Last month or so, I joined Pinecone Research. They’re a survey company, and only e-mail you when they have surveys for you to complete. No spam.

I receive prompt payment for my time in the form of a check, which comes in the mail. I might be getting product samples to try (who knows).

I received an e-mail just now that Pinecone is looking for males to join their research panel (via e-mail).

If you or anyone in your household is already a member of Pinecone, you cannot participate.

But, if you are a male over 18 or if there’s one in your family who would like to participate, e-mail me at sensetosave at gmail.com and I’ll forward you the referral e-mail.

I won’t get any referral bonuses or anything if you join, but I thought I’d pass this along to anyone interested.

Last week, I discussed the basics of deciding whether you want to pursue freelance writing (or whatever) to supplement your income.

This post is meant to get you thinking about sources of freelance work, specifically freelance writing.

So, say you’ve got some published writing experience and you’d like to land your first freelance writing gig.

What kind of writing do you want to do for money?

Here’s a few options:

Greeting cards

Someone has to write them, right? Here is the submission info and writing guidelines for Blue Mountain. They’ll pay $300 for card-related poetry that fits their standards.

However, most greeting cards seem to reap only a tenth of that. According to GreetingCard.org, a new card-writer might expect $25 per verse. Check out their PDF on Greeting Card Writers Guidelines.

If you think writing greeting cards could be for you, you’ll want to peruse a copy of the Greeting Card Association Industry Directory, available through GreetingCard.org.

Here’s a link to another site regarding the greeting card industry.

Public relations

Non profit agencies, churches, businesses and people can benefit from the services of public relations professionals. Most businesses already have a PR division or person, but smaller nonprofits or businesses might not.

Check the organization’s web site. If it hasn’t been updated since 2003 and you have web skills, pitch your services to the business.

Do they have a company publication that needs content? Maybe they need a press kit. Or, perhaps they have some newsworthy events happening soon. In that case, you’ll want to write and submit a press release to area media.

Magazines

If you’re interested in writing for magazines, you need to buy a copy of the most recent Writer’s Market. This gem of a resource comes out every year, complete with listings on book publishers, magazines, trade journals and writing contests.

At almost 1,200 pages, my 2006 copy (it’s outdated) provides advice for beginning writers, including business sense and the query letter.

Even better, you’ll find important information on publications, such as relevant contact information (which is why you need the most recent edition of the book), how much freelance content the publication accepts, the types of work they’re seeking, and how much they’ll pay.

Grouped by subject and then listed alphabetically, this is one book you absolutely must have if you want to publish a book or submit content for magazines or trade journals.

Pick up the 2008 edition on Amazon for about $20.

Newspapers

Don’t pursue freelance newspaper reporting unless you already have published reporting experience. It’s easy to learn, but it’s a hard industry to break into without previous reporting experience. If your heart is set on being a freelance newspaper reporter, e-mail your city’s metro editor to find out if they’re accepting freelancers. Be sure to do a thorough search of the newspaper’s web site to see if this info is online.

Be prepared to submit your work history and work samples. Also, you should have a strong list of story ideas you could do for them. At some newspapers, an editor will call on a stringer to fulfill particular assignments. In other cases, freelancers will have to pitch all story ideas to the editor. Find out the policy of the city newspaper(s) and be persistent and polite.

Miscellaneous sources

1. Network. Of course I have to say this, but honestly, use your contacts. Tell former co-workers (assuming you’re on good terms), Once you establish your writing business, you’ll find that most of your new jobs come through networking.

2. Direct solicitation. If you want to market your editing skills, head over to a college campus. Post fliers touting your services, create online listings, and encourage word-of-mouth advertising. Or, be ultra direct and walk up to people and tell them you’re a freelance writer and editor and see what happens. It might go well–or it might not.

3. Craigslist. You never know what you’ll find on that site. Perhaps you’ll find a struggling musician who needs help writing his bio and gaining exposure to the newspaper’s music critic. Maybe there’s someone who wants help editing their manuscript. Go to craigslist.org, select your city (or any of them, really) and look under “Gigs.”

4. Visit FreelanceWriting.com and their resources, including job source listings.

Awhile back, I told you about the CVS Advisor Panel. I signed up, but hadn’t heard anything from them until now.

I took a quick survey (maybe 5 minutes) and I’ll get $3 extra care bucks after December 14. Woo hoo! As you all know, $3 ECB can be stretched quite a bit.

For that particular survey, if you didn’t fit the survey’s demographic criteria, you would get $1 ECB instead of $3. Not a bad deal for your time, I’d say.

Has anyone else joined the panel? How many surveys have you taken so far?

A few readers have asked me to discuss freelance writing. I haven’t been a freelancer for long (only since September) so I’m absolutely no expert. I’m hardly qualified to write on this topic, but I’ll do some research to help us all (I hope).

I’ll be writing a series of posts about freelance writing, and if you have resources or ideas to share, please do.

Freelance writers are essentially independent contractors. It’s basically like having your own business–you have clients, pay taxes, and a whole lot more.

If you’re serious about becoming a freelancer (whether you choose to be a freelance writer, designer, photographer, consultant, seamstress, etc.) you need to know that it’s a lot of work. In some cases, being a freelancer is more work than if you held a regular 9-5 job.

Why?

Because you are an entire company. You are responsible for marketing yourself, advertising your services, finding your clients, working with them to deliver them their product, actually doing the writing (or whatever you were hired to do), and paying taxes.

Since you are working for your clients to produce work they want, you will not have complete creative control. You will not be able to write whatever suits your fancy; rather, you must write what your client wants–that’s why they’re paying you.

Breaking into freelance writing might be good for you if…

-you love writing (or whatever skill you’d be selling)

-you have income coming in from another source (if you have a steady job or have a spouse who has one), at least while you get established

-you’d be happy doing freelance work, even if that meant you potentially wouldn’t earn much

You have significant obstacles to overcome if…

-you have limited time to devote to finding and producing work

-your spelling and grammar skills are weak

-you’ve never been paid for your writing or editing

-you have few work samples or references to show potential clients

-you have no relevant work experience

If the above statements are not true in your case, then you’re in good shape. Think about it: Would you pay someone to create a brochure for your company if they had no published samples to show you? Or if they had no time to work on the project? Or if they can’t spell? Probably not.

So, if you’ve never been published, you’ll probably need to do some volunteer writing to get started–anything you can do to get relevant experience.

For example, if you want to volunteer at an animal shelter, see if you can help with designing or writing the organization’s newsletter, compiling the annual report, writing press releases, creating bumper stickers for fund raisers–whatever they need and whatever you can provide.

That volunteer opportunity would help the organization and would give you work samples you could use to help get your first paid writing gig.

So, the first step to take if you want to be a serious freelancer?

Get experience and work samples.

In my case, I worked as a reporter and editor at my college newspaper. That experience earned me about 50 published news stories and gobs of editing experience. I also had internships at two daily newspapers and a public relations internship at a nonprofit. In all, I have written 150 news stories, designed a newsletter and created content for it, written and submitted press releases, created a press kit, and other similar types of work.

While I have some experience, there are many writers out there that have thousands of work samples, published books, and have general experience at a wider range of mediums.

We shouldn’t be intimidated. Sure, it’s competitive. But ya know what? Lots of things are competitive–so state your goals, lay out a plan of action, and go get ‘em.