Tuesday, August 23, 2016

So, I've been Freelancing and Noticed Something...



For those of you who do not know, I have recently upped my game when it comes to the freelance writing market with quite a bit of success. I have a good handful of clients that provide work on a regular basis and enough one time jobs to keep me happy. It has been a very interesting experience to delve in to the world of the freelance and wanted to share something that came to mind. 

For anyone reading this who has done freelancing before, you probably can relate to the fact that many of the clients out there on the website like upwork.com and writeraccess.com offer well below the value of what your work is worth. 

At present, the lowest side of the pay is .02 cents per word which amount to $10 dollars per 500 words. In my browsing of the freelance market, I have found clients who want 1,500 to 2,000 words for only $5 or $6 dollars. For every one good job I have found to apply for, there were seven or eight that were just ridiculous in their demand. 

More and more I have found that people who utilize something that is considered art, are routinely never really given credit or value for your work. A good artist friend Kathleen Ruhl has told me about times that clients want expensive work for pennies on the dollar. 

Do not get me wrong, a lot of freelancers are not greedy or want to charge an arm and a leg, but on the flip side clients and people who want to hire a writer or artist need to understand a lot goes in to their work. An artist has to pour their time and creativity in to their pieces while writers put a lot of mental energy in to the pieces they turn out. At the end of the day, I have found myself really exhausted and unable to write the things I want to write due to having to complete an essay or blog someone hired me for. 

What is the point of my little article? If you are a person looking to hire a freelancer, I am not trying to damn you for looking for a deal, but on the other end of the equation, remember that your freelancer goes through a lot to provide you a quality piece and what you pay is truly what you get. 

Do you want to know more about what freelancers go through? I highly recommend taking a look at http://clientsfromhell.net/ for some idea what we have to go through.

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