5 Tips for Cold Pitching Potential Freelance Writing Clients

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If you don't know how to properly pitch an editor, your freelance writing career is going to be pretty short-lived. You can only make a first impression once, so you want to take your time and make a careful pitch that will catch an editor's eye.

Now, it's important to understand that more often than not, even with a stellar pitch, you won't get a response. Don't get discouraged just because you don't hear back from an editor or executive. But if you're doing it correctly, you can get a response to one out of twenty, or even one out of ten. If you're racking up stats like that, you're doing pretty well. The following tips will help you get those treasured responses.

4 Sites That Can Help You Kickstart Your Freelance Writing Career

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There are hundreds of blogs on the internet about freelance writing. Thousands, actually. Google offers about 2,750,000 results to the search "How do I become a freelance writer?" But the answer is simple: You work at it.

Many of those blogs say conflicting things. The bad ones will tell you to spend a dozens of useless hours running around in circles for "clients" on some race-to-the-bottom site like Upwork or Freelancer so some asshole can pay you a penny per word. Others will toot their own horn about how successful they are without really telling you how they got there. And of course, like most things on the internet, the vast majority of them will tell you nothing at all.

So who can you trust? That's why we're here. I want everyone who reads this to know who they can trust when it comes to advice about building their writing brand and career.

1. Jason McDowell at Just About Write. Yes, this is me. Here's the gospel truth, my friend. Every one of us who blogs about writing is doing it for self-promotion, so I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to plug myself. But also know that some of us are doing it to help. My blog on the topic of freelance writing is fairly new, so it's not getting the most traffic or topping the search engines, but I'll tell you this: I will not lie to you. I have been doing this for a couple of years now, and I worked several years at a trade magazine before that. I know this industry and my advice will steer you in the right direction. I promise.

2. Bamidele Onibalusi at Writers in Charge. This site doesn't seem to update much anymore, but there's a lot of valuable evergreen content still sitting on Writers in Charge. It's a great place to go to find lists of magazines and blogs that pay, that accept guest posts, etc. You can Google lists like this and come up with many of them, but they are often way out of date or flat-out inaccurate. Writers in Charge does a pretty good job of vetting these lists to make sure you don't get ripped off.

3. The Write Life. This site provides a constantly updated stream of guest posts from successful freelance writers aimed at guiding you toward a successful writing career. It's definitely a must-stop for those still trying to get their feet and figure out where clients come from. You'll also find a lot of less common advice, such as practical tax tips for writers, or good gmail add-ons that keep writers organized.

4. Jorden Roper at Writing Revolt. Jorden Roper advertises "no-bullshit, in-depth freelance writing advice" and that advertisement is spot on. I particularly enjoy watching her take the content mills and bidding sites to task for taking advantage of writers, and her blog and training sessions offer an endless supply of straightforward, no-frills advice to freelance writers of all levels. In particular, beginning freelancers will get a lot out of her kick-you-in-the-ass style of advice. This is a first stop for any writer trying to figure out how to get started, or anyone who needs a no-nonsense shove in the right direction to help them get their career on track.

These writers and sites won't steer you wrong. You deserve the work/life balance that comes with being a writer, and reaching out to take it shouldn't mean you don't also deserve a good income. We're here to make sure writers like ourselves can succeed. Maybe some day you can return the favor.

4 Places to Look for Freelance Writing Gigs

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So you've done it. You've finally taken the leap and decided to be your own boss. No more suits and ties, no more long commutes. You can wear comfortable shoes and your cat can sleep on your desk. You're a freelance writer now. Congratulations.

That first day you sit down at the computer, open a Google or Word doc, and suddenly realize you have nothing to write. Well, shit.

But never fear. That's what blogs like this one are for. Here are 4 places you can look for freelance writing work:

1. Your own network. This is, first and foremost, the best place to find steady work. Never underestimate the power of personal connections. My first steady freelance work came from a magazine I once worked at. Another client went to the same creative writing MFA program as I did. Take the connections you've made and turn them into strengths. Call up old bosses and see if they need advertising copy, or someone to populate their company blog or social media pages. Many managers and business owners can be sold on the idea of brand help from somebody who actually worked in the trenches.

2. Craigslist. This is highly dependent on where you live. While you can write from anywhere, finding a legit, paying local client on the Craigslist page of Duluth, MN, is far less likely than doing so in New York or LA. That said, not every client needs to be local, and not every Craigslist ad is looking for a local writer. Most of these gigs are going to be for blogs, and if you know a lot about niche areas like food, make-up, or fitness, you'll probably have more luck than most. None of these jobs will pay the rent on their own, but they can be good ways to build up some clips.

3. Freelance websites. Don't go to Fiverr or Freelancer or Upwork. You might find a valuable client once every blue moon on these sites, but the time it takes to do so isn't worth effort. You'll have much better luck on LinkedIn, or on job boards such as BloggingPro Job Board or the freelance section of MediaBistro. You'll still find a lot of shit to wade through (and beware of posts disguising full-time jobs as freelance work), but its less deep and the treasures are much more common.

4. Pitching editors. This is where the real money is. There are two ways to do this, and I've had some success with both, so I won't knock either. The first way is to blanket pitch, offering your writing services to editors and hoping for assignments. For this to work, however, you'll need to provide an impressive portfolio. Editors get enough pitches that they aren't going to go out of their way to work with you unless you give them a good reason.

The other way is to pitch specific story ideas to editors. The downside of this will be spending hours upon hours writing up articles that nobody ever bites on. The best advice I can give here is to find a name. Don't pitch your services into the deep, dark hole that is a general editorial e-mail address. Not only do many of those pitches end up in spam and never get seen, but editors will be more impressed that you took the time to discover their hard to find e-mail address.

PRO TIP #1: Most companies have a format for their email. If you can't find a specific editor's contact info but you have their name, then find someone else at the company and change the email address to the editor's name. Firstname.lastname@company.com should always be the same, no matter which employees name you plug into it.

PRO TIP #2: Know your role. The Editor-in-Chief doesn't want to talk to you. Freelancers are below their pay grade. Instead, send your pitches to Managing Editors or Associate Editors, who more typically handle writers.

There's a lot of money out there, and there are many ways to get your hands on it as a writer. As you begin to find success as a freelance writer, you'll find that your clients come from a combination of these methods above, and probably others that aren't mentioned. If you have more advice about where freelance writers can find paying clients, leave it in the comments below.

Don't Let Clients Take the "Free" Out of Your Freelancing

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I want to address something here that I constantly see on nearly all freelance job boards, LinkedIn, and all the rest. There's a dangerous trend going on in the corporate world as companies move to more flexible work models. For anyone just starting out, I want you to be able to recognize it for what it is.

FedEx just settled a lawsuit for $228 billion over it. Trade in the U.S. came to a standstill several times over the past few years because West Coast ports keep doing it. Hell, even Microsoft has been found guilty of doing it.

What is it, you ask? It's the misclassification of workers. Go ahead, go on LinkedIn right now and do a search for "Freelance Writer" and see what comes up. Almost every job you'll find is a long-term, 40-hour a week gig that expects you to be in their office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday. What does that sound like to you? Because that sounds an awful lot to me like they want you to be an employee.

As you embark on this journey for personal and financial freedom, don't let anyone trick you into being something you're not. Yes, there are certain gigs that require a freelancer to come into an office, but for most freelancers, and for writers especially, that shouldn't be the case. As a freelancer, you should be given a project with a deadline and whatever guidelines the client wants to provide. You should set your own hours, and your relationship with that client should be client/customer, not boss/employee. If you want to do all of your writing for clients at 3 a.m. while eating a huge bowl of ice cream, that's your prerogative. You are your own boss. That's sort of the point. It's their job to tell you what they need, and when they need it by. How you get there is completely up to you. Their only concern should be the quality and timeliness of the work you turn in.

If you find yourself pulling long hours in a cubicle at a company you don't technically work for, and you don't have a fixed end date on the end of your contract, you are being taken advantage of. You should ask to be hired full time if you like it there, or at the very least, you should renegotiate the terms of your contract (specifically, the parts about where you work from and how).

Nobody has the right to use your title of freelancer as an excuse to avoid giving you health insurance or retirement benefits. Believe me, they know the law, even if you didn't.

TL;DR? You're the boss. Clients tell you the what and when. You decide the where and how.