Freelance Writing Jobs for Friday, July 11, 2008
July 11, 2008 by Jodee
Filed under Freelance Writing
Good morning FWJ Friends! This week has just flown by and it’s hard to believe that it’s Friday already. About.com is looking for writers for a number of channels. There are opps here for bloggers, translators, copywriters and content writers. If you live in the Chicago area, Digital People is looking for technical writers, proofreaders, and copywriters to fill temporary, on site positions.
Is your dream job on this list? (Maybe it’s the one asking if you can make fun of celebrities…) Do come back and let us know if you get hired for one of the jobs posted today. We love to hear about your success and it really does inspire others to keep plugging away and looking for new opportunities. Have a great weekend!
Leads…
- Digital People Recruiting Technical Writers/Proofreaders/Copywriters – Chicago
- Medical Editors Needed @ American Cancer Society – On Site – Atlanta
- iPhone Blogger with Attitude @ Teaguy Media
- About.com Seeks Health Writers
- About.com Seeks Tech Journalists
- About. com Seeks Casino Travel Journalist
- About.com Seeks Entertainment Writers
- About.com Seeks Home & Garden Journalists
- Investigative Writer - Atlanta
- Political Writer – Atlanta
- Freelance Writer Contractor with Large Project Seeking 10 Writers - Telecommute
- PR Professional Wanted – Atlanta
- Experienced Grant Writers – Contract – Telecommute
- PT Multimedia Internship – Austin – Paid
- Copywriters Needed for Growing Company – Contract – Telecommute
- Portuguese Translators Needed – On Site – Temporary Assignment – Houston ($23 per hour)
- 5 Writers Needed - Telecommute ($10-$12 per hour)
- Physical Therapy Writer – Contract – Los Angeles
- Become a “Porque Because” Intern – Paid – New York
- Arts and Editorial Internship - Fall 2008 – Philadelphia
- Can You Make Fun of Celebrities? Very Well?
- Breaking Into Journalism – Internship – USA
- Blogger Wanted for Growing Company – Internship
- Freelance Legal Content Writers Needed – Telecommute ($25-$40 for 500-600 words)
- Bilingual Content Writer – Full Time for 3 Months – San Diego
- Web Editing Internship @ American Heritage Publishing – Rockville, MD – Paid
- Writer/Editor Intern – Washington D.C. ($15 per hour)
- Grant Writer - Contract – Virginia ($30 per hour
Good Luck!
Woke up this morning to find a $6,000 project in my inbox, due by the end of August. Just had to share! Woo hoo!
That’s great BooBoo!
I got an email from a job posting yesterday for a writer on automotive topics. Per the email he sent me, they require a photocopy of your passport before they will hire you stating that “the IRS and Federal Government require employers to keep records proving that their workers are U.S. citizens.”
I’ve run into situations where I’m asked for a photocopy of my driver’s license and won’t share that. There’s no way I’m faxing a copy of my passport.
BooBoo! Congratulations!
Is anyone else having problems with this site today? Not sure if it is on my end or not, but every time I go to look at a job, this message pops up:
MySQL server has gone away on line: 124
Hi Ann,
Are you still having a problem? Someone else reported an internal service error but everything is working fine on my end.
Thank,
Deb
@Ann G. I’m getting the message too.
I’d also be wary about someone asking for a copy of my passport or driver’s license.
BooBoo – congratulations!! I’m still working towards those nice sized paycheck projects but I’ll get there.
Had several “internal service errors” trying to get in. The only way I could access the job list was by clicking on “comments.” The other three links (title, etc) came up with an error.
@Deb,
It’s still working on and off. Some jobs load right up other times, I’ll get the message and then have to leave the site and try again. It’s when I try again that it will sit and take about a minute to try to load and then the message pops up.
I’m on Comcast, and they are not the most reputable company in the world, so I’m not sure if it is something they’re doing again or not, but this seems to be the only site I’m having issues with.
@BooBoo – That’s awesome! That gives me something to hope for!
I got the SQL error and the internal server errors as well.
I was also having trouble just getting to this page showing the job leads but I assumed it was just something happening with my connection.
@Boo Boo that’s great news to share.
@Ann I think you’re wise not to photocopy your passport.
Congrats BooBoo!
Have a great weekend everyone!
I didn’t get any errors, but I did have a devil of a time trying to get to the site today. It was super slow. Then when I got here, I couldn’t access any other pages for a while. I’m just now getting to see the leads.
Great list Jodee! Thanks!
I am also having problems today as well. The posting for the need for 10 writers generated the following response: “Sorry, but the craigslist user address you recently mailed (job-750143513@craigslist.org) does not seem to be valid. It could be you’re trying to respond to a very old posting, or that the user has not requested anonymous email forwarding. Please check the address and try again.”
@Ann G
About the passport, they are just following the law that says you must be able to legally work in the U.S. Often a birth certificate will do instead of a passport. A driver’s license is not proof of citizenship. You may not want to share this information, but the company is doing nothing wrong.
But remember you can work in the US without citizenship. Furthermore, I have never had to show my drivers license, passport or birth certificate for any job.
It’s part of filling out an I-9: http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamplesik/a/I9_form.htm
It’s part of submitting an I-9 to show eligibility to work in the US and all employers are supposed to do that.
But I’ve never had to do it as a freelancer.
More info: http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamplesik/a/I9_form.htm
It’s part of filling out an I-9 for proof of eligibility and all employers are supposed to do it. But I’ve never done it as a freelancer.
(I hope I’m not duplicating here; I tried to leave a link to more info, but it appears to keep eating my comments. Deb? Jodee?)
Things seem to be loading just fine for me. Carol, do you happen to have a son/brother named Mike? You last name is the same as someone I went to school with.
@ BooBoo: Great news! Congrats!
@ Becky: Sorry about the delay; I was occupied elsewhere for awhile. You got caught in our spam filters but I’ve de-spammed you and the links you posted are up now.
Becky,
You mention “all employers are supposed to …”, but we are not employees. Is this also “required” for contractor-subcontractor relationships? I’ve never filled one out and have worked for about 30 different clients (have ongoing relationships, not a lot of one-shot deals) since 9-11, including many major publishers and had never heard of such a thing.
I’ll chime in as an HR professional…
Independent Contractors fill out W-9s instead of I-9s. This allows a US-based organization to collect your Taxpayer Identification Number and have the information they’ll need to issue you a 1099 at year’s end if you’ve been paid more than $600. If you’re a sole proprietor – which I assume that most of you are, as I am myself when I freelance – then your TIN is your SSN. For a W-9, you certify by your signature – not by any forms of ID – that you are a U.S. citizen.
Having said all of that, organizations, at their discretion, can require further levels of security in verifying the status of your ability to accept work within the United States. Most just want to cover their own butts in case of an audit. But unless you are hired as an employee instead of as an independent contractor, there is no Federal requirement to produce a driver’s license or passport. That’s an I-9 requirement, not W-9.
Hope that helps.
@Phil – identification requirements for an I-9 are not the result of 9/11. They existed prior to that.
@phil – I’ve never had to do it as a freelancer. But I wonder if that company was asking for it, if they thought they would hire employees rather than contractors? The ad is gone now, so I can’t look at it and see.
@Jodee – sorry for the multiples. I thought it was a hiccup.
@Fiona -
Yes, you can work in the U.S. without being a U.S. citizen. There are various types of certifications, such as work visas, that allow non-citizens to secure work.
If you are an actual employee of a U.S. company, and not an independent contractor, you would have had to have supplied some form of identification during your hiring process.
The rules for independent contractors are a bit more lax, but the fact remains that the IRS requires all employers file a 1099 form on any person to whom $600 or more is paid over the course of a year. That form relies on the W-9 for information. The W-9 requires a taxpayer identification numbers. This indicates that the person is U.S. based or authorized to work in the U.S.
If a U.S. corporation contracts with a foreign-based contractor, there are different regulations. From the IRS website, “Use Form 1042-S, Foreign Person’s U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding, for payments to nonresident aliens.” In other words, if a company is doing what it is supposed to do, there is still paperwork to fill out.
Further, from the IRS website: “Generally, every nonresident alien individual, nonresident alien fiduciary, and foreign corporation with United States income, including income that is effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business in the United States, must file a United States income tax return.”
It’s unlikely they’ll come after you in a foreign country to recoup taxes from income paid by a U.S. entity, but more likely they will go after a company if an audit is done of their books and payments for services rendered are found to have gone to contractors – foreign or domestic – without the proper substantiating paperwork.
Not trying to confuse here, or be obtuse, but what this all boils down to is that it’s far easier to just fill out a bit of paperwork and comply with regulations than place yourself or your contracted partner in peril.
For face to face jobs, I usually have to make a copy of my Green Card. For a lot of my freelance contracts, I’ve had to return a W9 with my Social Security number.
Hi Marie:
I have no direct male relations bearing my last name, but I occasionally get an email asking about someone with my same last name. It’s common in Chicago, the largest Polish community outside of Warsaw. And the name is like “Brown” or “Smith” in Poland, of course!
My claim to fame is that I was the first Brzozowski to take that email address on AOL and I won’t give it up! (:
Been having issues too with internal service errors and also trying to figure out why the listings keep floating between Cat. links.