The Frustrations of Kicking Off a Freelancing Career

It is not as easy as it looks.

Freelancing is a very effective way to supplement your monthly income. If you are a writer and your desire is to publish a few of your grander manuscripts, freelancing for a variety of publications offers a tremendous avenue for exposure. In fact, there are few better methods out there that can establish your reputation as a credible writer. However, like in any specialized field, kicking off this freelancing career takes a ton of energy and patience, not to mention long hours of research.

When I was ready to begin my freelancing career, I believed that all of my proposals would be snatched right up; that the numerous amounts of rejections received annually by countless other writers would never pertain to me. This, as you can imagine, was incredibly naïve. I received seventeen rejection letters before my first paying gig, and my first paid very little. By joining the splendid world of freelance writing, I joined a vast competition where a competitor with more talent always seemed to be right around the corner. I received letters that congratulated me for my accomplishments and offered their sincere gratitude for my submissions, yet concluded by saying, “we found another talent who better suited our current needs.”

This is the unfortunate golden rule of the trade: you will receive an average of 10 rejections before receiving an authentic “congratulations.”

Yet I would continue to find articles that confess daily of the successes of my competitors. Considering their obvious effectiveness, I began to research their articles and tried to determine how their work differed from mine. Was it their ability to develop mesmerizing description or the plethora of their vast vocabulary knowledge? Perhaps it was their originality that drew their devoted admirers and the attention of their publishers. All I knew was they were beating me and I was unable to ascertain any conclusive answers as to why.

And then I found a strong similarity shared among the more successful freelance writers: pre-existing exposure. It appeared that they spent their first few years as freelancing artists publishing in open forums that were designed for beginning writers. Though most of these forums offer some residual source of compensation, these artists sacrificed time and resources for the building of their reputations as writers, and, as a result, they are now receiving the offers you and I dream of acquiring.

In fact, the earlier works of these freelancing celebrities were just as loosely assembled and as grammatically backwards as ours. Not only did these open forums assist in the building of their reputations, they also provided an excellent source of practice.

After four months of focusing my efforts on the building my reputation on these open forums, I received my first offer from a publication based in Los Angeles, California. Shortly after completing my first assignment, I received an acceptance letter from a magazine in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which opened the door for many more freelancing opportunities thereafter.

Tackling a career in freelancing can not be tackled haphazardly, but with patience and an incredible persistence. Unless the skills of writing desirable manuscripts reside in you like natural reservoirs, investing your first efforts into practicing your craft and exposing your work through these open forums might not be a bad idea.

Here are some of the open forums that come highly recommended:

1. Ehow

   EHow publishes your “How To” articles, as well as offers a small compensation residually based on your article’s popularity.

2. Triond

   Triond reviews your articles and publishes them on sites befitting to their focal points. Based on the popularity of the advertisements placed next to your article, you will receive a monthly compensation for your work.

3. Sologig

   This site provides a very comprehensive listing of freelancing opportunities. Some of the listings require you to be in a specific geographical area; however, the majority of the opportunities listed here are offering open forums for beginning writers.

4. ODesk

   This is another exhaustive source of freelancing opportunities. Generally, this site is used as a freelancer classifieds page. Even though there are few open forums listed here, it still might be worth your while to browse.

5. Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

   Blogging is always an excellent mode of practice and exposure. In fact, beyond the efforts of advertising that is required, blogging can be one of the easiest methods available to young writers.