Looking into getting into writing gigs but I don’t trust any of the sites I’m finding on Google

[Guest]

Some of them seem pretty scammy.. Can anyone recommend legit ones? I’ve looked at writing competitions, pay-per-word projects, etc but I am very open-minded to other jobs.

Thanks!

[Douglas]

The best work is writing for magazines and newspapers. Interviews, features, opinion pieces, reviews, travel articles. 95% of magazine content is written by freelances. Pitch your ideas directly to the appropriate editor. There are also a lot of mags that buy short stories, some paying a little, some paying a lot. But magazine articles generally pay much better than fiction and it's much easier to get much more work.

[Shannon]

It’s not like a job. The money is poor, the odds of getting any winnings aren’t good and the actual time spent creating that story means that your “hourly rate” would be measured in cents, not dollars.

It’s not unusual for competitions to have 10,000 entries for a $500 grand prize. Most writers are willing to do it for free nowadays just for the publicity.

I’ve explained my career in writing in here before but, to nutshell it, even as a full time journalist with 2 English degrees, I never would have supported myself without my husband earning the real money. I probably never even made back my tuition money.

Do it for the love of it and be excited if you make a couple of bucks. Depressing, I know.

Yes, 99% of those jobs are scams and “real” writing jobs go to people with proven talent, education and/or those who are subject matter experts.

[Devlin]

My best advice is to try. Carol tice's writer's den. It's a membership site, not a job site. But she teaches you how to be a freelance writer. And she shows you how to go out and get clients not from these scary sites but from actual corporate people.

[Frannie]

Publishedtodeath publishes lots of legitimate announcements. Medium. Buzz feed pays for articles on a case to case basis

[Batman]

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