Comments on: The New Job Dance

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:39:00 +0000

Here you go, Kirk.

http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com

Anne is Anne Wayman. She compiles a list a few times a week, and she posts in on her blog. She’s an absolute doll of a person, too.

By: Kirk Petersen

Kirk Petersen — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:19:00 +0000

Could someone point me in the direction of “Anne’s list”?

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:35:00 +0000

Jen, you impress me. Way to go!

Watch for that post, Kathy. It’s coming… 🙂

By: Jennifer Williamson

Jennifer Williamson — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:26:00 +0000

Two of my longest running clients have been people I cold-emailed. I did a quick Google search for businesses in an industry I was interested in, found a bunch of websites, and fired off some emails outlining what I did and how I could help their business. Landed two very lucrative clients that way. It’s an easy, absolutely free way to market yourself and in my experience it gets results.

By: Irreverent Freelancer

Irreverent Freelancer — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Here’s an idea for a future post: When contacting past clients who haven’t heard from you in a while, what do you use as a subject line to draw their attention and ensure they don’t just delete the message?

By: Irreverent Freelancer

Irreverent Freelancer — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:04:00 +0000

I’m actually in the process of touching base with a bunch of past clients right now. Although it hasn’t led to immediate work yet, it has resulted in a few who said I might need you soon–and that’s just one day into the strategy. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

I’ve gotten good gigs through both Craigslist and Elance, but such gigs are especially hard to come by these days. I agree with Devon. “Most of the job listings suck over the past few months.”

By: Katharine Swan

Katharine Swan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:52:00 +0000

My two longest-running and most lucrative clients were both Craigslist jobs. Two others were Writerlance listings (both of whom ultimately contracted me off of Writerlance, interestingly enough).

I agree that job boards shouldn’t be your only way of marketing, but I still think there are good jobs to be had. I also think the more impressive your resume and portfolio, the more chance you have of getting the good jobs, so the competition doesn’t scare me… much.

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:45:00 +0000

I agree — most of the job listings suck over the past few months. It’s the copy mills that pay pennies who are advertising for the desperate, and want quantity, not quality.

I hadn’t realized until I responded to this post, though, that the long-term, well-paying jobs I landed from Anne’s site were all fiction-based.

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Excellent point, Devon. These can be sources of work, but I think my argument was against them being the MAIN source of work. The jobs have deteriorated so much on some of the sites.

Anne's list is an exception. She works her tail off to find worthy projects. Didn't mean to lump her in the mix!

By: writtenexpressions

writtenexpressions — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:26:00 +0000

I attended a Chamber of Commerce open house when I started freelancing, and they gave me a directory of local businesses. Instant mailing list! I landed one of my best clients from that.