Finding Work

By now, you should have samples to show clients and a website that displays all of your work. The next step would be to find some work. I would recommend that you sign up with a few auction sites - these are job sites which advertise posts that invite writers to bid for work. The downside of these sites is that competition can be stiff. The flip side is that once you do start work and clients like your work, they are more likely to offer you long term work.

When I started freelancing, I thought it would take me forever to get started and I never believed that I would find work so quickly. Within 6 weeks of starting my business, I had landed myself three long term clients. That was a buzz. These clients provided me with enough work to see me through until I landed my first big contract.

The best place to find work on the web would be:

• www.elance.com
• www.guru.com
• www.ifreelance.com

Stay away from www.freelancer.com which is notorious for low paid jobs. It may be worth subscribing to their jobs alert service and perhaps you may even find a rare bit of well-paid work on it!

Other places to look would be your friends, colleagues and local businesses. Get some free business cards which are available from www.vistaprint.co.uk. Hand them out to local schools and stores - you never know when you may get work.

Try placing an advert in your local paper to see who responds. Perhaps you could offer new clients a discount? If you are wondering how much you should be charging a word, I would recommend that you charge between 3-5p a word. Use the lower limit to start off with and work your way up.

In case you are wondering, your spelling, punctuation and grammar need to be excellent to get the higher paid jobs. That said, no one will pay you good money if your writing style is terrible but your spelling is perfect. You need to have both skills.