Whats the best way to get started with freelance writing? ( no job, In need of some cash )

I'm also thinking like why work for $10 - $12 an hour at a job when I'm pretty sure I could make wayyy more online freelance writing...

Elance and oDesk are the best places to start with. Both are free.

Making a good reputation on any freelancing site is the hard part. If you ask me, I'd suggest creating a free account at Ezinearticles, write a few articles on any topic of your choice, these couple of articles submitted at ezinearticles will act as your live samples while applying on jobs.

You will learn with the passage of time, I don't think that there is any need for a course or something.

All the best mate!

have a look on skillpages.com and iwriter.com

If you want to get started as a freelance writer, my first recommendation is to head over to Copyblogger.com and read their Copywriting 101 guide. If you don't have good English skills, find a well reviewed English grammar textbook and practice every day.

When you've absorbed the information in the Copyblogger guides, and you feel like your English skills are a bit more polished, I recommend you sign up with a lower-tier writing site like iWriter.com. If you just browse through the listings on iWriter, you'll eventually find something you're capable of writing. Write the content and submit it, and don't worry if it gets rejected. Try and write at least 5 pieces of content every day.

If you're writing every single day, you will improve quickly and be able to move up to more interesting clients and better pay in no time at all.

You can try in odesk.com, Freelancer.com, elance.com for writing job.

Well, just try the freelancing jobs sites mentioned here. Start small (meaning, don't charge $20 for an article just yet) and build your reputation up on these websites and you'll see that after a while you might even become successful

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm definitely gonna get started studying, practicing and such tonight

You may want to look at this site:

Freelance Writing - Freelance Writing Tips to Help You Make More Money

You can find writing jobs on Craigslist.com. Just go to the Craigslist for your area, and under jobs look at the writing/editing category. Also, under the Gigs section, look at writing. Another place to find good paying writing jobs is Flexjobs.com. It requires payment (you can pay for as little as one month), but after paying you get access to their database of jobs, many of which are writing jobs. I got a really good temporary writing job through Flexjobs last year writing technical test questions.

You told here, that your a American, so there is no problem in the Language & grammar section. You only need to learn the way & techniques of writing. On the other hand as you are a American, so you will get more money than another countries people. You can see the sample of writing. The more you read, the more you learn.

I think that you will find Copyblogger.com very helpful. This site has great articles, webinars and eBooks about writing...beware copyblogger.com can become addictive...stayed up all night one day reading article after article!

One of my go-to writers wrote this up a while back. Short & sweet but covers most of the big points pretty well. How to Start Freelancing With No Experience

Starting out, make sure you brush up on your grammar skills. Nobody wants an article that they have to edit punctuation. That's your job. The hardest thing that most beginning writers struggle with is coming up with what to write about, and how to build a good article. My advice?

1. Make sure it's a topic you have some knowledge in. If you aren't familiar with IM, but try to take on an article about setting up the perfect funnel squence to maximize your profit, you're going to have issues. So make sure whatever you write about - you're intersted in it, and you know at least a LITTLE about it.

3. Find the top 5 articles you can that are similar, and take the best parts of each article, and rewrite them into 1 really good article. There's also writer's templates you can use too.

3. Use copyscape - it's like 5 cents per search. Trust me, most people who purchase content will check and see if your content passes or not. It' s a pretty big deal.

Hope this helps!

Two sites that I have learned a lot from are beafreelanceblogger.com and screwtheninetofive.com. Copyblogger is great too.

You can do a bunch of things to improve your writing skills. Coppyblogger is recommended too (as mentioned by other Warriors), but if you need money like "right now", you should focus on getting work first. You already are an American, so you already have basic English skills (at least I hope that).

To get immediate work, head over to iWriter.com and start taking up projects. You won't get high value stuff right away, but if you are fast you can make at least $50 or so a day as a basic writer. Try getting a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking and this will help you finish projects super fast and make some cash everyday.

On iWriter they rate you based on your skills. If you can churn out decent stuff, it wouldn't take long to get 30 positive reviews and that's going to catapult you to the next stage - the Premium stage where you get paid more for your work. Stay focussed and it shouldn't take you more than a week and half to get the hang of things and make some decent money.

Now, iWriter is good and so are some other sites that offer writing jobs, but once you start making money in the business, you will have to think of creating a name for yourself in the industry. Don't treat "writing" as a way to make some quick pizza money. It's a respectable profession and good writers earn more than many IM "Gurus"!

Read, read, read and then read some more. That is going to make you a better writer. Also get out of your comfort zone and start taking up challenging projects. That will help you evolve as a writer.

iWriter and similar freelance sites will help you get four square meals a day, but it's your skills that will get you your Bugati. Once you have more confidence about your skills start taking private orders.

Contact businesses that need stuff written regularly. Approach Web design businesses, SEO companies and Magazines etc. Create a website that has your portfolio and pricing too.

Treat it as a full fledged business and it will pay back.

Best of luck.

Forgot to mention... maybe you could open up a blog you can write on, to test your skills AND to have something to show your potential customers They'll want to know how your writing is, style and everything..