When you’re starting out, the real challenge lies in finding work. For freelancers with no experience or credentials, online marketplaces are a good place to start. There are many advantages to writing for marketplaces.

Better Pay

When I started looking for work some two months ago, all I found was $1-$5 articles. No one was willing to take on an inexperienced freelancer whose entire portfolio was related to an industry that was not known to the western world and about topics that they weren’t interested in. Examples being, my write ups covering the private concerts of upcoming rock bands of Pakistan and opinion article on Muslim fashion. All I got were rejection letters unless I wanted to write 500 words for $1.

With marketplaces, if your article gets picked, you’re paid a respectable amount. The articles that don’t get picked are kept on the website servers and they earn money through the traffic they generate and the ads placed on them. Constant-Content has the option to put up an article under an option where your article is bought with one time publishing rights. It can be bought multiple times by different buyers giving you additional income.

Portfolio Building

Another advantage of marketplaces is that they help build a freelancer’s portfolio. When you’re new, freelancing is more of an unchartered territory. You’re not sure about what to write and who to write for. You keep reading that freelancers have a better chance of making it if they carve a niche out for themselves but you haven’t explored enough topics or gained enough experience to decide upon a niche. The upside to marketplaces like Helium and Demand Studios is that they give you topics to write, complete with article guidelines. Perfect guidance for someone who is wondering where to start.

Get Feedback

Marketplaces also often have a great feedback system in place. Their forums are full of helpful writers who are willing to help you out in your writing and answer any questions you might have. A website like Constant-Content even has an editorial team that goes through your article to see if it passes muster before it is put up for sale. If it doesn’t they get back to you with feedback and once you’ve fixed the problems in your articles you’re free to resubmit the article. The editors at Demand Studios send the article back for rewriting only once if the article doesn’t meet with approval. If it still fails to meet the criteria then the topic is sent back to the pool of titles available to writers.

Online Mentoring

A lot of marketplace websites also provide online mentoring along with feedback. They assign online mentors who coach you and generally walk you through the glitches and hitches in your writing. Online mentoring is optional as not everyone likes to be told that they’re doing something wrong or that they need to change some aspect of their writing.

Gain Confidence

The more you write, the more your confidence as a writer grows. Since I’m just starting out there are days when I’m afraid to apply for a writing gig simply because I don’t have the experience. Keep reminding yourself that you won’t gain experience if you don’t write. Writing for marketplaces also keeps your confidence up when you’re starting out. Every article written is experienced gained and credentials made.

One of the most difficult things is the wait after submitting an article. Especially if you’re writing for marketplaces like Helium where they have deadlines by which publishers can buy your article. The one week wait to see whether your article was good enough to make the cut is hard to go through. So is the disappointment when your article isn’t picked. The key is to keep writing and not lose hope. A good writing job is out there for you.

How does one start a freelance career? Do you just wake up one day and decide to become a freelancer? Or does a lot of thought go into it and you plan to the last detail before making the jump? For me it was more circumstances and a lot of thought before I started out. Recently married, moved to a new country, and without a driver’s license. The options available to me were limited.

I also wanted to get my Masters degree but a thorough search of the country’s universities made me decide to opt for a distance learning program. Soon I was bored out of my head staying at home and becoming paranoid that my brain was rotting. Blogging only took so much time and hardly challenged the mind. Adjusting in a new country where I had no family or friends was also taking its toll.

Having done freelance writing and volunteer blogging work back home I soon started thinking of doing it here. But contacts back home had assignment for the entertainment industry which is what I wrote for there and being geographically inaccessible meant I had to find work elsewhere. That’s when I started wondering what was there in terms of online work. I couldn’t work for a newspaper or a magazine here because I did not have a driving license and getting one here is a major hassle and takes a lot of time. Barely anyone passes on the first try and the waiting period was five months!

I knew in the given circumstances my laptop was my best friend and also the tool of my chosen trade. Unlike the majority of people, I did not start freelancing to earn a full time income. I started to keep myself busy and productive. Why did I choose freelancing? Because I’ve been writing ever since I discovered blogging at BlogSpot some four years ago. And because I’m good at it.

Being a good writer isn’t enough to succeed though. The amount of effort and work that happens before you actually land a writing job is another post for another time.

The title says it all. I’m a new freelance writer with barely enough experience. How I gain experience, build my portfolio and find work that pays (and pays well) will all be written about. I promise not to leave out a single detail. No matter how embarrassing or stupid my mistakes and experiences, they will all be written about.

• How much did I make off my first article?
  

• What lofty ideals did I enter freelancing with?

• What standards did I give up in order to find work?

• Oh and I’ll even tell how long it took me to put up this website. It’s an embarrassingly long time, which is why it’ll make for a good (horror) story about a lazy and scared freelance writer.

Will I update everyday? Rarely. I’ve been blogging long enough to know my habits. A couple of times a week is all I can promise. Will all my posts be about my journey as a freelance writer? Not at all! I’ll be talking about everything and anything that strikes my fancy. But I will make an effort to incorporate the topic of writing in it. So be prepared for a post about ColdPlay and stay tuned to see how I bring in the business of writing in it.

Will my posts be any good? Won’t you let me know?