I once worked for $15 an article. Before you flog me for telling others not to when I myself did, let me explain. It was 15 years ago and the market – the local newspaper. While I didn’t make oodles of cash, I established myself in a credible market.
I bring this up after reading Jen’s message to $5 article writers on CatalystBlogger. She wrote for the online article mills, but she did one better – she demanded, and received, a higher rate than the $5 per. Her ability to charge more showed others her dedication to writing as a business, and I’m sure it went a long way in defining her now-thriving business.
But $15, you say? For newspaper work? It was a little crazy, but I felt the way to build a portfolio was to start locally. It still is, in my opinion. What’s more valuable to an employer – a resume that shows regular work at an established newspaper or 200 unedited articles churned out for an article mill? If I were hiring, I’d lean toward the newspaper clips first.
Do you have to work for less in order to eventually earn more? Not really. My goal then is different than it is now. I wanted to work for the larger local newspaper. In fact, I had started working for them. They paid a bit better – $30 an article, and then bumped it up to $35 an article – but when my contact there retired, there went the job. This was back in the day when newspapers thrived and editors were countless in a newsroom. One other editor knew who I was. So off to a smaller paper I went. There I scored many more assignments monthly, but I wasn’t making as much per article. I was making more per month, though. And I was beginning to be recognized by local officials and politicians. That’s a great foot in the door for any freelancer wanting to branch out into other areas. And it made me comfortable around people who had information I needed. It was that experience, and an article published in a small national pub, that helped me pull in magazine assignments.
What’s the least amount you’ve worked for? Did it help or hinder your career? Did you ever work for free? Why? No judgments here – I once wrote for free for a nonprofit. Once, though. It never became a habit. How has your beginning in freelancing defined (or hindered) your goals?
Lori, I started freelencing full-time writing 250-400 word SEO articles for $10 an article. I didn’t even know what SEO was. About a month or so later I found a client on Craigslist who offered much more than that. They are an SEO firm, provide regular work and taught me a lot about SEO and latent semantic indexing.
It took me a while to let go of my $10 an article client at first because I felt like ‘a bird in the hand beats two in the bush.’But I was really holding myself back from being able to take on more challenging projects that paid better.
I also wrote for a B2B online client that paid $15 a 450 article with a byline. Being able to refer clients to those clips has been quite helpful, but my biggest problem with taking these jobs seemed to be knowing when it was the right time to let them go.
I take on pro-bono clients if I believe in the organization and it’s well-organized, with as few internal politics as possible.
I’ve worked quite cheaply, usually to get my foot in the door in an area I know little to nothing about, and either negotiated higher rates as I’ve learned, or moved on.
I also look at the potential income the client can make from the piece. If they can make several thousand dollars, but only want to pay me $10 — I don’t think so.
Who is your employer and how does this particular company fit into your overall vision? A company that actually has something to do with my future is going to make me think twice, where some fly-by-night website isn’t worth my time.
Common sense is the key.
Honestly, right now, unless I could knock out the piece in under 5 minutes, I can’t afford to work for such low rates. I’d use that time for an entirely pro bono client in whom I believe.
Very few employers will bump your pay if you agree to work for a pittance. Whether they admit it or not, if they’re not paying enough, they don’t respect the work, in most cases.
There are always exceptions. You’ve got to look at the overall company.
I agree, Devon, clients really don’t respect your work when you charge to low. I definately learned this lesson. In fact many clients looking to pay only $5, $10 for articles honestly aren’t even expecting very much, even though they won’t admit it. They just want cheap content which is what you end up with at those prices.
Good points made by all. I turned someone down the other day because they wanted to pay me $3.50 for a 500-word article. Sure, the article would have taken me about 10 minutes to do (a topic I know a ton about, and a very general article – nothing specialized), but it’s not worth it to me anymore. I would rather take the time I spent to make $3.50 marketing to bring in a $30/article client or something like that.
Or maybe a $300 or $3000 article client… 😉