Someone else might not agree, and feel that the time spent pitching to high-paying print mags is rewarded by the high per-word rates they pay.

When I started freelancing I decided I would figure out how long it took me to research and write 500 words and base my hourly rate on that. I don’t take assignments that don’t meet my baseline requirements. Of course, I’m the secondary income…your results may vary.

There are as many answers to these questions – rates, bidding sites, et. al. – as there are writers. What sets this community apart, in the best possible way, is everyone’s willingness to 1) share info; 2) accept differing viewpoints and 3) help aspiring writers get the info they need, so they don’t have to write 500 words for $1.

But, clients like to see that you can work within that closed system- handling deadlines and making the client happy. There’s no evidence of that in showing off a clip. You do need clips to show that you can write, but that’s just he first step at a bidding site. It can be more complicated than a lot of people like, but the pay more than makes up for it.

I think it all comes down to location for some. A part time job for me – very hard to find when college is in session to start with, but I just looked in my local paper. There is McDonalds, Burger King or the area grocery stores (Hannaford and Price Chopper) – each start at $8 an hour. By the time I’ve driven 15 to 30 miles to get to the store and back, that’s 2 to 4 gallons of gas right there, not to mention the wear and tear on said car since it is winter and road salt and bitter cold temperatures come into play. Public transporation in Vermont is not an option unless you live within 5 miles of Burlington.

I’m selective about the low paying jobs I will take. The last one I took was $9 for 500 words. I was able to do four of them in one hour. That’s far better pay than any area store will give me part time, but low enough that many say you are low pay. And I balance them out with bigger jobs so that burn out is not a factor.

As for being taken seriously, I started out book reviewing. Book reviewers, unless working for a magazine or major newspaper, are not paid. The free book is your payment. I’ve been reviewing books for eight years now and have seen many reviewers get out of book reviewing because there is no pay. I’ve had review quotes show up in books or websites by Nicholas Sparks, Carly Phillips, Michael Connelly, Robert McCammon, Nero Wolfe, etc. So I don’t really worry about being taken seriously as a writer.

As long as you have solid references, they should speak far louder than the jobs you take.

I do that too. In fact, one of my biggest clients was from San Francisco and paying $80 for 1,000 words, but they sold to an east coast competitor this December, which put me and another 20 or so writers out of a job.

I’ve also had it backfire because everyone heads to the saturated markets and offer rates far lower than what the person was advertising. So they’ll email me back and say that they received a lower bid from a person who told them they’d overpriced themselves, would I be willing to go lower.

Right now, I just finished a magazine job that paid far more than average (not to mention my 11 year old was THRILLED that it meant dragging her on a clothes shopping expedition as research) and I have three other steady jobs that pay me far more than my husband earns after 27 years on the job – and he has a degree while I do not. So I’m quite happy. (Though I’d be happier if the stinking price of propane would go down under $5 a gallon already. And the media has been wondering why the number of residential house fires has skyrocketed this winter- DUH.)

I still say in the end, it is all about charging what you are comfortable with and taking jobs that you are happy taking.

Though I’m in a higher paying market (Chicago) than you, I still look to clients on the coasts where rates are higher. I did that even before I used the Internet to submit items. You may find concentrating work searches in areas with higher rates could pay off for you.