Your Freelance Writing Journey

If you’re trying to make money as a freelance writer, there are many different ways to do it  – you can look for writing jobs on job boards, pick up article assignments on content mill sites, get work through content agencies, or bid for jobs on freelance websites. I’ll discuss each source of freelance writing job leads and give examples of some of the best websites in this post.

Job Boards

There are a lot of good job boards out there. Some of the pros of job boards are that there are a lot of different freelance writing job boards – some are free, and others require a subscription to access them. Even the unpaid job boards have a lot of jobs, though. One of the major cons of using job boards is that jobs can become outdated quickly – if you reply to a job, there’s a chance the person who posted it may have already found someone else for it. Even so, it's still a good way to reach potential clients. Some good freelance writer job boards include Problogger (free), Mediabistro (Free), and IAPWE’s job board (for paid members of the IAPWE).

Content Mills

If you want to start making some money as a freelancer right away and don’t mind ghostwriting, content mills can be a good way to make money. However, I don’t suggest using them for very long, because most of them pay very low rates.

Some content mills also allow you to work on special projects, or take orders directly from clients – for example, Crowd Content often posts managed projects you can apply to for a steady flow of work which will allow you to make more money. Textbroker has teams you can apply to work on, and they allow clients to place direct orders with writers, if the writer allows it.

Some of the better content mills I’ve written for include Copypress and Clearvoice; however Copypress only pays by mailed check, and Clearvoice has little work available. Another content mill I’ve written for off and on for years is Textbroker – they tend to have more work available, however, their rates are very low, and the work runs out quickly.

Content Agencies

Content agencies differ from content mills because they’re more selective about who they hire. Content agencies often advertise their jobs on sites like Indeed, and include companies like Word Agents. They’re great for people who need the incentive to write weekly because many require their writers to write a certain number of words per week. When I worked for Word Agents my word count goal was 5000 words per week.

Pros of writing for content agencies include that they can help you get into a regular writing routine since many of them require you to write a certain number of words per week. Cons include that many of them also pay low rates – when I worked for Word Agents, I only made 3 cents per word for most of the articles I wrote.

Freelance Websites

Freelance websites are the way to go if you want to work on various projects. These include websites like Upwork and Freelancer. People who need projects done post them on these websites, and potential freelancers bid on them. The person who posted the project can interview different freelancers and choose the freelancers they want to hire based on their previous work.

Pros of using freelance websites are the number of different projects available – you can work on articles, blogs, stories, and books. Cons of working for freelancing websites are that the website takes a part of your payment as a fee, you may not make a lot when you’re first getting started, unless you can create an impressive portfolio with samples from other sites, and you’ll often work with people who have little understanding of what it takes to write a good article, blog post or book chapter.

The Best Source of Freelance Writing Job Leads

The best source of freelance writing job leads is the one you will stick with consistently. So if you write for a content mill, find a good paying content mill that posts a lot of consistent work, and stick with it. If you want to build a freelance writing client base on a site like Upwork or Freelancer, stick with that website and work on building up your profile, so you continue getting leads, and eventually more clients.