By Joe Dyton
Job boards can be a great resource to find writing clients, but they aren’t necessarily one of the best places to pitch your freelance writing services. It’s tempting to lean on job boards however. After all, the job posts typically give you a point of contact, the work you’ll be doing, experience requirements and maybe even a rate. There’s not a lot of legwork on your part—just find a job board site, find the “freelance” section and start applying.
Sounds easy, right? It is the easiest way to reach out, but not necessarily the best way to do so. With job boards, you’re likely going up against hundreds of applicants, making it harder for you to stand out as a prospect.
I’m sure you’re now thinking, “Great Joe. Then what are the best places to pitch my freelance writing services?” Well, your better bet is do some “cold” pitching to places you want to write for. Chances are they might not need you right now like the companies you see on job boards, but they aren’t getting pitches from freelancers every day. So when they do need a freelancer, you’ll be on the top their mind—and more likely to stand out than you would among a stack of job board post applications. I know there aren’t really “stacks” of applications anymore, but you know what I mean.
Who should you pitch instead? Here are some of the best places to pitch your freelance writing services.
Companies/Corporations
What are your areas of expertise and/or interest? The companies that sell or specialize in your interests or expertise are a good place to offer your freelance writing services. Think about it, if a company needs freelance writing help, who are they more likely to hire, a general writer, or you who specializes in their industry? I’ve worked in the real estate and insurance industries and those are the companies I spend most of my time pitching (usually to positive results!).
Advertising/Marketing Agencies
Agencies usually have copywriters in-house, but may use freelance writers occasionally to handle overflow work. Past work experience in a particular industry could make you a more attractive option to an ad or marketing agency if it has clients in that industry.
Magazines and Blogs
Where are my fellow journalists? Magazines and blogs are where you’ll want to pitch your freelance writing services. Depending on the publication or blog, pitching them could be a little more work because some often want you to present a story idea, not just offer your services. There are plenty of blogs and magazines that are happy just to assign you story topics though (my personal preference). The great part about landing a magazine or blog writing gig is it can lead to recurring work.
This is another great area to leverage your past industry experience. Pitch where you’d like to write, but be sure to reach out to places that cover industries that you’ve worked in before. Editors will be much more comfortable assigning an article or post to someone who has experience on a given topic. One of my newest clients is a result of my car insurance writing experience.
Graphic Designers
This applies to individual graphic designers or graphic design firms. Designers often create a client’s artwork and then the client has to look elsewhere for copy (if they need it). Reach out to graphic designers and let them know you’re available to help their clients with copy needs. Pitching designers is a great way to form a creative partnership—you can deliver copy for their clients and you can point your writing clients in their direction if they need artwork to go with your brilliant words.
Organizations
Think the American Association of Blank in your area of expertise or interest. There’s likely no shortage of organizations in that industry for you to pitch! As I mentioned, I have insurance and real estate writing experience, so my search would take me to associations in those fields. I also have a sports writing background and would not hesitate to find athletic associations to pitch my services to.
Emails, ads, blog posts, direct mail letters, website copy are just a few things organizations might need you to write for them.
Yes, reaching out to these places cold to offer your freelance writing services sounds hard—harder than applying for gigs on job boards for sure. I agree, but I also think about what Tom Hanks said in the movie “A League of Their Own” about baseball—“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”
There are parts of becoming a freelance writer that are hard, too—cold pitching is one of them, especially at first. But that’s why not everyone does it. I know you can do it, and that in time you’ll find better clients this way than devoting all of your pitching time to job boards.
Thanks for reading,
Joe
Joe Dyton (@JoeDyton) is the President and Founder of Dyton Writing and Editing, and a freelance insurance, real estate and personal freelance writer. He’s written for Connected Real Estate Magazine