Photo by riot jane.

The new year is always a good time to reflect upon your business practices of the previous year. Did you perform as well as you’d hoped as a freelancer? Or did you get rejected more often than you were expecting?

When you’re turned down for a freelance gig, how does it make you feel? It stings, right? Even when you have a few years of experience. It’s tough enough being a lonely freelancer, tougher still being rejected for a gig you were hoping for – or worse, counting on.

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Photo by taiyofj.

I was recently involved with a web magazine that used the Freelance Switch job board to advertise for a few positions. The quality of applicants was fantastic, compared with those some other sources referred.

The positions were ideal for freelancers who wanted some of their work to be regular, without having a ‘job’ and losing the benefits of a freelance career. They involved doing some writing and self-editing two or three times a week, taking up maybe an hour at a time.

We got far more submissions than we had jobs to fill, of course, and I spent most of the week going through applications and sorting the best from the rest.

It wasn’t a particularly fun experience—writing and editing is what I do best—but I did learn a lot about why some freelancers aren’t getting the jobs they apply for. Here are some tips on landing them—a list based on the things that applicants at our magazine impressed us with and annoyed us with. Consider this practical feedback!

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Image by patty_colmer.

Looking to make some more money, I checked out a bunch of the more popular freelance bidding sites a few weeks back and subscribed to the RSS feeds to see who was looking for a writer.

Now, I’ve known a few designers and coders who’ve found work through these sites but for me, I haven’t even seen a single project I wanted to bid on, let alone gotten any work.

It’s not that none of the work seemed interesting. The problem is that the majority of the postings I read were flat out horrifying!

One example:

I need someone to write 100 articles for a web site. I can only afford to pay $1 per article but this may lead to more work later. Also, all articles you submit will be checked through Copyscape.

I’m not sure I even need to say anything about the rate being offered, but “may lead to more work later”? Continue Reading