Freelance Writing Rates
I tried really hard, honestly. I all but promised myself I wouldn’t do this, but I’ve just seen the third blog in a row going on about the same thing and it drives me up the wall. So I’ll say it just this once for the people who don’t know where I stand on this:
Cheap rates are not destroying the freelance market.
You see, there’s this whole, huge group of established bloggers and professional freelancers who go on and on, whining about the fact that sites like Elance, GetAFreelancer and others are ruining their nice little honey pot. That they’re not able to find as many gigs that will pay them a cosy $100/hour or $25 per three-word post. That if all those nasty, dirty, cheap little writers would stop producing content at $1 per article, they’d be able to buy their third house, fly around the world every four weeks or live off the proceeds of two articles a month.
Hate to break it to you, folks, but this is a global market and the Internet is flooded with job-seekers right now. All those less-developed countries which weren’t in the running before? They’ve got WiFi now. Everyone and their pet badger has a laptop. And they’re all writers. Even the badgers.
Every single day, I run into at least three or four more people who have decided to sell their writing. All of them have blogs. All of them are trying to start up in freelancing. All of them are applying for the same jobs that you are. All of them read ProBlogger and Whatsisname Kawasaki and that other bald bloke.
Now, I’m no economics genius, but even I know that when there’s a certain number of jobs and six times as many applicants, the employers have a choice: pay the same and be pickier, or pay less and see what they get.
Most of those freelancers who are whining about low pay and losing their nice, cosy gigs are in countries where the cost of living is (relatively) high. In contrast, many of the cheap writers can actually afford to live on the low, almost-slave wages. To some of them, they’re even good wages.
That’s the reality of it. Wake up and smell the coffee. The only advantage you have as a higher-paid writer is quality, and if the employer doesn’t give a rabid monkey’s testicles for quality, then you’re screwed. If you don’t like it, I’m afraid you either live with it or move to another planet, with a different economy.
Worse, it doesn’t really matter if the cheap writers are there or not. If someone’s looking for articles at 50 cents a pop, they don’t give a flying dog-poop if everyone’s being too hoity-toity to pick up their offer. They’ll just go scrape some content off another site, run it through a mechanical translator a couple of times and post it anyway. Or get their pet badger to write it.
Simply put, a low-paying employer is not going to suddenly quadruple their offer because you want more money. Someone, somewhere will undercut you or the employer will type their own junk. As I said, the only advantage you have is quality. Free market economics: thank you capitalist Western society.
You want a more concrete example? OK. Post a job anywhere on a job site. Offer people $1 per article. See how many bidders you get. Now post the same job on the same – or another – site and offer $20 per article. Now pray your ISP doesn’t put a limit on your email inbox, because it’s going to explode.
Quality writers are outnumbered by the batch-merchants. They’re pushed into a corner of the market where only the best will be able to demand the salaries to which they’ve become accustomed. That’s the way it works when there’s too many people applying for too few jobs. That’s why celebrities are celebrities: they’re the ones who make it, either through talent or luck.
So what’s my point? It’s this: if you don’t want to work for less, fine.
Just don’t label everyone else as an evil, price-cutting scumbag because you can’t live your nice, comfy lifestyle as easily any more. That’s the trouble with progress, competition and a global economy: it’s a harsh mistress.
And don’t blame the sites, either. I’ve seen some very nice gigs on them, paying very well. You just have to do the trawling yourself, instead of relying on someone else to do the hard work and post up a nice list of high-paying jobs.
So decide your price, produce quality and compete at a higher level – and stop whining. You know just as well as I do that, even if the employers were paying better, you wouldn’t take their nasty little SEO gigs, anyway. They smell funny. A bit like old cabbages.
Go on, disagree with me.
Nicely put.
Right on! Anyway I was very happy for the low paying jobs when I first got started. Why? Because they gave me a platform to break in and get my ratings which qualified me for higher paying jobs. I believed it was all about paying my dues. My first client turned out to come back and /offer/ me better work later too, after I’d earned his trust and established his relationships. I know if things get too tough in America I can make use of the free market economy myself. My laptop’s pretty portable. If I want to I can go work in some other country for peanuts.
I think, though, there are always going to be people who struggle. When they struggle, they are going to blame every external factor instead of asking themselves how they can improve or what it’s going to take to be where they want to be. That’s going to be true in–just about any business really. Somewhere, there’s a toilet guy. He’s complaining about how those cheap toilet guys sent his business right to the crapper.
Here’s my reaction to those types of articles: “Hate – a Growing Trend.”
The truth is that there are plenty of third world writers out there with college educations who make less than $100 per month. They might make a few more grammar, wrong word, or spelling errors than we would – but what with a lot of the aides out there, it’s not all that bad either. And for all the self-hype of their own mad skills, I see them make mistakes that would make my skin crawl if I’d made them. Including, but not limited to your/you’re and it’s/its confusion.
Lack of quality? I don’t accept that argument altogether. It’s, as you said before, a matter of economics. Just because a person is brown and living in another country that’s not predominantly white, it doesn’t mean that they can’t churn out better quality articles than you or I for a dollar or two per article with fewer mistakes.
Rita: Thank you.
DD: Absolutely. It’s like the age-old racist excuse that “they’re taking our jobs”. If they were your jobs, you’d be doing them at the going rate. Absolutely LOVE the toilet comment… genius!
Steven: Just read your blog post and couldn’t agree more. (And hope you didn’t see my post about really badly-paid jobs as hate – it was intended to buck up richer folks’ ideas!)
Two notes: the lower quality is, as you say, an inaccurate generalisation – I was speaking of the majority rather than the highly-skilled minority accepting lower-paid work, as you suspect! Secondly, a lot of the people who are whining do actually have great skill and ability, but a lot of them do indeed make stupid errors or just sound bitter about the whole thing because they’re losing out to cheaper options.
Heck, even with a better attitude, I lose out to them. And that’s fine: they have a right to earn a living, too. Thankfully, there ARE still some better-paying gigs out there that demand more research, better quality or a particular physical location and which bring in some decent money. Much like in any industry. It’s not because writing is an “art” that the pay structure should work any differently to serving up meals – work at McD or work at Guy Savoy’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysees? Bet the tips and quality are better at the latter.
Ha!
I linked Georges post on the next Wash-Up, and now your is placed just after his. I think you two should set up a #Rates twitter discussion/rant, would be fun.
I posted on George’s blog, that I can not work fast enough to make an income at some of the rates offered, it’s a fact, I am too slow. So I don’t try.
I would work for free if it went into something with editorial merit that enhances my portfolio, but otherwise, sorry I have to eat and I can earn £5 an hour stuffing envelopes.
Yes it is not going to change, last year my last employer closed because Chinese goods came ashore cheaper than our manufacturing costs. Be thankful that English is not, yet, china’s second language.
Of course once everyone only pursues the higher quality ‘gigs’ then we can all be sure that the rates for them will also fall.
All you have to do is get yourself a good portfolio and then you are in the running to undercut the current players.
Good luck all.
Hi Shack! There’s a huge difference between saying “too little” and not doing it, and whining endlessly about how life is unfair and everyone else is to blame.
In many ways, that Chinese analogy is probably the best: the US is in for a terrible shock if China actually gets its act together and starts competing with them directly. As are the rest of us, I suspect.
Actually, Spike, the thing that is attractive about you is that you’re not pretentious like that.
You know, though, I don’t think I could work for $1/article. Not even ‘to pay my dues.’ However, as I look at my webspace having sat doing nothing for a year, I’m contemplating using some of their services. I’d prefer to be an editor/director anyways, and that would be the way to get that kind of experience. Both positions pay better and they suit my temperament much better: that of the otter smashing dinner against his rock rather than having to listen to yet another turd sandwich bark at me. I would much rather be the chief turd than work for one.
In any case, it would make for an interesting experiment. As long as the writers write intelligently and thoughtfully, not to mention understanding of story structure, then all the rough edges I can quite easily and quickly smooth out.
The truth is that I’m probably not suited to working for other people. I have my own ideas, too often, which conflict with those who are in charge. Works well when those in charge have none of their own ideas and they’re looking for them – but not so well in the other, more common scenario.
So, why complain about the market? Use it to your advantage. I just get tired of the same posts you have – they are hate speech. If you look at the anti-black or Asian, etc., it sounds surprisingly similar – disturbingly perhaps. Almost as if the writing Nazis are waiting to round up the cheap labor force for extermination.
Things change, and we can choose to adapt or not. If we choose whining over finding a better, more efficient way to do our jobs, then we will fail. That is as true for manufacturing as it is for freelancing. We need to stop blaming the low cost providers and instead focus on finding a way to be competitive again.
Nice blog, by the way. I just wandered by while Googling some info on Elance, and I’ll definitely be back.
Steven: Making money via a blog is very, very hard – especially if you write coherent sentences instead of SEO nonsense! An alternative would be to set up a co-op: oDesk does it, and I think Elance does, too – allow you to be the boss and farm out work to other members, who form your team. That way you do your editing, they do their writing, and everyone gets a share. Might be worth looking into. I will expect to see a photo of you in “turd sandwich” uniform, though.
Cindy: Thanks for dropping in! Glad you like the blog, too. Your “We need to…” sentence sums it up nicely in more “corporate” terminology – good stuff!!
Now for a word from one of the “whiners,” as I have been known to decry the $1 per article “job” postings.
Actually, I agree with most of what you wrote, and totally get the marketplace reality. My message to US, Canadian, UK, Australian and other English-as-primary-language writers in higher cost of living countries is that we have to be more creative now if we want to make a living as writers. I never go to those job bidding sites anymore, nor do I forward those links to other writers. I am constantly seeking new avenues for making writing income. Writers, like other business people, need to develop new markets and go where the money is.
And maybe that’s the real point. Writers who want to make a living as writers need to think like business people, not victims. But try not to be too hard on them. Most of them probably aced English and struggled with economics, as I did.
I plan to share this post on Twitter as this is a great devil’s advocate position on this issue.
Hi Mary. Thanks for having the courage to pipe up from the “other side”, as it were! Just to be clear, I have no problem with people who say $1/article jobs suck – they do: it’s the whining about it “ruining the market” that drives me nuts. It IS the market. Duh.
I like your assessment: it’s accurate. Writing for the sake of it is one thing; writing for a living demands a bit of business sense. By the way, you might be missing out on some opportunities by avoiding the bidding sites, though it generally takes a lot of trawling to spot them. I see at least three or four every day that are up in the $20+/article range (which I try to remember to Tweet). Might be a nice backup if other avenues dry up for you some day!
Hey Spike,
Andy sent me over to “stir the pot”. Hehe. Darnskies, I forgot me spoon.
Ahh, passion is what it’s all about, eh? I’m pretty passionate about my feelings on this and I think you are too. Not a bad thing at all, really. I’m kinda glad to see a counterpoint and if it gets folks to thinking a bit then I’m all for it.
Apparently I’m going to have to subscribe to get some healthy doses of Spike-speak now and then…
Cheers!
George
Hi George – good of you to drop by and even better to hear from people who are of an opposing view, but aren’t frothing, rabid loonies! Have to admit that yours was not the post that got me annoyed enough to write this one – I enjoyed yours – but it is the one that apparently started the current wave of debate! Your poor blog server must be wondering what hit it.
All interesting stuff here Spike. Let’s face it, we’re writers and we love to write. The money is great if you’ve decided to try writing for a living, but I bet most of us just writing, and were thrilled when other people read out words.
I write poetry because I love it, I write blogs because I want to make a little bit of money. I know I am way too lazy to be able to support myself financially with my writing. But I have a hell of a lot of fun making my little bits of money here and there.
For me, the writing is the main thing, the money is an added bonus. I have to write, for my mental health.
Hey Spike,
Thanks, and I think this is a great discussion.
How did I not know of your site before? Looking forward to your posts.
Cheers
George
Whining never solved anything
Besides, have you seen the quality of some of te copy out there?! Quality writing will always be valued and the cost of words (at least these days), is measured in fame.
Writers may have to learn how to promote themselves more (to gain a potential audience for the paid work), but the craft itself hasn’t changed much. Sites like yours are evidence of this.
The whole discussion above is very interesting as it is racist.
The so called quality authors from countries where lingua franc is English are now facing the heat from authors from developing countries and non English speaking countries – who are obliged to learn English, it not being their native language.
All along the former have had an unfair advantage over authors from developing countries and non English speaking countries; so they label themselves as being superior writers doing quality work and deserving better payments.
Writing is acreative activity and is not the function of command of a language alone.
How would it be if these quality writer were asked to compete for earning lively hood by writing in the native languages of such countries eg Hindi, Chinese, Sanskrit, French, German or Urdu.
Despite their current whining about spoiling the market they would be the one doing the $1 per article bidding.
And what is this about quality?
Native literature or writings – surprised, yes, these are there – is in no way inferior in scope, vibrancy or flexibility to that in English.
Fake quality English writers your citadel is crumbling; beware the storm that will blow your fake superiority away is not too far away!
Carolyn: Expression is more important than cash, agreed – as you say, the money’s a nice encouragement!
Patrick: You may have hit the proverbial nail on the head, there. The fame can be more important in many ways than the content, and lead to more money purely on reputation – earned or not.
Vijay: Great counterpoint to the ongoing debate! Steven pointed out the “racist” aspect of the argument on his own blog (and summarised them above).
I don’t think the language advantage is “unfair” as such: it’s one of those natural imbalances that occurs when the majority of work happens to be in a particular place or language. It could just as easily have been French, for example, that became the international business language (it was on level par with English for a long, long time).
I love the statement that “Writing is a creative activity and is not the function of command of a language alone.” This is my point, in a way – and Steven’s: we both believe that producing quality work is the only way anyone – not just Western-world-based writers – can set themselves apart from the mass of content producers now working world-wide.
It seems you took my use of the word “quality” to mean “perfect English”: that’s not my definition. By “quality”, I mean “well-researched, useful, cohesive, creative and original” (to name but a few adjectives!) – it doesn’t matter if there are some grammatical mistakes. That’s what editors are for.
As for “native” literature, I think any US- or UK-based person would be stupid to ignore the fact that most of the Eastern world was “civilised” LONG before we were and has a vast, rich treasure of writings. I’m crap at history, but even I know that.
Again, thanks for the thought-provoking comments.
This is so nice, I agree with just about everything everyone has said, especially me. There is a huge world out there, and more and more people are getting connected to each other. We have to realise that the entire pie can be cut up into many different sized slices.
Us comfy middle-class English-speaking types can snaffle our big piece of pie, and those clever enough to be working to attain the crazy language of English “As Adults!” can put up with the smaller sized slices. For now.
They coming though, and if we want to get paid as we wish, we’d better make sure we realise there is a huge group of people after bigger slices too.
Good luck to them, that’s what I say. We’re writers, amateur, semi-professional, professional. We write what the market wants, if we want the bigger slice of pie, or we write what we want if we are just happy to be writing.
It’s important to remember that the more people who are connected, the greater the need for content. Just be prepared to move with the flow of it all, and you won’t drown.
Did I mix too many metaphors? Zero editing, in a rush should be somewhere else entirely.