How are you English speakers finding work loads? I work 30 hours a week but don't seem to find much else that's worth doing - it's all $2 hour or the equivelent!
For $2 an hour I wouldn't even bother to write (or type) an article, headline or "Dear John" letter. But I don't know what your qualifications are and what skill level you're at, so perhaps $2 an hour isn't that bad. Just a question though. What is the "equivalent" of $2 per hour? Would it be $2 per hour? It's late and I'm tired, so perhaps I'm reading way too much into that line.
I believe a good way to measure your earnings is comparing your hourly rate with the basic minimum wage that is setup in your location. If your income is below that hourly wage, you are wasting your time, talent and energy. If it's equal or nearly the minimum, you may be either a conformist guy or a person who is in the process to find better paid gigs. However when someone is calling oneself a writer, should not accept payments similar or inferior than those of a bell boy or clerk.
That's a common misconception, but for many that's not how they should be measuring freelance earnings. Why? Because an hourly amount freelance is NOT equivalent to the same hourly rate as an employee. Why not? Because you pay for everything yourself. To be truly equivalent, you need to compare your freelance salary to your cost to an employer (which includes their expenses like supplies that you'll still personally need, their portion of tax payments that you now have to pay, etc. depending on where you live, any benefits they would have been paying, etc.). So therefore, you might have to earn say $70,000 per year freelancing to be truly equivalent to what you had in-pocket in the same situation as an employee with a $50,000 salary. I've gone into more detail in other posts, but that's the rough gist of it.
I was going through a lot of posts regarding this particular school of thought. Place of existance matters, so does the basic daily wage etc. etc. but guys, don't you think that there needs to be a bare minimum a writer (or better put, an author!!) should accept, ethically speaking!?
Well said. I have an example to quote from my own experiences at DP. I wrote for a guy who planned to churn up $10,000 a month from what I was supposed to write for him, so he paid a generous (well, it is generous as compared to the ongoing trend at DP) ammount of $3/100 words. Trust me, those articles were neither proof read, not too out-of-this-world, but he paid, simply because he was getting something much more out of those articles. On the contrary, another client of mine, who is one of my oldest clients, and has been with me since my initial weeks at DP, pays me $.75/100 words, because he doesn't have those many visitors on his site and therefore is paying me the best he could within his limits. I am equally happy woring for both, even though there is a huge difference in the kind of money I make from them, simply because of the fact that both pay me the best they can and both appreciate my articles to the same extent.
Personally, I'm just about to start a freelance writing career so I have been around trying to learn from other members and aiming to refine my skills and English command, even though I wouldn't accept a minimum wage per se despite I was thinking to take this model as quick startup to introduce my services, sort of "act now" before raise my rates but reading the following made me reconsider my projections: Jenn, I don't know about other writers but I have been developing all my previous jobs and projects under the shadow of someone else paying my supplies and almost anything else Now that I'm moving on trying to do a career on my own without any sponsoring, I forgot to consider those aspects you are pointing me at and really, a minimum wage wouldn't be enough to pay all that and I would probably still owe money because in the place where I'm currently living it will barely cover the utilities bill, if keeping them in a very basic level. I believe your words have saved me from a starting pitfall, thanks
My would be reply to this thread became a bit too big. So i entered a Marketjunction inspired capitalist frame of mind. I made the post into an article and got it published on associated content. Dealing with unsatisfactory income and work
It has definitely gotten much more difficult to find work. Still, remember that if you're a talented writer and you treat clients well, there is work for you.
I am a newcomer to DP, but I am an experienced writer in many fields. I don't mind a little competition for clients.