Words on the Page

Freebies R Not Us

Posted on by lwidmer

Last week I applied for a project and this week, I received a response. Great! Except… yes, the old “sample of how you would handle this” request. Look, I’m all for giving you an idea of how I’d handle your gig, but “samples” are limited. This one asked for a small sample – 100 words…

Taxed

Posted on by lwidmer

Nothing excites me more than curling up on a rainy Saturday with a warm, cozy Schedule C. That’s exactly how I spent my Saturday – glued to the tax return. I know – I was going to hire an accountant this year. I didn’t. Why? Because time got away from me, per usual. I have…

Is Freelancing Dying?

Posted on by lwidmer

Peter Bowerman had a great response to an article on the Is writing for the rich? article appearing in The Week not long ago. The author, Francis Wilkinson, is fairly convinced freelancing is not a lucrative field any longer. In his last paragraph, he says it all – if highly skilled, high powered people write…

Yes Virginia, There Really Are Stupid Questions

Posted on by lwidmer

Some of you asked about the service I’m using to identify “unknown” or otherwise blocked numbers on my cell. It’s called TrapCall, and I found it thanks to someone on Twitter who’d posted a CNN article about the service. For the majority of the wireless providers, it’s free. No more calls. None. Miraculously, it has…

Can You Hear Me Now?

Posted on by lwidmer

I don’t know whether to be confused or ticked off, though I’m leaning toward the latter. I received a number of hang-up calls to my cell phone again yesterday, and one very odd call to my home phone, which came right after a “private” call hang-up. Normally, I might think the message that was left…

What Constitutes Conflict of Interest?

Posted on by lwidmer

Over the weekend I was asked to work for a new client. Client B was the subject of an article I wrote recently for a Client A. They liked the article so much (and liked working with me, they said) that they called me first to handle their new writing project. I was tickled. The…

An Open Letter to Coffee Shop Dwellers

Posted on by lwidmer

Dear Freelance Laptop Nation: I saw you. Yes, I did. Right there in every coffee shop and in every free WiFi spot in town and all around the region. You were sitting there with me, vying for that one outlet to share among a dozen laptop users. You thought you had it figured out, didn’t…

Associating with the Right Crowd

Posted on by lwidmer

Recently, I was mailed an “invitation” to join a women’s business association. After a cursory look on the Internet to make sure they existed and appeared legitimate, I filled it out the postcard and sent it back. Then the fun began. I got a call from the group’s “Executive Vice President” who wanted to ask…

Here Comes a Rant

Posted on by lwidmer

Let me just say this: I’ve been patient. Really, for me, holding my opinion longer than a minute constitutes extreme patience. But I can’t hold it any longer. I’m about to get ugly on you – and it’s about the rates you’ll accept for the work you do. Most of you here are already savvy…

The Denegration of Freelance Writing

Posted on by lwidmer

Now I’m ticked. There are a few places in my online world where I think I’m safe from the crap offers, the low-balling freelance rates (and nonpaying posts), and writers competing to do a thankless job for exposure. Can I vomit now? It’s just creeped in to my LinkedIn experience. It was a post in…

Leigh

JV = joint venture. 🙂

Lori

Ah, that explains it. And that pisses me off even more. What a load of crap this “job” offer turned out to be! I’m livid. Can you tell? 🙂

Anonymous

I’m commenting here anonymously because I have (freelance) ties to Agora, the company posting on Linked In. The JV is a very successful business model, and is legit – Agora gets already successful business people to JV with them and it works well. I question why they would be fishing over on LI for more JV partners, though; there are better ways to go about it.

As for paying freelancers for articles – they are a $200 million company, and should not be low-balling it. I would be curious to see what they are actually willing to pay. Plus, AWAI (of the “Six Figure Copywriting” course fame) was started by people tied to Agora. AWAI touts all the time how much money you can make as a writer – so I would expect them to have integrity and pay their writers very well.

Kimberly Ben

This is disturbing. *sigh*

Amanda Nicole

I cannot even count how many insulting offers I’ve had over the past few weeks. Sure, budgets are tight. But does that mean common sense has run dry as well?

Lately I’ve had replies to my applications and come across “job” postings that avoid the issue of payment altogether. I’ll get a “you’re hired!” email, then when I reply with questions about payment I get a really vague, fishy response, if I get one at all. Do I really seem that dumb?

Katharine Swan

Anonymous said…

“I’m commenting here anonymously because I have (freelance) ties to Agora…”

And are ashamed of it?

Devon Ellington

They get off doing this because they can; there are too many wanna-bes who are willing to work for nothing.

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.

Lori

Devon, you will never hear me scold you for it. You DO get what you pay for. You pay peanuts, you’re left with shells.

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.

Katharine Swan

Lori, I realize my comment probably sounded snide, but what I don’t understand is why Anonymous needs to stay private. Perhaps if s/he had said “because I have ties to Agora and there is a confidentiality agreement,” or something like that, I would understand. But if they are posting that the JV works and they are happy with it, wouldn’t leaving a name benefit them by giving more weight to your comment? So I can’t think why Anonymous wouldn’t want their name known, other than not wanting anyone to know they have ties with the company.

Katharine Swan

That should have read, “by giving more weight to their comment.” Gah.

Lori

No, didn’t read as snide, Katharine. It reads as a question. 🙂

Anonymous

In my affiliations with Agora, it’s been a beneficial relationship, and I’d prefer to remain anonymous so that I don’t jeopardize it with my criticism. What I’m critical of is their low-balling (or non-existent? or lack of transparency on?) pay for article writers. I’m also pointing out that since they birthed AWAI, they should act with integrity when it comes to writers’ pay, but it doesn’t seem to be the case here.

Katharine Swan

Lori, I’m glad to hear it. :o)

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.

Lori

I’m assuming, Anon, that you know the post I’m talking about on LinkedIn.

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

Lori, I do know the post you’re referring to on LI. Did you notice it’s now closed? I loved your reply! Measured and courteous, but you got the point across. I have not worked directly with/for Agora, but my clients and some good colleagues have. I’ve written copy in regard to that affiliation. I understand their marketing model pretty well, and my name might be recognized by some of the folks there.

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.

Lori

I LOVE that you’re willing to post all this, Anon. It’s very helpful to see the full measure of this JV deal, and maybe try to understand what the company’s up to with the posting in LinkedIn.

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.