I did see it was gone. I reported it. That’s no place for it, nor is it appropriate for that site. I’m of the opinion that a little legwork is in order by Agora – contact specific experts directly and offer them the JV deal.

Perhaps they have a new business model for this new site you mention? At any rate, it didn’t sound too promising for freelancers.

Liked that response, eh? :)) I’m practiced at tact when I need to be tactful. I hate pile-ons, and I won’t be the start of one, but the dude needed to understand that his audience, and approach, was all wrong.

I’m really confused as to why Agora is fishing on Linked In for JV partners. Typically their JV’ers are established names in their respective fields (personal
finance, health, self-improvement) who have an info product to sell, like CD seminars, books, newsletters, etc. People like Robert Ringer, Brian Tracy, Dr. Al Sears, etc. When you do have an info product to sell, a JV is usually a 50-50 split on the profits. Agora provides the list, and you provide the product. We as freelancer writers are not the kind of JV-er they are looking for, unless we’re someone with big name recognition like Bob Bly who has info products to sell.

The freelancers for article writing and the JV-ers are really two totally different things. Sounds to me like they want to beef up the content on their soon-to-launch financial website. I’m assuming the JV-ers will provide much of this content for free in return for promotional exposure. Reading between the lines, they also want more content written by freelancers who are not JV-ing, and they will pay for these articles. The big question is how much, since they seem to be dangling the “exposure” carrot as well.

HTH.

What’s been your experience with the company? Good? Questionable? How long -approximately – have you been working with them, and have the been fair the entire time?

It does seem odd that they are posting this kind of stuff given your input and prior experience.

I don’t go for any arrangement in which the amount I’m to receive is questionable. A JV arrangement doesn’t suit me because hey, I can’t partner with my utility company to pay my bills. It’s not a model I can live with. And I’m not sure how the JV model would work for freelancers in general – do you have experience there? What’s a typical JV entail, and what can a writer expect in terms of payment?

Anonymous, that makes sense. I didn’t think your comment came off as critical, which is why I was confused. I read it as though you were saying that you didn’t know what they paid, but that it should be decent considering their status — I didn’t realize you were criticizing them for low-balling.

In any case, I’m glad your relationship with them has been beneficial, and I totally understand that you would want to protect that.

Anonymous, thank you for responding. I respect your need to stay private, and I appreciate the inside information on this particular company. What gets me is IF this is the same company, which you have implied it may well be, why the posting that’s obviously not going to pay anything?

They’re hoping you’re that dumb, Amanda. The only thing we can do as an industry is educate the ranks and empower other writers to charge what they’re worth. I used to think the fools taking low-ball offers weren’t my problem. In fact, they’re everyone’s problem, for it’s killing our profession.

I’ve said it before — and gotten scolded — and I’ll say it again — you get what you pay for.

And for those who get defensive about lowering their rates, hey, you want to be so overburdened you never get out from under the workload that doesn’t even pay the bills AND get the reputation as cheap labor, go ahead.

There’s decent paying work out there. You just have to be pro-active.