by Deborah S. Hildebrand

Created on: March 28, 2009

Five Best Free Websites to Find Writing Gigs: My Fave No Pay, No Bid Online Places to Look for Assignments

While I have been writing freelance for about ten years, I have always supplemented my income with my human resources consulting. It has only been over the last couple of years that I have chosen to do less and less consulting and more and more writing. For this reason, I have focused heavily on finding sources for good paying writing gigs.

Naturally, one of my best resources is via word of mouth in my local community. However, I have also found several long-term clients and some great short-term writing assignments through these five websites.

Craigslist

Because I live in the Los Angeles area, naturally I frequent the craigslist for that city. However, that hasn't stopped me from checking out and applying to writing assignments in other cities as well. In fact, one of my best clients, for whom I have been writing articles for nearly two years, is based in Connecticut.

The other aspect that I like about craigslist is that you can post your resume so that potential clients can find you as easily as you find them. I have made several good connections this way.

Freelancewriting

Because freelancewriting focuses exclusively on writing, not only are there a lot of jobs to search through, there are a lot of other features to enjoy.

First, the writing jobs are separated into twenty categories: from content writing and copywriting to travel writing and technical writing. Next, freelancers are invited to create their own portfolio to showcase their work to potential new clients. Finally, there are newsletters, a database of magazine guidelines, job feeds, and articles to enjoy.

Sunoasis

I like sunoasis because I have been using it for several years. I like how easy it is to search the list of jobs, and now I can have the latest updates sent to my Twitter page.

Granted that the jobs here are from other writing job resources (i.e. craigslist, mediabistro), but what works for me is that here they are all gathered in one place and they are freelance, which means I don't have rummage through all the other websites to find them. This is especially nice since craigslist has a lot of locations to choose from and sometimes I'm just too lazy to look beyond L.A.

Ed2010

This is one of my newer finds, but I enjoy nosing around the site a lot. As the team at Ed2010 likes to say, they are "a community of young magazine editors and magazine-editor wannabes who want to learn more about the industry so we can fulfill our dreams of landing top editing and writing positions in the magazine industry."

Here you can find writing news, advice, mentoring opportunities, or you can just drop by and read the blog and look for a writing gig - freelance or otherwise.

JournalismJobs

For me journalismjobs is one of the more sophisticated-looking websites and offers writing opportunities not only for freelancers, but for those looking for full-time writing gigs, internships, and fellowships. There is also media news, industry events, contests and more. I'll admit while I have submitted my resume, I have yet to score a gig here. Yet something about this site keeps me coming back to look.

I know there are other websites that offer writing gigs and other writers probably have their faves, but if you are a freelance writer and you have yet to visit any of these, do so. You'll be glad you did.

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