Written by Pamela G.

My ambition to become a writer was born out of necessity. As a single mother of a one-year old, I sought to find a way that I could raise my 1-year old son myself, while still providing for him financially. Here is what I found: Because I was a new mother, it was next to impossible to get hired anywhere. I had earned half of a college degree in interior design, but not enough to become a practicing designer. I prayed that I would be shown the way to find work that could be done from home. For me, freelance writing was the answer. Little did I know that one day I would end up writing content for eBay, Amazon and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.

A Humble Beginning

Like many writers, I didn’t know where to begin, so I started with the Internet. After sifting through scam after scam, I found a website called Helium. At the time, Helium was a place for writers to publish their own articles on the subjects of their choice. As a Helium member, you critique other people’s work and they critique yours. This allowed my first batch of articles to be published on the Internet after passing through an editor. Pay was very minimal. I received about 1 cent every time someone read an article I had written. If I wanted to pay the rent, this simply wasn’t going to cut it.

One Step Forward

I looked further and stumbled upon an Internet-based company called Associated Content. I provided samples of my best work to them, in order to become one of their writers. I took my best samples of written work from Helium to apply to become an Associated Content writer. I was very pleased that I was accepted, and began writing a handful of new articles for them, on subjects I was interested in. However, these articles only paid me about $1-$4 up front, which was still not enough to live on. No matter, I had faith and kept writing.

Demand Media Studios

Next, I found Demand Studios. At the time, to apply as a writer I only needed a good resume and my best writing samples. I was accepted! Thankfully, Demand Media did pay more. I began making about $20 an article up front. This was the answer to my prayers. Demand Media allowed me to self-publish about 500 articles on eHow and Livestrong.com. This worked well for me, until they changed the requirements for their writers. They now required their writers to possess specific certifications and have a college degree. I could no longer write for them. This caused me to give up. I became unemployed as a writer for about 2 years.

Rebuilding My Writing Career

I finally decided that I was not going to let my writing skills go to waste. I started looking on Craigslist for local writing jobs. I found a job writing for a magazine called Luxury Beyond the Gates. I began writing product reviews/advertisements for luxurious home goods. I became surprised to see how pleased the company was with my work. I knew I was on the right track.

This was my first print publication, so this was a landmark moment for me. It turns out that when you tell companies your work is published in a magazine, this gives more credibility to yourself as a writer. However, I didn’t know how long this opportunity was going to last, so I began applying elsewhere. I was lucky enough to land a freelance writing position at Scripted.com, out of San Francisco, CA.

Scripted.com

My first writing assignments for Scripted blew my mind. I wrote 3 beauty-related blog posts for a well known cosmetics company right off the bat. Finally I was writing for a content marketer that had well-known companies as clients! Next, I was writing city guides for a real estate website through Scripted. I also began writing interior design-related content for several clients.

I became surprised again when I was able to write a series of blog articles for a major magazine that you can find in news stands across the world. Their blog posts were accepted and everyone was pleased with my work. Continuing to move upward, I began writing consumer buying guides for a major auction site. I now write interior design-related content, how-to articles and buying guides for several Australian companies.

Getting Additional Work

I avoid putting all of my eggs in one basket. This is because you can only get writing assignments when there is a demand for them. Working for several different companies is like having an insurance policy. Some days, one company will have all the work and the next day it can be the other one. As I don’t have guaranteed work every day from Scripted, I decided to branch out. I applied to become a writer at Writer Access, CopyPress and Get a Copywriter. I was fortunate enough to be accepted by all three companies. My first assignment for Writer Access was writing buying guides for Amazon.com.

Where to Look for Work

This is what we’re all about at FreedomWithWriting. We send you reviews of companies that hire writers. I suggest you start out by reading our reviews of WriterAccess, and TextBroker. I also highly recommend putting together a profile on LinkedIn — Here’s a very useful resource .  You can provide a link to this profile whenever you apply for a new writing job. Resist giving out too much personal information about yourself such as how much you love your dog or cat for example. Employers typically don’t need those types of details to decide if you are a good match or not.