The Freelance Creative

Introducing The Freelance Creative: An Old Friend With a New Name

the freelance creative

In 2014, Contently launched The Freelancer. Today, we’re renaming it The Freelance Creative.The site isn’t going to change drastically.

In addition to the new name, you’ll see a different logo and some new design elements for now. We’re still committed to publishing stories that empower freelancers and help them get paid to do work they’re proud of. But for us, the rebrand was a chance to take stock of how freelancing has evolved since we started, and tweak some of our focus accordingly.

Overseeing The Freelancer was my first big project when I joined Contently seven years ago. I had spent the previous year trying to find my way as a freelance writer. That meant celebrating sporadic achievements while mostly dealing with the frustration, stress, and loneliness of self-employment. As I wrote in the announcement post on the site, we envisioned The Freelancer as “what we would have wanted when we were freelancing full-time.”

In many ways, that came true. We debuted a rates database, built a rates calculator, and developed a successful mailbag series called Ask a Freelancer, written by the talented Nicole Dieker, that spanned 62 columns. More than 250 people have contributed to the site over the years, sharing unique perspectives and offering meaningful advice. (Hopefully we can hit 300 by next year.) And in terms of work, we created a new Gigs page on the site to publicize all the creative opportunities within Contently, where our clients were searching for everything from wildlife expertise to writers specializing in decisioning.

In some ways, freelancing has improved since then. There’s clearly a stronger community online than when I started. Organizations like Freelancers Union provide advocacy and benefits. Meanwhile, individuals like Sonia Weiser—who tirelessly compiles freelance opportunities in her newsletter—help break down the barriers to entry that used to deter people from getting their careers going.

However, there’s still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to professional guidance, transparency, and workers’ rights.

So as we continue to help freelancers, we’re aiming to focus on those areas. Freelancing is not as novel as it was in 2014. More people are freelancing than ever before, and the basics have been covered across the internet. Moving forward, our coverage will hopefully appeal to someone who’s a bit more advanced. Ultimately, though, whether you’re just starting out or have been working steadily for decades, our goal is to help creators spend less time struggling and more time creating. And that will never change.

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