Worthy Advice: This Job, Not That Job

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What’s on the iPod: The Road to Home by Amy MacDonald (including Caledonia)

I don’t need a calendar to tell me September is almost here. The clients are starting to call, email, and send projects. It’s going to be a busy fall, and I’m happy for it.

I was looking for something else when the Craig’s List URL was auto-filled into my browser. What the heck — let’s look, I thought. The result: this week’s This Job, Not That Job contender.

Receive 6 letters in the mail, Make $100
Is your home or office address located near the center of Philadelphia?

Make $100 by receiving 6 letters in the mail.

Basically you receive 6 letters in the mail and then you get paid by just telling (or texting) me the information on them by phone.

Thank you for your time!


— $100, you say? Great! Easy work, too. It’s not even writing. And right there is the problem. Why is this posted in the Writing Gigs section? Because someone is looking for a desperate soul. Yes, we’ve been painted as desperate. You can thank every desperate freelancer, new or otherwise, for that distinction.
Let’s get to why this sucks so badly:
What’s contained in these letters exactly? Are they going to be from a jilted lover? An attorney? A tax entity? You don’t know. THAT is what’s wrong with this offer. There’s no indication that while this person has their privacy guarded that your privacy will be afforded the same consideration. 
It smells of something sleazy. Really sleazy. Possibly illegal, but you won’t know until you contact the person, at which point it may be too late for your own identity to be saved.
Instead, please try something like this:

Freelance Writers to Write Listicles

Freelance writers needed to create “listicles” about cities in Buzzfeed style.

We’re looking for writers who:
-can write at least four articles a week
-can write about places they have never been from an insider/local perspective
-have experience sourcing Creative Commons images
-have been working as freelancers for at least one year
-have experience writing listicles and similar online content


Pay: $100 per article
It’s a bit of work and not exactly the best rate ever, but it’s a better way to earn $100.
Writers, what are your limits when it comes to the jobs you’ll take?
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8 thoughts on “Worthy Advice: This Job, Not That Job”

  1. Listicles. Love it. Makes the charticle I'm working on sound in-depth. (Although isn't a listicle basically an outline with pictures?)

    Basically my limit is I need to get as much out of an assignment as the client does. That can be money, it can be getting into a big new market by writing a listicle. In the early days it meant I'd get a byline along with a little money. Sometimes it's simply that I really, really, really want to cover a subject.

    A couple weeks ago I replied to an ad seeking a specialized type of writing. Yesterday I got an email from the contact at that company about how he was in a dilemma – there were several great candidates, but he couldn't afford to pay everyone for a sample, but he asked, "If you were in my position, what would you do?"

    I replied: If I were you, I'd flip a coin to choose the writer and offer a 20% kill fee in case that writer doesn't work out. Better one person risk 20% than several writers risk wasting time writing something they might never be paid for.

    And then I hit send.

  2. Paula, I love it. That would give me the impression that you're not into solving his business dilemmas, but that you have business savvy. I love that you added "flip a coin" — keeps it light.

    Listicles just sound wrong, don't they? And like you, I have to get something out of the job, too. I don't think I'll be doing many listicles. 😉

  5. Boy, that first one has scam written all over it. Danger, Will Robinson!

    P.S. I'm working on what the editor is calling a charticle. Oy.

  6. I've done a bunch of charticles in the last year or two, Gabriella. I think of them as glorified lists.

    Actually, I have one on the back burner right now.

  8. I'd like to put this one on the back burner, too, Paula! And Lori, your response made me laugh out loud.

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