Guest Post: Your Competition Stinks – Isn’t it Great!
August 13, 2008 by Lillie
When I wrote a guest post at Poewar: Writer’s Resource Center, John Hewitt promised to reciprocate. John’s site is a great place for writers of all kinds—I’ve been a subscriber and a fan for a long time, and I’m delighted to host John’s guest post. I hope you like the post as much as I do and that you will show John your appreciation in comments.
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There are a lot of people out there competing for freelance jobs. A freelance posting on a popular job site such as jobs.problogger.net or freelancewritinggigs.com can easily generate 400 responses. Numbers like that can be intimidating. You may wonder why you should bother applying if you have to compete against that many people. How can you possibly win?
I’m here to tell you it is easier than you think. The truth is that your competition stinks. They’re terrible. They’re awful. They don’t know how to apply for a position. They don’t know how to write a decent e-mail query. Many of them can’t write their way out of a wet paper sack. Just reading their e-mails is painful. Ninety percent of the people applying for these freelance positions can be eliminated within a sentence or two — a paragraph at the most. That is because their writing is terrible and it shows. The first 90% can be eliminated immediately because they have made one (or more) of six mistakes:
• They use informal language
• They make an obvious grammar or usage error
• They talk about their personal problems
• They don’t know what they are applying for
• They don’t give their qualifications
• They don’t send samples or links to samples
These very basic mistakes take that 400 person applicant pool down to a manageable 40 people. That is still more competition than you would like, but even at this point, many of the applicants aren’t serious competition. They have their own series of mistakes that they make. These mistakes are less obvious and less deadly, but they still keep most of these candidates from moving forward.
• They fail to cite relevant experience
• Their samples are not appropriate (or they point you to their web site instead of specific pieces)
• They don’t provide full contact information
• They don’t discuss why they are the best writer for the job
Once you eliminate the people who make those mistakes, you would be surprised how dramatically the pool of applicants shrinks. In the end, out of 400 applicants, there are perhaps 10 that can withstand even this level of scrutiny. That doesn’t mean there are 10 great applicants, just that there are ten who didn’t already blow their chances because of an easily correctable mistake. Competing against 400 people is daunting, but competing against 10 is a reasonable challenge, especially if you think you are the right person for the job. Just follow these eight simple steps and you will get yourself into the top ten most of the time:
• Write in a professional style
• Check and recheck your query to be sure that the language is correct
• Discuss your qualifications, not your needs
• Know exactly what you are applying for
• Discuss your relevant qualifications and experience
• Provide relevant, specific samples
• Provide full contact information, including your phone number
• Give at least one reason why you are the best applicant for the job
That’s it. Those eight things will rocket you to the top of the pile. There are plenty of ways to improve your chances even further, but these eight will keep you from being lumped in with the idiots.
Good luck.
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John Hewitt is the publisher of the writing site, poewar.com. If you like this article you may also enjoy reading, How to Write a Query Letter and 10 Ways to Make Editors Hate You Before They Even Know You. He also knows all about Writing Your Way Out of a Wet Paper Sack.
While John’s post specifically addresses putting forth effort as a freelance writer, the lesson applies to any kind of endeavor. “Easy come, easy go” doesn’t lead to success.
I hope your article builds confidence for the freelance writers just entering the market. I had to smile when I read it because of an “example” article I received yesterday. I never realized when I entered the field how many BAD writers there are out there!!! You know what I love? When you land a job and they send you an “example” article to follow that is just horrible! The first time that happened I asked myself: do I really have to lower myself to those standards? I was in serious shock. Then I started laughing hysterically. I have to admit – it did raise the bar on my confidence. (I did what any writer would do and submitted a decent article.)
Just the other day I received another “example” from a client that was a great example of how awful some writers write. I often thought many of the poor articles I’ve read on the internet were a result from automated software – but it really shocks me that these articles are written and APPROVED by a PERSON for publishing. And I’m really not that picky – and I’m certainly NOT the grammar police. (And I rarely proof my blog posts – just to warn you. But now that I said that – I’ll have to proof this…)
Your article is spot on and I hope newbie freelance writers take your advice to heart.
I think John’s article will give confidence to beginning writers who are serious about their craft. There are a lot of bad writers and a lot of people who don’t know any better.
I agree, this is more of an Easy Come, Easy Go process! You have to put good effort in what you do for success! John, you are making good points there too!
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You’re right—success in any field takes effort and John does a great job of explaining that to freelance writers.
This is all so true! I recently searched on Elance for some work to be done and I too came across instances you mention here. I have seen it…it’s true!
Great read.
Although I responded to every comment here all my responses were lost when I moved my blog.
There are lots of bad examples out there—we just need to be sure we don’t fit in with them!
Great read, thanks for the information. Greatly appreciated.
John wrote a very informative article.
Karen,
I’d join you in that hug. John really pointed out something that is so sad for the writing industry … but so helpful to the few writers who go to the trouble to do it right.
Helen,
Although it’s good for freelancers who do things right that they don’t have much competition, it’s a sad commentary on the industry. I’m sure you get requests from writers, as I do, asking for a link to their writing blog. Most of the time, when I visit the blog, I cringe and try to come up with a diplomatic way to tell them I can’t add them to my blogroll.