business writing - Finding freelance work

My partner is trying to get more freelance web copywriting work and as an avid StackOverflow user I thought I would try to see what the fantastic stackexchange community thinks.

There has to be better ways than trawling through Gumtree ect. only to find ridiculously low-paid posts obviously aimed at the sub-continent. Does a direct approach work, i.e. emailing SEO and web companies asking for work or do these subscription based job sites work? Has anybody succesfuly gotten a good 'gig' from starting out as a SEO copywriter?

I would be interested to hear about anybody's experiences and thoughts and I apologise if this is the wrong forum.

Answer

I've been doing freelance for a bit, and I've found that most of the sites where you have to bid for the work, the wages end up so low that it's not worth taking the project. My biggest suggestion, what's worked best for me, is to create a website. Once you've created a simple, uncluttered website, you can advertise your services on Craigslist or using Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc. Then clients come to you, instead of the other way around. If your partner has any writing clips, it might be helpful to either list them on the site or build an online portfolio that potential clients can click on. Once they're further along, they can ask for blurbs from clients and put them up on a testimonial page.

Also! Query magazines and other publications regularly with story ideas, or send out letters of introduction to SEO companies, custom publications, small businesses, etc. You can do cold-calling if you want, but I tend not to just because I hate cold-callers.

Freelance writing is 80% marketing and 20% writing, in my experience. You have to keep marketing yourself like crazy, even when you have billable client work.

If your partner needs some more insight, they can look for helpful blogs--there are tons--and check out these two sites (neither of which I am affiliated with, but I read them regularly):

http://www.makealivingwriting.com/

http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/ (this site posts job opportunities, if she'd prefer to apply for jobs that are already available)

Lots of luck!