How do I acquire a writer job?
Why do many writers have problems attracting jobs?
The response is that they have failed to design a method that works for them.
If you wish to write in a full time capacity or just simply view writing as a secondary career, the most important thing to do is to formulate a method.
You must have a structure to work from as it will assist you to get jobs far more easily. Michael Gerber states in ‘The E Myth Revisited’ that, if you wish to be a success in any business, you require a model to ensure your business actually works. Thus, if you teach yourself how to work the system as shown below, it will turn into the base for your writer job successive.
Study the writer jobs market
Deborah Ng offers a useful evaluation of a number of writing jobs in her web article ’30 Types of Freelancing Jobs and How to Get Them’. Also, Yuwanda Black has published an informative handbook, the ‘2008-2009 Freelance Writing Jobs Report’. This gives an outline of the different sorts of jobs that writers may take advantage of in the present economic climate. Ensure you completely understand the broad spectrum of writing job openings that are available before you select one that suits you.
Take aim at your market
Limit your areas by highlighting a target market. Choose a number of specialist areas which fall in your general market group. By selecting only a small number of areas within your specialism, you are more likely to increase your job openings.
Why would you be a specialist writer? Becoming a specialist assists in defining who you are. It gives you status as it shows you have knowledge in that field. Your clients will find it significantly easier to spend money on a person who they see as an expert.
On the contrary, they might find it hard to validate making a payment for the service of writers who takes on one specific angle.
Publicise yourself
Many writers just simply pay to have a website composed for them, but you can also locate free web pages such as Webs.com. You can utilise your website as a method to enhance your visibility and advertise your specific saleable skills as a writer.
Include your personal profile, some clips and your own biography.
Put a picture on to your website to add some personality. This allows your clients to experience a feeling that they have really met you. They are then, more often than not, likely to conduct business with you. If you are new to the writing field you may put together a writing portfolio simply by:
- Sending content to be placed in article directories
- Writing evaluations for buyer sites like Epinions and Dooyoo
- Offering good quality information by constructing a blog using either Blogger or Word Press
- Placing an article of interest in your town’s regular newsletter
- Writing evaluations of events, people etc. in your local paper
Getting testimonials
Pay a visit to appropriate discussion boards and try and first sell your service for no cost, offering this to a few interested customers. Instead of a payment, each of the customers could write out a testimonial for you. If you manage to get three testimonials this will likely guarantee you more writer jobs. The reason being that they can actually confirm who you are and state that you have good skills in writing.
Finding potential customers
When you have made a decision which writing services you intend to offer, you then must decide who your prospective customers are. If they are to be individuals, you will have to work out where you are likely to find them. To find likely sites, insert your topic keywords into your chosen search engine, followed by the words “discussion forums”. It might also be of use to sign up for some internet forums as listed below:
- MSN Groups (http://groups.msn.com)
- Yahoo! Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com)
- Google Groups (http://groups.google.com)
Offer a contribution to these discussion forums. This will give you the opportunity to display your skills as a writer, at the same time moving traffic towards your website. Most people also put advertisements on job sign boards such as Craigslist and Elance. Monika Mundell offers a useful evaluation of different job boards on her blog, the ‘Thirteen Great Freelance Writing Job Webpages’.
How to aim at companies
If you are staking out companies, you must go directly to them. Send them introductory packages to sell your writing service. Make up each application package individually, and send written examples of items that are most likely to suit what the company is on the look out for.
Don’t forget to add a cover letter and a resume.
The way to post your resume on internet job boards
When you go out to post your resume on any job board, it is of particular importance to supply information in a simple and straightforward manner. Your profile is far more likely to be accessed by possible customers.
Jack Nielson states that:
“Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than reading from paper.”
Thus web browsers will just skim through text selecting out keywords and specific sentences. Lisa Nicols adds an example of an appropriate resume in her content article ‘Freelance Writing Resume Tips’.
If you have an interest in undertaking freelance writing tasks in your own home and wish to earn good pay rates with hours you choose that suit you, apply now for one of our available writer jobs.