How many writing gigs do you apply for? Have you proved your skills to anyone today? (photo credit sibaudio - sxc.hu)

We all have our own little ways and means, don’t we?  Some of us use sites that allow us to post articles whenever we like to earn profits through Google Adsense and similar programs.  Others head for the bidding sites to bid on as many freelance writing jobs as they can find.  Still more scour the job boards and classified ad sites to see what they can find there.

For my money I don’t think any of these methods are wrong or right.  We are all different and it depends on what you want to get out of writing, both in a mental and a financial sense.  Of course if you want to earn a living from your writing then you’ll want to earn as much as possible from your writing, so you will look for the better paid jobs.  Ideally you will approach businesses directly instead of simply looking for the advertised jobs.  But we all have our own ways of finding the writing gigs we want.

The most important thing for me is not to rely on any one source of work.  Here are some of the ways I have found freelance writing jobs in the past:

• Via one of my Squidoo lenses (someone emailed me)
• Via Twitter (someone contacted me via a direct message)
• Via my website (currently undergoing an overhaul!)
• Via Craigslist (and it is actually still one of my highest paid regular jobs – which just goes to show you CAN sometimes find worthwhile writing gigs on Craigslist!)
• Via a bidding site
• Via colleagues who sub-contract some of their work out to others

As you can see there are plenty of ways you can get work as an online freelance writer.  And these barely scratch the surface as well.  The more creative you are in finding freelance writing jobs the better – it will put you in front of the competition.

If you read my previous post about my 5 writing resolutions for the New Year you will know that I fully intend to develop my writing career even further in 2010.  I feel like it is time to step up to the next stage.

Is it time for you as well?  Think about some of the methods I have used to get writing gigs and ask yourself if they could work for you too.  Are there other things you could be doing – such as setting up a writing blog for example – that will help you to get more clients?

Try them all in turn and see which ones appeal to you.  Use them, try more and watch your writing career develop as a result.  Good luck!