How Can I Find Write for Us Opportunities For My Niche?
Tips and Tricks for finding freelance writing clients
When I first started freelance writing, one of the issues I struggled with the most was exactly HOW to find freelance writing clients.
Sure, I quickly discovered content mills like Upwork (was ODesk then), Guru, and Freelancer. But those jobs were extremely low paying and it was difficult to compete with freelance writers from third world countries who were willing to work for low pay.
When I did take work on Upwork, I worked my tail off for very little money until I was fortunate enough to find clients willing to pay a bit more for quality content.
Many other freelancers suggested I check content mills such as Textbroker, popular job boards like Problogger and Mediabistro, or third party freelance sites like Guru, Fiverr, and Freelancer. And there were some good jobs on those sites but finding the good paying ones that fit my skill set was time consuming.
I found I had to sort through oodles and oodles of job postings that didn’t suit my skills or participate in a race to the bottom bid process to get clients.
It just wasn’t working very well. I was relieved to find that there was indeed a better way to find writing clients.
So, for those of you who are just starting out, here are my tips and tricks for finding those companies and businesses that are in your niche area or a related area and who hire writers.
Search engines like Google, Bing, or even Yahoo can be your friend when it comes to finding writing opportunities in your niche or genre.
A search engine can only find results for what you tell it to search for, so it’s critical to know how to use search engines to find what you want.
You can use any search engine you like and you may find different results from Bing than Google. Perform a search using phrases like the ones I’ve listed below:
For Non Fiction Writers and Other Freelancers
- Search for “Write for Us +Your Niche or Topic”
As you can see in the example below “write for us parenting” turned up over 168 Million results! Some of the results are lists that include multiple parenting blogs or magazines.
Not all of those will pan out of course and you need to pay attention to dates or include a search operator that gives you most recent results, but it’s certainly a good starting point.
Now what if you write about parenting but you want to niche down even further and write about babies or teens? Simply adjust your phrasing.
Instead of “write for us parenting”, use “write for us babies”, “write for us teens”, etc. Don’t forget the quotation marks or your results may not be specific enough.
What if you write blog posts or you’re a copywriter, or an editor? What if you prefer to do product reviews or are a technical writer? Simply adjust your phrasing in the google search until you get results that seem to be a perfect fit.
The key is to use the phrases and terminology that are relevant for your industry and be specific. “Seeking technical writer” and “hiring technology writer” will produce very different results.
Other phrases to try include hiring (type of) writer, seeking (niche) writer, looking for (niche) writer, etc.
For Fiction Writers
Submission Guidelines + Your Genre will work for those of you who write fiction. You can also try “call for submissions+genre” for some additional possibilities.
The example below “submission guidelines fantasy” turned up over 16 1/2 million results! Some of those may not be currently accepting manuscripts but you still want to add them to your database and check back with them later in the year.
Search Any Website for jobs specific to your niche!
If you know how to use search engines, you can perform the specific searches on job board sites, like LinkedIn, Indeed, Problogger, etc. From your browser window, type the following in the search bar:
site: www.websiteurl.com “your niche writer”
As you can see in the example below, site: www.linkedin.com/jobs “cannabis writer” produced 476 possible results. This kind of search is a great way to find companies that are hiring in your niche too, follow relevant companies, even if they aren’t currently hiring writers.
When you do a website wide search, you need to look carefully at posting dates because you will get all jobs in that niche posted on that site. Some of the jobs could be old or could already be filled.
With sites where individuals may have “cannabis writer” or “your niche writer” in their profile, you may wanted to adjust your phrasing to “cannabis writer wanted” or “seeking cannabis writer” to avoid your results including profiles of other cannabis writers.
But you get the idea.There are a ton of different search operators you can take advantage of that will help you research more efficiently.
If this is something you want to learn, you can build elaborate search strings that will find just about any information you need. You can find more information on search operators and how to use them here.
Now go find those write for us opportunities and get paid to write!
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Meg Stewart has been freelancing for nearly two decades. She’s a multi-passionate skill hoarder and the intersection of freelance writing, technology, and teaching is her sweet spot. Freelance Ladder was founded to help writers get paid and help solopreneurs do tech stuff better. Meg and her family, (along with two dogs, two cats, and two leopard geckos), live in Northeast Ohio. Follow her on Medium or become a Medium member and get unlimited access.
