Almost three years ago, I published a list of some of the most lucrative writing markets I had found. At the time I listed the following places which had proven useful for me as a writer:
Exquisite Writing — an international copywriting agency
Blogitive — a blog advertising company
Lifetips — a site with mini sites about thousands of topics
Freelance Writing Gigs — a site which provided great job leads
My Client List
Three years on, the picture looks very different. My client list looks like this:
two online monthly trade magazines for which I source news and write feature articles, going back to my roots as a journalist
a travel blog where I post twice weekly for an offsite airport parking firm
a tech blog, where I post roughly ten times a month
a review blog, where I post batches of reviews of of new websites at intervals
a business consultant, for whom I write article marketing articles
a musical entertainment provider, for whom I write environmental articles for his local website and occasional travel articles on the destinations where he operates
a management consultant, for whom I write website materials as well as helping with other projects
two copywriting agencies
an education firm, for whom I do proofreading
a European bimonthly magazine which deals with development issues, for whom I do proofreading
I also do occasional guest blogs on topics such as parenting and finance, among others.
Great Places To Find Jobs
The places where I look for work include:
I also get a lot of work from referrals.
Places which have not provided much include Elance, Guru, Odesk — and let’s not even talk about GetAFreelancer. However, I would still recommend that new writers give Exquisite Writing a try.
Why This Matters
There are three points to make with this list. First, that having a varied client list will help insure you against ruin if one client disappears. (I have a couple of big clients in there and admittedly it would hurt if I lost their business, but I’d still have something to keep me going while I looked for a replacement).
Second, that you probably have a wide range of abilities — the more of them you use the more varied and interesting your writing career will be. At the moment, my current client list represents a good balance.
Third, that persistence is one of the keys to freelancing success. When I started freelancing, I took certain jobs just for the experience — the pay wasn’t worth writing home about — so I could build my skill level. That paid off by bringing me better paid opportunities and referrals from satisfied clients. Wherever you are starting from, you can do this too.
