Searching for a Freelance Writing Opportunity

Since the time I decided to build back my freelance writing career, I have been on the active lookout for freelance writing jobs. There are many website that offer you such opportunities, however a lot of it depends on where you are based. Some of the interesting opportunities that I found were not available for Indian writers. However, there are many others which you can tap into. I have found that freelance writing opportunities can mostly be divided into three broad categories.
1. Writing opportunities available for bidding: These are the most typical form in which writing opportunities are available on the Internet. You register yourself on a website and then begin quoting your price for undertaking a writing assignment. Typically, the client will contact you if he likes your bid. He will interview you and others like you. Finally, you may land with the assignment if you and the client meet on common ground. The advantage of bidding sites is that you get to quote your price and may land up with some really long term assignments of your choice. However, I find that for a new writer trying to get a freelance job, this may turn out to be quite a frustrating experience. I find that the bidding marketplace is completely crowded. You might just end up bidding for assignments after assignments and keep getting rejected because of the sheer number of bidding that each writing opportunity receives. My experience bidding sites tells me that there are mostly writers from India and a few other developing countries who under cut bid. They quote figures which are abusively low, promising the heveans to clients. Only a few of them actually survive in the long haul. But with so many new aspiring freelance writers joining the ranks everyday the place is always crowded.
2. Writing opportunities directly advertised: One of the most popular site to find such opportunities is Craiglist. I have found that there are hundreds of other sites that offer job listing of freelance writing opportunities. But when I compare it to bidding sites I find that the effort and patience required to search is much more. When you visit a freelance job marketplace you know for such that the listings there are current. You find all the suitable jobs listing neatly and under each category. But when you are searching out for opportunities across on the Internet, it can prove to me a rather difficult task. In fact there are a few aggregation websites which try to assimilate all the freelance oppoortunities and list the together for you. But my experience with them has not been very happy. I find that many of the have outdated listings as the creator does not care to keep a track of the posting and continues to display it on the website even for years. However, I must agree that I have been lucky with some of these sites and have found that clients tend to reply much faster requesting for samples when compared to bidding sites. In this category, I will also include webmaster forums. I landed my first freelance writing assignment through a webmaster forum. In webmaster forums, chances are that you will find webmasters and site owners placing request for freelance content writers. I must agree that this place is equally crowded with mostly Indian writers trying to undercut and quote really low. One also needs to be careful to see if the opportunities are current or something outdated.
3. Article Publishing Sites: The world wide web is loaded with all types of article publishing sites many of them with different payment models. Some of them are very popular. The offer different payment models for writers. With most of them based in the US, I have found that they have a few very advantegous offers for US and European writers. If you are logging in from India, these offers may not be available. But still these sites are an option that you can definitely consider. Typically, these sites work on a revenue sharing model. There are other sites that sell your articles to content managers and webmasters. These sites allow you to quote a price for your articles. Once the article is sold they keep a certain percentage of the amount received.
Broadly speaking these are the three categories under which you will find that most freelance writing jobs are available. However, I must agree that it is indeed difficult to actually divide them into any proper schematic listing. Some may be overlapping in there offering. But it will definitely help in understanding these three broad categorisations.
What is it that I must do to launch my freelance writing career? What is the strategy I must adopt for breaking into freelance writing and get some good paying client? Where are the opportunities that I must tap? I will address these questions in another post.

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