When I’m not busy creating works of fiction that threaten to upend the very foundation of the literary world and advance the written word into new dimensions of genius once thought unattainable, I actually have some paying gigs on the side.
I should probably promote these side gigs from time to time, if for no other reason than to promote my free-lance writing and editing services to anyone in need of free-lance writing and editing services (at very competitive rates!). The work mostly involves your basic web content, straight and to the point, very SEO-friendly, focused mainly on small business and personal finance.
I’ve largely ditched journalism because I got burned out on it after three decades, and because the pay sucks for the amount of time you put into it, and because I don’t really have the time anymore anyway, and any free time I do have I should be devoting to fiction, and…..
About that: I’ve produced a fair amount of fiction over the last few years — a short story collection (available here), a full-length novel (unpublished, so far), a novella (ditto), a couple of longish short stories and many short ones like this and this and a couple that were published in this — but I really should be writing more. I’ve been stuck in the second chapter of a second novel for about a month-and-a-half now and I feel guilty about that, but you see I really DO have paying gigs coming in that demand my time, so I guess I shouldn’t feel that guilty. Plus there’s the cooking and house chores and bike rides and such, so…..
Anyway, one of my free-lance jobs is with Seek Business Capital, which provides small business consulting and loan procurement services in addition to blog content designed to help small businesses make better decisions. Here is my author page if you want to see the kinds of articles I write for them. Again, it’s all straightforward stuff, nothing flashy, but plenty informative and worth reading if you own a small business or know someone who does. I have professional experience in both the business world and business journalism, which helps bring a little personal expertise.
Another client of mine is GoBankingRates, a personal finance site where I mainly edit and occasionally write articles. Again, some pretty helpful stuff on this website if you need financial advice. I also research and write quarterly market reports for a commercial real estate company that I probably shouldn’t name here, so if you need more info on that please contact me directly.
So that’s the status report on this morning in early 2020. Again, if you need writing or editing help, feel free to contact me and we’ll chat.
Vance Cariaga 
I’m looking to get started in the freelance editing scene locally. Perhaps writing too – but I’d probably be quite picky about the content.
Any advice on getting started in editing specifically? Did you start with lower than standard rates? Did you charge by time, or number of words, or flat rate estimate per job?
Any websites I should register on?
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Hi Yacoob,
I’m not sure what your professional background is, but I’m happy to offer a couple of tips. I was a writer and editor for newspapers and magazines for about 30 years so in that sense I had a lot of experience that helped out in landing side gigs. I was able to get side jobs even when I was still a full-time journalist.
The first thing you should do is put together a CV that highlights your writing/editing experience and includes links to your published work, be it writing or editing. Clients will want to know that you’ve done this kind of thing before (obviously) and to see examples of your work.
I’m not sure what the market is like where you live (S. Africa I think?), but there are probably some hiring websites that advertise web content/writing/editing/copy editing jobs. You might search for media organizations in your region as a source for places that are looking for free-lance editors. I was able to find jobs on a few different websites that (I believe) have an international presence: Mediabistro (https://www.mediabistro.com/), Indeed (https://www.indeed.co.uk/) and JournalismJobs.com (https://www.journalismjobs.com/).. All advertise free-lance and independent contractor editing jobs as well as part-time and full-time jobs.
if there are any websites, journals, newspapers or magazines in your area that you think you would enjoy writing or editing for, query the content managers or managing editors to express your interest and let them know your experience and areas of expertise. It’s always helpful to provide a couple of story ideas in case they need writers. Even though you are looking for editing gigs, you can improve your chances by offering to write content first.
Anyway, there are a LOT of websites out there producing content, and many of them need editors, It’s just a matter of finding the right one. Good luck!
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