One of the most intimidating things for beginning freelance writers is finding those freelance writing assignments or writing gigs that will start paying off and allow you to jump start your online (or offline) writing career. Finding freelance writing assignments really is not that difficult, especially with the resources that are available nowadays on the Internet. Writing gigs are easy to find, especially if you're willing to do the work to look for them.

Finding freelance writing assignments can go one of several ways. One option that can be particularly useful for beginning writers looking for freelance work is to join an auction based freelance writing site like Elance or Guru. I've heard about oDesk, and a couple writers did well early, but the free sites invariably lead to writers or would-be writers, bidding so low that no one can make a serious living. Elance and Guru have fees to join, but then writers have 100 bids or more a month to work on winning freelance writing assignments.

One of the hardest parts of getting a good number of freelance writing gigs is finding them. One of the nicest things about those online auction sites is that there are plenty of writing assignments right there for the taking, all you have to do is bid on the ones you feel qualified for, and the winner gets the work.

This is part of the reason why I'm a big fan of the Guru and Elance freelance writing auction sites. It's easier to get a start in these places because you have thousands of people and companies who need writers offering jobs. It can be hard starting out early on to build a reputation and get that steady work flowing, but you do get an avalanche effect. You get one job. Then three. Then five, and then sixty-eight. It really does take off like that if you have a good query, a couple good sample articles, and even just a few finished jobs with positive feedback.

When you don't have to search for freelance writing assignments, you can spend more time writing, which is more time spent making money. Nailing those freelance writing assignments isn't solely based on writing ability: it's also based on your ability to pitch yourself as a writer. Since you have to make a pitch for every freelance writing job you apply for (Guru allows you to save several query templates), you get very good at pitching yourself and learning what your strengths and weaknesses are in pitching yourself as a capable writer.

This allows steady writing income, which also lets you pay the bills while working on passive income, like with Xomba, for a more "freedom" based life style when writing online.

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Originally posted on my freelance writing blog. You can go there to find the full blog post, or CLICK HERE to sign up for Xomba to start making money writing online!