Anybody has experience with feelancing writing jobs and can offer specific advice about how to get them?

Question

Hi first when I clicked on this exchange I assumed it was for writing (science, fiction, pamphlets, whatever), but realized it's mostly computer related. So I like to hear if people have had success in other areas as well, specifically writing, and can provide me some practical help. If this is the wrong forum, please let me know where I can post it, thanks.

Edit: to add more info, I have tried various online magazines (e.g. New Yorker), based on info I found online about places that pay for articles/stories/poetry but I have had no luck. Some places also ask that you do not make simultaneous submissions so basically I have to wait 6 months or longer before I can submit again to another place so this really ties up my hands. Because I have a college degree, I do like to do research online and write an article about that, like for instance on psychology or health related issues. I also have an interest in writing poetry and fiction but that's a hobby of mine and I have no college degree in those areas. I just like to be able to make some money each month, anything upwards of 500 dollars as right now I'm in a tough situation (because of an illness) and can't be working outside home.

I really appreciate your help. :)

Answer 1

I did some content writing a few years ago and have hired many content creators. I didn't make big money or write in important magazines. It was about Joomla mainly, but these are my recommendations:

1. Keep it simple and focused. Being an expert is very good and you will focus all of your time in one thing.
2. Remove all other stuff from your profile. Once I received a CV half page long. Very honest, lack of extensive experience or excellent work, but focused on what I was looking for. Hired.
3. Write as a guest blogger. You will have examples and recommendations.

You don't need much more. Don't start a blog (in my opinion) yet, just focus.

Answer 2

In short:

• Make profile on freelancing sites such as UpWork, Freelancer, Fiverr etc... and be active in applying for jobs and improving your profile (this can take months)
• Make online portfolio with links to your previous work and recommendations of previous clients (letters with links to their LinkedIn profile or even better link to YouTube video in which your clients recommend you)
• Write a blog and promote it any way you can all the time
• Comment on other people's blogs
• Comment on copy writing and content writing forums and portals (don't forget to include link to your blog, especially to service page)
• Ask previous clients to recommend you
• If you don't have any experience then ask influential writers, blogers and similar to give you some gig you can do for them for free

Answer 3

I have worked a couple of years in a translations and copywriting studio as a programmer, but I saw there that writers were hired after personal (or skype) meetings and after test jobs.

They usually received a lot of CV and contacts with examples references like blogs, articles, etc, but they mostly ignored that because (guess what) parts of the blogs and articles were copy/paste from others! Yes, incredible but if you would copy a sentence from their blogs and search in Google, you could find other blogs with the same articles, so who wrote what? You can't deduce that from the CV

There is an overload of online blogs, in the company they used to give more value to referral letters and undisputably recognizable phisical or online publishings, for a first contact, then they used to have a face to face talk and then a first testing job.