The Best Freelance Job Boards for Beginners

The beginning of your freelance writing career can seem daunting when you don't know where to find clients or writing projects. I've gathered some useful free freelance job boards. This list is not all inclusive, but should give you a good start in your freelance writing career.

In the beginning of your freelance career, free sites are an excellent choice when you're working on a tight budget. The job offerings may not pay as well as the subscription sites, but it is a great source to start getting your feet wet.

The following are well known free job sites. I start with these because they will show up quite a bit in your search when you're looking for places to find jobs.

Gofreelance.com (www.gofreelance.com), formerly known as Freelance Work Exchange is a free site for writing gigs, as well as other freelance work.

Benefits: Free, well known, clean and easy to navigate.

Drawbacks: Limited writing gigs listed.

Ifreelance.com (www.ifreelance.com). This site is set up well and easy to navigate.

Benefits: Jobs are listed in forum type style, filter categories of freelance work, sub-category filter and has a nice layout.

Drawbacks: Most projects require you to bid the job.

Indeed.com (www.indeed.com). Site allows you to search keywords and even by geographic area (city, state, etc.).

Benefits: Plenty of job listings.

Drawbacks: It's mainly a search site listing job postings from other sources.

Elance.com (www.elance.com). Offers free basic membership or you can upgrade to a better account.

Benefits: Plenty of job listings, allows you to filter for only fixed fee jobs or hourly jobs.

Drawbacks: Free membership is very limited in options.

Writerswrite.com (www.writejobs.com/jobs/). Offers writing jobs and filters out jobs for specific categories.

Benefits: Free listings, lists jobs by categories.

Drawbacks: Limited listings.

Remember that free sites are usually limited in their job offerings, but really are a fantastic way to get started in this business. After you've gained some experience and feel more confident in your writing skills, I highly suggest you start using the paid subscription sites to land freelance writing gigs.

We all must start somewhere. Some of you have been using places like Associated Content to submit your work too. It's a great place to gain knowledge and make extra income. But there often comes a time when you want to start testing your wings. Using free job boards will help you step out of your comfort zone to see how well you fly.