If you regularly work the $1-an-article jobs, ignore this post. Better yet, leave freelancing and get a “real” job that pays minimum wage – you’ll be light years ahead of the game and we won’t have to keep preaching to one more person why that kind of “work” is sucking the life out of journalism….
Year: 2009
Plagiarism Explained
The ad read: “Seeking a writer to create 12 business start-up how-to articles. Articles target couples thinking of starting a business together, explaining everything from picking the right business to marketing and more. Articles should be approx. 3 pages in length.” I applied. The response came. It read:“These projects pay $6 per page (approx. 420…
Funky Town
I’m in a funk today. When work is completed and the desk is thin with more work, I get like this. But I’m not going to dwell on it because it’s boring. Keeping it short today. I saw my parents over the weekend and my mom was relating a story about someone from her class….
Going Professional
Amie over at Written Expressions has a neat discussion going about talking about someone else’s work in a negative light and getting called on it. We’ve all done it at some point, and some of us have lost jobs (well, there were other things going on there, but yes, I did lose a job), lost…
Banding Together
Some very interesting discussion is going on over on the Certified Professional Writers Association on LinkedIn. What options can we choose to help improve our profession and stabilize earning power among the ranks? I highly suggest you join the discussion (and the group – group leader Leon Sterling is a staunch supporter of protecting freelancers’…
Client Boo-boos That Become Yours
I was listening to a friend lament about a client who is a blamer. Apparently this client, a woman, doesn’t make mistakes, nor does she forget anything. My writer friend knows this because the mistakes and forgetfulness of this client are passed right down the food chain into said writer’s lap. I sympathize. I’ve been…
Using Scammers as Bait
My guest blog is over at Devon Ellington’s Ink in My Coffee today. Go on over and check it out. Here’s a new one – I received a message on my phone last week, a bit convoluted, but basically the caller was asking about an organization I was part of (?) and mentioned he wanted…
The Value-added You
Maybe it’s because work has arrived again. I went cruising a favorite job listings site yesterday, but I couldn’t bring myself to apply to anything. In one job listing in particular where price wasn’t mentioned, I knew by the wording that it would be a huge waste of my time to A) craft a solid…
The New Etiquette
Maybe it’s just rotten luck, that there are too many email filters, or that people move around more than their email accounts can keep up. There’s a reason why my emails to editors with story ideas go unanswered. For every ten emailed ideas I send out that aren’t used, I get zero responses. And it’s…
How Low Can You Go?
Irreverent Freelancer Kathy Kehrli has found yet another Get-a-Clue Freelance Request, which offers a whopping $5 for a 500-word article. I don’t know what’s more disturbing: the offer or that Kathy’s repository of lousy offers appears bottomless. She’s been exposing these requests for years and each time I think I’ve seen it all, she brings…