Ugh Sometimes I despair...

[LaurenBT]

I applied to a writing job the other day, and the person was seeking native English speakers from the UK/USA etc., so I applied. Today I got a response asking for details about my availability, and my rate per 500 word article, and all that stuff. I responded with my rates and hours. Then he responded and said that although he liked my availability, his rate per 100 words was $0.50 :/

That is $2.50 per article, and I live in the UK so once I factor in the exchange rate I end up with a whopping £1.55! I could find more that that in loose change around my home. You just have to laugh at these kinds of offers!

What native english speaker could possibly afford to live on that type of wage?

[jwinter]

I've seen a lot more of this lately than I would like. I ton of clients are offering incredibly low rates like this. I have noticed that most of them are from outside the US and UK. I know it would be a bad idea, but I wish Odesk and other bidding sites would let us rule out certain amounts on job searches or offers from outside the US and UK. Yeah, we would still get the clients in there with lower rates, but it wouldn't be as bad.

I don't think that the clients think about what goes into the writing either. The ones that I've seen with the lower rates like this tend to be business owners who know they need content but don't have the first clue what that means. They think we just sit down and churn it out, no problem. I've even be asked "well, don't you use software?" Um...for the 100% unique content you want with high quality native English results? Nooooo

Anyway, I feel your pain.

[LaurenBT]

Thanks for the understanding I keep seeing these low rates everywhere too. I think that, as you said, a lot of these clients who are paying really low rates are based outside of countries like the US and the UK. This client was not from the UK or the US judging by his English. It’s sort of annoying when a client doesn’t list their price, as I would not have wasted my time applying to it. Time is important as a freelancer. It would be a good idea for odesk to add a feature that allowed you to filter out jobs from certain places outside the US and the UK. At the moment I do think that Odesk could do with improving their filtering system. When I’m looking for jobs on there I feel like I’m searching through so many low paying jobs, just to find a couple of decent jobs. Searching for jobs on their can take up quite a bit of time.

[dsmpublishing]

Originally Posted by LaurenBT

Thanks for the understanding I keep seeing these low rates everywhere too. I think that, as you said, a lot of these clients who are paying really low rates are based outside of countries like the US and the UK. This client was not from the UK or the US judging by his English. It’s sort of annoying when a client doesn’t list their price, as I would not have wasted my time applying to it. Time is important as a freelancer. It would be a good idea for odesk to add a feature that allowed you to filter out jobs from certain places outside the US and the UK. At the moment I do think that Odesk could do with improving their filtering system. When I’m looking for jobs on there I feel like I’m searching through so many low paying jobs, just to find a couple of decent jobs. Searching for jobs on their can take up quite a bit of time.

I totally agree it does need updating. It annoys me when I am applying for seo and social media management jobs and get glued down with people wanting bot facebook fans.

I had someone come to me once on fiverr and offered $3.90 per article to be published on ezinearticles.com and what shocked me is she was managing writers so would have been taking a cut on these 500 word articles so it worries me how much the writers were been paid.

I am always bidding on odesk and I imagine its harder for writing jobs. But as someone that has a team of writers odesk is a nightmare finding them.

I have zero success of getting writers on odesk all I get is indians offering their services for $0.40 per 100 words and tell me why would a professional business owner want third rate writing?

So i leave all the hiring to my cousin and as she is a writer herself she can do a much better job and knows what i like/want.

One tip though - i do get a lot of job invitations so why not make sure you have your rate in your profile along with taking all the relevant tests?

kind regards


sam
X

[anng]

Originally Posted by dsmpublishing

So i leave all the hiring to my cousin and as she is a writer herself she can do a much better job and knows what i like/want.

Even then, it's becoming impossible to find interested writers. I get many responses saying that 2 cents a word is too little, others who simply flake, and then even more who don't want to have a set quantity of articles to turn out every week. The last time I looked for writers for Sam, I had over 150 people apply, the field was narrowed down, and last I knew only a few people had stuck with it. I've stretched out to local colleges and Craigslist and reliability doesn't improve.

Those who do flake or never respond once I've recommended them, it would be nice to hear back what they didn't like that made them go away. I have had a couple people email me back, but that's not a high percentage. One told me that she only wanted to do press releases, which is fine, but then no where in the job description was press releases mentioned, so I don't know why she even applied. Another hated the idea of an online chat interview, and that's fine and I appreciated getting that feedback.

I guess I just get confused when I see writers posting that they want steady work, and then it's offered and they disappear completely.

[jwinter]

I put my fees in my profile on Odesk. I still get the ones saying they think I would be interested in their job only to find it pays $1 per 500 words. It makes me want to ask them what part of my fee and profile made them think I would be interested.

As far as finding writers, I have found 3 in the past year and a half that did not flake and delivered quality work for the price being offered. That is 3 out of well over 100 applicants. Hell, one of them I gave a second chance to after flaking and she flaked then too. Both times it was some tragic issue in her family that rendered the person sick and her Internet to "blowed up". Yep...that was the reasoning. Not kidding.

I just wish there were some way, without being rude, to restrict people on odesk or other sites from sending interview requests when they don't meet the writers/contractors price. A great thing would be to block emails from potential clients that are paying less than the fee we request. I know it won't happen but it is great to dream. lol

[anng]

Originally Posted by jwinter

Both times it was some tragic issue in her family that rendered the person sick and her Internet to "blowed up". Yep...that was the reasoning. Not kidding.

I've had great excuses too. Weather related ones seem to be popular, but it takes me no time to look up the weather history for the city/town and verify if it's true or not. I had one woman once tell me that she "slept" through my deadline while napping. The kicker there is that I'd assigned the work a week earlier, so she had a full 7 days, so that's one hell of a nap.

[textchx]

argggghh... I feel you my friend... That is what I get disappointed whenever I tried to apply for an online job. Anyhow, you could find more job that gives you a higher pay.

[Ms. Frizz]

I find it really depressing that the ability to write correctly and coherently is so undervalued. It's as if people who don't write think any idiot can do it, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary (all the signs I see in public places from "Mangement" in stores and stuff like "Machine is broke sorry for icovenience").

[dsmpublishing]

Originally Posted by anng

Even then, it's becoming impossible to find interested writers. I get many responses saying that 2 cents a word is too little, others who simply flake, and then even more who don't want to have a set quantity of articles to turn out every week. The last time I looked for writers for Sam, I had over 150 people apply, the field was narrowed down, and last I knew only a few people had stuck with it. I've stretched out to local colleges and Craigslist and reliability doesn't improve.

Those who do flake or never respond once I've recommended them, it would be nice to hear back what they didn't like that made them go away. I have had a couple people email me back, but that's not a high percentage. One told me that she only wanted to do press releases, which is fine, but then no where in the job description was press releases mentioned, so I don't know why she even applied. Another hated the idea of an online chat interview, and that's fine and I appreciated getting that feedback.

I guess I just get confused when I see writers posting that they want steady work, and then it's offered and they disappear completely.

But even though there are a lot of flakes you have found me some awesome writers that do an amazing job! And for the sake of having them I am prepared to go through the hassles.

I loved the press release girl though and you have just reminded me of that! I wonder if she found work?