150 People Responded To My Call For Freelancers. I Had To Choose Between Them

Hi Jack,

I hope you’re well! I don’t think we’ve met before, but I know you’ve spoken to a couple of my colleagues at the SPA before, I’m a trustee and help to organise their national conference (and it would be great to get you along this year).

Aside from that I’m also a full-time freelance who’s written for places including the i Paper, Metro.co.uk, The Sun and The Independent, as well as running my own start-up Journo Resources. I had a quick pitch to swing by you which I thought might work for Underpinned (which is ace by the way, I loved the long read on the Pool a little while back). I look forward to hearing what you think.

150 People Responded To My Call For Freelancers. Here’s How I Chose Between Them

Twitter and Facebook are by far one of the most popular methods for finding freelancers. Whether you’re a journalist, marketing specialist or artist, you’ll easily find freelance job adverts on social media if you know how to search. However, as more and more people get savvy, and with the rise of newsletters and services which collate this call-outs in one place, freelancers are fighting increasing competition.

In my own recent call for freelancers to assist my small site, I received more than 150 submissions in just two days. It’s an overwhelming task for any manager or editor, and suddenly mistakes which might seem insignificant become a huge part of choosing where to assign work. I’d like to share the simple rules I put in place to decide between good candidates, something I believe would be useful across sectors.

Whether it’s giving too much information, treating the call out like a job application (please, no more cover letters) or ignoring the suggested method of contact, there are variety of things bugbears I’ve accumulated to cut down on candidates, which I think would make a great, practical feature for UnderPinned – as well as give me something to share to freelancers when I next do a call out!