Start Small

  

“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

 
Everybody has to start somewhere, right?And freelancing is like any other job, you need to start at the bottom. And trust me, the bottom can be frustrating. But, small strides can be encouraging in this business, and even though I'm nowhere near where I want to be, I'm farther than I was a few months ago, and that's something.

The first thing you need to know is where to even begin. There are a lot of writing sites out there that claim you can make a ton of money writing for them. While those making a TON of money from these sites may be rare, the sites can be helpful in building your experience and portfolio. And it is while browsing jobs on these sites where you need to keep telling yourself,

"Start small."

Textbroker.com 

At the advice of a friend, I started out on Textbroker. Most of the articles you will write are small, 100-400 words, and cover topics like movie descriptions, product descriptions, website descriptions and things of that nature. There are a few lengthier articles that can reach about 700 words. These articles are pretty cut and dry, not much room for creativity, but they do help you get your feet wet. It was here that I learned about SEO articles. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and basically requires you to use certain keywords a certain number of times so that the article will be found in a search engine. It was also here that I realized I was not a fan of SEO articles. But, now I know what they are and how they work. The pay here is also small; anywhere from $1.00-$5.00 per article (some of the longer ones reaching $7.00). It's not a site you will be able to use to support yourself,

but it's a good start.

Odesk and Elance

From there I joined sites such as Odesk and Elance, where you can bid for projects that are of interest to you. The difference between these and Textbroker is that you are not guaranteed the job. You have to apply just like any other job and sometimes go through an interview. Once you are using these sites you will need to assign yourself a value. Since you will need to bid for jobs you need to decide what you are willing to work for.

If you can afford it, start small. 

Begin taking as many jobs as you can to build your reputation and then work your way up. Clients give feedback on these sites and the higher your feedback the more likely you are to get jobs (good paying jobs).

I am personally still working on getting the most out of these sites. It's hard to get in the mindset that it is beneficial to work so hard for such little money. But, in the long run, I know it will pay off to take mine own advice.   

What sites do you use? Where are you "getting started?"