I’m supposed to be writing an article right now. However, I saw something on Twitter that both shocked and saddened me.
And then I got a bit upset.
Because we are in a pretty tight economic landscape right now, there are plenty of helpful people posting job listings on social media. I applaud that.
To a point, that is.
And that point came and went with one post. A Twitter soul posted this from another site:
COMPANY is looking for (subject matter deleted) content writer.
Pay: 4.0c-4.5c/word – based on quality
Looking for native English speakers.
Expecting 4,000 words per week for the next 2 months.
You read that right — 4 cents a word.
I thought perhaps the person posting the ad didn’t realize how low the pay was. So I commented that quality might be an issue for a company paying so little.
That’s when I realized that yes, they did know what was going on. Their response: if there’s no research and the writer works quickly, that could be a decent gig.
Maybe I was tired from writers group the night before. I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Anyone who justifies four freaking cents a word isn’t in the same mindset I am to begin with.
Then it hit me:
There are a lot of writers and wanna-be writers out there who think that’s a good deal.
That’s what today’s post is about: not another This Job, Not That Job post, but rather the compromises we make that we shouldn’t make just to get a freaking writing gig.
Let’s start with the math:
4 cents per word x 4,000 words = $160
160 x 4 = $640
Not even $1K per month. But this is the math you need to pay attention to:
4,000 x 4 = 16,000 words
That’s right. You’ll be cranking out one-fourth of a novel every month for $640. In four months, you’ll have contributed enough content to qualify for a decent-sized novel.
And you’ll have made $2,560. For four months of work (because honey, you’re not getting anything else done if you have to crank out that much content).
Not what you expected to be making for that amount of work is it?
Here are the fallacies that are typically sold with these kinds of job listings:
Easy work, easy money.
They who post these heinous job listings beat this drum a lot. They actually believe that you’ll be convinced that it’s easy to write 4K a week, and that 4 cents a word is a good deal. Let’s compare: the articles I write typically pay $1 a word. If I write 4K words a week, the math is pretty easy. Do you still think 4 cents — 4 pennies per word is such a great deal? You’re trading off low-assed pay in exchange for not having to market. Congratulations — you’ve just jumped into a rut and have had the ladder removed.
When you do the math, it’s actually decent pay.
Bullshit. When you do the math, you realize you’re getting screwed. There’s no way any kind of funky math will justify the ridiculously low pay these people are offering. And no amount of sales babble is going to make it any more lucrative for you. Plus, all that time you waste writing 4K words every damn week is time you’re not able to find better-paying clients.
There’s a raise waiting for those who work hard.
What unnerved me about this posting was the dangling of a half-cent raise if you delivered quality. Seriously, your pay could go up to $180 a week, you lucky beast. And you’d now be making $720 a month. Eighty more bucks. Still not even $1K a month. Wow. Aren’t you just dizzy from all that possibility?
No. You’re dizzy because they’re deliberately making your head hurt. There’s no raise here. That’s as insulting an offer as the 4 freaking cents. Plus, I doubt you’ll ever see more than the low rate. Why? Because in general, people who pay shitty rates are not people who part easily with their money. What have I said here time and again — the lower the pay, the bigger the hassle you get from the client. Nitpicking
What unnerved me most about this job listing wasn’t the job itself (though that did get me into a snit), but that another writer was retweeting it. And justifying it. There is absolutely no reason to circulate lousy offers except one — you don’t realize it’s lousy. That’s an entirely different issue, but a personal one, I fear. But it could be one that’s misleading plenty of would-be writers.
If you want a solid, lucrative freelance writing career, don’t take these kinds of jobs. Don’t justify what you know is garbage. Don’t expect the work to just come pouring in without effort and pay you vast amounts of money. And don’t believe anyone who tries spinning this kind of stuff into something that clearly isn’t there.
Instead, build relationships with people who could be in a position to hire you or refer you. Make friendly acquaintances. Show up, market wisely, and get proactive in how you secure clients.
Have you dealt with a job listing like this in the past?
Have you had potential clients try to sell you on terms that you knew weren’t decent?
6 responses to “Freelance Job Posting Fallacies We Fall For (Almost)”
Well, the time a new owner took over a marketing newsletter I wrote for regularly and dropped the fee from 50-cents/word to 10-cent/s word, then insisted I include I believe it was a DOZEN sources in a 600-word article, I said, “If it’s so simple, good luck with it.” That was over 15 years ago—even back then 50-cents/word was okay pay, but nothing to boast about.
Were they serious? That’s not exactly how it should go. You’d think eventually the rate would go UP, not DOWN. Good grief! Smart of you to drop it. That’s far too much work for that rate.
The new editor downplayed how much time & effort went into all those interviews and squeezing everything into 600 words. I believe I told her just including 12 names, titles, and companies would eat up half my word count.
No surprise that the publication folded not long after.
Not surprising at all. You’re right — titles alone would amount to 300 words! That’s crazy.
I remember being asked to write a comprehensive overview of the state of workers compensation. In 800 words. That’s a facet of insurance that people have written BOOKS about. There was no way that was working. And the client was upset when I couldn’t rise to the challenge.
Their marketing pro called me and said “It’s not you — you’re the fourth writer they’ve asked to do this, and I can’t convince them it’s not possible.”
They too folded shortly afterward.
Because we’re in a depression, the predators are out in full force. I’m dismayed that Indeed and GlassDoor are listing them. I was angry yesterday that LinkedIn is running an ad from a company offering high salaries for “advisory board” members by a company that has a long list of BBB complaints against them and whom even Glassdoor lists as a scam.
When I wrote serials a few years back, I wrote four serials with 2 episodes a week at 1K/episode. I was writing 8K/week, doing the whole month on one serial, the next week the next, and so on. It nearly killed me, and wasn’t paying well enough for that.
That’s why Radish was so disappointing, when they transformed into underpaying content writers for several thousand words a week.
The list goes on and on . . .
That last statement is exactly right — the list goes on and on…
I share your dismay, Devon. We’re savvy enough to know that there are people who take these things, hence the reason these job listings continue. But when the job market is this tight, it’s obvious these posters are out to get what they can for as little as possible. There’s a special place in hell for them, too. Karma is coming.
Your experience with those serials is telling to anyone who may think 4K words a week is easy. I wish I could tweet that out to the freelance world — there is nothing easy about being overworked and underpaid. Ever.