Freelance Writing Work
Quick, pick a topic that could be a piece of freelance writing work. Now go to a search engine and perform a query on that topic, and visit the first few pages that come up. I will bet that at least half of the time, you come across pages that have obviously been written by someone who either does not speak English as a first language, or who really can’t write at all. In these cases, the web site developers have decided to put up with poor freelance writing work, usually in order to lower the cost of getting the site up and running.
International competition
If you are looking for freelance writing work on the Internet, and in particular if you are using a bidding site or even just a classified style site where you respond to job postings, the odds are better than excellent that you will run into competition in the form of non-English speaking writers. Now, let’s make one thing clear: most of these writers speak English much better than I could ever speak another language, no matter where they are located, and I give them credit for that. Still, that does not mean that they can write good, convincing web site copy that is meant for the consumption of English speaking (and reading) audiences.
This regular occurrence is a big point in favor of any person who happens to be fluent in writing English. You will notice that I didn’t say speaking in English; many of these outsourced writers are quite capable in the language. The differences that stand out are only highlighted in their freelance writing work, but when that happens, it really does stand out.
You might wonder why it is that these writers pose serious competition to writers based in the UK, Canada, the US, Australia, or any other country where English is a “native” tongue. The reason is price. The cost of living in many countries is much lower than in the countries listed above, and as a result writers with access to the Internet can charge prices that are one third to one fifth of the average rate needed for another business or writer to survive. That’s quite a difference, and for many cost conscientious web site developers it’s too great to be passed up.
Side-stepping the price war
There are a couple of things that you can do to overcome this kind of competition. The first is to suffer in indignant silence, in the knowledge that the site developers will have a lot of proofreading on their hands in order to make those pieces readable, let alone convincing, to the average reader.
The second way to deal with this kind of competition for freelance writing work is to tackle it head on. This might not seem very nice or very politically correct, and really, it isn’t! One thing that comforts me is that in the majority of cases, the countries where these writers hail from don’t even translate the term politically correct. Another comfort is that this is business, and I need these jobs.
What this amounts to is a hard nosed campaign that flat out states why a buyer should use my freelance writing work instead of those offered by someone who just can’t write using proper English. I actually came to this point about a year ago, when I grew tired of watching the jobs I was bidding handed to a person who couldn’t even put a coherent proposal together, the project awarded on the basis of price alone.
To battle the competition, I rewrote my profile both on the sites I used and on my introductory letters and clearly stated that most of what we find on the Internet as far as “information” is just a bunch of words that when strung together, make no real sense. I now tell potential clients straight out that they can go for a much lower price if they want, but I can guarantee them that 80% of the time, they will end up paying at least double the cost they agreed to due to editing, or else lose time performing this vital task themselves.
I have also come across several situations where I have been hired as a proofreader, and after going through a confused jumble of words I point out to my client that what they essentially have on their hands is just a pile of junk, and no amount of proofreading can help it to make sense; the whole piece needs to be re-written. I have gained two of my steadiest clients in this way; frustrated with a continuous cycle of proofreading, they have decided to dump the extra costs and get it done right the first time.
Be bold about your skills
The world of freelance writing work is a competitive one, particularly on the Internet, but if you are willing to be bold about your skills and the weaknesses of the competition, you will be the one walking away with the jobs. It isn’t always nice, but in the end both you and your clients will be better off for it.
I should state in closing that one of my clients recently remarked to me that it wasn’t just writers who didn’t speak English as a first language who had problems writing copy. She figured that out of twenty different writers she had used since starting her online business, all but three just couldn’t get a piece together that made sense, and that included at least two university-educated freelance writers. If you have the skills to get the job done right, market them aggressively!
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