You don't have to prowl the job boards to land a new writing job. There are many job opportunities for good content writers and they aren't advertised anywhere. It may take you longer to find these opportunities, but when you spot one, chances are you don't have any competition.
So how do you spot these potential writing gigs? Easy: You keep your eyes and ears open.
Read fliers and adverts of local small businesses, identify the ones that might improve their marketing efforts by using a skilled copywriter and contact them with a proposal. You'll have to be diplomatic in your proposal: Don't tell them that their current copy is bad - show them how you can improve it.
As part of your online job hunt, read forums for small businesses. Many small business owners don't know anything about writing web content. Get active your favourite forum and offer basic writing advice. Questions about search engine optimisation are frequently discussed and many budding entrepreneurs ask for help with SEO. Contact them and explain how you can help with relevant, keyword-rich copy.
Do you live in an area with independent shops? Then talk to the owners when you shop there, find out if they might be interested in your services. Leaving your business card can't hurt.
As a freelance writer, you need to be resourceful and proactive. If you notice what's happening around you, you will identify many potential writing jobs nobody ever puts on the job sites.
Have you ever landed a writing gig by using a any of these methods? Do you have other tactics for sourcing writing gigs? Let the Freelance Tips readers know in the comments.
Now NaBloPoMo is over (for me at least), I'll not write a new blog post every day. This is the preliminary posting schedule:
There will be new blog posts on Wednesdays and Fridays and if I'm not too busy with other stuff, there will be a Sunday post, too. I'll try and come up with a different theme for the Wednesday and Friday posts - more on that on Wednesday, hopefully.
Comment by Sonya 1
on Ouch!
Freelance Tips
Writing Words
It's the sensible option to take it easy until you get a new brace. Who knows what kind of damage you would do to your wrist if you kept typing despite the pain? Hope you don't have to wait too long for the brace.
Oh and by the way, Orble was down (at least my blogs were) for most of Saturday, so you didn't miss much by taking the weekend off.
Sonya