d be surprised by how many freelance writers who get paid by post or by article or by word don’t know what they earn hourly. You need to work out the math and find out what you earn so that you can set goals towards increasing that hourly rate. You should aim to increase that rate every six months. So, if you currently earn $10 per hour, you want to set a goal to be earning $11 or $12 per hour within six months. This is a measurable goal that will allow you to easily see whether or not you’re achieving success in increasing your freelance income.
• Rank your jobs. Once you have those steady jobs and you know what you earn hourly on each of them, you can rank those jobs. The way that I do it is through a 20 point system. The first category is a 1-10 scale of how much I enjoy doing the job. The second category is a 1-5 scale of how much I get paid hourly for the job. The third is a 1-5 scale regarding how well I can count on that income. For example, if I have a job that I really enjoy doing, I might assign it a 10 on the enjoyment scale. However, if it’s my lowest paying hourly job, it might get a 1 in the second category. And if I can not only count on the paycheck to come on time every month but am also fairly sure that the job isn’t going to be terminated unexpectedly, then I’ll assign it a5 on the third scale. So even though it’s a lower paying job, it ends up with a rank of 16. Once each job is ranked, put them in order from highest to lowest. What you’re going to start doing is eliminating one job at a time from the bottom of the list and replacing it with a job that’s likely to rank towards the top of the list.
• Raise rates on clients. You shouldn’t be earning the same hourly wage today as you were a year ago and your clients should be aware of that. If you have some jobs on the list that you like but that don’t pay enough, see if you can’t move them up the ranks by raising the rates on your clients. The worst thing that is going to happen is that they’re going to say they can’t pay you more and then you can decide if you want to do the work anyway or move on.

In the “real world”, people expect to get raises on a regular basis. They get an annual raise and something get raises even more regularly than that. If you take yourself seriously as a professional freelancer, you’ll demand the same thing for yourself. It’s a little harder when you can’t just go into a boss and ask for a raise but it’s possible to regularly raise your monthly income in order to achieve this for yourself. Sure, there are going to be times when a job unexpectedly ends or you experience a lull in the new jobs that you’re getting. But you can combat these times by actively engaging in the ongoing process of forwarding your own career.

Question of the Day: What else can you recommend for increasing your freelance income on a regular basis?

[Tags] freelance, writing, income, finance, paycheck, employment, gigs [/Tags]

Check out today’s freelance job links in the post below this one.

As some of you have already discovered, one of the things that this site offers is links to freelance writing and blogging jobs. Those links are primarily provided on Saturdays and Sundays. There are several reasons why I provide weekend job links. First of all, I think this is a niche that goes unfilled by most freelance job link sites. Secondly, I am committed to being online on the weekends for another job so I have the opportunity to provide this information at that time. And most importantly, I believe that there are people out there who really want a job links resource on the weekend.

Here are some of the reasons that you might want to apply for freelance writing jobs on the weekend:

• Less competition. Many freelancers work Monday through Friday and don’t bother to apply for jobs on the weekends. While they might apply to these same jobs when they start work on Monday, there’s a possibility that people who have applied when the jobs are first posted are the people who are going to get noticed by the employers.
• Immediate jobs. Some of the jobs that are posted on the weekend are emergency one-shot writing jobs which require immediate completion. If you have the opportunity to get these jobs, you can add some great income to your existing work.
• Different opportunities. The same companies and individuals frequently post for freelance writers during the week. Those who post on the weekends are often different. This means that you’ll see unique types of jobs during the weekend. Additionally, it means that you’ll expose yourself to writing for new clients that can become great long-term partners in your work.
• You work weekends. Maybe you have a full-time or part-time job during the week and are trying to get into freelance writing by working on the weekends. Those jobs that are posted on the weekends may have more flexibility in allowing weekend work than some of the other jobs that are available.

Weekend job links aren’t for everyone. For those people who want links during the week, there are great resources out there. (My favorite is Freelance Writing Jobs.) However, there are good reasons for wanting to apply to freelance work on the weekends. For those people, Saturday and Sunday job links can be found here before noon PST each weekend.

Question of the Day: What feedback do you have for me about the weekend job links?

[Tags] freelance, jobs, writing, gigs, freelance writing, blogging [/Tags]

I have more than enough freelance work. Despite this, I check out the ads for new freelance writing jobs nearly every day. I probably apply to new positions a few times per week. Is this a case of “the grass is always greener”? Not necessarily.

I believe that the key to being a successful freelancer is to challenge yourself to regularly rise higher in the business. This means finding jobs that you like more and which pay you more than the jobs which you currently have. While you may be content with the work that you’re doing, it may be the case that there are better jobs out there for you. I believe that it’s important to always work to find those jobs.

Unfortunately, what sometimes happens is that too many job applications get approved at once. That was the case for me this week when I discovered that I’d been hired for multiple new positions. Some of those I am excited about, others I’m waiting to see on and a couple of them I rejected off the bat. I’ve said before that I believe freelancing is a lot like dating; I’m in that stage of “first dates” with several new jobs and am trying to see which ones will become relationships and which ones will fizzle out.

It’s been a stressful week. However, it’s been a good week in that I was able to eliminate some work that I hadn’t been excited about because I got new work that’s more satisfying. Transitions are never easy but they’re what makes you move forward in the experiences that you’re undertaking. I have never been one who wanted to be stagnant and I continue to believe that aiming for the moon will land you amongst the stars.

Question of the Day: How often do you fill out new freelance job applications?

Make sure to check out this weekend’s list of freelance jobs here.

[Tags] freelance, applications, job, employment, writing, work [/Tags]