Yes but if they tell you this is how much they can pay you and you can take it or leave it you often end up taking this work just to have a continuous income or for the sake of experience. I gave up on writing a few times seeing how they try to take advantage of writers. Sometimes I have an impression that there are lots of people who just wait for the opportunity to get someone to do work for them for free. I think this is also because not many people know enough about writing to see if it's good or bad, so they can't recognize if someone is doing good or bad job for them. I had some people very surprised that they had good results after I did writing for them. I had also people trying to avoid paying - still have one client who owes me money. Also, I don't know why but the rates, such as for article writing seems to be going lower and lower. Before I easily got 10 dol. per article, now I was lucky to get 2. It's common to get paid 1 dol. per article. I'm not sure if the quality is getting worse. I must say I do other writing as well so I'm not entirely affected.
@ainez "I had also people trying to avoid paying-still have one client who owes me money". You've raised an interesting subtopic. Obviously if you're a freelancer, getting paid is going to be more difficult than if you were working under a long term contract or for just one company full time. I have heard horror stories from writers who claim that trying to get paid has sometimes proven to be far more difficult than writing the articles. Is this part and parcel of being a freelancer? Is fighting to get paid part of the deal?
Yes. As a freelancer, it can be a royal pain trying to get paid by clients. I just had a client yesterday who I wrote an article for. The amount was agreed upon before the work began. (He also sent me a PM after the work began requesting the article be delivered within 3 hours.) The client wrote me back saying he didn't really like the article and wasn't going to use the article on his main site, but was going to use it on a secondary site and he offered to pay only half of the agreed upon price. I told him that this was not acceptable and then offered to make changes to the article so that he would be happy. I also told him that it is not my concern what he does with the article or where he places it on his site. He owes the agreed upon price and that I'm willing to make any revisions needed. He then responds with that he doesn't want the article. Haven't heard from the client since. Client has the article, (probably using it on another site of his), and I never received a dime for it. Working under contract has its pitfalls too. There's no guarantee you'll receive the amount owed on payday. First few paydays may go smooth, then come next pay period, payment is delayed by one or two days or a week or more. I've had some people just completely disappear. (Probably re-open business under a different name.) There are places that you can join as a writer, either bid on jobs or claim jobs and then the client pays the company. Company takes their percentage and puts what is owed to the writer into their "wallet". The client can then request to be paid or payments are made automatically on the 1st and 15th of every month, once a month, or when the payout amount reaches a predetermined amount. I haven't had any trouble receiving payment for work completed, (at the agreed upon price), from any of these types of places. There is always a risk that you won't be paid for the work completed or that there is a hassle with getting paid. It's part of working for yourself. This is why it is important to diversify and have multiple sources of income. Don't rely on getting clients from just one resource. Over time, you will build-up a decent list of repeat clients.
@TextServices, Thanks for that, that was a very interesting and informative post. I think that sometimes those of us who don't write but depend on writers, fail to recognize the difficulties that writers sometimes face.
I have an impression that it has recently got worse. I think the rates go down. I also know of researches about how to make money quicker or better, like is it working for someone or working for yourself, meaning business, and there is a changed perception now that those who own businesses can make more money as opposed to contracting for others like writers. So it seems that there has been a spark of people who want to run businesses, and it is commonly known that you can employ writers really cheap. The only other thing is that businesses bankrupt too, and it's not easy as well just to run business. If you have an established relationship with your employers as a writer you can rely on your payment. I didn't necessarily always tried to get better jobs which you should do and if you establish yourself as a writer it would be a different thing then. And if you are a good writer than you're not likely to bankrupt just like certain businesses may, such as retail for ex., where if people don't buy from you, if economy is bad, you don't make money. But the business side is always there and, I think, you can be a good writer, but if you don't market yourself you may not be able to do well. I have an ebook on amazon, and even though it's a fairly popular topic, if I don't market it I don't make sales.
I know, but still, even if you are a good writer I don't think you'll be successful if you don't market yourself. I have a book on amazon and if I don't market it, it doesn't sell - but that's maybe not the best example ... Internet with its keywords and things like that unfortunately doesn't help in excelling as a writer, unless you just want to do copywriting.
@ainez, Of course marketing, self promotion in this case is vital to earning a living. But as someone who has hired writers for my company I honestly look at writing styles, amount of research done and work completed on time etc., as opposed to how the writer has attempted to market him/herself. Having said that I do admire writers who are persistant and aggressively solicit work.
That's you. But in my experience just because I didn't or rather couldn't at the time undertake certain advanced projects in my ghostwriting it in the end led to less work. I'm not talking on a personal level - of course people should prefer good work, but overall this good work is not the ticket even if you have good feedback, as I had, and was quite confident all will be OK. What I'm saying is that despite everything good work is often not enough.
Now that I'm confused... I was just about to try my luck at DP as a writer. But after going through all your posts, it seems to be a pipe dream. Anyway, I prefer to take a detour than to work for pennies.
You can make a cheap living doing it but as with anything, there are those that excel and those that dream to achieve. I am still working on building reputation before I can earn the big $$$
Of course, I've been able to make a good reputation on some other platforms and have earned some bucks too, working with some good clients. But as for DP, it seems that many clients are looking to pay a few pennies or not to pay at all, no matter the quality of writing.
@ainez "Ghostwriting", once again you have brought up another interesting subtopic. @davehenie If you get discouraged this easily then perhaps writing for a living is not for you. @miamivice You have the right attitude and remember that many clients are willing to pay for quality once it has been proven that you can produce it. Some clients actually value talent and will compensate you for it. But yes there are those who will attempt to exploit and cheat you.
I've been a freelancer for 8 years my business has expanded a lot of those years. I make good money as a freelance writer as well as every other writing field I'm currently in. The key is to market my services not just online but offline as well. I don't think I'd be making a good living if I didn't have local businesses who need my services all the time. While online work is great ... there are people who don't understand quality work and thus don't want to really pay for it. Not to mention I don't just write for businesses or websites, I do ghost writing, copywriting and everything in between. If you want to make a full time income with freelance writing, you need to have a plan and work hard to reach the goals you have in mind for yourself.
@sweetcrabhoney18 Good point, it takes time to build a clientele as a writer and to make a decent living. Also diversifying and not placing all your energy and time into just one area, is a good plan as well.
That is far easier said than done. Setting ones own price when there are writers willing to work for pennies, is no easy task.
I know a few people who rely on writing as a second or third source of income. This is due more to circumstance rather than by choice. They were simply unable to pay all the bills by writing alone. They weren't well off by trying to make a living as a writer and were basically going broke. Perhaps a writer needs to also know how to market him/herself? I believe writing talent isn't enough and one needs to be proficient in business also. And let's be honest here...not all creative types are.
A person providing a service online needs to learn how to market him/herself. It's a key component to survival. Either someone has to learn how to market themselves or work with someone who knows how to get the word out about the service they offer and why someone should choose this service provider or they won't survive. People need to be mindful of how they present themselves online too. How you conduct yourself on a forum, chat, IM's, or email is important because people form impressions of one another by what they read on their screen. You're not meeting potential clients face to face or having a phone conversation with them. How one conducts themselves online can either open the doors to new clients, new networking opportunities and ultimately help increase their bottom line, or it can close those doors to new clients and opportunities really quick.
@TextServices Excellant point, online image wether positive or negative will affect wether or not prospective clients will contact you. Believe me when I say that the way certain writers behave on here, has absolutely determined if I contact them or not for jobs. We get swamped here and do need quick articles written from time to time. But if a writer comes across as an arrogant know it all, then why on earth would I choose to do business with them? Who needs the aggravation?