Freelance writer success story: Landing a gig using Craigslist

For this post, we’re going to do something a little different. Instead of me yapping about my own experiences, I’m going to let subscriber Halona Black take the floor.

Halona reached out to me after I sent this email about freelance writing job boards. She told me all about how she landed a client using *gasp* Craigslist. I was so happy to learn about her story that I wanted to share it with you.

Before handing off the mic though, I’d like to mention a few quick things about Craigslist. I know a lot of other writers are quick to dismiss the site because of all the spammy and scammy posts. And while there are a lot of shady things going on there, it’s important to remember that there are also legit job postings on Craigslist.

In fact, I actually found my first writing job using the site. Yes, it was just an unpaid internship, but it was a solid stepping stone to some paid work. The key is learning how to distinguish good Craigslist ads from time-wasters. Next week, I’ll be sharing some tips on how to do this, so be sure to keep an eye out!

In the meantime though, I’m going to let Halona take the spotlight so you can read about her wonderful success story and be inspired to get moving.

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I take 1 day a week to look at online listings for writing jobs. I found my first decent paying job through Craigslist ($25 per 200 word article) on Craigslist. 

What I do is go to the main Craigslist page and look at the writing and editing jobs section of major cities across the US. If I find something that looks like it may be a great fit, I send them an email stating that I’m a freelance writer and I saw their post on Craigslist. I briefly tell them my experience with writing (2 to 3 sentences), respond to any other questions the post may have asked to be included in my response, then link to 3 relevant clips.

 I always write my articles for a client in a Google document first before sending it as a Microsoft Word Doc. When I am approaching a company as a freelance writer, I simply send the prospect a link to a relevant clip as a Google doc without having to have a fancy online portfolio. 

I do have a website that is referenced in my signature in my email, but I find that being able to send people clips that are relevant to what they are looking for is more efficient than randomly posting clips on my site.

Before I had clips of what I had written for other businesses, I simply sent clips of what I wrote on my own blog. I have a women’s health blog at http://GarlicAndLemonsLLC.com that I have kept for about 3 years. I gathered some of my most popular posts and sent a link when responding to a writing job. That was how I got some of my first paid (albeit poorly paid…) gigs through Elance. Having a blog has allowed me to learn about SEO tips, how to use WordPress, and how to develop an audience for your blog. These are all skills that companies are looking for in their writers. Now that I have many other clips that companies have paid me for, I no longer use Elance and can focus on better paying jobs. 

As a result of my writing jobs, I have been able to relocate from NJ to Orlando, FL solely on my writing business. The money I make is enough to pay the bills right now, so I’m busting my tail on marketing to get better paying clients. I only started writing for money in mid-May, which means that I’ve been doing this seriously for about 3 months and I don’t feel I need a regular job to support myself. So if I can do this, anyone can.