Choosing your place of work, i.e. your working website

Following my earlier posts, I had described what you need to do to be comfortable enough to start working. Then I talked about the need for you to know what areas you will be specializing in. After you have done all this, all that remains is for you to look for a job.

As you might know, most of the freelancers work online. This means that before you can start work you need to know what website you will be working on. There are so many of these out there but very few of them offer legitimate jobs.

What I mean is that there are some sites that are out there that are out to take your money and run. Most of them will ask you to pay a membership fee for you to join. You have to be very wary before you pay for the membership of any freelancing site. I am not saying that all of the websites that will ask you  to pay for their membership are scams, what I am saying is that you need to prove the legitimacy of the websites and the jobs that they offer before you dish out any money. This is because that are some very good websites that are out there that will give you consistent, better paying jobs than those that ask you to pay for membership..

In choosing the website that you will be working on, there is certain thing that you have to look out for:

• The first and most obvious one is if they charge fees for you to register. It is always good for you to join sites that are free but there are some very good ones that are paid for. I will explore this area in another blog. But this is a huge point for most people because you are looking for freelance jobs to get money. Thus you cannot pay for a membership if you have no money, right?
• The other is the amount of members that he website has. There are two types of members in any freelance website. The first are the clients and the others are the freelancers. I any freelance website, there is a chance that a percentage of these members are clients. And this means that the larger the number of members of the site, the higher the number of clients too.
• The other is amount of work that is available on the site. You may have to look for some website reviews for you to be able to tell which the websites that you would like to work on have a large number of jobs and those that do not.
• The pay that you can get from the website also varies from website to website and may be a sticking point for a lot of people. In this area you may have to talk to a few people for you to exactly know what pay to expect

With that being said, there are a lot more things that would make a person choose a freelance website over the other. All you need to do is find on that you find comfortable in and go with it.

 

why you need to define your niche as a writer

Versatility is one of the most important qualities that you must have as a writer. You have to have the ability to write on any topic at any time and at short notice. While this is a good thing and could work in your favor a lot of the time, there is a need for you to know what you are good at. When you are done defining what you are good at then you have to go on to perfect that. This is your niche. This has to be the type of writing that you feel you are the best at. This is the type of writing that you can do at any time without thought. Not forgetting that you need to do it pretty well.

So what goes into finding this comfort zone?

Well, first of all we all know what we are good at. If you are a writer and you do not, then you need to figure it out really fast. This is the area that will be your target and thus will be your market.  Defining this niche should not be too hard for you. But sometimes you may need to do a few projects for you to fully understand where your strengths lie. As you write, you will find that some topics are easier for you than others. These are the topics that you have to keep an eye on. After you are done seeing what works and what does not, then you need to find clients who can work with what you have. This is actually a vital aspect for various reasons.

The first is that when you do something that comes so easily for you, you are bound to do it better. This is because first of all you are not struggling to do it. Next, you are having fun with it. This translates into little or no stress or pressure on your part because mentally you actually know that you can handle the task at hand.  Finally when you understand where your strengths lie then you will find it easier to apply for and complete jobs. This is actually a vital aspect of the whole freelancing. You will come to see that finding jobs that are in your area of expertise becomes easier. Completing the jobs that you so apply for becomes a breeze for you then because you love what you do.

One of the most common and most fatal mistakes that a writer can make is to hop around looking for jobs. Specificity will get you going because you will find it a lot easier to work on what you actually get. Hopping around niches and hoping that you will perform well in all areas that you handle will not work for you. Studying one niche, the one that you love and find easier will take you places. So pick the niche that you are best at, work on it, improve it and you will see that tasks will get easier and you will not have to struggle so much when working.