by Jodee Redmond
Good morning FWJ Friends! It’s a chilly, rainy morning here but hopefully it’s bright and sunny where you are. If not, I hope that something on today’s job leads list brightens up your day.
Leads:
Telecommute
- Travel Writer Familiar with Niagara Falls
- Video Clip Logger
- Cell Phone Website Looking for a Freelance Writer/Reviewer
- Blogger/Writer on Holistic Health
- Writer/Editor Needed for Magazine- Based in Rochester, NY
- Freelance News Writer @ The Town Courier – Gaithersburg
- CarReview Bloggers Wanted
- Copywriter for Short Descriptive Writing Projects
- Small Business Critics – San Diego
- Computer Services Company Needs Web Content ($20-$50 per hour)
- Statistician/Writer Needed ($15-$20 per hour)
- Parent Blog Contributors
- Travel Writers for Poconos, Cape May and the Brandywine Region
- Korean Translator Needed
- One Page Marketing Flyer Needed
- Ebook Needed ($20 per hour)
- Dining Magazine Critic/Writer – Miami ($0.06-$0.08 per word)
- Writers and Illustrators Needed
- French Writing and Editing
- Articles Needed for Southern California Newsletter
- New Hip Hop Website Seeking Real Hip Hop Journalists
- Freelance Writers
- Law Student Needed for Legal Research
- Creative Writers Needed
- Awesome Copy Writer Needed
- Writers Wanted ($200 per article)
- Looking for Talented Writers for Online Magazine
- Researcher Wanted for Documentary Film ($20 per hour)
- Online Freelance Writing for Kids Website
- Licensed Teachers/Contributing Editors Wanted @ LessonClub.org
- Blogger @ ElderCareABC.com
- Internet Marketing Focused Blogger @ Revenews
On Site:
- Associate Editor for Health and Livable Communities/Politics/Law – Washington, D.C. -6-12 Month Contract
- Associate Editor – Finance – Washington, D.C. – 6-12 Month Contract
- Content Polisher for Music Website – Start ASAP – Six Week Contract – Cupertino
- Three Technical Writers Needed – 12 Month Contract – Sacramento
- Technical Writer – Oil & Gas Trading Experience Preferred – Contract to Perm – Houston
- Spanish Writer, Enhanced Security Clearance a Must (November 15-16 in Ottawa)
The posting for “short descriptive writing projects” concerns me…particularly the fact that “you will be sent submission specifications along with examples to be completed and returned to us for immediate consideration.”
Trolling for free content?
The ad for the “descriptive writing projects” sounds a lot like one I’d applied for four or five months ago. I’m sending in my information to see if it is the same person. If it is, he requested “freshly written samples” that he assigned and then hired based on those. The five people he eventually hired were given a batch of 50 descriptions to do in 24 hours and those who did the work never got paid.
As I said, I don’t know if it is the same guy, but the wording in the ad is extremely similar. So I’ll report back when I know more.
Hi Jodee–
Thanks again for those wonderful listings. I applied for 3 and have already received a polite “not interested” from one employer.
Bobbi
The $200 per article listing sounds fishy to me considering they want a 100% unique 400 – 600 word article. Sounds like they are trying to get free content.
@ Jim: I thought so too.
@ Ann: I applied for this one as well, so I’d be interested in what you think once you’ve heard back from them!
Thanks for another great list, Jodee, and have a great week everyone!
I applied to the holistic health blogging job a few weeks ago and never heard back, but now I see that the ad being reposted, only with a different gmail address… not sure if that’s fishy or not.
Jodee, thanks for all the great info! Please note that several of the “telecommute” jobs were actually onsite. I apologize if someone else has already mentioned it.
@ Jim,
That’s instantly what I thought too!
Thanks — based on the rely posts, lots of speculative job posts.
I agree with Jim and Krista! I was instantly suspicious of the $200 article ad. Ann, I was going to apply for the “descriptive content” ad, but I will hold off for now! Thank you for the heads-up!
By the way, the “Freelance Writers” (US Based Publisher) is a great gig…I am doing the work right now. It’s EBSCO publishing; a huge reputable company. They pay on time and the pay starts at $650.00 per article (or at least that’s what I started at, and I got a raise after a few articles). Good luck!
I thought the same about the $200 per article ad. That seems extremely high for such general web short articles. Perhaps I’m wrong but sites like that don’t generally pay $200/article–sounds like someone trying to stir up interest and free content.
Oh, great. I applied for that one
I’d better do a Google search for things in about a week…
Sorry to double post, but the Toronto online magazine job email is bouncing back…
I’m feeling bummed now. Here’s the thing – to increase your chances at landing one of these jobs, you should apply right away, correct? But, if you do, and then three hours later people say that someone is stealing content, then it might be better to wait a day or so to see what people’s opinions are, right? At that point, though, you’re lost among hundreds of applicants. I know this sounds roundabout, but do you see what I’m asking?
How is it possible to find anything good paying that’s not a scam? Is it possible to make a living at this at all?
I’m just feeling dejected about hearing that my stuff is now with a scammer who is going to use it for free. It’s hard to see a writing life that’s not full of $10 articles and ad revenue sites.
Jodee, Thanks for doing this every morning! I just got my first three freelance jobs through FWJ.
Chris is right. The $200 per article ad sounds all sorts of fishy, so here’s what I did: I told them it sounded fishy and that I don’t work for free. Then I sent them an article that had already been published. I’m not expecting much, but I’ll gladly risk nothing for a shot at that money.
I felt the same way about the $200 job so I sent along articles I wrote a while ago that were never published…but yeah they could be just fishing for free stuff to steal and re-write–lets just keep an eye out for them…
I sent an email to the “descriptive content” ad. It’s right up my alley if it’s legitimate. If they ask me for samples then they will have to provide payment for them. All of my other clients have always done this.
Hi Jodee,
Thanks for the listings.
Thanks April–I sent out a feeler…
The “Talented Writers for Online Magazine” bounced on me, so I think they’ve taken it down.
Thanks Jodee,
Several of these look really interesting. Have a great night!
About the $200/article job – agreed, for web writing it’s high, and sounds odd. If you do apply, guys, send a PDF, not a word doc! Makes it harder for them to use your work.
I also think that the “three weeks” contact time could be a convenient way for them to count on some writers who submit forgetting about it – because they’ll have so many people who go for the rate and not enough time to probably contact all of them, either to reject of accept. Just thinking out loud.
OMG–ROXIE–u r a genius! I so should have done that! Doh! Next time I will remember “PDF”. Well, at least I sent articles that I didn’t care about (well written but I probably wasn’t going to do anything with) so it won’t be a loss per se…just a worm to see what I reel in, if anything…
Dagnabit!
And I thought the same thing regarding the three week period too…I even doubt the website will be called “cool info” of whatever they said.
Sucks how these people try to get over…
But it will come back to bite them because the work, when published, will be stumbled upon by one of the many writers who contributed an they will be exposed…
Thanks again Roxie! MUAH!
@ Alicia: No problem. We’re all here to help each other with suggestions. On another note, are you a songwriter? I’m always interested in hearing other peoples’ songwriting as I work on my project.
*my musical project.
Yep–if you go to my site and click on rock you can hear some of my stuff…
I’d love to hear some of you work drop me a line girl!
I applied for Researcher Wanted for Documentary Film and it bounced back. Has anyone else had this problem? As for the frustration with getting started in this business, I have transitioned from IT into full-time writing. I’m not your typical IT Geek and would much rather write. However, how do I communicate that to future employers? I’m afraid they’ll look at my resume and figure I don’t have a personality! I’ve got personality plus! LOL!!
@mmeetoilenoir–
Unfortunately scammers are a regular part of our workday. The key is to learn to spot them and work with your own suspicions. This gets easier with time after experiencing a few would-be scammers. While discussing it here with others definitely helps to confirm, having your own instincts is important. In general, if it sounds too good to be true, it just might be. In this case, $200 for a general interest, (400-800 words I think it was) seemed really high, the website in question doesn’t even exist yet (which further makes one wonder how they can afford to pay $200) and it just sounded all around suspect and phoney.
That being said, Roxie’s advice about sending a PDF is excellent. If I am suspicous of a job I also try to send an old sample that is outdated and unlikely to be used (i.e. a product release article from 3 years ago). As it’s been discussed by others–applying first is not always an issue and many times employers don’t review applications for several days anyway.
So that’s my advice, and I’m stickin to it.
LOL–Hey Chris, you’re right about being able to shift through the rubble and figure out what is good and what isn’t–I think we’ve all been burned in the past and in time develop gigantic BS sensors.
Michelle, some of the Craigslist stuff either bounces back or is flagged soon after being posted….
It gets frustrating — but with you being in IT you are in luck–some of the higher paid writing jobs are for people with IT knowledge–how I envy your dual brainedness…lol
mmeetoilenoir
Hey you–
You can make real good money at this–some people make .60 – .70 cents a word. I did one for one article that is being published in nw but widely circulated mag
Like anything you start off small–eventually someone offers really good paying job and there you are.
And don’t look back.
I sometiems get tempted, when I am between jobs, to go back to some of the writign mills, but then I realize you kinda get stcuk there.
I currently have a job that pays pretty good and is not research intenisve—
they exists and you can make a living, but for some , not oall fo us, it takes a while to get there…
Hang in there!
Oh and here is a thing that lets you know it is a scam–people who seem tons of samples and stress it had to be original generally do so because they are looking for free content–
I even ran across a guy who didn’t remember me (I remembered him) who had requested content from that that he said he wanted for his sunglasses website.
He used the stuff I wrote –several pages worth of stuff — but I never got paid for it.
The name of the site is Impostor City–do NOT write for him–he will steal your work.
Anyhoo, just keep your antenna up–once you learn who the fakers and shakers are, you land genuine jobs a lot quicker and more often…
@ Mmeetoilenoir: I think it’s much easier to make a living in print writing than it is in web writing. Just my two cents.
…but focus, think positive, and keep your head up in the search for freelance work! And I recommend customizing application/cover letters to each job. You’ll probably notice that, although you apply to fewer jobs, there’s a higher percentage of positive responses.