Good Writers Stand Up For What You Believe In!

After reading some ridiculous posts on here concerning rates and expectations, I am reaching out to all of the good writers on this forum (again!) and asking you to stop and think for a second.

An employer who is advertising for a writer for $1 per 500 words is not worth your time! An employer who is advertising for a writer for $1 per 500 words and has expectations such as “you must wait until I get paid from my client and the work is okay before I will pay you” and “if work is not up to standard you must rewrite” is a slave driver and should not be allowed to offer such poor wages! The rates for writers on here posted by SOME employers are absolutely ridiculous and the only way they will change is if those of us who are good at what we do make a stand!

If you are a good writer you deserve to AT LEAST be paid $5 per 500 words. You deserve to be paid when a client is happy with your work, and not once the middle man you have wrote for has been paid. If a client wants extra expectations from you then increase your wage and do not be ashamed to do so – a good client will understand this and will want to keep his writers happy.

With DP now being over-run by middle-men it is no surprise that the rates advertised on here for writers are so rubbish. When these middle-men cannot write it is even more of an insult to those of us here who CAN WRITE and CAN WRITE WELL! There is nothing we can do unless more of us start to refuse these ridiculous rates. Whilst those of you who CAN WRITE continue to work for such rubbish rates this will never end. People who cannot write well will still work for such wages (this is something we have to live with) but their employers will have to live with the quality that a poor writer submits.

The bottom line is there are some fantastic employers on these forums who are happy to pay a decent wage to good writers. Let’s try and stop these middle-men slave drivers from taking over these forums with their ridiculous pay rates and ridiculous expectations. Who’s with me?!?!

 

There are loads of people here who will agree with you ( yours truly included), but unfortunately this is a capitalist market and trying to bring about any kind of change is practically impossible. The best you can do is implement it yourself and simply hope that the others have enough sense to do the same!

 

Exactly I agree with you. Here @ DP loads of writers who're ready to work for rubbish rates. But it is impossible to change everything as soon as possible instead implementing themselves who hire good writers if they expect for quality rich contents.

 

I'm rather new on the DP forums but I earn my bread from content writing for quite some time. I must say that I agree with the OP but the only way to get employers to pay a fair amount of money for your work is by not accepting the slaver offers.
However, it's really hard to make everyone think like this so the only thing to do -as gr8liverpoolfan suggested- is to keep your work ethics intact, ask for the fair price and don't accept into slaving for middlemen.

I understand the OP's frustration but I for one don't really bother with this problem. Whoever respects himself and his work will realize that there's no point in working for a miserable pay, and will raise the price without the need of reading threats such as this one.

People that respect themselves and care for their work will eventually ask for the fair price, else they won't work at all because they will feel like they have betrayed themselves. Perhaps this sounds a bit dramatic, but that's how it usually goes. Fortunately there are employers that admire this attitude, and those are the employers that you would want to work with anyway so, to the OP, chin up mate, work hard and good things will come.

 

@Dusten Rust - thank you for your reply. I'm not short of work and I ask for rates which reflect my rates so need to chin up as like I said there are some great employers on this forum and elsewhere. I am just trying to encourage the other good writers on this forum to do the same. If you read further down this forum you will see two posts - one by Ramprop and one by Chirag (both middlemen) - this is what prompted this post. If they and others like them cannot get good writers for $1 they will either (hopefully) be forced to increase their pay rates or get sacked by their client. The only way this will happen though is if those of us who can write start to respect ourselves and refuse to work for such low wages. If we can write we can ask for decent wages and we should not be ashamed to do so. Come on writers, high quality is key right now (especially with the Panda update) and you should not work for $1!

 

@Dusten Rust, Crime buster is not complaining because he got "an employer like this" but because of this thread ---- http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2236823

Correction, this is not a threat but what Crime Buster has just posted is an eye opener for everyone. He is calling the attention of all writers here on DP and not creating THREATS...

 

Thanks lavfely - and yup this post wasn't meant as a threat.

On the other hand can you believe I have since had two PM's from people offering their writing services for $1 per 500 words - shows that most people on here won't even bother to read the original post, but would rather send out the same garbage repeated PM to everyone who posts a thread on this forum.

 

Ah, now I understand a tad better. Sorry for misunderstanding your exact intentions. It's a pretty honorable thing to do, trying to convince everyone to get to higher standards even if you're doing pretty well in this business. It's also quite funny that you've got those PM's. I haven't heard about anything like this in my life, applying for a job that you have no idea what's about, not to mention this wasn't a job offer. It's probably a bot of some kind heh.

Also, thanks Lavfely for the heads-up. I've checked out the thread you've linked and I find this quote particularly funny (and disturbing at the same time) :
"$1 may be nothing to you but ask people who live in Asian countries like Indonesia,India, Pakistan,Srilanka etc.When they convert $1 in their own currency, it means a lot to them."

That quote pretty much labels the employer as a slaver, an ignorant and someone who's making a profit by exploiting those who live in less fortunate countries. I really can't believe he actually said that "out loud".

 

A few suggestions to improve this situation;

1. Writers have to pass a basic writing test before advertising here, which would get rid of people writing in broken English and it would encourage them to improve their language before advertising on here.
2. A minimum fee per word is introduced, something like $0.015, this would immediately get rid of slave rates.
3. People have to pay advertise their services on here, $10 to start a thread and then $10 for each bump after their thread has dropped down a certain amount.

 

I foresee a time when DP will be known as a marketplace for getting the dregs of the writing profession.As it is now,the whole place is almost getting run over by individuals that should have no business writing and that is actually the bane of the content creation section.It's because of such people (who jump through the hoop to satisfy these self styled charlatans) that DP content creation section will soon lose all credibility to serious clients. If there's no demand,there won't be a supply.
I believe the onus is on writers worth their salt to stand for what they believe in-- or move on to better avenues for landing respectable projects.A lot of seasoned writers have left and are still leaving anyway.It's a pity.

Hopefully,Google's Pandademic sweeping through the web world will make these ignoble people sit up,like crime buster mentioned above--and maybe DP will get a respite then.

 

CrimeBuster, you have done a really good job by posting such thread. I hope that it initiates a process of eradicating ill-paying middle-men forever, at least from DP and people like Mr.$1/500 words ( till now, you all must have got an idea of whom I am talking about!) will think twice before posting such a WTB thread.

Roughoutline, you have suggested really good ways to cope up with the situation. Hope some of them get implemented soon. People who can't read and write the language properly must not be allowed to take the undue advantage of the writers, and earn a decent income. Content Creation belongs to the writers, not the middle-men.

 

Definitely agree with the OP! I can't stand these employers that are taking advantage of people in poorer countries.

 

Aren't very low-paying service ads meant for the Cheap Stuff forum? DP can regulate this category, and remove inappropriate ads to prevent the attempted abuse of writing professionals , if so. We may have to bring it to their attention to get things realigned properly.

 

The problem is with newbies since they are accepting any rates.

 

I can't believe no one else has ever brought up this issue! Oh wait...

"Stop selling your time for $10!"
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=167867

"Isn't hard earning a living off writing these days"
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=195963

"Geez- I feel bad for the quality copywriters around here"
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=196146

"How much would you pay?"
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=134870

(all from 2006)

 

Yup I know there are lots of posts out there already, I've written quite a few of them. The thing is they are out of view and so no-one reads them anymore. I just wanted to bring this to the attention of the middle men on here - if you read some of the threads on here (and the points of views of these people) you would see my frustration!

 

There will always be low paying job offers and people willing to accept them.

We agree on this point. Where we differ is I believe it's a waste of time and energy to worry about people who offer low rates. When you open a WTB thread and see a ridiculously low project quote, simply close it and move on to the next thread.

 

Tyler, when poor quality writers offer extremely low rates it affects everyone, as buyers then think they can expect the same low rates from everyone, from people who can produce high quality content.

 

Some buyers don't care about quality content. If their business model is based around churning out as much content as possible, they may be satisfied with the garbled nonsense they receive for $1 per 500 words.

You're right that some new buyers may initially think they can get the quality content they want for obscenely low prices. However, once they actually see the crap they get for this rate, they realize quality content does come with a price.

 

I love DP but the low wages are sad. However, when it comes to people willing to work for a few dollars; it's their choice. No one can determine their wage for them. It's their personal choice. It's the whole point of being freelancers you know? Some people are writers for the summer and some are writers all year long.

When it comes to seeing low wage postings.. normally if the topic is something I know well, I still submit a proposal and state that I'm not just a writer but I'm a professional freelance writer. So many DPers don't even understand what professionalism looks like so it's important to show them in a polite and private way( to avoid cyber bullying) .

While I like being notified of such a "slave" like posting... I'm sure that person got a crap load of replies and will continue to get them. It's just the way life goes Thank goodness I'm not that kind of employer.. At least I don't think I am!