How did you land your first client or job as a freelance writer?

[FWPMikeyDee]

I wanted to ask this question because I believe it will give us insights into new ways to get clients. I'll start out with my story:

When I first started, just like Mikey Freelancer in Part 2 of a Day in the Life, I worked on Freelancer.com. While I wasn't as bad as Mikey was at winning jobs on bid sites, I was still pretty ignorant and unwilling to try new things. Fortunately, one of the very first projects that I won turned into a long-term client and a friend that I still work with today.

The project that I bid on had a $50 budget for three, 500-word blogposts. Horrible, I know. But I took my time and created an interesting bid proposal that was humorous and personable. At the time, I didn't have any reviews or ratings, and I was competing against writers with 5-stars and hundreds of reviews. I honestly believe my bidcopy won the project for me. The client gave me a chance to prove myself and was ecstatic with the results. I put my all into those 1500 words spending nearly 2 days writing and editing and writing and editing until they flowed as perfectly as I could make them. 

Months later when I decided to leave Freelancer.com and bid sites behind, I told the client that I was leaving and asked if he would like to work with me on a one-on-one basis. He agreed immediately, eager to avoid Freelancer's fees as much as I wanted to branch out and find private clients on my own. Now, what we did, exchanging private information in order to work around Freelancer, is explicitly against every bid sites ToS. But, at that point, I didn't particularly care if they banned me or penalized me for breaking their rules. And in fact, nothing ever happened and I am still considered a 5-star contractor on Freelancer.com. 

To this very day, that client orders five to ten articles almost on the weekly basis and has always agreed to the price increases I've made over the years. He is now one of my highest paying and consistent clients. He is also a friend that I talk to on a daily basis about things other than content marketing. 

So, that's how I landed my very first client from a bid site that otherwise was a waste of time and effort. What about you? How did you get into freelance writing? 

[Iva Ursano]

My first gig (atm my only gig..lol) was actually editing a local magazine and it came by as a fluke. The owner of the magazine wanted to interview me for an upcoming spread so I figured I should check out the mag and see what it was all about. The magazine was actually awesome BUT the editor sucked! I contacted the owner for a meeting and discussed my concern with her. I would love to be in the magazine but I'll write my own article if that's ok. ;) When I pointed out all the errors in the current issue she was horrified. And hired me on the spot. Yay team Iva!!

[FWPMikeyDee]

Awesome! It's cool to hear about other people's freelance stories. It can give everyone new ideas for grabbing their next client. Good job and all the success you deserve!

[Kathleen Krueger]

My first paid writing gig was through Guru.com. $75 per article for a newsletter (in 2010). Getting that right off the bat was what convinced me to continue pursuing freelance writing online through the bidding sites. Within 11 months I had enough steady clients to quit my bookkeeping job and work from home full time. I still get some of my best, long term clients off of Elance or Guru. There are plenty of great clients swimming among the minnows on those sites. Takes some patience and perseverance to find them though.

[FWPMikeyDee]

That's one helluva lunker client right out the gate! Awesome and congratulations on your success!