Normally, I don’t post job ads here…there just aren’t enough hours in the day and other people do it better. That said, I did want to share with you a call for applicants that will be worth your while, should you be qualified. The job is writing right here, for Bizzia.com!

No, they aren’t looking for another person to cover freelancing…I’m not going anywhere! What they need is a blogger for their Corporate Finance category starting July 1. If you’re interested, you can email my manager, Kori, directly at kori.ellis@b5media.com with resume and/or samples. Make sure to mention that you’re a Freelance Writing category reader!

I can’t share pay information with you, but I will say that b5media makes it worth your while, in my opinion. They’re a great company to have as a client, and I’ll be celebrating my two-year anniversary with them come this fall. If you have corporate finance experience, I highly recommend that you apply to this job!

Stanley Bing wrote a delightful, tongue-in-cheek column yesterday for Fortune. It included 13 jobs for retirees . While some of us hope that our retirement accounts will support us without the need for a job during our sunset years, others worry that retirement without something to do will be…boring. Besides, what happens if you retire just before the stock market crashes ? Bing offers these intriguing options for retirees who aren’t quite ready to call it quits:

1. Treasure hunter
2. “Before” picture model
3. Miniature golf caddy
4. Plant person
5. Artisan cheese taster
6. iPhone app writer
7. Greeter
8. Airport chauffeur
9. Mall cop
10. Grass monitor
11. Early bird specialist
12. CEO of a bailed out, TARP or Chapter 11 corporation
13. Former Vice President of the United States

Quite frankly, though, I’m surprised that the list didn’t include Blogger. Or Writer. It’s a job that can include a number of perks, including a little extra income. If you’re really lucky, you can get a book deal. And you can set your own hours and work from anywhere, as long as you have a computer and an Internet connection. Plus, since the piece does have a satirical edge, there are plenty of jokes to be made about bloggers and writers (and those who claim the label blogger/writer — or writer/blogger).

Personally, when I am “retired”, I hope to keeping writing in some capacity. Preferably from some exotic locale, since I hope to have enough money to travel.

Image source: RSilk via Wikipedia

Okay, so “worth” more than $100,ooo is subjective. However, there are some jobs that you might be surprised to find actually provide a six-figure income. Forbes has a whole list of them. At any rate, there are some fairly surprising jobs out there in some manage to pull down more than $100,000 a year. Here are 10 of them:

1. Ship captains
2. Gaming managers
3. Music directors
4. Astronomers
5. Mediators/arbitrators
6. Transportation inspectors
7. Video editors
8. Police supervisors
9. Art directors
10. Multimedia animators

Now, not everyone in these professions make more than $100,000. In fact, in many of these jobs the average isn’t even $100,000. But the fact that the possibility to earn six figures at some of these jobs is surprising in some cases. Who would have thought being a ship captain (Tennessee is the place to do it, according to Forbes) would have such earning potential?

image source: Stringbean646 via Flickr

Once, a freelance writer friend of mine asked me how I always seem to land long-term gigs, while she’s stuck trolling the job boards for one-time projects. This friend isn’t a bad writer. In fact, I would argue that she’s well above average when it comes to the pool of freelance writers on the Internet. In such a competitive field, though, that’s just not enough. You have to actually Overperform.

In other words, give the clients MORE than they expect. At the end of a project, you want your client to think, “I can’t possibly find a better freelance than this person. What else can I give them right now?” When you do a good job, clients won’t want to let you go.

So how do you makre sure you overperform, rather than just doing the job? Here are some tips:

• Send in the project before the due date, or at least on the morning of the due date, not at 11:59.
• Do revisions quickly and without argument (as long as they are within reason).
• Make sure that all of your articles are formatted the same way.
• For ebooks, send a pdf file along with the .doc file.
• Include a table of contents for free with any longer work.
• Be a one-stop shop. Offer other services, such as photography, web design, etc. Of course - you can charge more for these services, but it is important to offer them.
• Give clients multiple options for paying you.
• Send an invoice, rather than relying on them to track how much the owe you.
• For longer projects, check in regularly just to tell them that the project is going well.
• Respond to emails within 24 hours - sooner if possible.

Give the clients more than they want, and they’ll offer you more projects. Even if you don’t really like the project you’re doing, make sure you overperform. After all, you want to be able to pick and choose how you spend your workdays. The next project they have might be more interesting to you.

Job Fairs are only as good as you make them. If you go to a job fair and you believe that you are wasting your time, you will not find any value in attending and my question than becomes, why bother? However, if you have a strategy for your job fair, and you can work your strategy, it won’t matter how poorly organized the job fair is, you work your strategy and things will work out for you. Let me say this, the key to a job fair is people. Go there and meet people. Go there and talk to people. Find something to talk about that allows you to do some research on their organization, what they do and what issues or problems they may be facing. Do they have a problem you can solve? You may never know if all you do is scan jobs and hand them your resume. Engage them in conversation and see what happens.

Here is a question and my response from LinkedIn on this topic: What are your thoughts on career/job fairs for job seekers as advertised on Careerbuilder, Monster, etc. With so many people unemployed are they worthwhile or a waste of time to attend?

I believe that job fairs can be valuable for multiple reasons. Before I go through them let me say this, I agree that many job fairs you could potentially attend, are disorganized, with limited job opportunities for the number of people that seem to attend. So I understand the perception and maybe the reality for many that they are wasting their time attending, however most of the people responding to this question agreed on a second point - there are jobs available for people to pursue. And that is why I don’t believe job fairs are a waste of time. First, if you are looking for a job and you attend a job fair where the employers are actually looking for candidates, I don’t care how many other people are attending the job fair, the opportunity exist for you to find a job if you are willing to invest some time talking to the recruiters and/or representatives at the job fair. Connect with them, be ready to talk to them, come with your “A” game and expect to find something. You might strike out, but you might not and that is where the value comes in, in my opinion. Just because everyone else is not doing well, does not mean you won’t.

How do I know? Because in my day of pursuing jobs in the job market, I attended many job fairs over the years. I didn’t always land a job and many times I went and felt discouraged after attending. However, I attended one job fair and was about ready to leave when I noticed the American Express table. I got in a line that wrapped around a corner and waited. Person after person went until I got to the table, 30-40 minutes after standing in the line. When I handed the recruiter my resume and looked at the positions she was looking to fill, I was way over qualified for the jobs, however as she reviewed my resume, and saw my skills, she began to discuss a job that had not been opened yet, that was a senior level position. Short story, within a few months, I was hired.

There is a hidden job market that you can uncover if you are willing to endure the job fair, get past the organizers who are not focused on the details of presenting a good job fair or even the recruiters or representatives from the organizations who are just hanging out for the day, and talk to people. Talk to them, share who you are. Be intentional about what you are looking for and see if you might not find something that fits your needs and meets theirs, and you may just walk away with an opportunity that no one else can find.

Back to your question, can job fairs be a waste of time? Absolutely, but they don’t have to be. What you invest in your job search will net a harvest in some way shape or form down the road. You may not get a job offer or even an interview every time you walk into a job fair, but understand that you are sowing seed, you are investing, you are connecting with people, and sharing who you are. Be intentional about why you are at the job fair. Have a strategy and work your strategy and you will reap a job in due season!

Image Credit: sxc.hu

This post is part of the Be a Boss series. To see more posts in this series, check out the list on this post. They’ll be linked as they are posted!

The driving force behind any writing company is a team of amazing freelance writers. Finding those great writers isn’t very easy, though. There are literally hundreds of freelancers looking for jobs, but the ones who are up to your standards often don’t want to work for someone else and the ones who are hungry to work for a writing company are often new to writing and may not have the best skills.

We’ll talk about pay rate a little later, but what I want to say right now is this: ALWAYS pay a little more to get a better writer. It’s worth it.

But where do you find good writers?

• Post an ad on Craig’s List. Some of these services are still free, while on other CL sites, you have to pay to post a job ad.
• Contact someone who owns a job board and ask them to post your opening. Again, some are free, while other people charge for the posting. A great free place to post is The Freelance Writing Jobs Network.
• Email writers you know, and ask them to pass on the word that you’re looking for writers. Your job ad will spider web out, reaching more and more people.

Placing your Ad

Be prepared to get a lot of emails. I’m talking hundreds. When I first posted that I was looking for writers, I got over 300 emails from interested parties. It takes a long time to read through them all, so be smart when you place your job ad.

• Be very specific about pay rate, topics, and volume of work. That way, people who aren’t interested in the type of work you need won’t email you. They’ll weed you out, savings you time.
• Ask them to use a specific email subject line. It’s much easier to pick out job applications that way. I like to ask people to use “Writing Job - Allison” (using their name, of course).
• Be specific about what you do/do not want. If you don’t, some people will send you their resume, letters of recommendation, and ten writing samples, while others will just send you a paragraph about themselves. I like to ask for a short email about themselves and two or three links to stuff they’ve had published online, no resumes, and no attachments.

Read more

We all have our favorite job boards to troll, and I’m guessing that more than a few of you are well acquainted with bidding sites like Elance. Sometimes, though, these sites don’t give you crap. I remember going through a two-month period back when I was about 5 months into freelancing full time when I couldn’t find much of anything as far as freelancing work. I actually resorted to some really crummy low-paying jobs and had a yard sale just to pay bills. Yuck.

Since then, I’m happy to say that I have enough long-term clients to keep me busy (sometimes even a little too busy!), and although I know no freelance job is ever truly secure, I’m confident that I won’t have to sell my Wii to make rent. That’s beside the point, though. What I really want to talk about with you is your approach to finding work when times are tough. Over the years, I’ve discovered a few really odd, secret places that always seem to have some work for freelancers - and I’d like to share them with you today.

Ok, maybe not all of these are that secretive…but I sure as heck didn’t know to look there when I started freelancing and wish someone would have told me!

Image by Fr Antunes, via Flickr

1. Churches and Other Religious Organizations

It doesn’t really matter if you are religious or not - you can do freelance writing for a church if you at least have a bit of foundation in the religion. If you grew up Catholic, you may not be able to pen something for a local synagogue! However, many places of worship have newsletters for their members - and those that do not may be interested in starting one. Ask if they are looking for someone to compile and write their newsletter. The pay isn’t out of this world (it’s a religious non-profit, after all), but it will be steady, and you typically don’t have to worry about a church cheating you out of your pay. While many churches may already have a secretary who writes the newsletter, the least you can do is ask…and you never know; they might be able to point you to a sister church or larger organizational group that could use your help.

Image by dave_mcmt, via Flickr

2. Local Restaurants

Think of the name of your favorite local restaurant. Now try to find its website. Sucks, doesn’t it? It’s a little hit or miss, actually. Some restaurants are finally realizing how important it is to have a functioning website. Those who haven’t, however, could use your help, and as a patron, you actually have a great base of knowledge for the job. If the restaurants you love already have great websites, pitch a blog idea to them. I’m currently helping a local restaurant that I love set up a blog so the owner can post weekly recipes and event information. Another hint - when restaurants redesign their menus, someone has to write out the food descriptions! Read more

How many times have you started reading a job ad only to get to the part where it is “data entry work” and roll your eyes? For me, the words “data entry” send up a red flag, since so many data entry jobs are associated with online freelanding scams. That’s not entirely fair, though. There are actual data entry jobs out there - and they pay just as well for your time as writing jobs.

Point in case: I work for a company putting together a huge database of books - I enter information like the author, ISBNs, summary, character information, setting, etc. The pay doesn’t blow you out of the water, but it also isn’t the lowest paying gig I have. I’m paid weekly and have been working there since the beginning of the year - so yes, it really is legit.

That’s not to say that rap jobs don’t exist as well. The problem is weeding them out. Here are some things to look for in a data entry job:

• You’re paid regularly and according to how much work you do. There’s no commission or selling involved.
• The job makes sense. If the job seems like “busy work” of some kind, and there’s no real point to what you’re doing, you might want to reconsider taking the job.
• You don’t have to pay for “leads” or any kind of other information.
• Their data entry system is easy to use, or they pay you for training hours.
• They offer you  contract.

Have you ever taken any data entry work? This is actually the second data entry project I’ve done. The first was compiling contact information for certain medical services in each state. That project actually paid extremely well for my time, so once again - don’t discount data entry work right off the bat. Some projects may actually be good for you.

Image via Flickr.

Someone recently made a comment that they had “the client from hell,” and it made me smile because I know EXACTLY what they mean. I’ve had my fair share of difficult clients, but to date, no one has refused to work with me again (though some I’ve polited declined when they asked for more work). So, this new series, called “Clients from Hell” will share with you how I’ve dealt with clients who were less than perfect.

Today’s Client from Hell: The Criminal

This kind of bad client sneaks up on you. At least, it did on me. Let me tell you the story.

I did a tons of work for a client at a fairly high price. He was a great client - always responsive, paid on time, clear withs directions…

And then, suddenly, he asked me how much I’d charge to rewrite articles rather than writing original articles. Right away, that sends up a red flag in my opinion. Now, I’ve done rewriting work before when a client wasn’t happy with old articles on his site and once when a client’s other writer sent in work that wasn’t very good. That kind of thing is fine. I even know that some people purchase articles that are

When I probed this client a little, though, he admitted that there’s a site he reads, and he’s like to take some of the posts from their site to rewrite for his own site.

Ok, that’s shady. Yes, you can rewrite an idea to an extent that it isn’t plagarizing, but that doesn’t make it right. More red flags for me.

Then, when I poked at his idea a little farther, he asked me to quote a price to actually copy and paste from other sites to create my articles. His words: “It isn’t illegal/plagairizing if you copy and paste from a number of source instead of just one.”

Annnnnnnd I’m out. Yes, I understand that you can legally quote from another source, but to copy and paste chunks of articles to create a new article? That’s wrong. I like to call this kind of client “The Criminal,” because they ask you to do unsavory things, which sometimes skirt the line of legality. When the person is asking you to do these things from the start, saying no is pretty easy, but when you have a great client asking for increasingly shady work, it can be hard to know where to draw the line. You also don’t want to piss off the client completely, because he could agree with you and go back to sending you good work again.

But don’t be afraid to speak you mind. You can be agressive about your opinion without being mean. After all, your client may not actually understand copy laws and other legal issues, so they may not realize that they are being The Criminal at all. For example, I once had a client who asked for adult-content work (an ebook), and he was suprised when PayPal shut down his account fo selling it without checking the ages of people purchasing it. When he talked to me about about, I agreed with PayPal and actually declined to do more work until he began asking for age verification.

Approach the subject as though your client will be willing to drop the illegal or otherwise iffy idea. Be polite, explain why you won’t take the work, and invite him or her to contact you again in the future. There’s no reason to lost a client who has morphed into The Criminal.

Like what you’re reading here? Sign up for Allison’s One Prompt, One Product weekly newsletter.

Image via Flickr.

Image: sxc.hu

I jumped into freelance writing full-time right after college, much to my mother’s dismay. It isn’t that she didn’t want me to be a successful writer, but she worried that I wouldn’t be able to afford my bills after my savings gave out in a few months. We talked about it, though, and I reassured her that I was more than willing to take on a part-time job, even doing something like working at a fast food restaurant, in order to pay the rent if I had to.

I’m happy to say that I’ve never had the need to do that. I make enough as a writer to support myself in the area where I live, though I do have to say that I’m in awe of writers living where rent and general cost of living isn’t as moderate as it is here. I know I wouldn’t make enough at this point to live in a large city like NYC or even Philly. I’m getting there, though. I think I’ve accomplished a lot in three years.

But that’s not the point. Last month, I did take on a part-time job, and rigth away, everyone right away assumed that I was having financial problems. Nope. I just liked the job and thought it would be nice to get out of my house. I work about 15 hours a week at a day care center now, and I’m so glad I made that decision.

If you need the money, get a part-time job. That’s what my mom would call a “no-brainer.” If you don’t need the money, though, you may still want to consider a part-time job. Here’s why:

• It’s nice to get out of your house without having to spend money at a coffee shop or restaurant.
• A part-time job is a great way to meet new people.
• You’re learning skills at a part-time job that may qualify you to write about a new topic (for example, I feel qualified to write about some childcare topics, where I haven’t in the past, since I’m not a mom).
• The money is reliable. You’re getting paid a fairly set amount every week or every two weeks, which makes budgeting much easier.
• You’re networking with people. You’ll be surprised to find out who’s looking for a writer. Your manager may want help starting a blog. Your co-worker may have a sister who needs a professional letter written. A customer who finds out that you’re a writer may hire you for some editing work.

My decision to take on a part-time job was right for me, and it may be a positive thing in your life as well. It isn’t for everyone, of course, but I find that working outside of writing for a few hours every week has actually made me a better writer.

Do you have a part-time job? Do you do it for the money or another reason?

Like what you’re reading here? Sign up for Allison’s One Prompt, One Product weekly newsletter.