Are you tired of spinning your wheels, as I am, looking for freelance writing work on job boards? I even subscribed and paid money to have them. I have not one legit job from any of them. They have all been scams. I’m not talking about LinkedIn or any of the legit sites that have been around for a while.
I’ve had enough. I’ve wasted too much time and energy on these.
Sorry, (unnamed) job boards. I’m breaking up with you. You guys are all the same. And it’s YOU, not me – as I throw my head with the back of my hand on my forehead.
I have a new love in my life. Here’s what I’m doing instead.
You see, job boards lured me into hiding behind my laptop. Maybe COVID pushed me to reach out as I should have done all along. This quarantine has nudged even the homiest of home-bodies to do some pretty crazy things.
I’m finally crawling out of my introverted-ness (Grammarly said that’s not a word – well, it is now!), and I’m approaching editors who are in charge of receiving articles to publish.
And you know what?
It’s not scary. It’s exhilarating! It’s even, dare I say it? FUN! I think this new relationship is going to last.
I’ve been missing out on real interactions with real people in the industry: my fault – nobody else’s. But maybe some of you can relate.
I submitted my first article to a magazine that I think very highly of. WOW – It was scary because I really wanted all my ducks in a row (I want this one real bad) before approaching them. I wrote a 1,500-word article and worked on it forever.
I finally just emailed them. It turns out we had a great deal to talk about – so much in common. We went back and forth for a while. The editor sent me guidelines, and I submitted my work. The wait to see if they want to use my article feels longer than the quarantine. Every morning I’m looking at my inbox to see if there’s an acceptance.
Squinted eyes and fingers crossed!
Guest posting was something on the back burner for me. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. But I did join a Facebook group that had an editor of an ezine looking for submissions. I sent an article to them (one of the first ones I wrote on my blog), and they loved it. She slotted it to publish in June. The piece was the first in a 5-article series. The editor said she wants to read the next one.
For a while, I have been writing articles and adding them to my blog post. My perspective has shifted now. I was thinking, after no interaction with others, that it was a futile exercise (writing on my blog), and that nobody would see them. Now I’m rethinking the articles on my blog and wondering how I can spruce them up a bit – because you never know who might want you to send one to them. I want them to be ready.
Are you struggling to get going? Which publication are YOU drooling from afar to gain recognition from? You know you’ve got the “goods!”
Contact them for guidelines, work on a piece for them that you are proud of, then jump! If I can do it, YOU can too!