Just in case you haven’t noticed, freelance writing websites are everywhere. FreelanceWriting.com and Mediabistro.com are two of the most popular. These sites differ considerably in terms of their “friendliness” toward those with little or no freelance writing experience.
FreelanceWriting.com:
This is by far the more beginner-friendly of the two sites. It offers an impressive range of resources for freelance writing: job listings, newsletters, blogs, articles, online portfolios, and more. All of this information can be somewhat overwhelming on your first few visits, but don’t let that busy home page turn you away. Whether you’re completely new to freelance writing or already have some experience under your belt, FreelanceWriting.com is a valuable resource.
Are you interested in copywriting? Writing for magazines? Writing for the Web? Publishing a first book? Whatever your freelance writing goals, you’ll find something of value on FreelanceWriting.com. Each time you visit the site, I advise settling on a single goal beforehand and looking only at the resources which pertain to that goal. Otherwise, you’ll probably find yourself dashing from page to page and coming away with bits and pieces of information about a dozen different topics.
For example, on your first visit to FreelanceWriting.com, you may want to focus on the freelance writing job listings. Click the “Jobs” link at the top of the home page, which brings you straight to the Career Center. This is a one-stop-shopping page with multiple resources, so again, you’ll need to home in on the resources which are specific to freelance writing-and stay alert while doing so. Everyone knows that freelance writers, especially beginners, are hungry for work, and some employers are only too happy to exploit your eagerness.
In their Online Job Bank, FreelanceWriting.com divides writing gigs into high-paying, low-paying, and non-paying categories. There’s a fair amount of overlap between the high-paying versus low-paying categories in terms of pay rates and the kinds of projects being offered, so I suggest checking both, regardless of your level of experience. Just be sure to tread with caution, whatever the category. The perfectly legitimate and the highly dubious sit side by side, and it may or may not be easy at first glance to tell them apart. Personally, I don’t even bother with the non-paying category. If you decide to check it out in the hopes of obtaining your first published clips, be wary. If a fledgling publication claims it can’t pay you anything for your writing but promises “great exposure” instead, how impressive will those clips be, and how much “exposure” can you really expect? Same goes for low-paying gigs: do you really want to pound out 20 content articles for $2 per article? Didn’t think so…
In addition to their own Job Bank, FreelanceWriting.com also provides listings from other sites, such as craigslist.com and E-Lance. Again, you’ll want to use your discretion. Sites such as Elance ask you to bid on projects, with the work going to the lowest bidder-sort of like E-Bay in reverse. The craigslist.com listings are haphazard, with no categorization; you can find legitimate freelance writing gigs if you’re willing to sift through the postings.
Don’t feel like reading job descriptions? You may want to direct your energy to the Magazine Guidelines database, which offers links to hundreds of submission guidelines posted on magazine websites. Some of these markets pay well, others pay OK, and still others pay little or nothing. Find out what you can expect in terms of payment and future rights to your work. While you’re checking out submission guidelines, take a look at the rest of the website to get a preliminary feel for the publication. If they’re not offering payment, ask yourself: “How will I feel, seeing my byline in this magazine? Will I feel confident using my articles as clips?”
Mediabistro.com:
First, you should know that mediabistro.com is not devoted solely to freelance writing. Founded by magazine editor and freelance writer Laurel Touby in 1997, the site is designed for “media professionals” of all kinds, including book and magazine writers and editors, graphic designers, TV producers, and anyone else who’s involved with the media industry. The “mission” of mediabistro.com is to give these professionals the chance to network, find job opportunities, and discover new resources.
That mission is clear as soon as you hit mediabistro.com’s home page. It’s stylish, appealing, and relatively easy to navigate, but it’s quite busy with media-related blog postings and links to jobs, freelance portfolios, and course listings. All of this can be overwhelming on first sight. You have to keep firmly in mind what it is you’re looking for, or you might convince yourself (prematurely) that an actual career in freelance writing isn’t for you.
What can the nervous newbie considering a freelance writing life gain from mediabistro.com? It depends on whether you want to spend $49 on an AvantGuild membership, and what kinds of freelance writing markets you want to write for. Say you see a link that promises info on “How to Pitch” XYZ High-Paying Consumer Magazine, the kind that pays $1 or more per word. Say that this is exactly what you’re looking for. If you click on that oh-so-tempting link, you’ll find that you can’t read the whole article unless you’re an AvantGuild member. When I saw that “How to Pitch” articles for women’s magazines were a mere $49 away, it took me about five seconds to break out the credit card. This is the kind of detailed, “inside” information you generally won’t find in Writer’s Market.
In addition to the “How to Pitch” articles, the mediabistro.com AvantGuild membership also grants a number of benefits that may be helpful whether you’re new to freelance writing or a seasoned pro. One such benefit is a discount on courses. Courses are operated by mediabistro.com and take place in major cities and online. There are a number of courses on freelance writing for people with varying levels of expertise. They sound great-if you can afford the price tag, generally $350-$600 per course; the discount for members is only $25-$50.
A more affordable AvantGuild feature: You can create a Personal Home Page and submit it to mediabistro’s Freelance Marketplace for a reduced price ($14 per month, as opposed to $19 for nonmembers). Or someone might find you. Employers can do keyword searches through mediabistro.com to find freelance writers based on specific criteria, including experience, interests, and location. If you don’t want to be part of the Marketplace, you can still create a Personal Home Page-it’s free with your membership. When you’re pitching a magazine through e-mail, you can include the link to this profile, which details your freelance writing experience and allows you to upload or link to published clips. (FreelanceWriting.com allows you to create a searchable online portfolio for free; however, I found their portfolio template somewhat limiting and not quite as professional-looking as mediabistro’s.)
When you fill in the profile template, it’ll ask you about a lot of experience you may not have. Don’t worry too much about this. Just be sure to write a peppy introduction that describes your amazing talents and staggering range of interests; look at other profiles for examples. Other people will boast of 10 or 20 or 30 years’ freelance writing and editing experience. Look at those profiles just long enough to get some pointers, but not long enough to freak yourself out.
Other AvantGuild membership benefits include free e-mail, discounts on various services, and other goodies. If you live in NYC, you can even get health insurance, although I have to wonder how good the insurance can possibly be if mediabistro.com just throws it in with the membership.
If you’re not ready to spring for the AvantGuild fee, you can register with mediabistro.com for free and view all the job postings you like. But most of these are jobs in the usual sense; there are relatively few freelance writing opportunities. If you want a position as an editor at a magazine or publishing house, mediabistro.com is definitely the place to look; they have hundreds of postings for such positions on any given day.
By stark contrast, the freelance writing opportunities are a tiny fraction of the total job listings: a few under the “Freelance (Other)” category, a few under “Freelance Articles,” and a few under “Project Basis.” These are generally not open to freelance writers who don’t yet have an impressive pile of clips; and many are location-specific, which for me takes the “free” right out of freelance writing. This is not a criticism of mediabistro.com. They’re a business, not a volunteer organization; they charge employers about $230 to post a job, which is a fair price if you consider the kind of exposure the employer can expect. This price keeps away the kind of questionable listings you often see on websites like craigslist.com (“Looking for FREELANCE WRITERS!!!!”). Unfortunately for the beginning freelance writer, it also keeps small but legitimate employers from posting jobs and projects.
Which is better, FreelanceWriting.com or mediabistro.com? That’s up to you. You may find yourself using both on a regular basis. Just make sure you leave yourself some time to write!
