The world of the freelance writer, particularly of the beginning freelancer, can be a very difficult and confusing one. You start out with the want and/or need to see your words in print or online, and then what? How do you 
get your start? Where are the clients? Where do you even begin to search for jobs? There are billions, even trillions, of websites that are writer related on the web. Where do you go? Welcome to our literary maze. Normally, many writers begin by stumbling around the internet for months, finding freelance jobs that offer very little pay and even some that offer none at all. For many writers, this is the end of the freelance road. They drop their dreams and walk away. This, however, does not have to be the end. There are plenty of possibilities for finding freelance writing jobs, if you only know where to look.
Starting out, as a beginning writer, be prepared to look for the job. When a client wants a writer, he/she wants them right away. There is no time to speak with them, spend a couple of days creating a resume’ that you think will suit them, and getting back to the client. After two days you can bet that the job will be filled. Be prepared right out of the gate. Have a resume’ that is universal, showing a good variety of past experience and education. If your resume’ is targeting one single audience, then you’ll likely get a lot less work.
Now that you have a concise and general resume’ prepared, begin the hunt. There are many options for finding jobs. One of the most utilized is that of writer’s jobs sites. This can be a rough area to go with, unless you know your destination ahead of time. You see, there are many “automatic” writers’ job sites out there. These sites have a system that automatically grabs job listings off the entire web and posts them on the site. The problem here is that there is no human factor to pick out the real deals as opposed to the scams and lesser paying jobs. Go straight for the sites that offer decent paying jobs. The two most prominent are Freelance Writing Gigs (http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/) and eWriters ( http://ewriters.synthasite.com/ ). These sites have real human beings searching for well-paying jobs. These people spend hours searching through the thousands of online freelance writing jobs, hand picking the current authentic writing jobs. Once you log onto these sites, you will also find that they have pages that list other useful freelance writing job sites.
The next, and lesser chosen, option is site surfing. The truly experienced writer will occasionally surf the net looking at sites that contain content that he or she is knowledgeable about and interested in. Once they find these sites, they will look at the content and judge the quality of it. If the content is below their personal standards, they will then write one article that pertains to the content and email it to the site owner/editor with a resume’ and an offer to write for them. Sometimes the editor/owner will read the work, be impressed, and hire the writer. This is a hit and miss technique and should not be used as a constant manner in which to find a job. Just use it when you can afford to use up a little extra time.
Of course, there is always the option of putting up a website with your credentials posted on it. This is a good thing, even a necessity at some point, but in beginning, you need to focus on building a reputation resulting from your works. You need references before you can put up an online resume’ that anyone will look at. Even then, you will have to market your site. As a beginner, focus on getting the work. Then, when you get a little time between jobs, build a good website with lots of high-profile references and market it. Early on, simply find the jobs and build your career.
