My journey towards finding the perfect cover letter..

Being a freelance writer I discovered that research is the only tool that can make you a knowledgeable person. If you don’t THINK and use your creative abilities then you can never achieve your ideal position. So make it your habit to THINK!! Because you are the best judge of your own work. I started my freelance writing career just four months back and I remember I couldn’t get even a single job with the cover letters I wrote and then one day I thought to myself; where is the problem? Why am I not being hired? In all my frustration I googled many cover letters and their formats but they all turned out to be meaningless and pointless for me. In this post I am going to share my real experience of writing successful cover letters so that people who read this can actually benefit from it. Today I am going to give you some direct and quick techniques, which you can apply while writing your cover letter. Let’s get started..
Before writing any cover letter do read the JOB DESCRIPTION very carefully, and try to understand what the demand of your employer is. Keep one thing in your mind always that you are about to sell your abilities in a very competitive market so be sure of what you are offering. If you are going to apply for a job for the first time then I will recommend you that you should apply only for the jobs which you can complete very easily for example if you can write only articles then you should not apply for copy writing or sales letter writing jobs. Always follow your scope in the market. One more thing which I think is important to tell here is that you should not apply for article re-writing jobs, although they look relatively easy these are very difficult to do. I will write a separate post on article re-writing and its major techniques.
Let’s start writing your cover letter…It looks professional if you start your cover letter with your own brief introduction, so firstly tell your NAME and your LAST QUALIFICATION, after your brief introduction you should write the reference to the JOB POSITION you are applying for, do mention the name of the job posting and its better if you copy the exact name. Right after this write a punch line of your abilities and your reason of applying. In the next paragraph you will discuss all the points that are given in the job description. This is the time when you can really grab this job opportunity, try to ask some questions from the employer for example if it is an internet marketing job, you can ask your employer that what kind of internet marketing business he wants to promote? Always give the solution to your employer’s problem, and never ask stupid questions which do not make any sense.
In the next step you will discuss the “Work Plan” most of you must be thinking that what is the need of discussing a work plan so early on? It should be discussed during the interview process. Therefore my question to you is what if the employer rejects your job application and you never get the chance to show your full abilities? So, it’s good if you discuss the work plan and to let him know that you take his application very seriously.
Tell your employer how many hours you are available to work on his assignment. Present the work plan in BULLETS for example you can tell him that you will write 5 articles every day etc. If you are going to apply for an article spinning job then tell him that what types of article spinners you are going to use. I have observed one thing during my freelancing career that “DEADLINES” are very crucial. If you cannot meet the deadline you cannot work at all, so you should always RESPECT the deadlines. Always assure your buyer that you can submit the work in time.
Another important thing to consider is that even if you have excellent skills and you do not have a sample work no one will hire you. So for newbies sample work is very important, as without a sample it’s almost impossible to get hired. I will recommend you to create an account on “hubpages.com” or on “blogspot.com” because they are free and are great platforms to present your samples on.
Now let’s talk about availability; the longer hours you can put in the more you increase your importance in front of the employer. When you are about to conclude your cover letter do tell your employer your availability times. Keep the time difference always in your mind, and tell your employer your available hours for example you can say that “I am normally available 6 days a week (Monday - Saturday). But I can make myself available on Sunday too on prior notice”. The client should know exactly when he can reach you.
At the end of your cover letter do not waste the last chance of telling your employer that YOU ARE FREE TO ANSWER ANY OF HIS QUESTIONS and then tell him your available resources of communication i-e skype, Gtalk, yahoo messenger or the message center of your freelancing site.

Hard work and sincerity to your work are the real instruments which can make you a successful person in a short span of time…Good luck with your cover letters!