In 2018 we said writers were in high demand and listed nine free job sites; most of the sites survived, but demand for writers fell sharply after ChatGPT.
In January 2018 we published Freelance Writing Jobs: 9 Free Sites To Find Them, contributed by Sarah Aboulhosn. It opened with good news: companies were pouring money into content marketing, so "writers are in high demand right now". We quoted a FlexJobs report saying remote writing and editing listings had grown more than 20% since January 2017.
That was true at the time. It isn't the story in 2026. So before we get to the list, we have to talk about what happened to the demand.
What we got wrong: the demand
Then ChatGPT arrived, and the numbers for freelance writers turned.
- A study of 92,547 writers on Upwork found a 2% drop in monthly jobs and a 5.2% drop in monthly earnings in the months after ChatGPT arrived (the study, TheWrap's summary).
- A separate study from researchers at Imperial, HBS and DIW found that, within eight months of ChatGPT's launch, job posts for writing and coding work fell 21% relative to manual work (the study).
- Mediabistro reports 32% fewer writing projects on Upwork in 2025 than the year before, citing an analysis by Vollna (Mediabistro). We couldn't find Vollna's own report, so treat that figure with care.
The platforms noticed too. Fiverr, one of the sites on our list, cut about 30% of its staff, roughly 250 people, in September 2025 to become what it called an "AI-first company" (The Register).
We'd love to tell you exactly which niches still pay well. Honestly, we don't have solid data on that, and we'd rather say so than guess. The studies above measure the overall drop, not which kinds of writing held up. Our own advice, and it is only advice: aim for work where a client is paying for your judgement, your expertise or your reporting, not just for words on a page.
What we got wrong: "free"
Our headline promised free sites. They are free for you, the writer, to browse. But someone pays. ProBlogger charges employers at least $80 per listing, and Jobspresso's posting packages start at $299 (ProBlogger, Jobspresso).
That's not a bad thing in itself. It's just worth knowing how a board makes its money.
The list, eight years later
Most of the sites are still there. Here's where each one stands.
- Remote.co. Still listed in 2026 comparisons of remote job boards (PitchMe AI), though it didn't answer our own check, so look before you rely on it.
- Jobspresso. Active. Free for job seekers, paid by employers.
- ProBlogger. Active, with pay-to-post listings from $80 for 15 days (about the board).
- Truelancer. Active, reportedly based in Delhi and focused on India (Winvesta). A confession: our original link for Truelancer actually pointed to a search page on a different site, Freelancer.com. Sorry about that.
- Freelance Writing Jobs (formerly Freelance Writing Gigs). Gone. The address now shows only a blank server page (checked November 2026), so we've removed the link.
- FreelanceWriting.com. Still online when we checked in September 2026.
- Fiverr. Active, after the 2025 layoffs mentioned above. Our old warning still stands: competition is stiff and many writing gigs pay very little. We had pointed to a guide on making money on Fiverr; that link now redirects to an unrelated site, so it's gone.
- AllFreelanceWriting.com. Still running its job board.
- BloggingPro. Still listed as a job board, though it blocked our check.
Plus our bonus pick, Airtasker, which still has a writing section, though the old link now takes you to its Australian site.
And one more confession: our 2018 headline promised nine sites, then the article said "these eight sites" a few lines later. There were nine. Nobody's perfect, least of all a blog about writing.
What still holds
Some of the original advice has aged perfectly.
- Research the client before you start. We said it can be hard to tell good offers from ones that sound too good to be true, and that setting expectations up front is critical. That's even more true when job volume is down and competition is up.
- Location still doesn't matter. All you need is a computer, whether you write from a busy café, a coworking desk or a beach.
- Low-price marketplaces are a starting point, not a career. We warned that Fiverr gigs often paid $5 to $15.
The short version
In 2018 we said writers were in high demand. Generative AI cut into that demand, and the numbers show it. Most of the job boards survived; a lot of the work did not. If you write for a living in 2026, use the boards, check who pays and how much, and build your offer around the parts of writing that a chatbot can't do for your client.
Written 3 November 2026 from the research behind the archive's 2026 updates (checked 30 September, re-verified 3 November 2026). Sources are linked in the text.