A Writer’s View of Freelance Bidding Sites
Looking to make some more money, I checked out a bunch of the more popular freelance bidding sites a few weeks back and subscribed to the RSS feeds to see who was looking for a writer.
Now, I’ve known a few designers and coders who’ve found work through these sites but for me, I haven’t even seen a single project I wanted to bid on, let alone gotten any work.
It’s not that none of the work seemed interesting. The problem is that the majority of the postings I read were flat out horrifying!
One example:
I need someone to write 100 articles for a web site. I can only afford to pay $1 per article but this may lead to more work later. Also, all articles you submit will be checked through Copyscape.
I’m not sure I even need to say anything about the rate being offered, but “may lead to more work later”?
So, a hundred articles meet the client’s approval, they might let me write a few more for a dollar a piece? Plus, beyond the stingy rate, the notification that everyone will be run through Copyscape is like being accused of plagiarism before I’ve even considered the gig.
Maybe if the poster was offering a reasonable rate, they’d be able to attract higher caliber writers who already have a good reputation and worrying about plagiarism won’t be a problem.
I was so offended by that one I read the post out loud, which led my roommate to suggest I go for it and submit a hundred 10-word “articles.”
I’m looking for someone to write 10 product reviews of (insert product type here). They need to be done quickly and I’ll pay $30. Just to be clear, that’s $30 for all 10, not per review.
Oooh, this is better. A whole three dollars per article. That’s triple what the last guy was offering…
And my absolute favorite reoccurring type of posting:
Hi, I need someone to write a university level essay that examines existential desire as paralleled to the empty desperation of modern life as shown in The Great Gatsby.
Wait… is this some student trying to pay someone to do their homework for them? I guess it’s better than the old day when I’d get my head submerged in a toilet until I agreed to write some oaf’s English class essay for him, but still. I mean, I’ve been turned down for jobs on the grounds that I attended community college instead of university, I’m hardly going to help some brat coast through the process and end up beating me for a better gig, no matter how much money they have.
You get what you pay for!
I really wish more people looking to hire a freelancer would keep that in mind. Of course you’re at risk of hiring a plagiarist if you’re only offering a dollar an article: spending a few hours copying and pasting into a Wordpress back-end probably is worth $100. Days of research and writing is not.
All this said, one thing does give me hope. The low-ball job postings seem to get reposted every week, meaning that no one is actually going for them. Which is a good thing — maybe the posters will either offer more money or just go away.
In the meantime though, my RSS reader needs to go on a diet and I think I know exactly which pounds it’s going to shed.
Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com