by Jodee Redmond
Good morning FWJ Friends! It’s Monday and the start of a new month. We’ve got bright sunshine here, so I guess that means six more weeks of winter if you believe in Groundhog Day predictions. I’ve got leads for content writers, product description writers, food writers, technical writers, copy writers, and more this morning.
Leads….
Telecommute
- Freelance Writer for Multicultural Reports
- Freelance Writers @ Demand Studios
- Writers Needed @ Vast Interactive
- Freelance Travel Writers ($15 for 500 words; $25 for 500-1500 words)
- Writer Needed to Write Tattoo Related Articles ($15-$30 each)
- Seeking Freelance Firecracker Writer
- Freelance Website Editor – Food
- Writers Needed for Design Tutorials ($25-$40 each)
- On Line Poster/Web Site Monitoring ($10 per hour)
- Economics/Financial Writer
- Freelance Web Writers Needed ($10 per article)
- Freelance Writer @ DoItYourself.com ($0.02 per word)
- Product Description Writer
- Marketing Plan Help for “Green” Company
- Web Content Coordinator Part Time Contract Position – Familiar with North Shore of Vancouver ($30 per hour)
Blogging Gigs
Site Specific
- In House Freelance Copywriter @ CPM Marketing Group – Milwaukee
- Freelance Copywriter for Luxury Company - Westchester, NY
- Freelance Copy Editor – Manhattan, NY
- Freelance Technical Writer @ Proventys - Raleigh, NC
- Freelance News Writer @ Tribune Company – Seattle
- Art Squad Recruiting Creative Professionals - Fort Smith, AR
- Freelance Copywriter (Product Packaging) – Torrance, CA
- Associate @ Sugarman Communications Group, Inc. – Los Angeles
- Experienced Writer/Editor Needed - Norcross, GA
- Editor/Writer and Web Content Manager – Atlanta, GA
- Writers Needed for English Test Development – Austin, TX
- Newsletter Writer, Editor, and Designer – Boston
- SEO Expert - Dallas Metro Area
- Freelance Travel Editor - Houston
- Popular TV Website Wants Columnists (NYC/LA)
- Senior Copywriter – SE Florida
- Editor and Internship Coordinator for Online Media Company – NYC Area
- Part Time Writer @ Wall Street Law Firm ($12-$20 per hour DOE)
- Writers Needed – North Carolina
- Writers Wanted – San Diego
Internships
- Summer 2009 Internship @ Turner Broadcasting (CNN) – Atlanta (Course Credit)
- Summer 2009 Internship @ Turner Broadcasting (The Frisky) – New York
- Summer 2009 Internship @ Turner Broadcasting (The Scan Webzine ) – New York
- Summer 2009 Internship @ Turner Broadcasting (The Fetching: Style and Fashion without the Frou Frou) – New York
- Independent Record Label Seeks Writing Interns- Boston (College Credit)
- Online Community Interns Needed for Health 2.0 Startup – Boston (College Credit)
- Editorial Internship – Pregnancy Magazine – San Francisco (College Credit)
That Vast Interactive wants three 300 word sample articles. Sounds fishy to me.
Thanks for the early leads, Jodee! I’ll try to check back later.
P.S. so now we have “firecrackers” – not sure that’s any different from rock stars!
Vast wants THREE separate articles written (including related research) before they’ll even consider you? Aaack. Do writing samples mean nothing to some people? Okay, rant over. Has anyone worked for them?
Kendra,
Yeah, I wondered about that, too. What are the odds you’d have those kinds of samples just sitting around? No, you’d have to write them specifically. Sounds just a bit fishy.
Kendra, I was thinking the same thing. I’d be curious as to what others have to say.
The firecracker one – for a second, I really thought they needed someone to write about fireworks! Until I read it, of course.
Heads up, they want you to write a specific example for them, too. Geez, can’t they tell from someone’s style whether it would work? Why do they need to make people write up something specific for them?
I’m always a little suspicious of that.
I did apply once for a job that asked you to write up an article, but they promised that since I was one of the top X number of finalist that it would be used and paid for, even if I wasn’t hired. I was cool with that. They got many good articles all at once, but I was at least reimbursed for my efforts.
I didn’t get that job, but I quickly got on with another gig they had in mind. I’m still with them ten months later – their character proved to be worthy of my trust.
Thanks for today’s great leads Jodee.
Erika, thanks for your anecdote about writing a sample. I would write a sample for someone who said they would pay for it even if they didn’t hire me for the assignment. Just another example of what a case-by-case business we are in!
Re: Vast – I tried to find more info on them, but their Web site didn’t answer any of my questions, so I emailed the editor to find out additional info and will let people know if I get a response.
I’m not about to do one sample, let alone three. And I also was concerned when it said “fast research” and at least 20 articles per month, preferably more. I’m betting that means fast turnaround times on articles.
So then I found on their site that they have a “liberal return policy.” I’ve been with a company that offered money back if clients weren’t 100 percent satisfied. With that company, two months after accepting and paying for my articles on cloth diapers, they company decided they weren’t happy after all and that they wanted them rewritten from “con’ angle instead of “pro.” They filed a complaint with Paypal to get their money back. I won the battle, but it was a hassle and additional stress in the meantime.
Thanks for the leads! Lots of great stuff here.
Kendra, I thought the same thing. I’m not writing samples on specific topics without being compensated. I’d be happy to send along past writing samples, but that screams “I’m going to take your sample writing pieces and publish them without pay.” I’ve heard of that scam before for bloggers. I found this ad last year that wanted “test” blogs (I think it was 10 blog posts) for free as a way to see if the posts were any good. However, I’ve also written test blogs for a blogging position and they paid me for my samples.
Writers, bewared of these companies that want “test” samples. Personally, I won’t write samples without getting paid for my time.
@Anne: Vast has “scam” written all over them. I wouldn’t even waste my time, fellow writers.
You know, this is causing me to pause. I wrote a sample article about three months ago about children and cough syrup for some website or publication, and I never heard from the people who advertised the job. I wonder if my article is out there somewhere, without my byline on it?
Jennifer -
I’d check if I were you. Copy and paste a few sentences right into the Google search bar and see what comes up. Hopefully, not your article.
Re: Vast
I can’t verify that they are linked to this, but within minutes of asking Vast questions, I got two emails from some site (Millionsofhomejobs) that required me to go pay for a membership in GetAFreelancer before I would be considered for a job. I sent it to my spam folder. That’s the only email I sent out today using that specific work related email account.
@Therese – Writing the samples does sometimes pay off. I once did a partial sample to land a job I desperately wanted and they emailed back that it wasn’t what they wanted.
A month later, they called me up saying the writer they had hired missed the deadline and they were now desperate and needed the article in five days. They doubled the fee to $250 for a 500 to 700 word article that appeared in a fashion magazine.
So I never automatically snub writing free samples. I always ask more questions first.
I’ve been trying to log onto the Demand Studios Web site. Does anyone else receive an error that the site is redirecting, never allowing you to fill in the account information?