Hiring Contractors as a Freelancer – How Other Freelancers Can Improve your Business

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

As a freelance writer, you may see yourself on one side of a very simple equation: You are the contractor, and it’s your job to do work for the client. While this is certainly true, it takes more than just one person to run a successful business venture, even if it’s freelance in nature. Sure, you may be a good writer, but what about web development? Design? Photoshop? Coding? Marketing? Social media? These are all areas of expertise that need to be tapped at some point to build a business that works, and no matter how talented you are, no one can do all of it alone. Continue reading →

Making the Essay Easier

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

With new people around them and a new environment, college students are hard pressed to find time to do essay editing during college days. Endless streams of assignments, essays, midterms and final exams make finding extra time to see friends and relax difficult. The Internet has many websites that offer essay writing services, but what students really need is editing services.

Continue reading →

Google Authorship and Author Rank for Writers

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

The SEO landscape is always in a state of flux, but we may be on the verge of an unusually radical algorithm change from Google with the implementation of Authorship and Author Rank. The focus is beginning to shift to who wrote a piece of content rather than where it’s posted and how optimized the keywords are. This is an important distinction, once the Authorship system is in full swing search results from Google will heavily favor sites with Authorship enabled and content written by experienced authors with authority in their industry. Continue reading →

Article Writing Service Open for Business!

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

I am proud to announce that the official Writers With Hats Article Writing Service is now open for business and taking content orders.

This is a big step for WWH as a business, but it also presents an exciting opportunity for publishers, writers, and anyone else who has a need for top-quality web content from professional American writers. We offer some very unique features with our writing services, including direct-to-WP posting and even guest posting. Continue reading →

How to Build a Freelance Writing Portfolio from Scratch

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

Freelance writing newcomers may find it difficult to find work at first because of their lack of experience, which reflects in their weak or nonexistent portfolio. Luckily, learning how to build a freelance writing portfolio isn’t very hard and doesn’t require an immense amount of time or effort considering the rewards. Continue reading →

How to Write a Query Letter For Magazines (and Newspapers)

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

Learning how to write a query letter is an essential step to take for any writer who wants to make a career out of their work, especially those who want to write for magazines and newspapers. Fiction writers can certainly make use of them as well when looking for agents and publishers or submitting to literary magazines, but this article will focus on pitching articles, news, and features to magazines and newspapers- we will cover fiction queries in a future post. Continue reading →

How to Write Newspaper Articles

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

Learning how to write newspaper articles is one of the most fundamental skills for any writer to have and it lays a foundation for many other formats and allows you to flex your journalistic muscles. Newspaper article writing is unique in that it’s harshly succinct, but learning how to write in this simple “just the facts, ma’am” style carries over wonderfully into other areas of writing and teaches you to write more clearly without bloating your prose- after all one of the golden rules of writing is getting rid of words that you can do without. Continue reading →

How to Find Clients as a Freelance Writer

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Kyle Stankiewicz

Whether they want to earn a decent living or just want to make money on the side, most freelance writers know that private clients are where the money is at. What we mean by ‘private’ is that these clients aren’t working with you through some system like Elance or Odesk, they are communicating with you directly and handling everything privately between you, which is much more professional and fosters long-term relationships. Private clients tend to pay more than most content mills, but they also tend to be harder to find. Fortunately, there are several ways you can make landing writing gigs a much easier process.

Build an Internet Presence

If you don’t have a professional website for your freelance writing already, creating one is a excellent way to score private clients. While making your website or blog, you should try to target a few keywords that will help it rank well.

Instead of sending your resume and samples as a file attached to an email, you can conveniently send all possible private clients to this website. Also, once your website starts to rank well in search engines, employers will start contacting you instead of the other way around. You can help your website rank well by utilizing back links and other search engine optimization tactics.

Check Out Job Boards

There are many job boards out there that are specifically for freelance writers. Once you weed out any illegitimate job offers, you will be left with an ample amount of advertisements to respond to. Of course, you’ll most likely be in competition with many other freelance writers, but if you follow the employer’s directions down to the letter, you’ll be ahead of most of the competition. If you check job boards often, you may find a very high-paying employer every once and a while.

Ask Past Private Clients

Most of the time, it is a good idea to stay in touch with past private clients in case they ever have a need for more work. If you have had previous private clients in the past, you should get back in touch with them and stay in touch, even if they currently have no work available for you.

Sometimes, previous private clients may have content that they need written, but they may have forgotten about you or they may have lost your contact information. You’d be surprised about how much work you can get by just asking previous employers who were pleased with your work.

Create Social Media Profiles

As social media websites increase in popularity, more and more freelance writers are finding gigs through these websites. As a freelance writer, you should create social media profiles that are strictly for professional matters. Ensure that you keep your private profile separate from your professional profile.

If you post helpful tips and make it well known that you provide writing services, private clients may eventually offer you work. Maintaining a social media profile typically requires little time investment, but it can potentially have bountiful results.

You can attain a reasonable amount of private clients by using only one of the methods listed above. However, if you utilize all the methods listed above for a long period of your time, you’ll eventually start getting more work than you can handle. When it comes to attaining private clients, patience and persistence is the key.

Book Review: Writer’s Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Kyle Stankiewicz

One of the biggest leaps in a writer’s career is the one into magazine article writing. It’s a field where jobs are always available and success is within reach for those with talent and dedication, but it takes a lot of industry knowledge to get your foot in the door.

The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing is an attempt at providing an all-in-one resource for beginners to familiarize themselves with how the magazine article business works. It was written and compiled by a large number of magazine and journalism experts, which is good because having multiple perspectives into such a complex marketplace can help readers get a deeper understanding of it.

I would recommend doing some basic reading on the subject and developing your skills gradually through freelance writing before trying to make use of this book, because it makes certain assumptions about your skill level and may confuse someone who is completely new to writing articles in general. It’s a fantastic resource and can put you on the right track, but it won’t make a resume for you and when it comes down to it, experience is what matters- you need to take action, not just read books.

The book isn’t very heavy on jargon and when it introduces new terms and concepts, it almost always makes it clear and understandable for beginners. This is great for the business and marketing oriented chapters of the book because it’s best to have everything clearly laid out and bluntly stated, but the sections on fundamental article writing skills are too skimpy to be considered an all-in-one resource. You’ll need to do some side reading on journalism and familiarize yourself with concepts like the inverted pyramid- and of course, practice practice practice.

I consider the Handbook of Magazine Article Writing a must-read for people who aren’t familiar with querying, selling reprints/rewrites, finding markets, and common rights issues. However, if you still need help with the fundamental/non-business stuff like writing technique, researching, and interviewing, you’ll need to hone your skills and do some learning on your own before you’re ready to actually use the information in this book. One thing is for certain- if you plan on writing for magazines in the future, picking up this book will make it much easier for you.

[easyreview title="Handbook of Magazine Article Writing" cat1title="Summary:" cat1detail="A suitable introduction for beginners, but further reading and experience is required to have a real grasp on the subject." cat1rating="4"]

The Most Popular Freelance Networks for Writers

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Kyle Stankiewicz

One of the easiest ways to find clients as a freelance writer, especially for beginners, is to join one of the most popular freelance networks. These sites are essentially platforms that allow clients to post jobs in a variety of different areas (we will be focusing on writing, of course) and freelancers can apply to the ones they are interested in doing. Some networks and platforms are more competitive than others, some are more suited for beginners and others for experts, you need to find your sweet spot in terms of price point and competition in comparison to your credentials.

Generally, you won’t get paid as much for your writing if you work through a freelance writing network as opposed to finding clients on your own, but the process is much more streamlined and the time you save searching for work may be worth it. Working on these sites is great for beginners because it helps them build their reputation, skills, and portfolio while making money.

Here are some of the most popular freelance writing networks that I’ve used in the past and my recommendations on who they are fit for.

Elance

Their commission: 6.75 % – 8.75 % of the job price.

Elance.com is one of my go-to freelancing sites, it’s very popular with a ton of active clients constantly posting new writing jobs so there’s never really a shortage of work. My advice is to build up your profile and portfolio areas before you start putting in applications for jobs, clients will expect to see samples of your work. Posting a link to your own site with client testimonials would be a big plus as well and give you an edge over the competition.

Prices at Elance are better than most other freelance marketplaces, it depends on what the client is looking for. There are certainly a good amount of them who want some cheap outsourced help ($.01/word Filipino writers flock to those jobs) that would be a waste of time for you to get involved in, I wouldn’t write at Elance for less than $.02/word, and that’s for the most basic of article writing jobs. The amount of cheap outsourced work is relatively low compared to other freelance sites.

The downside to Elance is the limitations they put on contractors who don’t want to pay any fees, as a free member you’ll only receive 10 ‘connects’ per month. You expend one connect every time you apply for a job, so only put in applications for realistic opportunities that you have a good chance to get. When I was an active member I got by just fine on 10 connects per month, don’t waste them on ‘featured’ job applications- most job posters will read through each and every one, your portfolio in comparison to others will be the deciding factor, not a green border around your application.

All in all, Elance is a great place to get your freelance writing career off the ground if you can put together a good portfolio.

Odesk

Their commission: %10

Odesk.com is quite similar to Elance in terms of framework, but there are a few notable differences in the communities that make them unique.

The biggest difference is that Odesk seems to have a much more prolific cheap outsourcing job community instead of a high-paying freelance writing scene, so don’t expect very impressive payment as a contractor. However, if you specialize in a certain format (ebooks, journalism, copywriting, etc.) then you can still find a good amount of well-paying jobs. For beginners who don’t mind working the $.01/word to $.02/word range for standard web articles, Odesk is a great way to make some cash.

The good thing about Odesk is that you can apply to as many jobs as you want, no monthly limit or fees like Elance. However, their cut of the dough is a bit larger at %10.

Now, these two sites hardly even scratch the surface, but these are the two that most of us are familiar with. Other notable networks for writers include Guru, Freelancer, and TextBroker. I’ll cover some of these other ones (as well as more advanced options like Demand Media and using Craigslist to find writing work) in the future.

What are your recommendations for freelance writing networks and websites?

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