How Freelance Writers Get Sucked into Low-paying Work (and how to stop it)

Imagine getting this email:

Hi (your name):

Just wanted to let you know I’ve moved to a new company, and we’re looking for writers. I recommended you since we’d worked together when I was at the last company. Do you have time to chat on the phone?

So you call. The conversation goes something like this:

We need someone to help us write 4 articles a month, and since you know the industry, I thought of you. We’re paying $200 an article — roughly 1,000 words each.

I’m willing to bet any or all of these things just happened to you:

• You thought “Hell no!”
• You ignored your gut and said “Let me think about it.”
• You actually thought about it.
• You felt slightly uncomfortable/guilty because you know and like this person, whom you’ve worked with before.

Did you accept it?

I can’t answer that for you. But the fact that you actually thought about it — that I’ve actually thought about similar offers — is an example of how we get stuck in low-paying gigs.

I don’t think any writer starts their freelance writing career thinking they’re going to work for next-to-nothing pay.

Well, maybe a few do, but I call those writers hobbyists. They’re not working at building a business, nor do I think they’re going to stick it out for very long. That’s okay. We’re allowed to make our own decisions. I won’t necessarily support that decision, but it isn’t mine to make.

But most of us who are trying to start a freelance writing career or improve the one we’ve started don’t think “Pay doesn’t matter.”

For those of us whose livelihood depends on what we do and charge, it matters.

And yet here we are, saying yes or even maybe to something we know won’t help us stay afloat financially.

It’s not the only time we agree to something that just doesn’t serve our needs either, is it? We’ve agreed to some pretty sketchy-paying things:

• When work is slow and we get nervous
• When we need money, like, yesterday
• When saying “no” still makes us feel guilty, like we owe these people something
• When we rationalize “it’s easy work”

That last one could well be true, actually. I’ve done that myself. I worked for a few companies for a number of years because yes, the work was easy. And the clients were easy to work with and made it enjoyable. Did I regret it? Not at all. Neither should you if the same conditions apply, in my opinion. If you’re okay with it and you have higher-paying work elsewhere, that may be enough for you.

But in the other cases, you may have just boxed yourself into a low-paying corner. So let’s see how to stop getting sucked in.

Slow to no work.

This one is tough to ignore, isn’t it? But look at your overall situation.

• Is there money in the bank?
• Is there work in front of you at all?
• Is it July or some other typically slower month?
• Is there another option, such as magazine work, that you can do in the interim?
• Have you marketed at all?
• Have you checked in with former/existing clients?

If you answered Yes to the first four questions, you may be fine for now. But get marketing. If you’re sitting there with a lighter load, it’s long past time to do that anyway. And do check in with previous/existing clients. I did that a few months ago when a big project never materialized. One client has funneled quite a lot to me since.

Need money. Now.

Been there, haven’t you? Haven’t we all? Okay, so you’re about to take a low-paying gig because they pay right away. I get it. I’ve done it. But I’ve done something else, too. I’ve not taken on too much (one company wanted me to write three articles a week) because I’d have no time to market for a better client. While staring at an empty checking account can make us agree to crazy shit, limiting how much crazy shit we’ll do is smart. So if you’re doing those $50 daily blog posts, don’t see the cumulative total. See the amount of work involved. It’s far too easy to be attracted to the dollar signs. But rarely has focusing on the pay worked out.

Here are some quick-paying things:

• Resume writing
• Proofreading
• Blog posts
• Some magazines (make sure you know what their payment policy is — some will drag out payment for 45 days)

Ideally though, you need to be turning not toward new, untested clients (how do you know they’ll actually pay you?), but toward your existing clients. Now is a good time to reach out to them. You never know.

Typical slow period.

For me, that tends to be late June into late July, then again from mid-December to the new year. People get into vacation mode, holiday mode. Projects get put on hold until the new fiscal year, too, so you might see a slowdown in say April depending on your clients. For example, I work with people in the commercial insurance industry. Policy renewals tend to happen somewhere around hey, guess when, late June to late July. Healthcare insurance, more like mid-September. Knowing a few  more details can help you plan your own marketing better.

So let’s see what we can do to find better stuff:

• Yep, magazines again (if you know when that slow period is, you can plan this in advance)
• Clients in a different industry
• All of the previously mentioned suggestions

Too guilty to say no.

They’re so darned nice, aren’t they? I hate saying no because Jackie is so easy to work with. But 2 cents a word — I guess I could….

Stop right there. This one has a simple solution: say no anyway. You do not owe any client 100-percent cooperation, particularly if it’s to your own detriment. If the terms don’t suit your needs, say so. Negotiate. Or say no thank you. I don’t care if Jackie has beams of goodness shooting from her eyeballs. If the pay is prohibitive, focus there. It’s not personal. It can’t be. If it were, Jackie would be ashamed to ask you to work for so little. Or she’d not insult you with such an offer. If you think of it that way, you can more easily remove your guilt and do what’s best for your business.

Let me repeat:[bctt tweet=”If I client isn’t sparing your feelings to offer you low-paying #freelance work, don’t say yes to spare theirs by taking it.” username=”LoriWidmer”]

The “It’s easy work” argument.

Yes, it is easy and yes, you’re okay with it because you have higher-paying stuff in front of you. But make sure you’re not allowing that relationship to go on for far too long. Example from my own life: I wrote resumes for the better part of 4-5 years. At first, the job was easy, and paid decently (just $35 off my hourly rate). But then a few things changed, such as the manager I was working with (the nice one left, replaced by a whip-cracker), and the pay went down. The company rationalized the pay as “lower level” resumes, but it wasn’t hard to see these “lower level” resumes were actually the same upper-management resumes I was getting paid twice as much for previously. I hung on for far too long and saw my workload double thanks to that whip-cracking manager and a company that had since decided that “freelance” meant we were required to take work whenever we were told to.

An extreme example, but who hasn’t worked a low-paying blog gig for a year or more, then lamented about how to cut the cord? (I have, to be honest.) Don’t allow a false sense of duty or loyalty or “easy” drive your decision.

Writers, how do you approach turning down low-paying work from people you like?
When was the last time you had to break with a low-paying client? How did you do it? How long did it take?