I think bidding sites on the Internet are the best freelance writing markets. No wonder, I have made most of my money from them and found my best clients there. However, there are plenty of other ways to find writing work both online and off; in this article we will take a look at a few of them.

Finding work offline

When it comes to freelance writing offline, you basically have two options: newspapers and magazines. This sounds pretty narrow but of course it isn’t: there are literally thousands of print publications all looking for people to write for them. The key, as always, is breaking into these freelance writing markets.

So how do you go about that? Well, I don’t really know. The only things I have ever had published offline were letters to the editor. Although I feel that they were very well written, I certainly didn’t make any money from them.

Of course my lack of success offline could be due to the fact that I am not very persistent when it comes to landing freelance work; I have only ever written one query letter to an editor, and that was Mel Rothenburger (yep, that’s his real last name) of our local paper, who has a bit of a reputation as a man who takes the medium sized fish in a small pond attitude to a whole new level. Also, the fact that he doesn’t see eye to eye with my dad (who is a local politician) might have something to do with the fact that I never heard back.

Personal grievances aside, I never really followed up on that letter, which is absolutely the opposite of anything I have ever read about breaking into offline freelance writing markets. Here are some pretty common guidelines that I have found, and if they work for you please let me know! I probably won’t give them a try but they would be great additions to the reference part of the site, for those who want to break into print without a lofty Bachelor of Journalism degree (I don’t think Mel has one)

• Start out locally; it’s a lot easier to tackle issues you are familiar with.
• Be both patient and persistent, without being pushy.

Not much to go on, is it? Still, you look at any freelance writing guide and people will swear that these approaches work, so long as you have some writing skill to go with it. For myself, I am pretty happy to leave the editors behind and use the freelance writing work that can be found on the Internet.

Freelance writing markets online

There is a bit more diversity when it comes to the freelance writing markets that can be found online. We go over bidding sites in depth in another section of this site, so here we are going to take a look at how to get your foot in the door outside of bidding for the opportunity to write.

1. Job listings
   There are dozens of sites online which list jobs for freelance writers. Craig’s List is one such site; there are new freelance writing markets listed every day on that Goliath. Similar sites include www.freelancewriting.com and www.writerswanted.com.
2. Query letters
   Yes, the same methods that work offline can also work online. I have landed a couple of great freelance jobs just by contacting sites and letting them know what I do. I usually do this after I arrive at a site and find very low quality articles and information; with only one exception, I started out as a proof reader and then ended up doing some of the writing as well.
3. Search engines
   One way to find freelance writing markets online is to just go to a search engine and type in “writers wanted”. There are always people looking for writers to add content to their site, so most of the time you will find opportunities by following the trail that Google paved.

Whether you are looking for freelance writing markets online or off, you need to realize right away that at first, you are going to receive more rejections (or just no answer at all) than opportunities. Don’t be discouraged; once you start landing a few jobs you will be able to establish a reputation that will (hopefully) lead to a much better percentage in terms of success.