With over 12 years of professional experience in freelance writing jobs,
with three of those years spent figuring out how to own and operate my own
small copywriting business, I have plenty of folks ask me how I do what I do.
When I meet
new people, and they ask what my occupation is, the easy answer to give is
“writer” or “copywriter,” though the sum of my work emcompasses so much more
than simply writing a few paragraphs, having my coffee, petting my cat, and
calling it a day (or whatever non-writers think writers do)!
That said,
writing does make up at least half my income in a good
month, and my years spent clacking away at keyboards, word processors, and even
typewriters have enabled me to grow my own little business into what
accountants term as “viable.”
Starting your
own writing business isn’t easy – in fact, it can be a bit intimidating,
especially if you’re a newbie freelance writer.
Selecting your
business formation, whether or not you’ll have partners, figuring out if you
need to rent office space and/or seek out childcare, all so you can have your
ducks in a row, can be an arduous process.
Combine those
details with the added stress of being a newbie writer, and you have a recipe
for anxiety!
Don’t worry –
actually finding freelance writing jobs for beginners to get a portfolio going
is the easy part! What will be
difficult is figuring out how to start turning down clients when you really get
those writing muscles strong.
To help you
get started as a new freelance writer, we’ve compiled a list of websites and
publications that offer freelance writing jobs for beginners, and will help you
on your way to the top of the writing heap. Read on, wordsmiths.
Freelance Writing Jobs For
Beginners – 10 Resources
1 – Upwork
Upwork is
probably one of the most well-known, if not the most
well-known freelancing website. With jobs for writers, designers, developers,
and more, Upwork is a freelancer’s go-to.
I honestly
can’t remember the last time I got a job through Upwork, as I primarily work
through word-of-mouth, SEO, and my own business
development. But Upwork
takes care of a lot of that work for you.
You sign up
for a profile, set up your portfolio/links, and then you can start applying for
job postings and/or employers can seek you out for an interview.
2 – Writer’s Domain
Writer’s
Domain lays out all its steps on the website homepage: Register. Submit a
writing sample. Get paid. Seems pretty easy.
Unfortunately,
when I tried to register, the website said it wasn’t accepting English/North
America writers, and that I would have to be put on a waitlist. The French and
Spanish writer waitlists were also closed, but all other applications were
open, including for Australian and U.K. English writers.
That said, if
you live in America but are familiar with writing for Australian clients or
United Kingdom customers, then go ahead and apply! It certainly can’t hurt.
3 – Textbroker
On Textbroker,
you sign up as an author to start earning income.
Signing up
took me less than one minute, and I like that they included “sole
proprietorship” as an option when selecting whether you were an individual or
business – so many of these websites make you choose without allowing you the
options to define your
writing business.
After signing
up, you do have to submit a writing sample to “set your quality rating.”
Unfortunately, you have to submit a writing sample and be approved in that
sense before you’re allowed to view the available jobs.
The good news
is, there seems to be a fair amount of work to go around, especially if you
have multiple specialties or writing niches. I selected quite a few niches,
going off of what I had written on in the past, and that seemed to pay off.
Overall, this
looks like a great option for entry-level freelance writing jobs.
4 – Remote.Co
Remote.Co is
basically a job search website like Indeed, LinkedIn, or FlexJobs, but it specializes
in remote and freelance work.
Keep in mind
that sometimes, even scams get through to these perfectly reputable websites;
for example, I just saw a wordy job posting for a company who wanted writers
who have “never been paid to write” – my first thought was, “Hm, I bet their
rates are extremely low!” and guess what? They were.
Be vigilant,
and make sure you’re getting paid what you’re worth! Even if you’ve never been
paid to write before, the fact that you’re even reading this article means that you have some skills,
and you deserve to be paid for your time!
Go here to check out
Remote.Co for yourself.
5 – Working Nomads
This is one I
hadn’t heard about until I started doing research for this article, but I’m glad I found it!
Working Nomads
is a well-laid-out website that provides job listings for writers that I
haven’t seen previously – and believe me, I scour job boards daily, because, as we all know, the hustle is real.
This may be my own new go-to job board!
Go here to check out
Working Nomads.
6 – Freelancer
Freelancer has
a variety of jobs that pay a plethora of amounts – anywhere from $10 – $750 or
more. In order to “win” a project, you have to bid on it, which requires you to
take Freelancer’s certification tests (like English language tests, writing
tests, etc.), and credits to bid with.
You have to
pay for exams, which cost around $5/exam. You can also sponsor your bid so that
the employer sees it first for $4.99. Freelancer also shows off your project
completion rate on your profile.
Go here to check out Freelancer.
7 – Guru
For the
“Basic” (i.e., free) plan on Guru, you get 120 bids per year with a job “fee”
of 8.95%, meaning that Guru takes almost 10% of the total job cost.
This is very
important information to keep in mind when bidding on jobs and/or setting your
rates on this platform! I would take my normal rate and simply add 8.95% or
more, considering you don’t get many bids per year on the free plan.
Go here to check out
Guru.
8 – iFreelance
Hot tip: there
are more writing opportunities available in the “Subcategories” section of
iFreelance.
Maybe it’s a
slow month, but when I checked out the freelancers’ haven, I didn’t see very
many opportunities other than in the translation category. But that’s great
news, if you’re a writer and a
translator!
Go here to check out iFreelance.
9 – BloggingPro
BloggingPro
looks like the child of Indeed and Working Nomads. There seem to be new gigs I
haven’t seen anywhere else, and I know that in many writers’ forums I belong
to, this is one of the go-to freelance writing job boards.
I like
following what other writers do and learn from the best, and I’ve always had
good experiences with Blogging Pro!
Go here to check out
BloggingPro.
10 – Freelance Writing Gigs
I’ve used the
Freelance Writing Gigs website for years to
find remote freelance writing jobs and have gotten some solid clients off of it
– meaning, these clients pay on-time and I still write
for many of them!
That’s not to
say that you won’t find
some bad apples on any of these websites – be sure to thoroughly vet your
clients before signing on to do work with them, no matter how much money they
offer, or how much you need the portfolio boost. It’s not worth it to sign on
with a bad client, do a ton of work, and not get paid!
That said,
Freelance Writing Gigs is one of my favorite websites.
They post new
gigs on Mondays and Tuesdays, so be sure to check in early on those days – pretty much any freelance
writer knows about Freelance Writing Gigs, so they’re going to be on that
website early at the start of the week; basically, I’m saying that you’ve got
competition, and it’s all about getting your inquiry emails out early!
If you go to
the homepage, click on the link that says, “Freelance Writing Jobs,” with the
most recent date. If a listing is older than a week, the job poster likely
found a writer.
Go here to check out the
Freelance Writing Gigs website.
Other Options For Freelance
Writing Jobs From Home
For those of you
with a true entrepreneurial spirit, you can certainly go find your own clients!
I like to use LinkedIn to do cold outreach and connect with folks
who are decision-makers at their companies.
I also use Indeed and even Craigslist to find writing gigs. I focus my efforts
on cities that have “remote ok” (or some similar language) in the listing, so I
know that working from home isn’t an issue, and I also tend to look at cities
with a higher cost of living.
Many of my
clients are on the West Coast, so are used to paying higher prices (i.e.,
they’re generally not going to balk at my rates, because they understand my
value!).
To be
completely honest, the most success I’ve found is when I’ve just reached out to
folks to see what their needs are – AngelList is another great resource, and one that
often posts
jobs.
AngelList is a
website that lists new businesses and startups that fit into that keyword I
mentioned earlier: viable.
This is key.
These are
businesses that have seed funding (typically over $1M) and often, even more
than that; I like using AngelList, because to put it bluntly, I know that the businesses listed have the funds
to pay my rates.
Additionally,
I always keep myself open to negotiation when it comes to rates. Many writers
think that going below your standard rate means that you’re undercutting your
value (and others’) in the industry.
I can see
these writers’ points, however I
need to feed my family! Writing for a lesser rate typically doesn’t bother me,
especially if it’s an interesting project or a good client.
“Good” clients
can be hard to come by, and I’d rather work for slightly less for a client who never pays me late versus getting promised my
highest rate and wait for months to be paid.
As a new
writer and potential business owner,
you’ll need to decide what works best for you, whether it’s simply signing up
for one of the above websites offering freelance writing jobs for beginners and
waiting for the clients to roll in, or whether you want to go out after clients
yourself – for the record, I recommend the latter.
Happy writing
and business-owning!
Post originally
published on October 23, 2018. Updated and republished on May 15, 2019.
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