Finding Private Clients

[CityGirlLuv]

I should be writing now, but with all the mass firings DS has been (and is about to do), I decided that I'll take the time to help others out who have been effected by this. I know some people are hesitant to tell where because they are scared that it'll soon become overcrowded; however, I think it's time to break away from that thinking process and start helping out one another. Using the "search" function doesn't really help especially when it's jacked up. There is a workaround to that.

Let's say we want to search things about "Remilon". Go on Google and on the search bar type in "site:wahm.com remilon" exactly like that but without the quotes. This is going to bring up results for things posted on this site that deals with remilon. So if you want to search for let's say Demand Studios...remove "remilon" and replace it with "demand studios". Make sure you have "site:wahm.com" on there. Some of you may know about this, but not everyone.

Now back on topic, feel free to add to this list all you want to and hopefully it'll be stickied for others to be able to view.

List:
crazedlist.org : search craigslist like a madman - you'll need to use Firefox so that you can disable the referrers. Sounds hard? It's really not! Just view this video: How to disable referers to get crazedlist.org working on Vimeo on how to do so. It's a piece of cake!

ONLINE WRITING JOBS - Freelance Writing Jobs

http://www.odesk.com

Elance | Outsource to freelance professionals, experts, and consultants - Get work done on Elance

Guru.com ? Find Freelancers for Hire. Get Your Project Done.

WritersWeekly.com

Jobs for Bloggers - ProBlogger Job Board

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Faceb...06581329394324 - If I'm not mistaken, I think he owns online-writing-jobs.com but he also posts other listings you may not find on there.

Work at Home Adventure's Job Lead Listings | Work at Home Adventures

Freelance Writing Gigs ? Freelance Writing Jobs | A Freelance Writing Community and Freelance Writing Jobs Resource

Write Jobs - This one is my personal favorite. It is NOT my blog!

Job Search Results | LinkedIn - You must have an account to view this. I have the free account. Where to says "keywords" just put in "writer", "freelance writer", "medical writer", etc. Be creative!

vWorker.com: More capable, accountable and affordable. Guaranteed.

Job Listings - JournalismJobs.com

mediabistro.com: Jobs - You need an account to view the details of the job position. It's free.

Find Freelance Jobs & Freelancers - iFreelance.com - There's a fee for this place; however, there's a possibility you can get a job better without all the competition: Learn More About Freelancer Memberships - iFreelance.com

United Kingdom jobs, cars, property, free classifieds and more - Gumtree.com - I haven't used this myself, but I know others said that they have used it with success.

Buy Web Site Content, Order Unique Articles, Hire Freelance Article Writers and SEO Content Writers - Constant Content Custom Website Content. - Basically you write articles and then put them up for sale. There may be someone who keeps purchasing articles from you. Of course, that is a great way to snag a client.

Freelance Writing Jobs - 29 Places to Find Telecommuting Freelance Writing Jobs - Just another list that you can preview. You may find that some things on there are already listed here; however, there are some sites on there that even I don't know about...so dig in!

All Freelance Writing | Writers’ MarketsAll Freelance Writing - Just some writers markets I thought you'd like to dig through.

https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome - Do little tasks and either cash out your rewards or spend them on Amazon.

Okay, so I need to get back to writing. Feel free to add in more links! Just put http:// in front of the url to turn it into a hyperlink (make it clickable).

[ErinHill226]

I have found in my own experience that the best way to snag good clients quickly is to contact businesses who may need your services directly. There are several reasons this has worked better for myself and many others.

For one, when you apply to a job listing you are competing with possibly hundreds of other writers. Sure, you may get lucky based on your individual experience, but the odds are against you. You are possibly competing with people living in India who can work for under a penny per word.

When you write a company directly they might NOT need your services. But sometimes they will. Several times I happened to reach business owners who had been considering adding new or better content for awhile. I got the gigs because I was THERE. (Okay, so hopefully I was also qualified...but you see where I'm going...) I had ZERO competition. I was the only writer who had taken the initiative to contact them just to say "Hi, wondering if you could use this..."

If you are going to do this, I would suggest starting in an industry or topic area you have worked in extensively. When I do/did this, I chose online retailers because I have been writing product copy for several years. Granted, one of those retailers is apparently well known amongst online retailers because they are so large, and that did help. But if you specifically say you are a writer "specializing in..." it'll automatically boost your persona as an expert in whatever that is.

How do you contact them? I sent emails, which may have been spam...but I sent them all individually. Sometimes I even contacted customer service and asked who I should speak with. A lot of times they would give me a direct name of their marketing director or CEO. Sometimes they never responded at all. My script was very brief. It went something like this:

"Good morning/afternoon/evening, My name is Erin Hill and I'm a professional freelance writer specializing in catalog copy for the retail/home decor industry. I was wondering if you ever work with freelancers for creating effective copy on your sites? Who would be the best person to speak with?"

Short and sweet. Sometimes I got nothing. Sometimes I had up to a 25% response rate (1% for a direct mail letter is average). Many already had a project in mind and would send an email with "I'm looking for..." Others would ask me to outline exactly how I could help them. I love those. I'd browse the site, find areas I knew I could improve, and lay it out with factual info to back it up. Some of the stuff I'd learned from writing with the large retailer, and the smaller guys thought I was a genius. :-)

If the prospect of being labeled spam is worrisome for you, although I think a simple inquiry like that is fine since I wasn't blatantly SELLING myself. "Do you need more effective copy? Look no further...!" would have been pushing it... then you can also try cold calling (yuck) or direct mail. If you do direct mail, I suggest a full sales letter rather than short and sweet using Bob Bly's format.

Anyway...those are my two cents. I'm going to try some of those sites anyway. They are a good tool for interesting jobs.

[Ccook]

Thank you!! Very helpful.

[DiaperMommy]

Thanks for posting this.

[VCat84]

This is very sweet of you to post.

I have gotten things off of pro blogger before. I have also landed gigs off of ads on the main page of this site.

[ThisIsMiss]

Thank you for the info, ladies! This is really great advice, and I really appreciate it.

With the recent stuff with DS, I've decided to start working towards finding an office job for a little while (I don't really want to, but I feel like it's the best given my own financial standing at the moment), but I will keep this info for later. I do hope it gets a sticky in the meantime!

[yurika975]

Great idea for a thread! <hugs> I was feeling a little down after all the DS stuff..and snagged myself 2 new clients...One on odesk. (ha! my first after lots of Nos) and another from mturk....wooo! Ego boost that someone wants me. Thanks for sharing the info...

[CityGirlLuv]

Originally Posted by yurika975

Great idea for a thread! <hugs> I was feeling a little down after all the DS stuff..and snagged myself 2 new clients...One on odesk. (ha! my first after lots of Nos) and another from mturk....wooo! Ego boost that someone wants me. Thanks for sharing the info...

Welcome and yes I love mTurk! Definitely a great and useful site since I tend to shop on Amazon a lot lol.

[rosegrower]

Mturk is fantastic but there aren't enough writing tasks to make a good sized egg. I do some of the other tasks when I have time.

[dmcgaw]

This is a great post - it should be made a sticky since people ask about finding private clients so much.