A professional freelance writer for $4? I don't think so...

Spotted:

"I need 5 - 300 word articles written about 5 places in Kent England. I can provide links on the web to give you some factual information on these places to give you a helping hand, however the end result of the article must be unique.

I have $20.00 for these articles so please PM me.

Only professional writers please, they are to be used on a law/legal site.”

Quick roll-call. How many “professional writers” do we have out there who are willing to write unique articles for $4 each? Anyone?

You know, I can almost understand the low-paying employers when they advertise on forums (as this was) knowing that the responses they get will be from kids looking to make a bit of extra pocket money, and that the quality of the writing isn’t going to be that great.

I can almost understand that. I still think they’re ripping people off, but if all they’re interested in some low-quality content for search engines to spider then that’s their choice. I may not agree with it (I think these people need to ask themselves why they’re looking for a good search engine placement in the first place. If it’s to bring visitors to their site, then they need to consider the fact that visitors are put off by poor-quality content), but then, I don’t have to: I’m not the person their adverts are aimed at.

It’s when they claim to want “professional writers only” that I start to have real issues with this kind of thing. Because now they are hoping to attract people like me. They’re hoping to attract people like you. They’re hoping that a professional writer – someone who does this for a living, has got it down to a fine art, and does it well enough to pay the mortgage from it – will accept $4 per article.

That’s when I get annoyed.

And the most annoying thing of all? The people who post ads like this want to use your writing to make a profit. Your content will contribute to the success of their business, so they’ll make money from it and you won’t. Other than the $4 you got for writing it, of course.

How is that fair?

Comments

[Idoia]

Thank you for posting this. Unbelievable, the amount people AREN'T willing to pay for professional writers. I received an offer (if you can call it that) today: $2 for 400-word original news articles. I blinked several times, hoping it was a typo. $2 for 400 words? That's $.005USD per word.

[Janey]

Really helpful and informative site. I've lost count of the number of people who get really affronted when I turn down the offer of £2 an article. And then they give you the old 'but it's great experience and it looks great on your cv' flannel. And even worse, and it's particularly bad with online writing - you get websites who are OUT to make a profit, not even charity ones, and yet they expect their writers to work for either nothing, or a vague promise of 'remunneration later' ie it's spelled wrong.

The 'Leader' World is a prime example of this nonsense. Always advertising for writers but they become very snotty when you call them up on their advertising profits, and zero pay to their writers. Which may be why the writing is so dismal . . . .

You pay peanuts etc etc