If I told you that you could make a decent living by accepting slave wages, would you believe me?
Great! I'd like a 500 word article. Kindly to be paying you $3 for good written Copyscape passed plz.
If you've ever written for clients that came from a content creation forum, you know just what I'm talking about.
If this is your first time hearing about these forums, however, I'm going to describe to you what working for clients from those forums is like.
Remember, the point of this post, and this blog, is not to tell you what to do with your freelance writing career. I only dispense the truth! I want to give you a clear perspective on what will happen if you try different pieces of advice, so in the end you can make the choice.
For example, let's talk a little more about writing for clients that come from content creation forums.
At the beginning of my freelance career, a fellow writer pointed me towards content creation forums such as those found at Digital Point and Wicked Fire. These places seemed like a goldmine to me. I can write at least a thousand words an hour, so when clients consistently offered me $5 for 300 words, I thought I had caught a bunch of suckers in my net.
The problem with my line of thinking became clear, however, when I calculated how much they were charging me per word instead of how much I was making per hour. $15 an hour is not a bad rate for what was then a very part time job. But these clients, mostly foreigners who speak awful English and can not discern a quality article from a piss-poor article written by a 10th grader (yah, you'll see those at Digital Point), were paying me sometimes less than $.01 per word.
Contrast that with the rate of industry professionals and what I now charge, $.10 a word.
When I realized what someone with my specialty services should be making, I flipped the switch. I started advertising my services on these forums at a proper amount, but still with a huge discount. I offered $.03 a word for content creation, a drastic cut from what I normally charge clients, but a special offer to see if I could sway some cheapskate clients.
One fellow remarked that I almost certainly had misplaced a decimal. Who in the world would charge $15 for a 300 word article? No one can afford that!
Yes, they can. The problem with most writers and clients on these forums is that they do not speak English very well. Because they cannot tell a good article from a bad one, they constantly hire only the lowest bidder for their project, too often leaving them with horrendous content that sabotages their business. It's a vicious cycle. Because they do not pay for quality content, their business never rises out of the gutters, and they are left without the money to expand their business and, yet again, hire competent copywriters.
Now, I know several folks who are happy with what they get on these forums. They cannot write with my expertise, speed, or accuracy, they're accustomed to a lower salary for their services anyway, and they have no problem with that.
If this is you, by all means, accept $5 an hour.
Just be aware of what you can expect from these forums.
1) You will almost never see any rate higher than $.01 a word. Industry professionals charge as low as $.10 a word and as high as $1.00. No, I did not misplace a decimal point.
2) Most of the clients don't speak English very well. They don't know what they are looking for in their content. If you are lucky enough to get a contract before someone outbids you at $.0004 a word, look forward to a dialogue with a frustrated client that can't understand why you can't write what he wants, despite him or her not being able to speak English well enough to just tell you.
3) A writing career that never rises out of the gutter. If Digital Point, or similar forums, is where you're happy, again, I invite you to stay there. But be aware, that is likely where you'll stay. The time you spend writing for slave wages is time you could instead spend networking so you can get higher paying jobs and referrals that bring business TO you, instead of the relentless query drive that's all too often met with the wrong response.
What's your experience been like on these forums? Leave a comment and let me know.
