$900 Budget, Still Looking for writers, any recommendations ?

First they want an 800 word freebie (as if).

Then, if selected, they want you to write more than 10 custom articles per day on the topics of their selection. This wouldn't be bad if the rate was in line with custom work.

Then, should you decide to do the work, they will not pay you until a month later. They expect you to keep churning out these 10+ articles per day, which would have you sending them a few hundred dollars before you ever expect to get payment.

The whole thing smells a little scammish to me. I can't wait to see the quality of work they get out of this one.

 

May I suggest that you are doing yourself and others a huge disservice? First of all, if you want to work for cheap or free, volunteer with a worthwhile organization to get your portfolio built.

Second, you can get decent paying gigs that will build your portfolio and not be an insult to the writing profession. Surprisingly, these paying gigs also offer things like contacts and experience.

By taking jobs that pay .0003/word, you are saying that your skills and time are worth basically nothing. You are also showing these cheap-ass job posters that they can get content for this price. If writers stopped working for joke money, then employers would be forced to start paying what we're worth. If I need extra money, I'll bartend, wait tables, work retail. My rates for writing stay the same.

Just a thought.

 

An interesting point.

I charge 2 cents a word, many people charge less, and I know that I am still very cheap.

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I would love to find a reputable company that is offering reasonable money for a copywriter with nil experience, however to date they have eluded me.
I suspect that if such opportunities do indeed exist, they are jumped upon by thousands of applicants due to the increasing popularity of the profession.

If you know of any opportunity, or any places that's its wise to keep an eye on then I would love to know.

In an earlier incarnation I have volunteered other skills to worthwhile causes, and worked with NGO's in some very deprived places. From first hand experience I can tell you that the majority of charities have plenty of skilled people available to assist them, they lack money - not skills.

If you know of any charities that need copywriters I would gladly offer my services free of charge to them.

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I am not asking you to do all the ground work for my career, what I am saying is that in an ideal world I would log onto the internet and find a worthwhile cause, or a job with reasonable pay, with which to develop my skills.

The world is not ideal so these opportunities are few and far between which dictates that if I am to get experience with which to increase my credibility, I must seek some paid work.

I then hope that this paid work will not only provide the experience I need, but will organically lead to bigger and better things.

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The alternative is to sit at home sending email after email, bashing my head on the keyboard as yet another company/charity/organization tells me they are thankful for my interest, but there are currently no vacancies, and my details will be held on file.

So yes I work for a very low rate, it won't be forever and the experience I am gaining is real. My portfolio already contains more than one Harvard project, a few very popular websites, and a large number of regular websites and publications.

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Would that be on my resume if I was tending a bar? Nope.

/end rant.

 

It will be forever that you work for pennies a word. I have been on here for over one year and there is a neverending stream of people eager to work for less than a penny a word. When you think that you have enough experience to bump up your rates there will be 10 other people willing to work, at the same quality, for rates that undercut yours. It is a vicious, neverending cycle and by working for peanuts you are contributing to the cycle.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just relaying what my experience has been.

 

I won't shoot the messenger - promise.

Experienced members sharing their thoughts is appreciated, even if sometimes rant mode activates

I see what you are saying about the cycle, but I won't be looking to establish a pro career just from here. I hope the contacts I make will lead to bigger things.

If not I have gained the experience with which to sell myself in other places.

Maybe there are a lot of college kids on here, but personally in my last job (programming related) my salary was a little over 50k (GBP) plus car, benefits etc etc and was a 35 hours flexi time week.

I am not naive and certainly not banking on DP to pay my bills, nor do I ever expect to earn 50k a year from copyrighting.

I am sure that there are other people like me out there, and they will eventually find DP and give it a whirl.

While there are many negatives to DP, there are many positives. Like many things in life, people don't tend to talk about what's going right for them as they don't need advice about those things - people tend to discuss negatives, as they are seeking a solution or simply some solidarity.

I am happy with taking away the positives, learning from the negatives and taking an educated and structured approach to what I am trying to achieve. If I stick to the masterplanâ„¢ then in a year from now I shall be earning a reasonable salary.

edit: I was going to raise my rates this week, however it will now look like a knee jerk reaction to this thread. Note to self:- Stop ranting on the copywriters' forum!

 

Anyone still reading this thread, who is looking for inexpensive and good quality content, should consider checking out this thread: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showt…29#post6560529

INEEDCONTENT has written several 500 word articles for me so far, and have all been well worth the cost - roughly $10 a piece.

 

Well, I am interested in your offer. I am not of English speaking origin nor do I assure you excellent quality. But surely my expericence has taught me a lot and I can assure you GOOD quality. I will be working with my friend who is from Romania (native English country) to get your job done. Certainly your rates are less, but I can manage in them as living costs in my country is not as much as in US/UK or other such countries. I can send you my sample work in you are interested. Please let me know then. Thanks !!

That was exactly the way I used to say to myself "I am new here on DP. So first I will charge less then after I get experience and got contacts will charge more for quality content". But then I too realized that market is full of cheap looking ones and it's not possible to hike your rate, once you set them. You will be treated as a cheap above average writer only by those clients whom you have offered service and won't give you any quality work when they need it! My experience so far says, think a lot before quoting prices and refuse at times if you are paid low. But surely DON"T settle for prices lower than your worth! Clients sure realize this later then and give you your worth job.

 

er...what?

 

Romania may be in Europe, but it's not an English speaking country. I've clients from Moldova (originally part of Romania, I think, but correct me if I'm wrong) and they say that English isn't even their 3rd language.

 

Ya sorry I am wrong... I wanted to write he is native of English country and lives in Romania...Sorry for that

 

There are a lot great freelance writing job sites: www.freelancewritinggigs.com is my favorite. I also cruise Craigslist under writing jobs and gigs, and apply for anything that PAYS and I am qualified for.

Register at www.creativepaw.org - it matches up reputable companies who need writers and other creative people (web designers, photographers, etc...)

Go local. Approach local newspapers, newsletters, businesses about doing work. Some of my best clients are small businesses in my city. If I am going to work for free, I'll offer articles or guest blog spots for websites that will either send me traffic because it's in my field or is on the topic of my upcoming book. Example: I'm writing a free article for the website of an author who wrote the bible on Mexico travel. What I get in return is 10,000 hits daily by potential readers of my book.

Pitch. I have a Writer's Market account and write a minimum of four pitches to four magazines per day.

Use your imagination. You don't have to be a paid blogger to write sample blog posts. You don't have to have a client to write a press release. Write examples for your portfolio.

You are doing more to damage your credibility than increase it. If the cost of an average plumber is $75 an hour, why would I trust a $2/hr person to work on my house? Would you get a bargain basement doctor to give you surgery? A $3/hr accountant to do your taxes?

To be honest, I doubt you'll start landing good writing jobs and good pay until you decide that A) your writing is worth it and B) you won't settle for less.

Just my opinion.

 

Awesome post maven thanks.

Rep added and will be following your advice.

 

I hope you land something excellent and come back and tell us about it! Never sell yourself short!

 

Excellent advice.

Another thing you may wish to do is contacting older clients every now and again to see if they have something new available. You'd be surprised how often this works. Be sure to remind them how much you enjoyed working with them and ask if they have anything else they need written. Many marketers have countless projects that they just haven't had time to begin looking for someone to work with and are more than delighted for the nudge.

 

At that rate of pay, I guess you are looking for someone who mainly is good at copy and pasting other content.

Because there probably will be just enough cash incentive to either write, or to research slightly, but probably not both.

Of course, if they were unemployed, probably better peanuts than nothing.

But there might be that one person out there that's great at taking information from others, and re-wording it in a half hour.