People Per Hour and Cheap Labour

BunnyMaz

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Hi guys

Sorry if this seems like a daft question, but I figured this would be the best place to get honest advice.

I recently set up an account on peopleperhour.com to try and earn a little extra cash through freelance writing, and to help boost my CV. The idea is that you bid on jobs posted, based roughly on the budget set by the client.

I knew the work probably wouldn't be that well paid, but I've been really surprised by the low budgets set by clients. One client wanted 200 500-word articles for a total of £200 (so £1 per article!), and another wanted 80 "original, unique and high quality" niche articles of unspecified length, five per day, plus a 7-hour-per-day online presence for £200.

Am I expecting too much or is this a mickey-take? How much would it be fair to expect to be paid for one well-researched, high quality article?
 

Silver King

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...One client wanted 200 500-word articles for a total of £200 (so £1 per article!), and another wanted 80 "original, unique and high quality" niche articles of unspecified length, five per day, plus a 7-hour-per-day online presence for £200...
With crap rates such as those, the clients will receive exactly what they're paying for and deserve: crap.
 

BunnyMaz

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Ah, phew. So I was right thinking that was a bit crazy. For a minute I was starting to think I would end up having to work practically for free! Not quite the definition of freelance I'd expected! XD
 

Silver King

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It's one thing for writers to work for low pay, yet quite another for clients to expect them to do so for rates that are nearly nonexistent. They may as well call it what it is: slave labor with just enough pay to keep the writer alive on bread and water alone.
 

BunnyMaz

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So... probably not an easy one to answer, but what would be reasonable to expect/ask for? is £10 per article okay, or is that a bit much, do you think? I don't have much any real published portfolio to offer, so I figure I'm going to need to offer low rates at least until I get some feedback for jobs. At the same time, I don't want to unfairly or unrealistically undercut everyone else.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Two hundred articles for two hundred pounds?!?

That's insane. That's not even bread and water wages. Who do they think -- no, never mind,I don't really care.

I don't know what standard rates are, but 10 pounds per article sounds low if you are giving up all rights. I think you need to consider what are fair work-for-hire rates.
 

Celesta

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For those types of jobs $8/500 word article American is a 'good' wage. But if you prove yourself to some clients you may be able to get $20 or more. Writing for the 'net isn't very lucrative :(
 
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NewKidOldKid

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Yeah, about $8-10 is "normal" for content sites. Acceptable especially if you have no portfolio and no experience. If you're a fast writer, you can make a decent income there (I make about $3,000-3,500 for Demand Studios every month, and it doesn't take my whole day).
 

denenewrites

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Writing for the net can be lucrative IF you go after sites that have an editorial base model much the same as a magazine. I've written for numerous websites that pay several hundred dollars or more per article. You just have to be willing to research to find those markets and pitch ideas or send well-written letters of intro to the editors. Another suggestion is to join a forum like Freelance Success where professional writers often share market leads, etc. Find successful web writers and check out who they're writing for. If they write full time, chances are good that they aren't making $1 per article.

Content sites, bidding sites, and the like are the low-hanging fruit...you have to be willing to work to get to the good stuff up top.

PS. Many big magazines also have websites that need content. That's another good place to look for opportunities.

Good Luck!
 

Ulee_Lhea

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Yup. A lot of those content sites are geared to non-U.S. writers, to whom those "slave wages" don't look so bad.

If you can break into the better corporate and business markets, you can write web content (blogs, social media, content pages) for $1 a word and up. More if you can learn SEO and related skills. I'd forget these goofball sites and focus your efforts there.