So many people today want to take a shot at their dream career in freelance writing. If you share this dream, you no doubt have the skills and talent necessary to make a living through the written word, but you just don’t know where to begin. Many people today believe the best way to learn more about freelance writing is through an internet search. That does seem to be the main resource we turn to for most things in life these days. Yet with an internet search, you no doubt stumbled across bid sites that say they can hook you up with potential clients.

What These Sites Do

If you are like most potential freelance writers, you see these sites and automatically think there is a scam afoot. As with most things in life, some of these sites are indeed scams but more often than not, they are legitimate sites that simply want to offer you the service, for a fee of course, of hooking you up with potential clients. They allow people in need of your services to post job descriptions on their sites, and they allow you to browse through the job descriptions and to bid on the ones that most interest you.

A Closer Look at the Job Descriptions

Some nay-sayers claim that these bid sites simply encourage freelance writers to low ball their rates, and essentially this drives down the cost of freelance writing services as a whole. In some cases, clients really are just looking for the cheapest way to get the work done. In other cases, clients want quality work, and they are willing to pay more for it. So unless you simply are out to work cheaply, you will want to make an effort to read between the lines on the job descriptions and look for clients who are willing to pay for quality.

Winning a Job

Any time you apply for a job, whether on these bid sites or through other means, you are generally up against competition for those jobs, and so you should approach submitting your bid much as you would approach writing a cover letter when sending your resume to a potential employer. Explain your interest in the job, what your availability is, and what your strengths are.

Other Options

Of course, bid sites are not the only way to get started as a freelance writer, but for many professionals, they do serve as one of the easiest ways to find new clients to work for. In many cases, freelance writers will search for long-term clients to work with through these bid sites so they don’t have to constantly be in search of more work to fill the hours. Without these sites, you are generally left scouring the internet and other sources for direct clients to work for, and this is a much more time-consuming option.

As you can see, the bid sites do indeed fulfill a need that makes them very useful for new freelance writers. While it’s understandable that you would want to proceed with caution, if you do your homework and work with a reputable bid site, you will find that these are a great way to get your foot in the door in this industry.