Finding Writing Jobs Online: 3 Places to Search Post Google Panda

Listen to Demand Studios freelancers these days and you’ll find many up in arms about the sudden halt of available writing opportunities--something the writers have absolutely no control over. They do, however have control over getting new clients. In fact, if these authors spent the time they spend complaining to or about DS for the lack of eHow assignments, searching for other writing gigs, they’d definitely meet with more success.

One writer even took time to create a lengthy, demanding petition and encouraged frustrated freelancers to sign. It commanded DS make more assignments available for authors. DS contracts, not hires writers. Demand Studios is merely one client. It’s not the job of a client like DS to keep freelancers steeped in assignments. 

Pundits continue to warn writers about the restraints of working for only one or two online consumers. Making a living with online writing means writers must continually build and update their client-base–-similar to the way Google continually updates their search data to stay on top of the heap of search engines.

Google's Panda Piled a lot of Freelancers onto the Endangered List

Since Google’s sweeping Panda updates, content mills that pay upfront have taken a beating and most of their writing assignments have significantly dwindled.

Ironically, the mills won’t go out of business because they have huge databases of content built up on their sites earning healthy advertising revenue. That’s thanks to the thousands of writers who got paid to generate millions of words for the mills to post.

Two of the biggest, Brighthub and DS, both averaging payouts of $15.00 per article have announced drastically limited writing opportunities for a miniscule pool of authors. Bright Hub has even stopped paying royalties on titles already posted on their site.

Break Studios handed out a smidgeon of writing opportunities in their assignment pool after June 2011. And though most content behemoths continue hiring, many newly hired freelancers haven’t completed one measly article. They’ve never even collected their first paycheck. Large numbers of online authors became endangered post Google’s Panda. Google, however, doesn’t have to ruin your career as a thriving online freelancer.

3 Post Panda Assignment Finding Options

Freelancers must now find other ways of writing online to flourish in their writing careers. One of those is signing on with websites posting available freelance opportunities. Here are three options for getting paid to write.

Realwritingjobs.com displays countless freelance jobs for writers, graphic designers and editors. They offer a free seven day trial for you to gauge their opportunities. After the seven days is complete, membership runs $47 a month unless the freelancer cancels.

Freelancewriting.com has been linking writers to several hiring sites for more than ten years now. This writing site keeps current on assignments listed by several job sites including ScriptLance, eLance and Freelancer.com. This saves precious assignment hunting time. You can check in daily and eventually discover which membership site provides the best package for you.

Guru.com posts thousands of freelance jobs for writers, editors, graphic designers, translators, photographers and broadcasters. Level one membership is free for freelancers or you can sign up for packages starting at $9.95 to $34.95 each month. Once the freelancer contracts a job, Guru charges the freelancer 4.5 to 9 percent of the fees they receive for the job. The percentage paid depends on the membership level the freelancer signs up for.

One Online Client is not Enough

It used to be a no-brainer for thousands of freelancers to write for upfront pay content mills to earn a little or a lot. To their detriment, too many began relying on these low pay per article sites as their major source of income.The loss of income from content mills such as DS and Bright Hub should remind hard working freelance writers to always have a back-up plan that includes several clients.

Successful freelancing calls for having numerous clients. I write for online and offline clients. Some need a lot of work done, others not so much. Freelance writing is a business done assignment by assignment. It’s all about growing your client base by providing exceptional copy–one customer at a time. 

Don’t forget to heed the number one rule of freelancing: continue renewing your clientbase. Rose Smith, founder of http://paidwritehq.com has sold over 90,000 copies of her self-published books and DVDs. She's been featured on Montel, CNBC and national magazines such as Family Circle, Writer's Digest and Woman's Own. Visit http://paidwritehq.com for more information on freelance writing.