Do you ever feel bad for declining jobs you'd PREVIOUSLY accepted because of low pay?

I have spent the last 2-3 years (yes, YEARS) trying to help people and in all that time only a couple of people have bothered trying to do better. At least 95% have no dedication, no idea of what they're getting into, no clue of what writing really is (and I mean that in a non-artsy way), and simply believe that it's a "fast earner". They'd honestly be better off with GPT or even PTC.

Sometimes, the fact that the response to hours of coaching and encouragement is so often "when do I get paid?" gets frustrating, and I get a little... blunt.

 

12,000 words a day isn't writing. It's typing. The 40 odd articles per day being churned out here. How much research happens? How much editing? How much quality control?

It's fine for the poster to say that they "write and think" at the same time, but that's essentially saying they start an article with no structure or plan. How on earth does that result in content that does anything but take up space?

It's depressing that people have to do so much to earn a living wage, but it's equally depressing that business owners think there's any point to this kind of content.

 

I think people who just churn out vague crap for a living severely underestimate the importance of both research and editing to the writing process. You need to account for time to research (and cite) material and edit over your work. You can't just tippity-tappity-typpity and hand in articles without looking at the finished product.

The more I think about it, the more I feel it's impossible to have 40 outstanding articles per day using a supposed "write and think" method.

 

I think it'd be impossible to have three!
I've just written a 1,000 word blog post for my own site. Took me two hours, because I was sourcing quotes, looking for data to support arguments, that sort of thing. We can add an extra half hour (minimum) tomorrow for editing it.

That means that it'd take me at least 75 minutes to write a 500 word post I'd be happy publishing on my own website. And I hold work I do for clients to a higher standard. For the 40 "outstanding" articles mentioned above, we're talking 50 hours. Without stopping to sleep, eat, take a leak or stare out of the window thinking of a good call-to-action.

No, I think the old truism applies. I can do good articles, fast articles and cheap articles. And you only get to pick two of those descriptors for an individual project!

 

In other words, an actual work week.

This thread has inspired me to try to see how many quality articles I can put together in a single day and not lose my mind...or produce crap.

I don't think I'll ever hit 40, though. Does "20 articles per day" seem like a more rational life goal?

 

You mention working smarter, not harder.

Instead of finding a way to write more articles, why not focus on finding clients that'll pay a sensible fee for your time and expertise?

 

I KNOOOOOOOOOOW....But I'm a competitive person. The idea that I could be able to type that many good articles just because I can.... *.*

I guess I should be comforted that it's an unrealistic goal and completely impractical and that I know I don't have to do it to make a good living. Maybe I'll just stick to typing exercises to increase my speed and devote time to improving my grammar?

I'll keep my philosophy intact, I promise. *pinky swears*

 

I'm not surprised if you had declined cases from the other clients that are offering at low cost. There will be abusers if they find out that you are easy to approach, too kind and they will take advantage. Always consider your hardworking because there is no cheap when it comes to work because its at your best and professionalism.

 

I've done a lot of low pay work, and I followed through, that's the part that made me angry. haha. The other day I was told I was going to make 3 dollars per hundred words, okay, first one done, and then second one done and was told, oh, no that one only pays a dollar... ... but this next one will be two dollars. I needed the money so bad, else I would have deleted the whole thing and cussed him a little bit. ---- then on top of that, I had to be paid with moneybookers and had to wait a week to be paid. At this point in the argument I was like OMG dude, really. You want to bicker over that three dollars, then a dollar. What kind of Ahole are you. Well, I wont be working for him.. I mean HIS CLIENTS ever again. I break my knuckles while he banks on it. .. /rant.

 

That's awful.

I have walked away from clients that broke agreements, which is why I prefer contracts where everything is agreed on (in writing) ahead of time. Some people are straight up LIARS. Don't get me started on unpaid "test samples" people request and then suddenly they don't need a writer. Absolutely shady.

 

Ah, the ones who have a seven page website and ask seven writers to write a different page each as a free sample? They're a delight. Luckily, they end up with a disjointed site that doesn't work particularly well. What a shame.

 

Writers tend to undervalue their work. The result? They undermine their industry.

500 words for $5 is slave labor. Don't do it.

If you're serious about making a living as a writer, you'll turn up your nose at jobs that pay pennies per word.

 

I wouldn't feel bad, because you have to know your worth. But at the same time if you don;t have anything else going on then I would've taken it. When people look at your resume they also look at your social media profiles and such, Just be sure you are always presented as intelligent and carry a specific set of knowledge they can't do without.

 

I wouldn't feel bad! It sounds like she was trying to take advantage of you and deliberately mislead you. You trusted your instincts and declined. I've had clients pull the "this should be easy work" guilt trip. Every time I've ever had a client say this to me, the work was never easy and the client was always a nightmare. There are people out there who teach others how to nickle and dime writers and it sounds like those people learned from them. Frankly, after years of dealing with this kind of thing, I finally burned out from ghostwriting. Accepting low rates makes the risk of burnout even greater!

 

I've recently had similar issue. A client told me I would be doing writing, but the first task included design and when I managed to do it and had delivered it, he said he cannot pay me as agreed. Then I told him this was free of charge and not to contact me again. I felt bad in the end. Still feel bad somewhat. I'm trying to learn from this, but how exactly?

 

no one is teaching them out to nickel/dime. They are not making any money with the content they have or they
do not know how to usse the content properly. Once they put the content up, then someone steals their content
in order to benefit from what they are not making anyway. Just because someone has or steals content does not
mean they are making tons and tons of money, most likely they are not. It is nothing more then a repeating cycle.

 

I charge $25 per article to start. Without question. I also sell a minimum of 4 at a time.

This price goes up from there if it needs to be optimized for seo, or if they want it syndicated across all of their social media accounts or they want custom graphics.

It all comes down to salesmanship and positioning.

I would never write an article for $5.

 

Nobody would.

Anyone who does that is spinning other people's work.

 

If you have a quality service and agreed on a price that was changed after the fact, you have no reason to feel guilty. I would personally refuse to work for someone who did this to me. I would not hesitate to back out of that deal as working for someone who could so blatantly change a deal is not going to end well for you.