I have a friend who is a very gifted writer. In fact, she has a column in the local newspaper, where she produces truly great content. I recently mentioned the subject of freelancing to her, and she seemed interested. Where should she start? She obviously has enough skill to skip all the cheap writing labor that comes from most of DP. I basically need to know where she can find work without prior experience with freelancing. She has a resume and samples.
Try looking at sites like www.MediaBistro.com and www.JournalismJobs.com. But remember, just because someone can write for a particular publication, it doesn't mean they'll make a good freelancer. She has to be able to handle the business side of freelancing, and the extensive marketing and networking to make a serious go at it.
That's right. I know many writers with jobs who couldn't freelance 100% of the time. However, she can still get started and if nothing else, freelance here and there. I'd advise her to make sure doing so is okay with her boss first. Even something like having an independent blog could get her fired. If it's okay, start by putting up a simple Web site. Just a "hi there, I'm a writer" page with some samples and contact info is fine for now. For magazine writing, get a Writer's Market (print or e-version at WritersMarket.com).
www.online-writing-jobs.com often has some interesting offers in the High Paying Jobs section that might be applicable to someone with published work. Even the Low Paying Jobs section occassionally offers some jobs that aren't too low paying and often more interesting than jobs offered on DP. Could be a good way to get her feet wet in freelancing without getting too committed or overextended initially.
If her local newspaper does not have on online version ( for being able to send potential clients samples of her work) she may consider associated content, constant content, or one of the other sites that are similar. she wont be paid much, but it will provide a venue for her to get samples of her work online and make a "little" money with it.
I only recently began marketing myself and getting away from the services. At the very least I wanted to find some who would pay for more than five or ten dollars for an article. I checked out those sites but the thing that worried me is them keeping all of my material that I have written on spec as well as any material I submit to them. A quick glance around showed me all too many articles with "0" in the download column for me to feel comfortable. I could be wrong, but for me personally, I will stick to marketing my own if I can ever get my web site back up and running right. Ward