Free for Freelancers

One of the first things I learned when trying to break into freelance writing is that I needed to make a name for myself. This does not necessarily mean that you have to become a best selling author or write for a large syndicate. What it does mean is that you create a presence on the web. This can be done in several different ways, and all of them free.

One of the best resources I have found thus far for getting my work out there is ezinearticles.com. This is a website that offers writers the opportunity to submit articles on a wide variety of subjects and gain online publication. It is free to set up an account with Ezine Articles and free to submit your articles. The submission process is fairly simple and user friendly.

One of the few drawbacks I have found with them is that when you are a new writer, or not a platinum level writer, it takes up to 7 days for your articles to be accepted. This can change though once you have had 10 submitted articles accepted. Once this happens, the Ezine staff determines what level you will move to. I was fortunate enough to be given platinum status after my first 10 articles, which means I have unlimited submissions and my articles are now reviewed in 2-3 days instead of the standard 5-7 for lower level members. So if you decide to use this website I would suggest sending in your first 10 articles within a week. This will give you the opportunity to be able to submit more and move up in status a bit quicker.

Along with getting your work out in public view, you can also use the website's tools offered in the author's section to better hone your freelance abilities. One of the things I have found most useful is being able to view how many times each of my articles have been viewed by others. This allows me to see what types of articles I am writing are doing the best as far as drawing traffic and which ones are not. An added benefit to this is it can help you find your niche, or your corner of the freelance world you will focus most on. Right now I am finding that my self-help articles are doing the best.

You may also notice in the right hand column of my blog you can view and click on some of those articles I have submitted to Ezinearticles.com. The ability to do this was a simple application available in the author's section as well. After generating a code on Ezine's website, it is a simple copy and paste from there. If you have a personal website or blog of your own, this could help advertise yourself and abilities more efficiently.

Another free resource for someone that is wanting to break into freelance writing is creating a blog, if you have not already. I created this free blog at blogger.com. By having a blog you can begin to create a following. The blog can be about anything you want it to be and will give you a playground of sorts for trying out new things. For example, I have tried different topics and ideas with this particular blog already. I have also tried different add-ons and Google AdSense. The important thing is that you are creating yet another place for you to build your name and get noticed. I use my blog as a reference on my Elance account as well, which leads me to my final free resource.

If you want to try and begin getting work as a freelance writer you can create an account for free at Elance.com. Here you will find a plethora of jobs for freelance writers. You will also find out that there are just as many, if not more, people bidding on these jobs. When you sign up for a basic account you are given two credits to use for bidding. These two credits are good for one month and if you do not sign up for one of their packages you will be limited to only two credits each month. Each job requires a different amount of credits in order to be able to bid. Most are either one or two credits each, typically depending on the amount of money that can be made on the job itself. So if you are a basic member, like me, you will either have the opportunity of bidding on two jobs each month or one, depending on how many credits you use. Even though my ability to bid on jobs is limited on Elance, I still like the opportunity to learn more about how to bid on jobs and learning the whole process for free. You may not get many jobs in the beginning, but the experience you will glean from just getting your feet wet in the bidding process will be well worth your time.

There is no doubt that there are many other free resources out there for freelance writers to use. I chose these three because I felt they would give a good array of different resources available. So if you are not already getting your name out there, start doing it. If you have yet to begin learning how to bid on jobs for freelance work, then sign up Elance and start learning. Whatever you decide to do, just keep moving forward with your dream.

Please feel free to add any free resources you have found to be helpful in the comment section below.