I wrote this post this morning with advice on how to write effective cover letters that land freelance writing and blogging jobs. I have included examples of cover letters I have written that landed me jobs. I hope this helps you land the freelance writing and blogging jobs you are after.
Thanks a lot but one of my friends told me that cover letters are not so important as compared to a well edited resume
Your friend is wrong, sorry to say. Of course a resume is important, crucial in fact, but the prospective client is going to read the cover letter before he sees your resume and you have to consider that most online jobs have 100s of freelancers applying, so there are a lot of cover letters to read. It is a fact that people reading online have an attention span of about 10 seconds before they lose interest. You must find a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd, and the best way to do that is with a great cover letter.
In your cover letter, ask yourself: what do you have that also no one else has and how are you conveying it? Sounds obvious but look at how many people don't do it (e.g. I have a bachelors degree in business, I have 5 years of experience....well so does everyone else)
I agree about cover letters being important - but just as important is to answer, in detail how and why you are qualified to do the work customers or employers need. When looking for a 'real' professional job, employers and agencies will usually have 'person specs' (the type of person and qualifications they are looking for) and 'job specs' (details of the work that needs to be done). I know from a great deal of first hand experience that if you set out a simple form listing what they are looking for on the left with your appropriate qualification, skills and experience on the right, neatly arranged in the same order their requirements appeared - you will be in the top few percent of candidates likely to at least get interviews - the main objective of your CV Make a good job of this and you will almost always be considered as a likely candidate for the job or work and invited for interview or further discussions.
Well said. I am sometimes struck dumb when I see personal monologues masquerading as a cover letter, talking about almost everything under the stars (and then some), but in the end, fails to tell a client why they should be hired. Consider these two short examples below, for an application as a...errmmm... car reviewer "I was awarded my degree in English Literature from St. Andrew University in 2006 and have been writing since then. I am a creative thinker, with strong fundamentals in the language and my turnaround time is exceptionally fast." or "I have been ghostwriting for a car review website for the past three years, and on average, I can produce 4 articles a day. I have a great understanding of the automotive industry and keeps well abreast of all developments in the field" Which one do you think a professional webmaster would be inclined to select?
I am surprised someone offered anyone a job based on the following in your blog: "Dr. Sir or Madam, I am especially qualified to blog about business cards. I owned a marketing company for 10 years and designed and sold business cards to clients..." That intro. Well perhaps in some countries it will be appreciated, but here in the UK you will get almost no where with a cover letter like that. Reasons: 1) Dear Sir or Madam: Well this shows you are just sending a generic resume out and therefore there is nothing personal about this cover letter. Bad start. 2)You owned a marketing company for 10 solid years! Okay... well in the real world it can say two things about you. Either you are a complete failure at business and therefore you are not good at being self-employed, and the sad reality is that you are the type of person a company will definitely not hire. (not counting a photo with a top like that). By saying you owned a company, indicates that you may at some point leave the job that you are applying for. Unless you have a good reason why you need a job, when you can have your own business and make tons of money. That is the first thing that went through my mind when I read your first cover letter. But saying that... if the purpose of the cover letter was merely to get a freelance paying job, well then it might work. Still, your cover letter doesn't convince me that you are the right person for the job though. Every writer should to some degree have a portfolio or an article they can use as reference. However, when you write a cover letter... you are convincing people of your ability and telling them in no uncertain terms why they should hire you. A good cover letter will be targeted to your reader. What is in it for them? Why should they consider you above the hundred other applicants? What benefit can you offer that someone else can not? Those are questions you should ask yourself.
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I got in the habit of tweaking my resume for each position that I applied for. That way it used their terms and phrasings which is particularly important now that so many are using automation to cull the pile. I can also unequivocally say that having a well-written and unique cover letter works wonders. So many times when I called to follow up on an application the hiring agent had no idea who I was until I mentioned my cover letter. I lost count of how many times the reply was, "Oh, yes, I remember you now. You're the one with the ______ cover letter." Unfortunately, it can be a double edged sword, I had several recruiters ask who I had paid to write it for me. sigh