Is there a demand on DP for quality article writers?

Tip: when sending a PM to a prospective client, go beyond the usual, 'hi, I'm interested in taking the job,' and show them that you are qualified for the job and you can really add value to the work that needs to be done. Put that on top of the list and talk about money later.

 

This thread is very interesting...

I am a writer who was referred to this forum specifically because there is a demand here for high quality, professional writing. However, I was also forewarned about the fierce underbidding by cheap laborers who speak English as a second language.

The warning: Although they will work for pennies, don't let that discourage you. Real patrons with real money want real results, and once they know that you can provide quality content, they will compensate you fairly for it.

It sounds like my referrer was on target.

 

Hear ye hear ye! I so agree with Jenn's post. There's a real demand for quality and I mean quality article writers here in DP. It's just not THAT obvious to many. People think that just because you're not active in the BST section, you aren't working.

 

It sounds like the advice for the quality writers out there is to stick around, show the quality of your work, and wait for those looking quality articles to come to you

 

Just be active. Post a lot - not just to advertise or ask questions, but to answer as many as you can related to the type of writing that you do. If you're targeting people who might want copywriting done, hang out in the general marketing area. If you're targeting people buying SEO content, get involved in the SEO area. If you're looking to do paid blogging work, spend some time in the Blogging section. You get the idea. The trick is making yourself visible, and having a professional site or something linked from your sig where people can easily go to find out more about you or to see your samples.

 

IMHO, there are too many chancers here on DP who will remaster/edit other people's work and sell it for pennies. Services like yours would be better directed at specific companies wanting PR etc.

DP should be just a hobby not a means for seeking new business.....

 

Whippet, while DP shouldn't be the only avenue of business for anyone, it actually plays a significant role for quite a few professional writers here. There are many clients willing to pay high rates for professional work, even if it's not what's seen publicly. It's definitely far more than a "hobby" though for those who know how to use it.

 

I second that thought for sure. It is not a mere hobby whippet, people who write, do PR and are good ar getting high-paying gigs are sitting over a lot of cash, most of which has come by way of DP

 

JH Mattern Rocks! I simply feel great reading all this here and I certainly appreciate the genuine approach to life that all the people like her have here.

I wish to know the other avenues like dp forums which will help me in attracting a significant pie of clients - the kind I am looking for.

And yes, what is the "underground"? I had certainly be glad to know that.

And yes, I want to know the rules of dp forums in simple terms as well. What can I do that I never ever get banned. I have so many great writers being banned for simple mistakes. I had known one or two female writers who got banned from here. It's very difficult to deal with a ban for a writer. Sometimes, I find it too harsh to digest the same. Jen, I would be glad if you'd precisely put your notes in crystal clear format for simplicity's sake.

The sticky is sometimes too complex to understand.

 

I'll try to cover everything you asked about:

Other avenues:

Two of the most important things you can do are to network with other writers and to have a professional website (and that address should be available to those you're networking with as well as prospective clients). You want to make it easier for people to find you.

You can also keep your eyes on various types of sites for more immediate gigs until clients start finding you on their own - craigslist occasionally has good things, bidding sites don't often but do once in a while, indeed.com lets you search multiple job sites at once, journalismjobs.com and mediabistro.com both have a lot of writing jobs (permanent as well as freelance), and there are sites like Deb Ng's www.freelancewritinggigs.com and my www.allfreelancewritingjobs.com that list jobs from some of those sources for you to save you time.

The Underground:

The underground market is simply all of the business going on privately between DP members that you never see publicly. For example, if I do a press release for Joe, and he's happy with the work, he might privately refer it to another member - we'll call him Sam. Sam might then PM me or look at my site in my sig and email me through that, hiring me to write a release for him as well. No one sees anything publicly about a deal taking place. It can also happen like this - let's say no one referred Sam to me. Instead, he saw some of my posts and liked what I had to say on the topic of press releases. He clicked the link in my signature to find out my rates and look at some samples, and emailed me from there without out any outside references. That's another way the underground market works, and why it's important to contribute to conversations related to your work (that prospective clients might see) as opposed to only posting ads or responding to ads.

Rules:

There are far too many rules for me to cover everything here. You need to read stickies in any forum where you post (some rules apply to certain sections).

For the sticky here in copywriting, it's just a reminder that this isn't an area of the forum where people are allowed to advertise, that copyright issues (which are intellectual property law issues) belong in the legal issues forum and not here, and that discussions about things like article spinners belong in other sections as they're not really related to copywriting.

Another rule that's important to keep in mind is what's covered in the announcement in the BST area. For example, if you're interested in an advertised gig there, you may not post anything just to say you're interested or to tell the OP to PM you (or to tell them that you PMd them). To express interest / get hired, you need to PM your details to that person (even if they tell you to post in the thread, you're not allowed - and they're not allowed to ask you to). Along those same lines, the announcement tells them that they're not allowed to ask you to post your rates publicly - they often do this rather than stating a firm budget in order to get a thread bumped repeatedly. Instead, PM your rates, samples, and other information, again even if they ask you to post it (as if they do that and you listen to them, you may both get an infraction). Basically, posts you add to a sales thread should either be asking a question that applies to everyone (and which hasn't already been asked and / or answered in that thread) or should be a review of how the deal went after it's completed (and that shouldn't be something like "fast payment, thanks" - things like that are very generic and basic thanks belongs either in a PM or a rep comment, because they're considered to be posts with no value to the rest of the community). Hopefully that clears up some of the common things you'll come across.