Very comprehensive list here, and it’d be interesting to see the same list from the employer’s perspective (how to improve…). Many of these are good points regardless of your profession, and I feel like many people never even think to consider 6 and 7. Thanks so much.

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There was a similar list several months ago from an employer looking to hire someone. It stated the dos and don’ts when applying for a gig.

The only thing was that particular person had posted the gig at numerous outlets and was still looking several weeks later for someone. I don’t know if they chose anyone in the end.

Personally, I don’t see any point in advertising a gig on 10 or more job sites. The position was not specialist, it was straight forward blogging on a subject that everyone knows about.

By the way, I didn’t apply for it but a lot of people on here did as far as I can remember.

I’ve already noticed – from an initial exchange of emails – that the lady I hired and I are VERY similar. It looks like we’re going to get along really well: she chooses how she works, we agree on a deadline, I suspect she’ll get a bonus at the end. Perhaps it’s a “standard freelancer” mindset?

Very comprehensive list here, and it’d be interesting to see the same list from the employer’s perspective (how to improve…). Many of these are good points regardless of your profession, and I feel like many people never even think to consider 6 and 7. Thanks so much.

$40 per 500 word article (6 or 7 articles monthly)

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/wri/1185090201.html

(Read carefully, need to send in samples)

Mentioning my name will not be especially helpful; we didn’t quite click, since I’m really not a trained journalist and she’s a trained journalistic editor… But just say you heard through the freelance grapevine, etc. that they might be in the market for freelance journalists.

Lisa

I think the key is research, research, research. I always find time to research gigs. Sometimes I stumble on some really high paying ones too but no doubt the competition is very tough.

There are some excellent paid ones out there you’ve just got to find them. Also, the CNN doesn’t sound too bad, should be ideal for a journalist like yourself. All adds to the portfolio.

Opportunity knocks!

Thanks for the leads. Grant writing is a different skill — I’m a trained journalist.

Hospital and doctors will offer payment plans. Another affiliated hospital gave me five years to pay off surgery for another daughter 10 years ago, but the amount was a lot less.

Never get me going on why we need health care reform…My soap box just got bigger and higher with these bills. The good thing is that my daughter is better (she needeed back fusion surgery and was in a lot of pain before it was done, basically pain free now).

A few possible directions you might want to explore:

If you’re really interested in the $250 CNN and Weather.com gigs, the New York Times Co has a custom pub group called LifeWire that does assign these – here’s one of mine: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/02/22/sr.musicians/

I can also tell you that Tonic.com is a good gig to consider: they pay quite nicely ($150 and up) for articles, and they’re much pleasanter to work with than the NYT…

About.com (also New York Times) is not a bad gig, especially if you pick a topic that has ecommerce possibilities… they do pay regularly, though NOT copiously.

Lastly: if you have an interest, you might want to consider federal grant writing. I can make multiple thousands writing a single federal grant (I only write non-technical educational grants, mostly to NSF and NEH). Have found several really lucrative grant gigs through this site alone (though have many outside contacts).

Lisa

I would probably take the CNN work only because I could probably work it around other things I’m doing in the day. I try to schedule interviews so I can work on several projects in a day. Just received an assignment from Asia that requires me to talk to someone in Belgium, which means dealing with a lot of different time zones…so with a good schedule, the CNN item would provide some decent income.

I have a different view than a few days ago, I just found out the non-insurance portion of my daughter’s back surgery is $50,000, so I have to take in a lot of stuff.

Firstly, I agree that writing crap does nobody any good – that’s not what Lisa or I are talking about, Ros. We’re talking about simpler posts that often come straight out of our heads and don’t need hours to build. They’re simply not going to get any better if they’re left to simmer for another hour, because they’re train-of-thought content.

Secondly, the statement “If writers stopped accepting such small amounts of pay, then clients would not able to take advantage” is so far from the truth that it’s not even funny. Three words: free market economics.

Thirdly, there’s no reason online pay should be less than real-world pay. It is, but it shouldn’t be.

That’s not the point, though. The point is the difficulty in finding decent-paying jobs online and not finding them in the local pub – as seems to be the case for virtually everyone here who has a good client base.

Oh, and Lisa – autism? Totally cool. My partner’s a psychologist… wildly interesting topic!

It’s also the case that pay seems to vary idiosyncratically. I’ve been paid better for tiny assignments than for big ones… and I’ve had huge corporations pay peanuts while little mom and pop shops have paid much more.

That said, certain TYPES of writing do pay more than others. Often, that’s not because of work involved or time spent in reearch, but rather because of perception. That is, it’s assumed that ad copy should be paid more highly because, after all, advertising is a niche specialty (HOW much for “Coke Is It???”).

In my line of work (most education/non-profit), I make much more to write grants than to write curricula. It doesn’t necessarily take longer – nor is it necessarily more difficult – to write a grant, but since other people are scared of writing grants, they’re willing to pay more LOL!

Lisa

These are very different types of writing – and IMHO – one is not necessarily better or worse than another.

If I did write about handbags or makeup, I don’t think I’d spend a lot of time crafting prose. Rather, I’d spend the lion’s share of my time checking out the quality of the product.

I’m certainly not advocating poor grammar or writing! I am saying that the amount of time one spends writing a particular piece is not always the most important issue to consider. And I guess I’m also saying that sometimes a quick, clever blog post is just fine!

Lisa

No one is talking about using “scholarly” language. I always advocate simple, straight-forward language. You are putting words in mine and Ros’s mouths and making some pretty big assumptions. Nobody is attacking you personally. I don’t read fashion and make-up blogs, so I have no idea what is appropriate there.

Ros,

Thanks.

I don’t really understand why taking a longer time to write necessarily increases the quality of writing. Granted that it’s important to review and edit any piece of writing, I don’t believe that quality can be measured by hours spent.

This perspective reminds me of scientists I’ve worked with who believe that content is “dumbed down” when a writer uses simple English (the study of ancient climates) as opposed to the scientific term (paleoclimatology).

IMHO, while there are times when very careful, in-depth research, review, drafting, fact checking and scholarly language are appropriate, there are times when a quick, pithy blog post is the right choice. One person may love Flaubert, who took forever to write a few lines – while another might prefer the works of Isaac Asimov (who churned em out almost monthly!).

Both have value.

Lisa

If we write good quality articles, I don’t see why we should accept low pay. I will not just write an article or blog post in just a few minutes just to make the low pay worth while because I do not think I would be writing well, and I will not lower my standards. It wouldn’t do me any good.

If writers stopped accepting such small amounts of pay, then clients would not able to take advantage.

And why should we accept lower amounts of pay just because it’s online? Should online writing be lower quality than any other kind? I don’t think so.

Ros

I was referring to upping your rates to see how a client responds. They always say to initially quote $5 or $10 more per hour to see if they’ll accept. If they think it’s too high, you can negotiate down to what your lowest acceptable rate is.

For example, I recently did a proofreading project for a small business. I was going to say $20/hour at first, but quoted them $25/hour and they didn’t complain. Instant raise! That’s what I love about freelancing.

I still hold to the belief that the best gigs out there are not published online. Clients on those bidding websites are only looking for the cheapest labor, and it’s not fair to the writers. Instead, start talking to your friends and family, or any small local businesses about writing any kind of content for them to start getting writing samples. That’s how I’m getting started, and none of them advertised on CL or elance or anywhere for that matter.