My wife recently showed me a graphic somebody put together, which said "freelance isn't free." I laughed when I first saw it, because it really resonated with me. I, and several friends of mine who do freelance in other fields, have encountered quite a few people who think they can squeeze free work out of us. I, unfortunately, have fallen victim to this more than a few times, and always feel like socking somebody in the mouth when it happens. These people seem to either not care or not process that they might as well pull food right out of my kids' mouths.
What irks me even more, though, are freelancers who want to perform work at rates that are so low, they might as well be working for free. Really, I wouldn't care that these people think making $2 for a 400 word article is great pay, but it affects everyone in the marketplace. The sad fact is that many people who buy articles from freelancers are horrible writers themselves, and they don't see the value in paying someone a decent rate for an article that is of high quality versus paying next to nothing for an article that is poorly written. I highly suspect many of these people don't even realize how poorly written some of these articles are.
So what does this do? Well, it turns into what my wife calls the "Etsy Effect." See before the website Etsy came along, people who did crafts could get decent money for their hard work. When Etsy was created, though, the marketplace was suddenly flooded with inferior work, but at cut rate prices. Consumers, being ever-so price driven (thank you Walmart and others for hammering this mentality into our society) stopped paying fair prices for superior work. I have known people who used to make a fair or even great amount of side money from knitting, making pottery, etc who now can't even cover the costs of their supplies because people want to pay so little for their work.
So that is my rant. If you are working as a freelance writer (or anything else), do yourself and everyone else a huge favor and don't work for peanuts. Your time and energy (and talents) should be worth more.
3 comments:
Yes, it's all about getting something for nothing -- and it doesn't have to be a quality something either. (Have you ever bought anything of quality from a Walmart?)
WalMart is about as far from quality as one can get.
I totally agree with you! I do some free computer work for my church, because that's my church. But if someone needs help otherwise, yes, I will charge a fee. Same idea - it's taken me years to learn to do what I do and I'll not undercut myself. And by the same token, I have no problem paying someone for his efforts and paying good money for a good product.
Crap, I think I ranted as well!
Diane - the shovel I bought at Walmart broke in a day. The shovel I bought at Sears is still solid years later. I agree with you that people have that mentality, even though it does not benefit them.
Alex - some people I swear are just out there to get things for free or a basement price, without caring about what the consequences are. I hope more people starting realizing the virtues of quality. Feel free to rant here!
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