Web Content Sites: Do You Have Job Security?
June 25, 2009 by Deb
Filed under Web Content
What do these names have in common?
- Write for Cash
- The Vines
- Garden & Hearth
- Fine Tuning
- Know More Media
These are all web content or blogging sites that don’t exist anymore.
What do these names have in common?
- Suite 101
- b5Media
- Lifetips
- Today.com
- Creative Weblogging
These are all content or blogging sites that have changed the pay scale for their writers numerous times.
Things change…
Yesterday’s discussions regarding residual pay websites and the “Oh well, I can always quit mentality”, led to some interesting points in the comments. For instance, what happens when that website you spent all that time writing for, so you can earn a steady stream of residuals, ceases to exist? It’s happened many times before. I remember working for Suite 101 in 2000, when they paid a monthly fee for their columnists. I wrote four columns per month and had a set amount directly deposited into my bank account like clockwork. A couple of years later, after changing owners, many of us left the Suite because they didn’t want to pay us anything anymore. After a few years of not paying anyone anything, they opened up a residual program.
I worked for Lifetips back in the day too. I received at least $10 for each 50 to 100 word tip I wrote, and my monthly paychecks were in the thousands. They changed their pay as well, and not for the better. Ditto Today.com who hired writers for $5 for each blog post and a few weeks after many writers were hired, knocked that pay down to $1 per post or less. Even b5Media, a place I held dear, lowered their pay and laid off a whole pile of bloggers.
Still feel secure?
If you receive a steady fee from the site you work for and it goes under, you’re out a gig – and a paycheck. If you write for a residual-based website, and it ceases to exist, that steady stream of income isn’t going to happen anymore. Many residual writers feel that they’ll be earning forever and that’s just not true. They’ll be earning for as long as their website can pay their hosting bill.
Maybe it’s time to spread those eggs around?
There’s nothing wrong with writing for these places. Web content sites are a terrific way to gain experience, steady pay and some free training tools. However, they might not last. Those of you who were a part of Write for Cash with me back in 2003 to 2005 might remember how many writers depended on WFC as their sole source of income and were screwed and financially put out when WFC closed its doors in 2005.
Web content is easy to write. It’s easy to be published and it’s easy to be paid, but web content sites are not always known for their longevity. If you’re going to write for sites such as these, you might want to consider a backup plan.
Warning Signs
There are web content sites that haven’t changed much over the years and employ many happy, long term writers. LoveToKnow and WiseGeek come to mind. I like to use them as a model for how to do it right. When a web content site continues to pay the same money, or more over the years, it’s a good sign. When the same people stay employed with one site over time, it’s a good sign.
Here are some warning signs:
Pay – If a site doesn’t offer a base pay or a set amount each month, it might not be a good investment of your time. The reason most of these sites only offer advertising revenue or a residual pay is because they can’t really afford to pay writers a flat monthly rate. Also, if the payment terms change as much as the weather, there’s a good chance this content site won’t be known for its longevity.
Writers - Are writers happy or disgruntled? Are they leaving after only a few weeks of working? Is it hard to find people with nice things to say? One or two disgruntled writers many mean nothing, a whole crew of unhappy content writers is a good warning sign.
Management - Is the management known for running other failed sites? If so, you may want to pass on the opportunity. Everyone should find out who owns the content sites they wish to work for and learn as much about the folks behind the scenes as they can. Entering into a gig blind can lead to a bad situation.
Hiring: Are the content sites ALWAYS hiring? Are the job boards filled with hundreds of want ads from a single content site each day? Ask yourself why they constantly have to hire people. Spamming the job boards isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Step out of your comfort zone
Sometimes a writer has to step out of his comfort zone. Many web content writers are accepted for jobs without question. They don’t need experience, they don’t need skills, they just need to be able to churn out content. This also means they don’t have to query, they don’t have to interview, they don’t have to do a lot of research or make phone calls. They just have to write stuff that passes the CopyScape test. Easy, right? Until the site they work for crashes.
Look beyond your comfort zone for the opportunities offering better pay as well as job security. Find clients to work for, besides sites. Try not to rely on one source of income and always have a backup plan. This way, if one of your web content clients goes under, he won’t pull you down with him.
Have you worked for a web site that either went away or changed payment terms? Did it encourage you to seek out different types of writing opportunities?
Discuss…
The bulk of my work used to be for companies that act as “middlemen,” so to speak. When I managed to land some individual clients on my own, I was amazed by how much more I was making (often twice as much). Now, I try to stay away from these sites and work with the client directly. Sorry, I know that didn’t exactly relate to your post, but discovering just how much these companies were taking off the top did convince me to actively seek out other opportunities.
Great post, Deb, with a lot of points to think about.
Thanks. I’ll keep this in mind. Very helpful. Have a great weekend.
Thanks for the info Deb. Going to try my hand at freelancing again. I tried AC and Helium for content writing, but they are lacking, to say the least. Have a great day!
You forgot to mention Howtodothings! Remember the $25 gift certificates to the Gap, the movies, Bed and Breakfasts? That was my favorite steady pay site (even if the pay was in gift certificates – it was good as cash to me) that turned into a residual based pay site – and then I was done with them.
You’ve got some good advice here, Deb. It’s much more worth your time to query and find your own clients than write an article for a site that “might” bring you in $5 over the next 6 months.
I’m so glad you mention LovetoKnow. I’m an editor and writer there and absolutely love that site – you get to work with WONDERFUL people (fellow writers and editors) and they pay like clockwork. Super gig if you can get it. Very competitive now to get in, but I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Thanks so much for post. I just started freelancing and am working for sites, but am reaching out to other employers, often posted in your blog. I have yet to land a job outside of the sites, but I am picking and choosing those which fit my background so my chances of getting hired will be better and we will be a “match made in heaven.”
I write for Associated Content and Textbroker and I check the contest board on Helium regularly, though I haven’t participated in any of them yet. I also recently made a lens on Squidoo, just to test the waters. I new to freelancing, so writing for these sites is a way for me to build experience and make a little money while still actively seeking clients. I by no means intend to write full time for content sites, but they are useful.
Carol,
While I agree that “always hiring” is certainly a sign of high employee turnover, it doesn’t necessarily mean the employees/contractors are not being paid.
McDonalds, et al are also nearly always hiring, but that doesn’t mean they don’t pay their employees. More likely, they offer uncomfortable working conditions and low pay, so whenever possible, employees leave for cushier, better paying jobs, as well they should.
Having written for Demand Studios, I can say that while the pay is not the highest (not as high as glossy mags or the NYT), it is appropriate for the work involved, which does not require interviews or intensive research and fact checking. Furthermore, they pay on time about 99.9% of the time.
Kathy-
90% might be ok, but what about the other 10%? I’ve been waiting for the $90 DS owes me since Jan ‘08. After a month of emails, printing forms, signing forms, scanning them, and mailing a hard copy…then being told my check would arrive in 2 weeks because they’d changed their pay system, blah blah blah…
I still haven’t seen a dime.
At least Examiner found the problem and promised a paydate of July 20-21 through Paypal.
Julie,
That’s why I said 99.9%. I had the same problem in Jan 08. They were a month late with my payment. We were having some financial problems and had just moved to a new city. We were going to use that money to move into a new apartment. Well, since they were so late, we ended up having to live in a motel for month.
They’ll pay you, just keep after them. I sent a rather sharp email to one of the managers and did get paid. They’ve been paying like clockwork since they started paying online. The reality is this can happen with any source of income, freelance or employment. Associated Content was often late with payments in December, but people seem to like them. Not long ago, even British Airways asked their staff to work unpaid for a month. There really are no guaranteed pay checks.