The truth is, writing is VERY individual unlike other professions. I’m sure it takes every employee on the GM assembly line around the same amount of time to put on a car door. That is not true in writing. I often take on “low paying” projects because it turns out that I’m pretty good at this writing thing and I can crank out good work in much less time than is “standard”, especially if I already have topic experience and don’t need to do a lot research. So, when a guy posts something about a 600 word article on a topic that is right up my alley and will only be paying $15 per post, I might do it anyway. It’s not because I live in a slum in India, it’s because I can probably crank that out in 15 to 20 minutes. Hourly rate for “low-paying” job suddenly becomes $50-$60 an hour.

For those people that want someone else to decide what is a “good” lead, if you can’t tell the difference between a job posting that is a “good” one and one that is a “bad” one, then maybe you need to build up some more experience before you consider yourself a professional.

Keep posting those leads! It saves me hundreds of hours I’m sure. I for one am VERY grateful.

So, thank you.

I’ve been visiting this board for about a year. I’ve never posted before but after reading what’s been going on lately, I had to throw my 2 cents in as well.

I love this board. I work at a brick and mortar job full-time and freelance write when I’m able. I don’t often have time myself to search for leads myself, and I find the services that you and Jodee provide to be invaluable.

I’ve been guilty of taking some of the lower paying jobs myself…but it’s what I want to do right now. Since I do work full-time outside of writing, I don’t always have the time to do what’s often necessary for the higher paying jobs.

My hope in the near future is to boot my other job and strictly concentrate on my writing. Then I’ll be more interested in some of the higher paying gigs.

It’s my choice, and I truly appreciate the fact that you do include lower paying jobs in your leads. If I find one I think is too low, I don’t apply. It’s that simple.

Keep up the good work!

Keep up the good fight!

I agree with you, del, and AnnG, I am working to write smarter not harder. I have gigs that pay $25/hour, $75/hour and $10-20/hour.

The thing is, it’s MY choice! (Do you hear that mean commenting/emailing hiding people???) It’s not Deb’s or Jodee’s job to go out there and tell someone they can’t post their ad here because it’s too low.

Coming to Deb’s and getting the majority of the jobs available all in one place is like going through the Help Wanted section in the paper, you peruse the listings, apply to what you want and bypass the ones you don’t.
Simple. It’s not rocket science! Besides, FWJ holds one extra perk over the newspaper (two if you want to go green), there’s no recycling involved and I don’t pay to come here. Deb provides this for free.

It’s time that the people who don’t get why you do what you do, move on and concentrate on finding the rates that they think they should be writing for.