Job Boards and Paid Work

I finally got my FIRST PAID JOB (not including my fiction novels) in November of 2013. 

(And for a quick update, I made $16.23 in November for my fiction book sales.)

A common place for writers to look for paid work is on job boards.  I won't mention them by name here, but there are plenty. 

Paid ones.  Free ones.  Good ones.  Not-so-good ones. 

People have had success on them all. 

For that reason, I believe they're worth a shot. 

You never know. 

But tying to my last post, don't expect to simply cruise job boards and in a few short weeks be raking in the cash. 

While people have had success, I have yet to hear of that kind of success. 

And if I did, I wouldn't believe it.

The thing with job boards is you will typically get low-paying work from them. 

Not always, but generally speaking. 

And there's nothing wrong with that! 

You may want to hold out for those high-paying clients.  Certain lines of thought encourage you to do just that. 

But coming from someone who's been "holding out" for over 6 months (and much longer if you count the time after writing my fiction novels), I say get paid to write!

Even if it's $10. 

You've gotta start the ball rolling at some point. 

You will gain momentum, and your paychecks will increase over time. 

So what was my first paid assignment? 

Writing a bio and editing some marketing materials. 

I got paid $30. 

And you know, I was very happy with that $30! 

Very few people (if anyone) start out making hundreds or thousands of dollars on their first paid writing assignments. 

The key is to START! 

Another key to finding success in the job boards is to apply for a lot of jobs!

I read someplace recently that the average person applies for 60 jobs, just starting out, and gets maybe 1-5 of those.  (That percentage increases over time as they build their reputation.) 

So don't be discouraged if you've applied for 10, 20, 30+ jobs through job boards and have yet to get hired for any of them. 

One of the nice things about these boards is it's relatively quick and easy to apply. 

So apply away! 

Be realistic, but be fair at the same time... to yourself and to the people you're applying for. 

When asked to set your price, choose a price you'd be ok working for. 

And keep your ego in check here! 

You'll likely need to start low, and win some jobs at the start, then raise your rates over time. 

A friend of mine started out writing articles for $5 a piece.  Currently (just two years later), she's making over $40,000 a year. 

I'd say that's pretty good!  And she's on track to increase that income even more in 2014. 

So job boards can be a good place to get your start. 

To get some sort of income via writing.

Check them out.  If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me at sarah@sarahdizney.com.