Evergreen Times

A lot of people envy my life as a freelance writer. I think most of them don’t realize just how hard I work, but I’m definitely not complaining. After all, I can sit on my porch with my cat all day, tickling my keyboard and turning words into money. See that featured image? It’s the dawn view from my “office.” There are times when the pressure is on, but in general, it’s pretty low-stress. It certainly beats my old job as a manager with up to 100 people reporting to me – and I earn more money.

Right now, a I’m looking for work again. One of my biggest clients has left me for a whole week without work. There was no warning, so I was a bit annoyed, but it’s always better to spread your risk by having multiple clients, and my customer base was getting a little lean.

So, since I’m back to hunting for work, I thought it would be a good opportunity to write a post about finding work as a freelancer. Here’s how I go about it.

1. Referrals Rock

Mentioning referrals is a bit of a cheat, since they come to me rather than the other way round. Still, it’s my top way of getting new clients. When you do good work for customers, they’re happy to tell their friends about you. So here’s the good news and the bad news. The bad news is that finding customers isn’t easy. The good news is that once you find one, there’s a good chance of getting those referrals.

2. Pitching Directly Sucks, But…

Pitching directly takes a bit of guts, and you’re definitely not going to win them all. Some people don’t even respond, and that’s fine too. After all, it’s an unsolicited sales pitch. For direct pitches, I usually look around for marketing agencies that look like they may be pretty busy. I keep my mail brief and to the point and I don’t blow my own trumpet too much.

Sure, I think I’m a good writer, but that’s subjective. If they hire me, I leave them to be the judges of my work. I simply tell them that I have over a decade of experience, and ask them if they’d be interested in using my services. I don’t expect a high conversion rate, but if I get lucky, it can turn into a very good working relationship.

3. Curated Lists and Jobs Boards

I haven’t used curated lists for a long time, but they’re worth a mention. Some people make their money by searching for jobs ads and mailing them out in return for a small subscription fee. You can be sure that the people posting these ads are getting a lot of applicants, so your chances of getting a callback are pretty low. However, you don’t have a chance of being considered if you don’t apply, so if an ad looks promising, just follow through and see what happens.

I really like ProBlogger. They don’t get a lot of jobs ads, but the concept is very good. As a writer, you don’t pay for your subscription, and you don’t pay any commission. Instead, the company searching for writers pays to post their ad. I haven’t had any luck there yet, but I like the way they work and I drop by from time to time to see what they’ve got.

4. Freelancing Platforms

I have a love-hate relationship with freelancing platforms. I’ve used most of them and my perseverance there helped me to get my business started. But that was more than a decade ago and they seem to be worse than ever. The nasty thing about them is that the freelancer pays subscriptions and fees. Free plans are usually very limited and don’t let you do a heck of a lot. Then, when you get a job, you’re paying up to 20 percent commission.

The quality of most of the jobs on freelancing platforms is questionable. There’s plenty of “Write 1000 word articles for $1.50.” Yeah right. I leave them to get what they’re paying for, and judging by the quality of the bid proposals, they probably will. There are tons of freelancers using premium plans and auto-responders, and I can tell you now that they rarely do the work themselves. Instead, they contract out, so the poor sap that ultimately does the work gets less than half of what the clients pay.

My final beef is the auto-responder guys. Their proposal letters are absolutely awful. Put yourself in a prospective client’s shoes. They post an ad, and within one minute, they’re inundated with meaningless bids from “five star” freelancers. Sounds good until you look at the project proposals. They’re riddled with jargon, heavy on the self-praise, and equally heavy on the grammatical errors. Somewhere in all that is my carefully crafted application that specifically addresses their project and how I would suggest getting it completed. But by the time I hit “apply,” the prospective client has already given up in sheer horror.

To tell you the truth, I’ve given up too. I certainly won’t pay membership, and I don’t have all day to watch the feed and try to slip in my bid before the prospect walks off in disgust.

The Sad Truth: These Days, You Need a Resume

It’s been ages since I updated my resume. As a freelancer, I thought I’d never need one again. I do. I used to have more customers than I could handle, but I went through a year in which family responsibilities made it impossible for me to work. I handed over my entire client base to a friend. She’s a good writer, but she ditched them all, and they’ve moved on by now.

I managed to get back in with three former clients, and they’ve been good to me, but I really need to spread risk. If one company doesn’t have work for me this week, it shouldn’t be a problem, but because I have only three clients, it is!

At first, I headed back to the good old bad old platforms, but they’re so bad these days that the chances of Ianding a good project there are pretty slim. So I’m back to cold pitching and “proper” jobs ads. For that, I need a resume and a portfolio. So that’s what I’m busy with this week.

Do You Have Any Tips?

That’s my two cents on finding work as a freelance writer. Are you a freelancer? What’s your best strategy for finding new clients? I’d love to hear from you! Would you like to read more of my articles about freelancing? Follow the link and enjoy!