The Writing Coach Blog

Convert Mediabistro Freelance Marketplace Profile Views to Sales

In a previous post, “Get Found on Mediabistro’s Freelance Marketplace,” I outlined a strategy for pushing your profile higher in search results. But that’s just half the battle. Once you have prospective clients’ attention, you should reel them with winning clips and a professional demeanor.

Here’s how Elaine Pofeldt, a former FORTUNE Small Business editor, won work through the site after going freelance in October 2007. (Who better to offer advice than someone who has years of experience hiring freelance writers and being one?)

Select Clips with Care

The first order of business is to choose writing samples with editors’ needs—and wants—in mind. It may be your profile, but it should be all about the client. Pofeldt showed her range and distinctive voice by displaying long-form narrative features, investigative pieces, service stories and business briefs. “I made sure to select clips that showed what makes my writing unique,” she said. “Several of the clients who contacted me said they had noticed that I had a colorful, feature-y approach to writing about business topics that might otherwise be dry.”

Although the stories varied widely in form, she limited her choices’ subject matter to small business and careers to demonstrate expertise. “I find that many editors prefer to hire someone who can bring up-to-date knowledge about a given field to an assignment, as opposed to a generalist,” she said. 

Highlight Your Professionalism

If you’ve spent some time in a traditional newsroom, let editors know. “When I was an assigning editor, I liked working with freelance writers who had held staff jobs for a while, because I knew they would have a realistic understanding of how the editorial process works,” Pofeldt said.  

Don’t fret if you haven’t worked on staff—a long track record of freelance success can demonstrate the same thing. That’s why she adds new writing samples to the site every few weeks. The updates communicate that she’s a professional, not a hobbyist, and give prospective clients confidence that their projects would land in capable hands.

Elaine Pofeldt’s Four Tips for Freelance Success

1. Don't worry if you can't fill out your profile fully when you first post it. If you are serious about freelancing, you will have a lot more information to add as you move forward with your career. I built my profile gradually over two years.
 
2. If you get a small assignment from a client who has found you on the site, treat it as a tryout for steady work. Make it easy for the client to rehire you by pitching great ideas, doing the best reporting and writing you can, responding flexibly to queries, and being willing to help out with small related requests, such calling a source in a story to ask for a product shot.
 
I think I have gotten a lot of steady work from clients because I don't balk if, say, the top editor on a story suddenly has a last minute question on it before a holiday weekend...or if an editor suddenly realizes that a piece I've written has too much overlap with another one that was assigned by a different editor and wants to shift the focus a bit. I understand that editors want to make their publications as strong as possible, and that sometimes, accomplishing this requires writers to be flexible. Editors are under so much pressure today to do more with fewer resources that I am confident that most will remember anything a writer does to make their lives easier when it comes time to assign future stories.
 
3. Taking out an ad on Mediabistro can be a good way to put yourself on the radar screen of clients you might not have thought of approaching. However, advertising is only one step toward building a thriving freelance business. Most of the assignments I get come from editors who have worked with me in the past, so I try to stay on their radar screen by pitching stories to them regularly. It is also important to pitch editors at publications that are new markets for you, even if some of the queries you send out seem to disappear into a black hole. With many publications still folding, writers need to be very proactive about keeping work flowing.
 
4. Make sure to build a profile on LinkedIn, too. A couple of clients told me they had viewed my profile on both Mediabistro and LinkedIn before contacting me. LinkedIn gives you a place to provide details of your resume that would not fit into a Mediabistro ad but would still be relevant to an assigning editor or potential client. You can also display recommendations from clients there.