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(Article #7)

Putting the "Free" in Freelancing!
by Rusty Fischer  

The Author of FREEDOM TO FREELANCE Warns, “Never Pass Up a Good Freebie!”
 

There are two kinds of freelance writers: those who can afford to pass up work, buy all their research materials on-line, and have little luxuries around their home “office,” such as fax machines, separate business lines, and copy machines--and then there are the rest of us!

If you fall into this second category, like myself and most of my freelancing friends, you may want to start taking advantage of the Freebies that other professions, for some reason, don’t feel the need to bother with.

From the Internet to your child’s cereal box, you never know when a Freebie will make or break a future assignment:

Mad About (.com) Freebies!

For about a year now, I’ve been subscribed to a FREE newsletter from About.com. It comes to me every week, and inside I find the latest addition to About.com’s 24:7 Freebie site. You’d be surprised what folks are giving away these days! From chocolate samples to bars of soap, you could stock your entire house with useful Freebies, if you had the time to fill out on-line forms all day!

But About.com isn’t the only Freebie site out there. Simply type the words “free” or “freebie” in your favorite search engine and you could easily spend the next two weeks book-marking all the popular, and unique Freebie sites out there. But do yourself a favor and take a hint from a veteran cheapskate: Just bookmark the first 5-10 sites you run across that look well-organized, seem to be updated frequently, and contain the types of Freebies you feel might be useful to your next few freelancing gigs.

The fact is, most of these sites offer the same Freebies and you’ll save yourself hours of time just sticking with your 5-10 favorites. After all, in the world of Freebies, less really IS more!

Picky, Picky

To make the most of your Freebie hunting, it pays to be picky. For instance, the items that have been the most useful to me, personally, are the free book offers I find on About.com and elsewhere.

For example, as a spiritual person, and opportunistic freelancer, I love to write pieces that combine religion with creativity. Fortunately, as you will soon find, most of the free book offers out there happen to be religious in nature.

Over the past year, I’ve stocked up on no less than a dozen high-quality spiritual books, ranging from biblical quotations to daily meditations. Now, whenever a Christian writing opportunity pops up, I simply rush to my Freebie bookshelf and grab this stack of handy, not to mention FREE, reference books.

Sure, I could have bought them somewhere, but why? Now I can spend the money I’ve saved on stamps, new business cards, Internet access, etc.

Grab a Genre

There are also Freebies specific to particular genres of writing. For instance, any religious writer would benefit from the Bible Freebies already mentioned. But what about the rest of us?

Well, you children writers are sure to find a ton of Freebies for kids out there on the Internet, and elsewhere. From cute stickers to inspire you to sample issues of your favorite children’s magazines to research or submit to, it can all come in quite handy.

Recently, I was able to bid on a religious comic book series because I’d not only taken advantage of the aforementioned religious Freebies on the Web, but had also availed myself of a free comic book sample or two during a promotional giveaway down at my local movie theater during last summer’s blockbuster movie, The X-Men!

If you’re a food writer, stock up on free ingredients. A romance writer? Gather up all the enticingly romantic Freebies you can find and put them to good use in a story, an article, or future articles.

You’ll find lots of creative FREE-dom in the world of Freebies.

Organize to Optimize

When those generous Freebie offers start pouring in, it’s a good idea to start organizing them right away There’s nothing worse than tossing all those Freebies in a pile and forgetting about them, when they could be coming in handy all along.

For optimum organization, a bookshelf works the best. Old or new, by your desk or in the garage, it doesn’t really matter. Just so long as it’s easily accessible and clearly visible.

This way, your magazine samples and books can go on one shelf, your toys, gizmos, gadgets, and thingamajigs for research or review purposes can go on another, and your most perishable items, like those chocolate samples and other candy--for inspiration, naturally--can go on the top shelf for the easiest access of all!

Copyright 2001 Rusty Fischer All Rights Reserved. 

Rusty Fischer is a freelance author hoping to share his experiences as a recent eBook author in his new book, 101 WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR eBOOK--FOR FREE! He has also written several print books, including four of Lebhar-Friedman's popular Buzz On titles. "101 WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR eBOOK—FOR FREE!" available at:
http://www.athinapublishing.com/fischer.htm.