Guest post

Numerous people have their free time on Saturday and Sunday. Some of them are comfortable with their earnings but others are not. Anyone who would like to make extra money every week can find weekend jobs. These are mainly part time jobs that do not use all your day. By doing these jobs you can make extra money to pay for extra expenses in the house. In most civilized countries such as Australia, weekend jobs are available not only for students but anyone who is interested in being hired casually can find a job.

Seven Popular Weekend Jobs You Can Do

Become a Tutor

Students usually have a lot of assignments in the weekend and most of them do not have anyone to consult. Parents use the weekend to look for extra work, to take a short-term vacation alone or to sleep and rest. They barely have enough time to help their children with their homework. You can look for parents who want to pay tutoring fee for their kids during the weekends. There may also be tutoring opportunities via registered learning facilities in your area.

Become a Salesperson

Many people spend their money on shopping during the weekends. The shopping malls and retail centres are usually very busy and this forces them to look for extra labourforce. If you are good at sales and marketing you can really appreciate working at a busy shopping centre on Saturday and Sunday.

General House Cleaning and Baby Sitting

Employed people hardly have time to do thorough housekeeping during the weekdays. If you do not mind getting yourself dirty with house work during the weekends you can make a lot of money this way. Besides, several white collar workers hate this kind of work and can pay you handsomely to get it done. Most mothers want to have time for themselves during the weekends and may need someone to babysit their kids while they relax.

Work Online

In order to make sure that you have an online job to do over the weekend you should start to search for it throughout the week. There are many simple jobs that you can do for a few hours such as article writing, data entry, article submission work, writing and posting on blogs, reviewing products and writing product descriptions, clicking ads, playing games for money and so on.

Work in the Food Industry

Most people eat out on Saturday and Sunday especially in the places where they go for leisure. So the food service businesses and hotels are usually very full of activity. They often look for extra bartenders, waiters, waitresses, banquet servers and other related workers.

Instruct Projects

Do you have special skills that most people would be interested in learning? Perhaps you are good at barbequing, cake baking and decorations, hand sewing and embroidery, sculpturing, drawing, yoga or any other special skill. If you do, look for a recreation facility that can allow you to display your work and instruct other people.

Tourist Guide

Do you love your country as well as travelling a lot?  In the weekends you can become a tourist guide. Some travel agencies may need extra tour guides toward the end of the week or during the public holidays. In addition, local tourist attraction sites like wildlife parks and museums hire people who can lend a hand regularly.

Thomas runs Part Time Jobs Australia, a website helping students and teenages find weekend work and part time jobs.

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Guest post

For many creative people, we are either insecure how people perceive us, or unhappy that everyone else in the world cannot see things the way we do. The latter seems to happen after spending too long battling it out trying to survive as a creative entrepreneur, not knowing where and if there is a demand for our business of creativity.

I’m going to shed a bit of therapeutic light on an approach to projecting for your future, If you take these steps as milestones you have a good chance of succeeding.

Rule 1  - Positive Therapy to Remember – Creative entrepreneurs are an engine for the economy.
You are valuable – even though what you can give seems intangeable at the moment. A germ of an idea can blossom into a business and grow into profitable commerce providing jobs out of value added service.

Rule 2 – Be Honest and Realistic -  Real talent is recognizable by others, are your friends really honest to you and do you listen?
You may be the best at singing you can be, determined to improve and keep trying, but please don’t deceive yourself. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your creativity, but deceiving yourself about a level of invested talent can cause so much pain. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to creativity.

Rule 3 – Research the Jobs Market - There are hundreds of different creative careers out there, research every sector from marketing to acting.

• Find out pay scales, find out job demand.
• For freelance work such as Acting, Modelling, Singing, dig into creative networks that support them and watch the ratios of those that get the work to those that pick up an odd job once in a while. Here the pay-scales are erratic and you won’t get much information. Instead focus on what percentile survive solely off of this income. This exercise is to get you thinking realistically about strategies for more than one income stream, and capitalizing on not putting all your creative eggs in one basket! It’s not difficult for a creative to figure it out, but very common for creatives to become blindly in love with the idea forfeighting all reality of the business of surviving.

Rule 4 – Find an Icon - I might actually be the first to say this! The idea is not that revolutionary. Find someone who’s position, career you admire. Yes this sounds a bit stalker like, but put in another perspective, you can hopscotch the learning curve here for researching your milestones to achieve for your aspired career. That film director may have started out in just the same position as you, but you can research their filmographies and follow chronologically how they started. Google interviews, look for resume’s what worked for them could be a blueprint for yourself in a similar pattern. In fact when I interviewed with a Studio Executive in Los Angeles at the UCLA Alumni Networking, I have to say my objectives for portfolio and self presentation became pretty clear.

Rule 5 – Set out Your Milestones - Now you’ve done the research for not only all the skills you need under your belt – but from other people’s careers, memberships, and networking, how you’ll need to manoeuvre yourself to become visible. It’s about self marketing, and you’ll have to plot it out like a project, and together with that project, you must determine the costs that go along with it. How will you earn those skills? will you volunteer, or get some schooling? Will the right school get you in the networks you need for your career targets, are there internships that hit two birds with one stone?

Rule 6 – Make yourself accountable - Time and money to achieve your milestones forms your budget, you should know now what it’s going to take to get there. Now you need a time management schedule to make yourself accountable to your milestones and foresee your realistic goals. Think of this as a cashflow, but instead of seeing money go through it, you are projecting the time it will take to aquire the skills and portfolio, and you will have to make adjustments for being able to earn a living along the way. It’s really important you understand however way you write it out, draw it out, diagram it or whatever. Put it on paper, without that you might as well be dreaming, as you are not committing to it.

Juliana has a successful career in Online Marketing for Los Angeles Film Production Services. She has experienced being an artist in business, and helps represent those in film including studio executives achieve their business goals. You can follow her on Twitter @JulianaReedLA

More on Creative Careers:

• The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People
• Creative Careers: Paths for Aspiring Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians and Writers
• Time Management for the Creative Person: Right-Brain Strategies for Stopping Procrastination, Getting Control of the Clock and Calendar, and Freeing Up Your Time and Your Life

 
Image: basketman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Guest post by Karen Carlat

The world economy is reeling under the recession. Jobs are not easy to find, and the unemployment figures are not encouraging at all. If then, you are out of a job, or trying to change the existing one for a better one, you would definitely have to take an interview. Take no chances whatsoever with your job interview; it may have drastic effects on your future. Preparing for a job interview is a serious affair. Give it the importance it merits and be ready to face the panel with confidence.

Going for an interview often is like a race for the “first among equals.” You may have the requisite qualifications and wherewithal for the job on hand, but someone else may get selected in the subjective interview process where, age, background, and the like are factors that are taboo for the interview panel to consider, and all things being equal between two candidates, the one who impresses better in the interview, walks away with the job. This is an approval based on a chain process, where you have to impress the two or three tires that constitute an interview panel. Some factors that could boost your career and change your lifestyle are enumerated below.

Be Confident

You cannot be seen as a bundle of anxiety and tension when you walk into an interview for a job. You must project the positive aspects of your energy, and do or say nothing that might expose uneasiness or anxiety during the process of the interview. Project your confidence and smartness to earn their trust that you are the best man for the job. A confident and reassuring candidate always scores high, no matter where he goes. Ensure to make eye contact with the interviewer with your first handshake with him and establish this nonverbal communication mode with him.

Proper Dressing is Paramount

Dress right and dress smart. Project your professionalism and intelligence and stay conservative. Remember the old proverb, “the first impression is the best impression,” and never lose your focus. Appropriate dressing for the interview is bound to get you marks.

Delve into the Organization Background

Expect the worst and steel yourself for the rivalry, and what better way to be ahead of the competition and show your pedigree, than reading up thoroughly about your prospective employer from all sources available to you including the social networks, blogs, forums and what have you.

Anticipate and Deliver-Questions of Course

Prepare well for the interview and concentrate on the potential questions that may come your way. This will give you an impressive advantage during question hour at the interview, when your rocket answers will not fail to impress the panel of interviewers.

Subject to a Mock Interview

Very few, really take the trouble of setting up a mock interview with to gain the advantage of a rehearsal before the interview itself. A friend could do this and drill you and prepare you better with plausible questions and answers, for your interview on that fateful day.

Consistently good interviews will leave no doubts in the mind of the recruiters that you are the best man for the job. Follow these 5 tips for interviews, and you will never live to regret it.

Do you want to learn more on the author? Karen works for a media recruitment agency where you can get some interesting resources to help you get your dream job.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So you want to work as a freelancer, but did you know you can still work for a big company? Many corporations hire freelancers to do odd jobs, fill in for vacations, do special projects, and help with overload. I have worked for a few over the years, and can tell you that they usually pay on time and offer good pay. Here’s how to get jobs like this.

Check Out the Company

Before approaching a corporation for work, freelance writers should study the company’s communication habits first. A lot can be learned by how they interact with customers on Facebook, make announcements via Twitter, or write about product updates on a blog. Once you have an idea of how the company communicates, you can pitch them ideas on how you can help them.

Corporate In-House versus Telecommute Position

Many writers get used to a telecommute arrangement once they go freelance (like me!), but some corporations today still have the belief that their workers should be on-site. This includes contract workers. I’ve had companies insist that I come in one day a week so I could sit in a cubicle and write. To me, this was incredibly silly. But sometimes it takes a while to educate a client on the best use of a writer’s time. If you’re required to actually go into the office as a freelancer, see if your travel time or mileage can be reimbursed. This may help the company realize that they could save money if they just communicated with you from home.

If working from home is important to you, be prepared for a discussion about working arrangements prior to making a pitch. It may be necessary to remind the corporation of the benefits of telecommuting in order to secure contract employment.

Pitching to a Corporation

The best bet in getting hired as a consultant is to make a pitch. Once you have studied the company, you can determine its strengths and areas for improvement. Writers can match a corporation’s needs with their own areas of expertise.

For example, if the company currently has a blog that is not updated very often, the freelancer would be wise to stress his or her knowledge in that area. If the company’s website doesn’t reflect their corporate style, perhaps the writer might be able to assist in this area. The head of the marketing department is usually a good first place to make a pitch for work.

As with any pitch, however, writers should be respectful when pointing out what could be perceived as a company’s weakness with its current level of communication. There’s a fine line between making a suggestion for freelance work and being overly critical. Saying something like, “Your website sucks. Hire me and I can help” is probably not a good way to get hired.

Variety of Jobs

The great part about working for a corporation is that you can usually get a variety of writing jobs this way, and be paid a decent wage. (What a concept.) Once you get hired for one or two projects, they’ll usually keep you in mind for future work.

Have you worked for a company as a freelance writer? How has it worked out for you?

More on working as a freelancer:

• The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less
• Getting Started as a Freelance Writer (Culture Tools)
• The Freelance Writer’s Bible: Your Guide to a Profitable Writing Career Within One Year

Image: Morguefile

Are you working as a full-time writer, meaning that you are earning a full-time living? Or are you working part-time doing something else while you write on the side?

Many writers I know work part or even full-time jobs in a non-writing capacity, and then write on the side. I also hear some writers say they are “full time writers” when really they have a spouse or some other form of income they are living off of. But what I’m talking about here when I say “writing full-time” is a full-time income, either as a freelancer or author, or some combination of the two.

When I tell people I write full-time, I usually get a mixed response. On one hand, people think it’s cool because you can pretty much get up at any time you like and work whenever. On the other hand, people picture actually sitting in a chair for several hours a day and writing, and they go “ick.”

In terms of building a writing business, working part-time is not a bad way to go. I did this myself. I worked part-time and did freelance part-time. I built up my clients slowly. But what about keeping a part-time job, and part-time freelancing for the long haul?

I think there are definitely advantages to taking on only a few clients and supplementing income by working a part (or even full) time job. Working part-time as a writer may be a foreign concept to the freelancers currently starting out, but if a writer reassesses his or her lifestyle and financial goals, the ability to write part-time may fulfill their creative desires.

Part Time Hours Means Less Lower Paying Writing Work
When freelancers are starting out, they often need to take on more menial writing tasks in order to make ends meet. Even seasoned full-time freelancers need to supplement their bigger clients with smaller jobs here and there. By creating a goal to have a part-time writing career, the financial pressure is lifted somewhat. While part-timers still need to send query letters and get clients, they also have income from another source outside of writing.

Part Time Jobs Can Take the Mind Away from Freelance Writing
Getting a break from writing can be a very healthy thing. When a freelancer goes full-time he or she may feel burned out by the long hours and the constant need to be creative all day. Creativity can become a chore rather than a pleasure.

If someone has a part-time job, however, they get a break from writing occasionally. Depending on the type of job they do, freelancers may even think of more ideas while at their second job than they would have if they’d been sitting at their desk all day. This type of schedule can help with freelancer burnout and keep enthusiasm about writing strong.

Part Time Work Can Help With Freelancer Weight Gain and Loneliness
One of the things no one really talks about with freelance writing is loneliness and weight gain. It’s easy to gain weight with a five-minute commute. Unless a freelancer makes an effort to keep the weight off, pounds can creep on very easily simply because the writer is not walking to their office, to coworkers desks, to their car at night, etc. With a part-time job, however, writers are forced to be more active.

The same is true for loneliness. While some writers head to the coffee shop when they are feeling lonely, a part-time job would help them connect with other people. That way when they do have time alone to write, it feels like a treat rather than a negative thing.

Every freelancer needs to do what’s right for their family and themselves. There is no right or wrong way to run a freelance writing career. Every single person’s idea of success is different. Working part-time as a freelancer may suit the goals of some writers.

Image: Morguefile

Now more than ever, freelance writers have greater access to companies looking for their services. A freelance writer interested in expanding his or her client list can log on to a social networking site and chat with members and “fans” of an organization. Facebook and Twitter are especially helpful in this area. Here are a few tips on how to find new clients using these two websites.

Find Freelance Writing Clients Using Twitter
The great part about Twitter is it allows writers instant access to various employees of an organization. Writers can do a Twitter search for the company’s name to see if it is on Twitter, and immediately follow and interact with a member of the organization.

Freelancers should spend some time interacting with the company before approaching them for a job. Find out what types of things they tweet about. Do they write their own promotional articles? Tweet about news events related to their area of business? If writers can discover their “tweet personality” it will help them determine how to pitch a job that will be met with a favorable response.

If a company is not on Twitter, it could be one area writers can pitch their expertise. After all, being a freelancer today is more than just writing articles. Many writers have become experts in promoting their online writing or getting new visitors to their blog. This knowledge could be a potential help with an organization lacking in this area.

Find Freelance Writing Clients Using Facebook
Facebook has a very different feel and purpose. Whereas Twitter is about quick interaction, links, and conversation, Facebook allows for a more casual relationship with an organization. Writers can view photos or videos a company may post, links they share, and fans or employees who write on their walls. All this information can help freelancers get to know a company on a much deeper level than if they had simply visited their website.

The more knowledge a writer has, the better able he or she will be in pitching their services. While on Facebook, determine how the company interacts with its followers. Is there an area that seems to be missing? For example, does the company fail to respond to user comments? Lack photos or videos that could connect them with their ideal customer? Are they up on news events that their customers may be interested in?

Facebook also has the ability for a company to post pages or blog items. If an organization is lacking in this area, it could be one area they might need a freelance writer’s assistance. Determine what types of items are being posted. Are postings done on at regular intervals? If not it could mean that the company is in need of a dedicated freelancer to help them. Read through everything on their Facebook site before making a pitch.

Facebook and Twitter allow for increased interaction with a company long before working with them. Finding out how companies use social networking tools can work to a freelance writer’s advantage. When writers have enough information where they feel comfortable making a pitch, they should always be respectful in their approach and method. Doing so can make them invaluable to a company who might not have even realized it needed their help.

More About Social Media:

• Social Media Marketing For Dummies
• Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks)

Image: Morguefile

I recently posted about what to watch out for with freelance job ads, and one of our readers commented about Craigslist. I enjoyed this comment and wanted to elaborate on it. Lis said:

Finally an article that tackles the negative aspects of job ads. I read several blogs and have yet to come across anything so brutally honest. I’ve had some pretty bad experiences through Craigslist and similar “board” sites in the past. We definitely need more articles like this highlighting the potential traps within job ads. Thanks for a great read.

I agree with Lis’ take on Craigslist and other sites, but I wanted to elaborate a bit. Sometimes Craigslist really gets a bad rap. Like any job posted on an ad, you need to weed through some junk in order to find gems. This can mean that it isn’t a good way to find jobs. But I’ve found one exception to this rule, and that’s local writing jobs. The reason for this is that some clients just don’t know where to look for writers, so they post an ad on Craigslist.

Besides the local perspective, I have to admit that I’ve received two of my highest paying clients through Craigslist. So is the site itself a bad place to get jobs? It’s not tops, but the key here is that you need to be careful regardless of where you look! You need to watch out for scams, be careful of who you give samples to, and do some investigating. If that sounds like a lot of work, well, it is. Freelancing in general (and anyone running a small business) has to put in the work in order to make their venture successful.

What is some of your advice when checking out Craigslist? Do you even bother? Or do you skip it in favor of other ways to get jobs?

More on finding freelance writing jobs:

• Where to Find the Real Freelance Writing Jobs
• 88 Money-Making Writing Jobs
• The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less

Image: sxc.hu

I recently wrote a post on what to watch out for in regard to freelance writing job ads, and reader Debra Stang left a comment that echoed what many of you told me.

I still skim the job ads. I’ve even gotten a couple of good gigs from them. But I’ve also come across some outrageous scams. My least favorite is the “sample” scam. The company contacts a writer about his or her job applications and says the writer has made it into the “finals.” Now all they need is for a writer to write a sample blog post about…

Well, I’m sure you can imagine what happens. The company receives enough “samples” to have content for their site for a year, and the writer never hears another word from them. Ick.

Ick indeed. So the question is, are freelance writing job ads even worth looking at? In my opinion, yes, but not for your main source of finding work. Every once in a while I peruse the freelance ads, and every once in a while I find a worthwhile job.

If they aren’t a good source of jobs, then, why do so many freelancers look to them as their primary place to find jobs?

I can’t speak for everybody, but I think when you’re a new freelancer, you aren’t exactly sure where to get jobs. Applying for gigs online seems like the right thing to do since that’s what you do for non-freelance jobs. Besides that, a lot of freelancers seem to be a bit shy, and applying for an ad is “easier” than calling up clients or sending out letters of introduction.

I still skim the job ads, but they certainly aren’t my main source of income. I look at them for other things:

• Trends in hiring freelancers
• Other “related” jobs (like editors and designers) so I have an idea of where I could pitch work
• New websites (because sometimes those hiring writers don’t know how else to attract writers, and they post ads instead.)

My advice? You should still skim the job ads if you want, but don’t use it as your main source of finding work. Instead, invest that time into making calls and networking. The more you skim, the better you’ll be able to breeze over the junky jobs and recognize a gem when you find it.

More resources on freelance jobs:

• The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less
• 102 Ways to Earn Money Writing 1,500 Words or Less: The Ultimate Freelancer’s Guide
• Getting Started as a Freelance Writer (Culture Tools)

Image: sxc.hu

Job ads aren’t the best way to find a freelance writing job (we know that already) but nevertheless one of the most common questions I get from freelancers is what to watch out for with a job ad. It’s a good question, because when you’re new, you don’t have the experience to navigate the BS from the truth when it comes to job offerings.

While I recommend other ways to get jobs, I’d like to give you a few hints if you are searching the job boards. Here are some things to watch out for.

You Can Make Up To…

If someone is giving you a figure you can possibly make per day, more than likely they are looking for volume writing. Volume over quality. Usually these types of jobs require some ridiculous amount of articles per day, and if you meet this ridiculous number you can make X. Except that if you actually divide your time into X, your pay is peanuts.

Don’t work for peanuts.

Good for Stay at Home Moms or College Students

These words are code for “we don’t pay very much, but it might be something for people with nothing better to do.” The ironic part of course is that stay at home moms and college students have a lot better to do than waste their time on jobs that don’t pay! No one that wants a skilled writer is putting this stipulation in their job ad.

Only Experienced Writers Need Apply

A genuine outfit that pay writers well doesn’t have to put this in their job ad. They post their ads and skilled writers apply. They search through the applications so that they can hire the most skilled in their opinion. That’s it.

Someone that actually asks for “experienced writers only” is the online dating equivalent of someone saying “If you’re into games, don’t contact me.” The point is, if someone IS into game playing, they either don’t know it or don’t care. They will contact that person anyway.

To bring that back to writers, someone applies for a job they obviously feel they are skilled at. If the people doing the hiring don’t agree, they won’t hire the person. There are some jobs that are going to attract newer writers, because the job ads are written too vaguely, or the person hiring wants the moon and won’t pay for it. These are the types of clients that put this verbiage into their ad.

Compensation: You Tell Me

I’ve actually seen quite a few ads that ask writers to tell them what a project is worth. It’s fine to give a client your rate, but it is irresponsible for them to ask this from a job ad. In order to accurately quote a rate, you need to know all the specifics, and job ads rarely provide them. You need to know things like:

• The tone and approach of the writing required (press release versus conversational blog post versus sales copy versus web writing)
• How much research time you need to do
• Whether you need additionals like photos or sources
• The end-goal of the writing project
• Feedback or approval time
• Social networking requirements
• and on and on.

You can give a client a range when asked this in an ad, but chances are they are looking for the cheapest rate. The old adage that “the one that talks about money first loses” applies here. If you talk money, you probably won’t win the rate you require and deserve.

If an ad is promising, what I do instead is tell them I’d be happy to give them my rate after I talk to them about the true scope of the job.

Ads That Are Placed On Every Job Board Imaginable

Sometimes a client just wants writers. Period. Any old writers. Can you type? We’ll hire you. If they are advertising on every job board you see, it’s a signal that they may be looking for quantity of writers. (Which usually translates to low pay.) Use caution if you see this.

Job Ads That Continually Pop Up

Another red flag is a job ad that continually pops up occasionally. This means that they are either expanding (which is good), or they can’t keep writers on their staff (which is not good.) My advice with these types of ads is to apply if you feel like it could lead to something, but feel free to ask them at some point what happened to the other writer. I usually say, “I noticed this job ad was up a few months ago. Can you tell me why it is open again so soon? I’d like to establish a long-term relationship with you.”

Listen to what they say. Good things you want to hear are: we promoted that writer, they are writing for another segment of ours, or we are growing and need more talent.

Things you don’t want to hear include: our former writer had no work ethic, that person just didn’t work out, or that person went on to greener pastures. These are all code for some type of problem. Was the problem the writer or the client? You need to dig deeper.

Job Ads That Continually Run

Perhaps a client only advertises on one or two job boards, but they advertise constantly for the same job. What does that mean? It may again mean they are only concerned with growth (more writers more writers more writers!) or that they go through writers so fast they never bother taking the ad down.

When I worked heavily in the print world, I saw an ad for writers that ran continually in one magazine. I applied and after a few months I got hired to write a few pieces. Then, I got a call that “a writer of theirs flaked” and they needed a piece turned in by the next day in order to meet their print deadline! I immediately wondered what happened because saying a writer “flakes” could mean a number of things. But I needed the work, so I took the assignment.

These people paid a month after publication (which was already a month out.) That means if I wrote a piece in January, it would run in February and I’d get paid in March. So when my payments should have started coming in, I noticed my little old mailbox was quiet. When I called to find out, I was told I hadn’t submitted my invoice to them. (I had.) I submitted another one, and was told they were having “cash flow problems” and that my payments would arrive “when they could get them.” I waited. My payments still didn’t come.

When I called again, they stressed that they were a “small outfit” and only had one person that could cut checks and that person didn’t come in very often!

See the problem? They advertised to new writers continually so they could use their two-month “float” time to get a few more articles from someone new before they had to start paying. I wonder how many writers were not as persistent as I was in getting their payment. Perhaps the writer who “flaked” really just got tired of doing work and not getting paid for it.

In the end, I told them that I would happily come and sit in their office until they could find the time to cut the series of checks I was owed. (This advice was from my husband, who was fully prepared to sit there for me! Dontcha love that? I would have never been so bold. However, it worked. I got my checks then, and made sure I turned down any future assignments.)

Bottom line, navigating the job board waters is not easy, but you can get the occasional gig that does pay. Do some sleuthing to find them.

Resources on Finding Freelance Writing Jobs:

• The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success (The Renegade Writer’s Freelance Writing series)
• Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer: How to Win Top Writing Assignments
• Getting Started as a Freelance Writer (Culture Tools)

Image: Morguefile

Getting new clients is a large part of maintaining a successful freelance writing business, and one way writers can do that is by making cold calls. A cold call is simply a contact made to a business that the writer has not contacted before. It can be difficult to make cold calling work, but when it pays off, the writer will have a genuine writing lead.

Here are some tips on how to make cold calls work.

Freelance Writers Should Research an Organization Before Approaching Them for Work

Today, it’s easier than ever to find out more about an organization. Writers should read the company’s website, view Twitter or Facebook accounts, and look up any news items that could be related to the organization. All of these things will help writers get a feel for the company culture, on-staff writers, and potential need for freelancers.

How to Find the Right Person to Contact at a Company

Writers should find the right person at an organization in which to propose freelance work. Often this is a channel or direct manager rather than someone in the Human Resources Department. Typical contacts are in marketing, research, or project management. For smaller companies, writers can call the company and simply ask who they might speak with regarding writing work.

Sending Letters of Introduction

Before making a call, writers may want to send a letter of introduction. Again, finding the right person is the key to making this step successful. Writers should never send a general letter as it will probably end up with the wrong person or even get thrown away.

A letter of introduction can make cold calling easier, as it will help warm up the potential client for a pitch from the writer. Writers should include their related experience in the letter, and list potential ways for the organization to benefit from the writer’s services. After a letter of introduction is sent or emailed, the writer can then use it as an opening line when calling a client.

A typical call may start out by asking if the client received the letter, then proceed to give a few more details on some of the work the writer highlighted in the note. This way the person has the writers information in front of them (or at least received it before the call) and it can make the conversation a bit friendlier than with a call followed up a letter.

Writers Should Close the Call by Asking for an Assignment or Offering to Follow Up Again

Writers may need to make several sales calls before they get even one positive response. However, cold calling is still a good way to get potential new clients. They work because the call adds a personal touch that is missing by a letter or email alone. People like working with someone they have talked to and feel they know a bit, as opposed to a faceless resume.

A great way to end a cold call is by asking for work. If the client says no, a follow up call may still net future work. When calling a client, writers should talk about how their experience can benefit the organization. For example, hiring freelance writers can save a company vacation or hiring costs or give them an immediate expert on a certain subject. The more cold calls a writer makes, the easier the process becomes.

More resources on getting writing clients:
The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less
Getting Started as a Freelance Writer (Culture Tools)
The Definitive Guide to Making Money Online With Your Writing

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