[bigpicture]

Just wanted to get this off my chest and sound a warning to all new writers.

It seems that for such a relatively intelligent and capable class of people, writers are so easily exploited.

It's all so weird, because there will always be new waves of people pursuing the dream of making a living as a freelance writer. You'd think that the reality of the profession would've been exposed and thoroughly propagated by now -- even in the face of all the outfits "selling the dream" ... After all, we're all communicators at heart!

It's also weird that for such a smart group of people, writers aren't seeing the light about what the internet represents for their talent. That is, the advantage of the internet for people with writing talent is the elimination of the middle man between you and your ultimate audience. If you have talent, you should roll the dice at creating your own works to sell to the broad audience afforded by the internet, rather than writing for a boss (or client) who resells your work.

In the former case, you work once and potentially get paid perpetually for that work. In the latter, you work once and get paid once.

What's more, in the latter case, you're up against a global supply of other writers, thanks to the internet. Many in this workforce have much lower costs of living, so the one-time pay you get is at an all-time low because the global workforce allows it.

Those are the two sides of this internet that writers fail to see. Rather than exploiting the power of the web, most of us are being exploited by it.

I'm sorry -- I'm not knocking you guys. Indeed, I'm one of you. I bought into the dream of working as a freelance writer long ago, and dived in with both feet. Now I'm realizing this was not a smart move.

I'm not kicking myself, because there are a TON of sources out there encouraging newbies to dive in. I thought "surely they can't ALL be lying" and "surely if it was impossible there would be more voices on the web saying so." But I was wrong. There's a weird dynamic in the freelance writing community that when people fail (or give up) they go away quietly, without warning others, maybe because they think it's "just them".

I see it all the time on a copywriting board I lurk. Noobs come in, bright eyed and bushy tailed, sold on dreams peddled by AWAI and other outfits, asking for critiques of their shiny new website. ...Then after a while you never hear from them again. A year later, you click the link to their website, and it's no longer up. Yet they never come back to warn others.

Well, I'm here to say to newbies -- it's a very difficult living, and the internet is a hindrance rather than a help if you're looking to make a living working for clients. It's a "buyer's market" bar none, and you WILL answer to the market, no matter what others tell you about "aiming high" for top-paying clients, and the amount of work that's out there, etc. Market forces can't be resisted.

Now, I'm going back to full time work. I'm not giving up on writing. I'm just going for the approach that I feel will make the internet work in favor of my creativity, rather than against it. If I take another dive at writing for clients, I'll do it while I have the security of a J-O-B -- or even better, the security of a robust passive income, thanks to the internet's power to reach audiences directly.

Anyway, I'm just posting this for others out there who have been sold on the dream of making a living working for clients. Set up that passive income machine FIRST.

If you don't have the talent to do that, you probably won't have a good time working for clients anyway. And even if you are very talented, you shouldn't start off with the risk of "burn out" -- working for clients, content mills, craigslist tire-kickers, etc. etc. -- because you need the money.

Build your empire from a position of security. And remember that people "selling the dream" have all the motive in the world to paint very optimistic pictures.

I may catch flack for writing this here, but if you're a noobie, take heed. I write from the heart, with your best interests in mind.

Thanks for reading my rant.