I recently decided to give a go at freelancing as so many websites say it’s actually fairly easy to do. I am here today to officially debunk that myth. For writers, we are a passionate group, however the market for writing is pretty cut-throat and hard to really break into. I had never actually thought about freelancing until a few days ago when I came across an article that told me “The way to get started.” I got really excited, and have been stalking the few websites I have found to see if anything comes up within my interests or expertise. Let me put it to you this way, when they say “get started” they literally mean here’s the websites and go. What they don’t tell you is you’ll definitely want to broaden your horizons.

Freelance work seeming stems from a few things, what I can see on these boards for writing are mostly articles for teen magazines or even women’s magazines such as Cosmo or Cleo. I had no desire to write for these magazines, but on these kinds of websites, that seems to be the majority of the articles. All fluff pieces, talking about the top (insert number here) ways to (insert random thing here). If you want to freelance, and you’re desperate, then you’d be at the right place. The better solution is something I strangely didn’t see on any of these so called “How To Start in Freelancing” articles was to get out there and research. Your local paper may take your submission, your favourite magazine may also take your article and while you’re at it just blog it.

A lot of really reputable magazines and websites will have a place where you can actually submit your work and they will take it into advisement. Sometimes you’ll get feedback, and sometimes you won’t, but the important thing is getting your name out there. Be aware however, if you submit something that is absolutely terrible they will remember your name for all the wrong reasons, so be kind and please revise! I for one still haven’t picked up any freelance work as I’ve taken on two blogs and a short story this week. Majority of the freelance work on these websites want a mass commitment from you. I saw one that asked for sixty articles, minimum four hundred words each and they would pay you sixty cents a post. After sixty articles and twenty four thousand words, they will give you thirty six dollars. That is the reality of much of the freelancing I have seen thus far. They want more for less. I’ve been writing between two thousand and three thousand words a day, six days in a row now, which brings me up to roughly fifteen hundred words. No, I’m not getting paid for mine, but to think I’d need to write for ten days to crank out that many words (at least) for thirty six dollars makes my hourly rate probably a dollar twenty if I do three hours a day. I suppose what I’m saying is get a day job.

Freelancing is like training for the Olympics. It’s going to be hard, you won’t make any money until your famous and then you have to remain consistent to keep the money coming in. But the hardest part is training, write and read my friends, I cannot stress it enough. Even though I just recently got back into writing, I know I haven’t read enough lately to really enrich my stories. I just like all of you out there need to train, need to work at it and I’m still not even ready to practice for the practice squad yet. But I will know when I’m ready, and then I will make the push further, for now my goal is to consistently write over two thousand words a day and make my targets of two blog posts and a page of a short story. I’ll raise the bar next week! For now I am off to work and I hope everyone has a great “humpday”! The weekend fast approaches!