3 Types of Freelance Writing Gigs and How to Find Them

Most freelance writers have several sources of writing work where they can get paid to write articles. Some are ongoing, some are one-off, and some are gap-fillers. All can be good. Read on for a bit about each of the above categories and how to go about getting those types of writing jobs.

Ongoing
Finding regular writing clients can be a good thing. Do a good job and you might get ongoing writing work.

One-Off Jobs
By marketing yourself, you can find writing jobs that are one-off scenarios. Someone might need a press release written, might decide that they want to write a new sales letter, want help re-vamping their website content, or want another freelance writing service. Marketing can help these clients find you.

Gap fillers.
There are content companies and busy clients that may offer you an all-you-can-write buffet. Having a few of these eggs can be a good thing because you can make fast money writing when you need to up your earnings or when you have a gap in your schedule. You an also spend some of your gaps working at upping your passive income streams through writing for revenue sharing sites, such as InfoBarrel and HubPages, or through developing content for your own sites and blogs.

How to find Writing Gigs:

Find ongoing and one-off clients by marketing on an ongoing basis. Freelance writers who market can get found by clients and some of those clients could provide you with regular work.

In terms of gap fillers, sign up with a writing agency, start a profile on a freelance bidding site such as Elance, sign up with content companies such as Textbroker, Internet Brands, and Demand Studios so you can dive into one of these options as and when you need to.

Getting paid to write articles can be a business of feasts and famines. By diversifying your incoming writing work sources and by continually marketing yourself you can have a wide array of options available.

How to Become a Paid Askables Expert

Askables is a site that people can go to for information and it’s a great ehow alternative for writers who want another passive income stream. There are articles published and there is a place for questions and answers. Beyond using the site for information, you can also use it as a source of online income. Askables is currently accepting experts and top experts. They accept international writers (instead of just US-based such as eHow and Firehow), and offer more than one way to earn money writing.

Benefits of Being an Askable Expert

Askables has a revenue share programme that allows you to either submit your Google Adsense ID and share revenue for your articles, or, you can even have the site track your Adsense income and pay you for it via PayPal. Your articles could become profitable if they get a lot of traffic to them.

But if you’re interested in participating in the site regularly, you can earn even more money because there are two categories of site participation that could net you a per-article rate of either $5.00 per article or $15 per article. If you participate regularly and write high-quality and original articles, the site could earn you actively and passively.

Learn more by visiting Askables and navigating to the “Hey Bloggers” cloud. By meeting point requirements, you could either earn $5 per article or $15 per article plus earn passively forever and ever. Not bad!

5 Places To Get Paid To Write Articles

If you’re looking for beginner freelance writing jobs or filler writing work for your down time, the following five writing companies hire new writers on a regular basis. How much do freelancers get paid to write articles? That can vary from $3-$100 per article depending on many factors. General article writing pay for the below companies ranges on a scale of just below .01/word to .02/word or slightly better.

Below are rated worst pay to best pay with pros and cons for each company.

Content Gurus

Pro: This is a lower paying but easy company to work for that offers easy article writing for pay.

Con: Monthly payday only

Textbroker

Pro: Plenty of work available and twice monthly pay. This company also hires writers on a graded system. The better you’re graded, the better you are paid.

Con: lower pay, US writers only

Need An Article.Net

Pro: This site offers regular paying writing work as well. What many like about them is that they pay weekly on Friday nights

Con: non compete clause may limit your own career pursuits and pay is on the lower side

(their website doesn’t offer a writer’s application so you’ll need to contact them through their e-mail address if interested in applying.)

Quality Gal

Pro:This is a slightly better paying writing gig that offers regular writing work with a graded system so the better the quality, the more money you earn. Company is: We Build Pages

Con: This established company has a great reputation and offers decent rates but some suggest the research work involved can be a bit high for the pay at times.

Demand Studios

Pro: Plenty of work writing how to articles for good weekly pay. DS pays writers, editors, transcribers, and videographers.

Con: Some limits on how many weekly articles new writers can do, and strict style guides to follow

Get Paid to Write Articles

All the above companies offer a system whereby writers can claim articles from a content management system and all offer a somewhat automated payment system as well where writers are paid via PayPal.

I am a busy freelance writer, blogger, and consultant that isn’t working with any of the above content companies as I do have regular clients and some private “filler” sources of writing work and also write for passive income that has unlimited potential but I do hear good (to mostly good) things about the above content companies hiring and paying freelance writers on a constant basis so they are a great starting point for beginners or a great option for filler work for writers as well.

Finding Freelance Writing Jobs

How do you find freelance writing jobs? This post will give you several job lead sources:

  1. Freelance Writing Job Blogs. There are a lot of blogs that offer daily job leads
  2. Craigslist. In all major cities is a writing job category
  3. Google Alerts. Set up a Google Alert for freelance writing jobs and you can even set on up for your specific niche.
  4. Google. Search on the type of writing job you want
  5. Writing Forums. There are internet forums dedicated to writers and these often have job listings in them.

Writers: Use The Web To Your Advantage!

If you want to become a writing wahm or just a freelance writer, the internet provides a wealth of opportunities for finding writing jobs. You can research how much a freelance writer gets paid, look at other writer’s sample resumes, set up your own writing website, and more.

Beyond the resources listed here, why not consider creating your own website to show your talents? Bring writing clients to you!

I’m a freelance writer, editor, and consultant and I support my family with my online income. I won’t say it’s easy but it’s very doable if you are motivated!

Get Started In Freelance Writing

How do you get started as a freelance writer?

Freelance writers can make a great deal of money working at home. There are male and female writers and there are professional technical and copywriters that are single, are Moms, are stay at home Dads and also Grandparents.

I know single mothers that went from poverty to owning their own homes and having successful businesses. Some writers get their start and quit their day job and others get started when they are unemployed thinking it’ll get them through lean times. Many of those writers never go back to a traditional job because of how lucrative and rewarding writing for yourself can be.

Whether you want to work at it part time or full time, freelance writing is a great gig to get into. The Internet has opened up a world of writing opportunities and you can write about just about any subject you’re interested in and get paid for it. If you’re willing to write about boring or very speciality subjects as well, you can get paid even MORE.

How do you get started?

Here are tips to get you going. It’s not an easy job but there are a lot of opportunities available and while it takes time to get started, you can be earning a full time wage within a few months if you’re motivated and talented.

Get some samples together

You’ll need to get samples together to show prospective employers. There are two great ways to do this:

  1. Open a blog at blogger.com and make a blog about a subject you can write well on. Write lots of articles in that subject and promote your blog.
  2. Submit article to free directories. These can help you promote your name online so people who are thinking of hiring you can find you. Sites like this include: http://www.ezinearticles.com, http://www.articlealley.com, http://www.articledashboard.com, http://www.ehow.com, http://www.helium.com and http://www.Squidoo.com.
  3. >

    While many of these sites accept articles for free, sites like ehow, helium and squidoo will help you make residual income while you’re looking for work and creating samples!

    Look for Jobs

    Now that you’ve got samples and perhaps a resume together, there are a lot of online classified sites that you can find jobs at. Some are specialised for writers (http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com) and some are more general (www.craigslist.com) but having writing gig categories.

    You can also join job bidding sites like http://www.elance.com and http://www.rentacoder.com. These sites allow you to create an online portfolio and apply to jobs. The beauty of sites like these is that you can be a bit more relaxed about being paid. If you want to be a freelance writer, you’ll need some serious scam radar because there are rip off artists and scammers and plagiarisers out there.

    There’s a lot more to it and you’ll want to learn about search engine optimisation, SEO writing, self promotion and develop niches to increase your income. If you’re interested and motivated, you can learn as you go while you’re earning.

    Concluding thoughts:

    Freelance writing is a very lucrative and rewarding work at home career! Find a mentor to follow. I have a freelance writer blog that offers mentoring and tips and there’s a writer mentoring site at http://www.inspiredauthor.com that provides writer chats and plenty of tips. The more you can learn, the faster you can get some great writing gigs!

    You can also read the 6 Figure Freelancer – A valuable resource providing detailed information about getting started in writing for the web.