Writing is a Joke

I really like Old Milwaukee...
Sam Adams.. is by far the best for decent beers...
Maybe even a little stella?

 

$2 dollars for 500 words? You know what your work is worth, and if you can stomach selling it for $2, than that's you. It's not even worth it in my opinion. I had a guy approach me a few years back wanting 30 articles for $5 a piece. I laughed at him, because I thought he was being cheap and unreasonable, but apparently that's a good rate for internet writers. I had no idea until I saw this. I started doing freelance work 5 years ago at $20 an article, and I felt like I was getting ripped off. People don't realize how much work goes into a good article. Good being the key word here. It's not worth your time to do the research, gather quotes, and then write something with style and substance for 2 lousy bucks. If you are a good writer there are tons of people out there that are willing to pay you for your services, go find them and stop short changing yourselves. Contact your local newspaper, that's what I did when I was 17, which was five years ago. Now I am a staff writer with a weekly column. If you are willing to work for peanuts, people are going to use and exploit you, and it's no one's fault but your own.

 

That's not quite true. Just because it's what you see advertised most often doesn't make i a "good" rate for Internet writers. Many of us earn very much more (on par with writing for print publications in plenty of cases). Just because a lot of buyers are "being cheap" now b/c the Web makes it easier to solicit writers doesn't mean that's the norm. A lot of print publications do exactly the same thing (and often even expect writers to write for nothing but "exposure"). They key is in understanding that the good gigs are much less often advertised publicly. You get them through connections and from people coming directly to you, which is why networking and marketing are the two most important things every freelance writer should be concerned with.

 

I'm still so new here, but from what I'm seeing, I'll be much better off finding work on my own than investing time in trying to sift through "low ball" offers on DP.

Not to sound snotty, but if I wanted to make $2.00 I would collect scrap metal or something.

 

If you want good gigs from places like DP, you shouldn't be "sifting" through anything at all. You should be making quality contributions to the community, showing people that you can write (through your posts), and that you're knowledgeable in your niche specialty. If this forum doesn't apply well to your niche specialty, then it's probably not the right forum to be spending your time in. Either way, your time in forums should be budgeted into you marketing schedule. There are writers here earning quite significantly more from webmasters than the rates you see advertised, and they're not the writers out constantly advertising their cheap article writing services in the marketplace area.

The way to get gigs here is to:

1. Set up a professional site and link to it from your signature (when you can add one).
2. Don't bother trolling the B/S/T area often, because you won't find the good gigs advertised.
3. Network with other writers who are doing well. It's not uncommon for writers to refer work to each other if they're contacted about a project not in their niche, or that they don't have time for.
4. Build a reputation on the forum. Like it or not, the more rep bars and positive iTrader you have, the more likely people are to be willing to pay more for you, because they trust you more.
5. If you don't have a specialty yet, get one. It does make a difference in what you can charge.

It's not impossible to get good rates in a forum. You just won't do it often through blatant advertising or responding to gig posts.

 

i dunno about that. are the 2 brands really all that different? guess i'm just not a huge alceehol proponent

 

Great points and I gave you some rep love for them! I also popped over to your blog and read through a few posts...thanks for the motivation to get my ebook finished! I've been toying with whether to sell it or give it away and have been leaning towards giving it away but wondered if that was wise...your post on that topic knocked me off the fence. (If you'd like a copy about staying focused, I'll be glad to send you one when I'm through with it...would love to get an unbiased critique before I go public)

Honey

 

I'm glad to hear someone's already finding the e-book posts useful (for anyone interested, I'm focusing on e-books the first half of this month, b/c in mid-January I'm running a 14-day e-book writing challenge at the freelance writing blog).

Feel free to send the e-book Honey, and I'll look it over as soon as I'm able to.

Jenn

 

This is pathetic! You could take those articles and submit them to Associated Content and get more! And, they're an AWFUL market, as far as pay rate. But, at least now they have a residual system where you get so much from the number of views you get, so you may end up making a heck of a lot more in the long run. Plus, you get a byline to create a showcase. If you're that desperate than use these types of content producer websites to at least establish a name for yourself first. If you are starting out and think you have to settle for a low wage, at least this is a way to do it and establish a showcase for yourself so that you get back some benefit for all the work.

 

I had to read that a 2 times cause I thought you wrote you where getting paid $2 for every word in the 500 word paragraph. That would be $10,000!!! Now $10,000 for 500 words would be awesome.

$2.00 for 500 words is just not even close to enough money.

 

I have asked this question over and over again and I have yet to receive a satisfactory answer. How do you distinguish a native writer from a non-native writer? Could you please provide some examples. I, for one, cannot differenciate.

 

@amd - Re-calculate that. $2 per word for 500 words wouldn't come to $10,000. It would come to $1000.

Are you asking from a client perspective? If so, you need to ask the writer if they're a native English speaker or not. Other than that, you just have to have an eye for it. Once in a while I come across a non-native English speaker who can write in excellent conversational English. The vast majority can't. If you want to get a feel for the differences, look through some posts in the content creation forum, and compare some of the posts by the location of the poster (not everyone lists it here, but enough do that you can get a good idea).

 

Five bucks a piece isn't good for Internet writing. As with anything, the pros make far more.

Most of the $5 articles are just keyword-stuffed ramblings with the occasional Wikipedia data thrown in--yawn.

But you know what? There's a market for it.

I liken writing to cooking or music.

There are "writers' and there are writers. There's the guy who can cook a hamburger on the grill and there are cooks like Emeril, etc. There's the guy who can play the intro to Smoke on the Water on the electric guitar and there's Jimi Hendrix.

If I'm looking to hire a cook, I don't want the guy who can barely cook a couple items on the grill. While he might be $5 a day, I want a real cook. And I'll pay for it.

BTW, congrats on your journalistic endeavor.

 

I agree with jhmattern. The 'nativity' of the writer is normally based on the country the reside. But that isn't just based on one's citizenship and country of birth. The thing is, for a person who successfully finished a degree and can produce years of experience in a certain field, writing for as low as $2 a pop is ridiculous. Not that I look down on people who does chose to charge so, however, being bombarded with spam to write for them is another thing.

The writers for the internet field come from numerous different fields, and each has his or her own story to tell. I was one of those who started out from 'peanuts', but later on learned that the value of one's knowledge is more than $2 per 500 words.

Really, I'm not looking down or complaining about the cheap writers out there. I'm just annoyed that I got numerous spam messages for some time regarding cheap writing.

Oh yeah, as for me, I jet set from Asia to NY to California and back (and if I have enough funds I will go to other countries as well), and I don't charge $100 per article. I'm single so I don't need to support anyone, and as long as I can, I charge only what I think is sufficient. I don't accept any job offered to me, because I am quite picky about the people that I work for.