Starting Out--Earn Money Freelancing in Your Own Neighborhood

Earn your bread and butter locally (maybe some gravy)

So, while you are plugging away breaking into markets, here are some workable, valid ways to earn a regular income (I did it for years) by writing for local businesses, media, and organizations. You don’t have to do all of them unless you have enormous energy. Pick and choose. It’s nice to have options.

Top secret tip: Bookmark this series and refer to it often.

Who will pay you to write?

Your local community or county newspaper is undoubtedly looking for two kinds of writers. Stringers — writers who cover community meetings and events on an on-call basis. And police blotter reporters — writers who contact the local and area police departments on a weekly or daily basis, collect arrest and incident information, and write it up. Call your local papers or radio stations, as both jobs have to be pre-arranged with the publication. Hey, it may not be glamorous, but I made about $3000 monthly doing it.

Suggest to the editor that arrests and incidents be mapped and the maps published to show trends (you can ask for a higher fee if you have to do the mapping). Most blotter information is gathered by phone, but sometimes, info has to be picked up at the police station. I was paid $40 per department and did 15 departments each week for a weekly paper. The work took two days a week, about three to five hours a day. Some papers give bylines, but most do not. But this is steady money, fairly easy work, and you hear lots of interesting stuff along the way. Those ideas can spawn articles to pitch.

Who uses stringers?

Most papers need stringers to write about every topic under the sun, from sports to society news. Stringers can be given regular weekly or monthly assignments like covering city council meetings. Sometimes, they are assigned features like covering the dedication ceremony for a new statue in the town square. Stringing is one of the best ways to make money as a writer if you are flexible, reliable, and factual. The work pays from $25 to as much as $100 per article. Anyone who claims they can’t make money stringing simply isn’t trying.

How to get the gig: Send a letter (or email) of introduction to the news editor, include clips if you have any, and offer to cover evening or weekend meetings to get your foot in the door. Make sure you find the editor’s name and email address. “Dear sir or madam” just doesn’t cut it.

Sit in on your assigned meeting and take clear notes. Report only on the generally interesting parts of the meeting, not every throat-clearing or side comment. After the meeting, get quotes or questions from the key players. I often covered two meetings a night and submitted photos with my write-up.

Bylines are the norm for stringers. That’s how you develop a clip file — copies of your published pieces with the date and byline visible.

More local work for hire

GHOSTWRITING

Often, well-known local business people, doctors, or celebrities want to increase their visibility by publishing a regular column in newspapers or magazines. This is true of local, regional, and big-time celebrities. The trouble is many of them have no writing skills, and most of them have no time to research and produce a piece each day, week, or month. So you ghostwrite it.

You will not get a byline, but you can ask the client for a letter of recommendation that states you have done a quantity of regularly scheduled writing and the quality was consistently high and reliable. Burgeoning ghostwriters bill between $25 and $55 per hour. A weekly newspaper column averages 8 to 12 column inches and should take about an hour and a half to write.

To find clients to ghost for, have good-quality business cards made, along with good-quality stationary that identifies you as a freelance writer. Give your card to anyone you meet. Never leave home without it. Talk to everyone at local events, parties, press gatherings, or school events. Be visible in your community. Develop relationships with small business owners.

It is also very effective to put up a website optimized to attract local business and to run a classified ad offering various services, including ghostwriting speeches, business letters, columns, or articles. On every email you send, include your name, business name, and phone number or email address.

BROCHURES

Businesses, churches, schools, doctors, clubs, civic organizations, and a myriad of other groups in your area regularly present themselves to the public in writing. Volunteer to do a writing assignment for a church or school group. Most will give you credit for the writing and allow you to include your phone number or URL at the end of the pamphlet, brochure, letter, or flyer.

Read every advertising piece you get your hands on until you develop the ability to reproduce those common catchphrases and standard types of copy that make public relations pieces catch readers’ attention. Get to know the publicity person of groups in your area and remind them often that you are a writer.

Pro bono gets your foot in the door, but it’s fair and reasonable to charge a fee for subsequent projects. You may want to donate the work to your church or charity, but don’t get in the habit of writing for free. It’s a tough habit to break. Successful businesses don’t give away their product or service; writers shouldn’t either.

EDITING

Apply online for jobs you can find listed in newspaper classifieds under Editorial. Volunteer to do a bit of editing for the church, school, and civic group’s publications. Once everyone involved gets to know you and recognizes your skill and reliability, many will refer you to paying assignments.

BUSINESS LETTERS

Doctors, dentists, and small business people, even consumers all have to write letters frequently. Most are intimidated by the idea of doing the very thing that you excel at. Writing. You might try advertising in the local classifieds under Business Services. You can send marketing letters or telephone a group of local small business people, offering your services to write clear, effective letters to handle complaints, follow-ups, marketing, or collection efforts. Look for local fundraising businesses, too, and contract to write their campaign letters.

NEWSLETTERS

Look at Google Maps and see which local organizations or businesses could benefit by having a newsletter for customers, employees, clients, or the community. Some good examples: real estate agents derive sales from newsletters with recipes, real estate tips, and home listings; pediatricians and orthodontists drum up new patients by sending newsletters to new residents; park districts, city government, police departments, and schools have lots of news to share with the community. And what about politicians? Keep brainstorming, you’ll think of tons of other directions. If you’re doing newsletters, why not market yourself to create social media posts?

WEBSITES

Even if you don’t know HTML from Java, you can write website content. Everyone is building or planning to build a website. Hook up with a local Internet service provider, a web development firm, or the area computer repair shop for lots of referral potential. We just made $400 rewriting content for three pages of a non-profit’s site.

PRESS RELEASES

I know a writer who began writing press releases for local companies about five years ago. She said, “Everyone wants their name in the paper — their 15 minutes of fame.” And she is right. In the beginning, she charged $20 per hour. Her work was entry-level, but she was determined. She read all the local papers to see how to tailor her releases to each paper’s editorial style and average space allotments. She wrote releases about anything anyone would pay her to write about, and now she charges $125 per hour and has a staff of four.

What are press releases? They are short public relations descriptions of events that aren’t newsworthy enough to warrant in-person coverage. Releases are used as filler and are really a form of free advertising. For example, Acme Storm Door Company promotes Bobby Jo to Acting Third Vice President. The paper may publish that news — if the release they receive from Acme is well written (by you) and they have empty space on page 15.

Press releases are 300–400 words, never more than 500. They tell the story without using blatant advertising language.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Local, regional, and small national publications will accept submissions of photographs that meet their needs.

If you can handle a camera (even on a phone), take photos of any newsworthy event you stumble across, and approach local news editors to see if they will buy them. Submit relevant photos with stories you are assigned. Many publications pay extra for photos, and it’s often easier to get work accepted if it has photo illustrations.

INTERNET MAGAZINES

It’s impossible to count the number of Internet publications. Some are actually markets that pay writers, and some offer exposure and bylines. Do a web search for digital magazines or news sites. Pitch them as you would a print pub.

Top secret tip: Every website with content needs someone to write it. Go to any site’s navigation menu and find their career or jobs page. You may just find that they are hiring writers.

Explore your local area and begin a plan. Make a list of likely prospects. Let your friends and local groups know what you’re doing. Keep eyes open and ears to the ground. This strategy has worked for thousands of writers.

A few miscellaneous opportunities

Local cable TV companies use freelance script writers for community access programs. Sometimes, the cable company arranges those hires, and sometimes, the show’s producer does.

Ad agencies often hire contractors to help with large projects. Companies or local organizations compiling a history of their group need your help and are willing to pay for it. Be sure you regularly search the web for jobs like writers, editors, publishing, public relations, marketing, and content developers. Keep your eye on Pen2Profit for monthly writer market listings.

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