Gabriella, you had the right mindset from the start. That’s a gift!

I love the idea of a trend line. I know I was scraping bottom at the outset — I’d lost my job and had to piece together an existence. And I made the mistake of relying on temp jobs. Once you give yourself a safety net like that, you ease up too much.

But another writer told me something that sticks with me still; “Treat freelancing like it’s your only option.”

Once I removed my palm from my forehead, I never looked back.

That’s how I started too, David. Not a bidding site to be found. Not that there weren’t lower-paying sites that needed articles on a particular topic, but they didn’t bid the work out. And they operated like any other client of mine. And I knew when to pull the plug (as I scored higher-paying stuff).

Liz, it sounds like you have a strong work ethic. And I love that you know these sites are big sinkholes.

I don’t think I’d be too eager to remain in a professional group that has that mindset present and is doing little to quash it.

Your reaction to the friend saying you could supplement your income with a part-time job is the same thing I feel when I come across low pay rates. Why take an assignment that pays 5-cents/word or maybe $15/hour when it will take your time and focus away from INVESTING the same time in seeking out better clients?

It’s always better to invest in yourself than to help a low-paying client profit off your skills.

I remember one of my friends saying, “You could supplement your income with a part-time job at Starbucks or something.” And I remember internally looking at her like she had two heads (I hope I didn’t show her how crazy I thought that was.) I remember saying, “But I think my time is better spent marketing, networking, and reaching out to build my writing business rather than earning $7.50 an hour….”

Somehow, I knew from the start this wasn’t going to be a gig and it wasn’t going to be handed to me. I had to build it. I’m so grateful I knew that, and I’m grateful I found your blog early on.

On another note, I recently created a trend line of my income from 2005, and that first year, I started in August and didn’t make much money from Q4 writing. But I’m happy to say that my trend line has gone up every year, except for a weird drop in 2011. I can’t remember what happened in 2011, but my guess is that my business didn’t suffer. I believe that was the year I sold a property at a big loss, so I had more losses to push down my gross income.

Anyway, I found that helpful in understanding where my business came from and where I am today. I recommend it for all writers as a way to further think of yourself as a business owner.

There is one exception. If a client agrees to pay my rate and says they administrate everything through one of these sites for payment, that’s OK. I’ve done that, and it was fine.