Elance.com is a pretty good place to start, though their free account is a bit limited. You could also go to your local library and look at a copy of The Writer's Market. It'll give you a massive list of magazines that buy articles on spec.
Bidding sites can present one heck of a battle ground, but if you can make yourself stand out, you may be able to to get some jobs over the people who are bidding to work for crumbs. You may be surprised, but Craigslist sometimes has really good leads. You just have to be careful and use common sense to weed out the scams. Take the time to talk and network with other writers. I was going to say make a website and social network, but I see you've done that. (Wow, you have quite an astounding range of topics there! I dropped a card on you!)
I would put networking and talking time on top of a writer's priority and paying attention to word of mouth because it might bring information on freelance gigs you never thought of. I do agree with you with finding real opportunities posted on Craigslist, but I would place freelance bidding as the very last resource to look into if everything else fails.
Avoid this site like the plague Getafreelancer is the biggest cesspool on the planet. I've used the sites both as a content provider and as a project buyer. My overall experience can be summed up as the following: service provider: You will be outbid by someone in east asia who is willing to do 200 hours of work for 10 dollars Project buyer: The quality of the work delivered will be awful. (In my case I put up a project for site content. The result was a horrible kludge or words that couldn't even pass a basic MS word spell/grammar check)
I agree here but a first few assignments on either of these two sites will be difficult. But once you have some feedback on these sites then it wont be a problem for you.
The pay is pitiful at these types of sites. People are bidding from all over the world and you end up doing articles for next to nothing. On top of that, you pay a percentage to the site. The one good thing about these types of sites is that they get the money up front and put in escrow until the work is done and delivered, so there is some security in that regards. I've gotten steady clients from searching Kijiji and the like. If you want a link to a page of places to advertise, and/or another of places (with links) to sell your writing, pm me and I'll send it/them to you.
Plenty of writing projects outsources on freelance sites. Check then for better opportunities. Access good freelance sites at my blog from second signature link below.
So then why don't you simply post those links to share them with fellow writers? You may browse back and find people who have shared places where you can submit your articles for free, including of course long clickable lists. A few years ago I was told about pay-to-bid freelance job sites and I thought paying commissions to site owners could be fair but paying to bid on projects is something that I have always rejected.
Write quality and unique articles with good content. And don't rise your price too high and you'll get plenty of customers and a lot of work, believe me. Good service is the best self advertisement.
I can see it now, thanks to clarify this for me Yes indeed, sometimes it's better play safe when it comes to a community's TOS
Check out www.onlinewritingjobs.net They break down sites like GAF, Scriptlance, and link to tons of forums (like this one) where you can probably land a job or two! I go there a lot but the blog owner screws around with the format on a regular basis. Just dig around and you'll find great info.
Great tips! I was wondering if anyone else has any other ideas? What about for cover letter that you write the to client? What is it supposed to include? Resume? does it need to be included as well?
Well consider your target audience. What do they want to hear? Define who they are and the ideas will start to emerge on their own. Newsletter that has great titles and how to accomplish what it is you stated? I wrote one, "Look good on Google" was my lead article in a very short and visual newsletter for the local market. But it was a good outline of how the web can benefit a local business.