10 Reasons You’re Not Receiving a Good Response to Your Freelance Writing Job Ad
April 27, 2009 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
One of the reasons employers like advertising at Freelance Writing Jobs is because they receive a decent amount of quality responses to their job ads. I feel this is because I have a clear set of guidelines for all potential clients to follow. Laying it all out in plain English for freelancers means qualified applicants apply and there are no surprises or disappointment.
I come across ads every day that wouldn’t pass muster here because they do nothing to attract good writers. If you’re receiving a disappointing response to your freelance writing job ad, there’s probably a good reason. Many freelance writers are turned off by certain types of ads, perhaps because they land in in one of these categories:
10 Reasons You’re Not Receiving a Good Response to Your Freelance Writing Job Ad
- Your ad is too vague: If your ad doesn’t offer any details about what the job entails, writers will be reluctant to apply. We’re busy people. We can’t waste time on a job that we’re not suited for. If your ad says nothing more than “Writer wanted – send me your details” we don’t know if you’re a scammer, spammer, or just have no clue how to go about hiring a writer. We like details, lots of details. Talk about pay, where you’re from and the type of writing you’re looking for and we’ll show you the love.
- Your pay is too low: You can’t expect a boatload of quality writers to respond for a job only paying a buck or two. We have families to support and bills to pay. We can’t be bothered to take $1 jobs seriously.
- You’re not paying at all: Even worse than extremely no pay is a client expecting something for nothing. Call it what it is, volunteer work. While there’s a time and place for everything, most freelance writers aren’t looking to volunteer, they’re looking to put food on the table.
- Your ad is filled with misspellings and poor grammar: There are plenty of clients who hire writers because they themselves can’t write, this is to be expected. But when your job ad is written in teen text chat speak or sentences make no sense, we’re inclined to pass. If we can’t understand your job ad, how will we understand your instructions?
- You say nothing about your company or business: We like to research who we might be working for so we know if we’re a good match for the job. If the ad says nothing about who you are or what you do, we might be a little nervous about sending you our details. Let us know who you are so we can send our credentials in confidence.
- You don’t list any contact details: You’d be surprised at how many potential clients forget to tell us how we can get in touch. If you’re not receiving a response it might be because you forgot to leave a number or email address.
- You set the wrong tone: If you’re rude, sarcastic or talk down to us, we don’t think we want to work for you. Think about your tone before you submit your ad.
- You start out with mistrust: If you have a laundry list unreasonable do’s and don’ts on your ad, we might be inclined to label you a difficult client and pass. We don’t like to be made to feel as if you think we’re going to steal every article and miss every deadline. Trust us until you have a reason not to.
- You don’t list the type of writer you’re looking for: If you’re looking for a beauty blogger or a FOREX writer, let us know. We don’t want to waste our time (or yours). Let us know exactly what you’re looking for and if we’re a good fit we’ll be in touch.
- You don’t want a writer, you want a slave: It’s probably not a good idea to list an ad looking for 500 articles in one week. We all feel we’re good at what we do, but we’re also realistic. We’re not superheros, we’re writers. Be realistic in your own expectations, and we won’t flake, miss deadlines or turn in content that’s not exactly original.
Love this. It should be sent out to everyone who’s posted a lousy job ad in the last year.
I responded to a vague ad today, but decided to check it out anyway. Then I got a weird email from another woman who’s going on about how the guys at her college don’t please her in bed? I’m like, “Great! Now I’m going to get more spam!”
I completely agree, and especially want to comments on #’s 7 and 8. Tone and trust level can be such a fine line for a job poster to walk.
For example, I love job ads that offer detailed information about what the prospect wants. Even if they give me a few hoops to jump through, I don’t mind if it seems like they are throwing up those hoops because they know what they are doing. It makes proposal writing easier and clues me in that I’ll be doing business with someone who knows their way around handling a writer.
On the other hand, some equally detailed ads just seem unreasonable. It really is the tone of the ad that differentiates between the two types. It makes me wonder if the job poster really is that demanding or he/she just isn’t a good enough writer to convey what they want.
I applied for a business plan writing and research gig a few weeks ago and got a response. The person expected me to do all the research and write a detailed plan for nothing!
As soon as I asked the pay rate I heard no more, funny that!
Great post. I really dont get why people ould expect you to put man hours into a project and expect to pay you peanuts or nothing at all. Otherwise a very insightful post.
really wish everyone who posts ads for us could read this! i replied to one ad today that sounded great except for a request of a ‘head shot’…wth is that about? probably don’t want to know!
have a good night everyone!
This is an excellent post. I was thinking of suggesting a post like this because some of the ads that we see are just so poor that it’s clear ad posters could use a little instruction. I especially like 1, 4, 5 , 7 and 8. There’s nothing worse than an ad that says nothing about the company or job and is simply: “Writing job. Send resume and rates.” How do you quote rates when you don’t even know what the job is? If I have time, I will simply send in an equally vague email requesting more info. This really doesn’t benefit the company–I’m sure they get bombarded with vague emails. I will also pass when an ad looks unprofessional or condescending–who needs to open that door.
One other thing I would add is Too Much Detail. When I’m skimming through ads, the last thing I want to do is spend 10 minutes reading the entire About section of the company’s website, the life history of the CEO and every single thing I’ll be doing in every minute of my day–I want the basic details of the job to decide if it’s even worth applying. Any ad that starts off with a long, in-depth description of the company or life history of the poster, I skip–I can get that info on my own, if the job is worth my while. I just want the basics: Type of writing, amount of writing, topic(s), pay rate, contact details and a little background on the company/website/publication. I think ad’s should be as short and concise as possible, while conveying the details that writers need to decide if it’s up their alley.