AaronTurpen.com

In our last segment, we talked about starting out and networking as a writer.  This time, we’ll talk about finding work when your network is either non-existent or is not paying off for you right now.  There are other resources for finding work, of course.  Let’s look at those.

Local Work

Where you live may be a bonus to finding work.  Small, local newspapers and other publications are often looking for good material, especially from local writers.  In many areas, weekly or bi-weekly newspapers are willing to pay a few dollars to have you act as a freelancer, covering local events or submitting commentary.  Other annual publications, such as coupon books or local business directories are often looking for “filler” writers to produce material to fill in the margins, extra pages, and other space in their publication.

Often, just walking in the door with a few samples of what you’ve already written is enough to get you in front of the editor and into a trial position.  A local paper in this area, which publishes weekly, pays freelancers with gift cards to the local grocery store, for instance.  Another local coupon book printer pays $0.02/word for filler material, which is mostly commentary on local cuisine, unusual facts, and the like.

Online Job Directories

I actually got my start with online job search directories.  This is not uncommon in today’s market and is, in fact, a great way to create steady job sources.  Of course, these directories come with a price, but so do most business requirements.

Elance – I’ve been with this site almost since they first started.  Most of my current clients either met me on Elance or met me through someone that I met there.  My profile there is one of the oldest on the site.  While I rarely bid on projects any more, I maintain my profile there and do often find little jobs to fill in the gaps when needed.

Freelancer – This site is also very well-known amongst the online job sourcing sites.  While I haven’t used it much, I know many who have and have had good success and positive results.  It is a well-respected job sourcing site for freelancers and independents, though it appears to cater towards programmers and developers more than to writers.

VOIS – Relatively new to the game, this site is half social/business networking and half job-hunting.  I have completed a job or two there and am a freelance contractor with the owners of the site on other, unrelated projects.  Though small and less active than the others, VOIS has the potential to build longer-lasting relationships amongst professionals.

There are several other sites good for this kind of job sourcing too, though I have little experience with them.  The point is that there are many, many ways to find work in today’s connected age.

The days of writing, mailing to magazines for submission, rejection letters, and months between paychecks are nearly gone.  Most magazine editors, in fact, prefer email or even provide online submission forms for writers to send in their stories or ideas.

Finding work is a lot easier with the Internet, but that comes with a caveat: it doesn’t generally pay as well.  It used to be that an 800-word piece written for print would pay $150 or more.  Now?  Well, most print publications do pay that well, but online publications do not.  On the other hand, writing for blogs, well-known websites, and other places can build your name and eventually lead to print publication and more.

Regardless of your goals as a writer, be aware that there is a market and a place to find work for every style of writing and in every conceivable subject area.

You just have to go find it.

Disclosure Note: The links provided to the mentioned websites are not affiliate or other business-relation links.  This writer does have a business relationship with VOIS.com and its owners, but did not receive compensation for the mention or link in this article.  Material is the opinion of the writer.

Once you’ve committed yourself to becoming a freelance writer and have set up your business practices (a plan and your financial bookkeeping), you’ll need to find work so you can begin to generate an income.  Your primary source of new clients and jobs will depend on the type of writing you’re focused on and whether you’re brand new to the business or have already established some connections.

The Newcomer to Writing

I’ll start with the newcomer.  All of us started at this point sometime and most of us made a lot of mistakes as we stumbled through the process of building a writing career.  Just remember that as a writer, you have two assets: your name and your reputation.

The more well known you are in your chosen field of writing, the higher your rates can be and the easier it will be to find new work.  The better your reputation is, the more likely you are to find people seeking you out directly as opposed to having to find new work yourself.

The best advice I can give the new writer is to always remember that your name and reputation are paramount, so always proceed accordingly. Finish the job and do the best work you can every time, no matter what.  Whether the job pays $10,000, $100, or is being done gratis, do your best work.

Here is what you’ll learn as a new writer: this business requires a lot of work.  I mean a lot of it.  Expect to make $1-$5 an hour on average while you’re establishing yourself.  That could take a month or a year or several years, depending on your chosen genre and abilities.  Once you’ve begun to establish yourself, expect the hours to stay grueling, but the money to begin to increase.

There are several avenues for the beginning writer to find publication, but many of them will pay little or nothing at all.  These jobs will usually establish your name and reputation, however, and are a good way to build a portfolio.  To find these jobs, first set up your online profile.

Head to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other places on the Web and build your profile there.  Start your own blog, if you have a specific area of interest you’d like to write in.  For instance, to help establish myself as a writer on environmental and eco-technology subjects, I started a blog on Blogger.com (for free) and eventually built a website with its own domain and hosting as the blog became popular and I became more well-known.  You can view Aaron’s EnvironMental Corner to see what I’ve done, if you’d like.  Blogging puts you out there regularly and allows you to flex some creative muscles that you might not get to do with paid projects for other people.

To find places to get published and begin building your name, start with blogs, non-profit groups in your area of expertise, and your local newspaper.  There are thousands of publications out there that are struggling to get established or are on a very low budget who will be more than happy to use your writing if it doesn’t cost them much.  These usually “pay” by giving you a link-back in a small author’s bio.  To utilize that, make sure you have a website, a LinkedIn or Facebook profile, etc.  Twitter is best used to promote your writing once it’s published.

On of my early biographies to appear on articles I wrote for small publications looked like this:

Aaron Turpen is a freelance writer living in Wyoming, USA. He writes on several subjects including the environment, alternative-fuel vehicles, and politics. You can find him on his website at www.AaronTurpen.com.

Note that while the bio is simple, it contains enough information to tell people who I am and what I write about without appearing to be a sales pitch.  Shorter biographical blurbs are more likely to be used by editors than are long, wordy ones.

Once you’ve begun building a portfolio, you should begin looking for paying jobs.  We’ll get to that next.

The Established Writer

If you’ve already established connections in the writing/publishing business, you can probably leverage those towards more work.  Most of my work, for instance, is by referral and from repeat clients.  Even those of us who’ve been doing this long enough to have connections, however, will need to sometimes find new business.

As an established writer, you should have already done the things I’ve outlined in the above section for new writers.  If you don’t have any networking set up online, you should start right now.  It’s amazing how often otherwise unrelated links between one or another of your social networking profiles can end up panning out.

Not long ago, I was working for a guy in California and had a hole in my schedule to fill and make some extra money.  I mentioned this to the client, who put it on his Facebook Wall.  Someone in his network saw it and clicked over to my Facebook profile.  She sent me a private message and asked if I would be interested in writing a short series of articles on a particular subject.  I took the job.

Without social networking, I would never have linked up with this woman and gotten that job.  Since then, I’ve had people approach me through both Facebook and Twitter and, in fact, one of my steadiest sources of traffic to my personal and professional blogs is from Twitter.

Next week, we’ll look at how to find work when your network and connections aren’t paying off or if you’re new to the game and haven’t established a robust network of contacts and colleagues.

Note: Sorry for missing last week’s posting. We had to go to the hospital over that weekend.  We had our baby girl, Heidi, and I was unable to finish this for posting beforehand.

This week, I want to talk more about the business end of writing and, specifically, the importance of keeping track of your finances.  There are three reasons why this is of paramount importance:

1. It keeps you on-target with your income goals and shows you where you stand with your business and career;
2. It will be a lifesaver (and time saver) come tax time;
3. To prove to your spouse, parents, or anyone else who doubts you that you are, in fact, making a living.

Keeping On-Target

This aspect of the ledger is in my #1 spot there for a reason: if you don’t know where your finances are or how well you’re doing, you will have no idea whether you need to change something to get back on track.  Knowing that you’ve made $2,000 so far this month is great, but knowing that your expenses were $380 of that tells you that you made $1,620 so far.  That can be crucial.

All businesses, even freelance writing, involve expenses.  This website, for instance, incurs a monthly hosting fee.  That’s an expense.  Advertising, mileage to go to interviews, office supplies, and more are all expenses you can expect to incur.

Keeping track of those expenses monthly can also give you a good handle on what your expected monthly outlay is.  That gives you a budget target.  For instance, I know that my expected expenses every month are around $200, so I must make a minimum of $200 monthly just to break even with my business.  That doesn’t include time, which many professionals also include in their bookkeeping.

Taxes

I won’t quote Benjamin Franklin, as I’m sure you’re all well-aware of death and taxes.  Tax time (when you’re self-employed) is the worst time of year.  I don’t care who you are.  If you keep an accurate ledger and have a good filing system for receipts, however, tax time can be much easier on you.

Having a ledger means that you’ve already, over time, kept track of your business expenses, income sources, and so forth.  So at worst, all you’ll have to do is total things up and be done with it.  A good ledger book (or software) will make you do this as you go.

This can make the difference between your tax preparation taking a few hours or a few days.  Literally. Since you aren’t paid to do your taxes (if you’re self-employed, be ready to pay, not get paid), that’s money lost in unproductive work.  Whether you pay quarterly or annually, a good ledger means a lot of time saved.

Proof You Aren’t Unemployed

For many, especially when first starting out, this is one of the hardest things to deal with.  Many people will assume that, because you’re at home all the time “fooling around on the Internet,” you are living off your spouse, parents, or are on welfare.  This, of course, isn’t true, but many people have a hard time understanding the idea of not getting up every morning and commuting to somewhere else, punching a time clock and going to work.

In my experience, it’s usually the older generation who don’t grasp the idea of self-employment without a “store” or a “shop” to work from.  It’s also true of spouses, especially when money gets tight.  Being able to show someone how you’re doing can go a long way towards convincing them that what you’re doing is actually viable and even worthwhile.

This can take a lot of stress out of your personal life.