Finding Work at a Local Level

Most newbies make the mistake of spending hours glued to the Internet and on job auction sites looking for the next big writing assignment. Yes, these sites do have a plethora of work you can do, but they are competitive and make it difficult to get the jobs in the first place.

I should know. At any one time, I had applied for over a dozen jobs before I got one that paid really well. Thanks to a kind gentleman who decided to take a chance on a new writer, I landed myself an ebook assignment...and because my client loved the work so much, he decided to give me more work.

While these sites are extremely competitive and can really get you down each time your bid is declined for whatever reason, the best source of work is actually offline. In fact, the best source of work is your home town. What are the chances that there will be hundreds of writers competing for work here?

Join your local chamber of commerce and get familiar with the various businesses that may be in need of a good writer. Scour your local paper and mail shoot every company that places a big advert in the paper. Chances are if they have a budget for advertising, then they are the type of company that will spend good money on hiring a writer to do anything from writing brochures and promotional material to writing their web content and maintaining it. 

If you can, go and visit web design companies as they often require someone to write the content for their site. You may be able to strike a deal with them -give them a good rate and they may give you regular work for years to come. The same goes for ad agencies and marketing houses. There is plenty of work to be had if you know where to look.