KLF Writing Services

This is a fairly common question among new writers. Finding clients isn't always easy, and it does take some thinking outside the box. If you want to write online and make a good living out of it, writing for private clients is most definitely the way to go. First, you have to find them.

 
Scour the Web

Your first inclination is going to be to type in terms like "jobs for writers" and you are going to get a lot of hits that involve writers talking about their work or trying to find work. What you need to do is consider what an ad might say and then type in terms that reflect what a client is looking for. A few examples are below.

"academic writers wanted"
"copywriter wanted"
"writing position"

As you can see in the first example, you even narrow down the venue you want to work in. Some other examples are below.

"fashion writers wanted"
"write about _____________" (Fill in the blank with your niche.)

Hopefully, you get the idea. What you are doing is using the search engine's method of ranking keywords to find the exact positions you are looking for. If you're still getting too many hits that don't reflect what you are looking for, narrow it down more.

"Telecommute academic writers wanted"
"urban fashion writers wanted"

Use Craigslist

Some writers have had horrible experiences with Craigslist. Personally, almost all of my experiences with them have been positive. However, I use specific methods to make sure they are positive, or at least aren't a waste of my time.

If you shop on Craigslist now, you probably look in your own area. Unless you're looking for an in-house position, that's not how you want to approach Craigslist for a writing job. Instead, use the All of Craigslist feature. Here, you can search everything Craigslist has to offer, whether it's in your area or not. Just type your search terms in the text box and revise them as needed.

Sign Up On Job Boards

There are plenty of places where you can find clients looking for writers. Consider joining job boards like eLance. oDesk, and others. I don't personally use them, but I know writers who have had great success with them.

Network with Other Writers

When I started out, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew how to write, but I didn't know how to write for an online audience or where to find work. The best decision I have ever made in my writing career was to join the Accentuate Writers Forum. I highly recommend it as a fantastic resource for writing leads, peer editing, tips, and just all around great writing advice. Network with the writers there and put in some real effort, and you are almost guaranteed success as a writer.

There is nothing to put the writing community in a panic like the loss of a major site or the reduction in work from a major site. You'll hear a lot about having other eggs and lots of other financial advice from people working in the same place that you are. The truth is that you may have to think outside of the box (like writers aren't already).

You can make money from your blog, selling your articles, getting private clients, and all the other ways that online writers already know about, but might not use. And yet, there are ways that you haven't even thought of.

Raise Money for Someone Else

It's not like you don't know how to market or write to an Internet audience already. Now put that to use in another area. If nothing else, soon enough it will dawn on you that if you can market for someone else, surely you can do it for yourself.

Look to sites like For the Schools, where you can earn cash back for schools, but you can also earn some for yourself. In fact, you can literally dictate how much you earn because you get to decide how many people you invite. In turn, you get a bonus every time someone signs up. You can donate it to the school or keep it for yourself. What would I suggest? Charge a nominal fee (maybe 10%) to set up the account and then give everything else to the school. You'll be able to help the community, make a bit of money, and endear yourself to the school and local businesses, who might just need a marketing professional.

Mystery Shop

Believe it or not, you can make some decent money as a mystery shopper. How does your writing come into play? Reports and headaches, that's how.

Every report you write goes back to the mystery shopping company. They have to be able to read the report and pass it along to their client. When push comes to shove and bonuses are available, is that company going to look to you-- someone who provides well written reports that don't have to be completely rewritten before going to the client, or someone who may or may not turn in a legible report every now and then?

There are other things you can do. Edit, tutor, sell items online, create copy for friends who want to sell items online, charge a fee to teach other people how to make a living online, and lots more. You're a writer. Do what you do best and get creative!

When I talk about scam writing sites, I use the term "scam" loosely. It means that yes, your work might get published. You might even get paid. But, somewhere along the line the site will lose integrity and you as the writer will feel the effect of it. Below are some red flags that a site may not be all that you expect it to be.

No TOS or Contract: Most freelance writing sites have a Terms of Service (TOS) that you agree to or a contract. These are the places where your rights are spelled out as far as copyright retainment, reprint rights and so forth are listed. If you find a site that doesn't have one of these, that's a good indication that it isn't a professional site. For instance, one poorly run site that offered no TOS or even a loosely formatted contract was WritingbyCyndi.com. On the upside, that means that every article sold to the site can now be sold for reprints. The downside is that writers and clients alike can expect that lack of professionalism to cause problems down the road. (Hint: Google isn't all that fond of complete reprints.)

Lack of Writer Reviews: When you look into working for a new site, be sure to Google it and learn about the experiences of other writers. A lack of reviews can mean that the site is too new to have any reviews yet, so tread carefully. You don't want your finances wrapped up in a fly-by-night sort of site.

Avoidance of Direct Answers: Lots of sites are too busy to answer every email. But, if you have a question about payment or the details of the writing and your email is ignored or responded to without actually answering the question, there are one of two things happening. Either the owner is avoiding the question or they don't even know the answer. I'm not really sure which is worse.

Payment Under Different Names: Again, WritingbyCyndi.com comes to mind. On that particular site, the payment comes from the owner's boyfriend rather than the owner or the site name. There are two things to consider here. What happens if the other person decides to take the money and run? You have no contract with them. Why doesn't the owner have their own account or the site itself have one for that matter?

Late Payment: There are some sites I write for that don't always pay on the exact day they are due. Sometimes this is because of a holiday or even a backlog. If payment comes within a day or two of when it's expected, this isn't always a big deal. After all, we've all had deadlines that were stretched because of a power outage or other technical difficulty. The problem is when it becomes a habit for the site to pay late or emails regarding payment are met with hostility. Unprofessional sites like this always go under. It's simply a matter of time.

Call Themselves Your "Employer": When a writing site starts taking out taxes and paying unemployment insurace, they are free to call themselves your employer. Until then, you are a freelance writer contracted to do specific tasks.

In short, it's always a good idea to get some background on online writing sites before you put too much effort into them. Unless you enjoy writing for free, do your homework to avoid online writing sites that are really just scams. Below is a list of places that is updated as I receive information about sites that offer insight into online writing site scams. Remember that a site that is listed even once as a scam has burnt at least one writer. Don't let your own name be the next one to get burnt.

Accentuate Writers Forum
Writers Beware