Commercial Copywriting Expert

Peter Bowerman

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ARE WRITING JOB SITES WORTH IT?
The Lowdown on Low-Pay, High-Hassle Sites

A few months back, I got the following e-mail from a reader, sharing her experiences in trying to land work on online writing job sites like eLance, Freelance Work Exchange, Guru.com and others. Remember, this is my opinion (though echoed by many other readers over the years), and coming from a commercial writer who makes roughly $100 an hour. I’m sure there are a few folks out there doing well with these sites but are they worth it?

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Hi Peter: I’ve have been trying to generate more business through the online sites for freelance work, such as eLance and Freelance Work Exchange, but not having much success with them or the others I’ve tried. In fact, I’ve gotten two rather low paying jobs on eLance. In the end, both projects went well. But, I haven’t gotten any more. I REALLY would like to work on a lot of these projects, as they sound so fun and fulfilling.
Janice

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Hi Janice,

Online freelance writing sites, for the most part, are a waste of time. IF you’re interested in maximizing your writing income, that is. And for just the reasons you mention. Low pay, you’re bidding against a million other writers (which leads to low pay) and chasing your money down. I never mention one word in my book about them because, as I see it, they’re a lousy way to try and make a living. It’s a buyer’s market – too many writers and too few jobs, so those buying the writing are in the driver’s seat.

That means, when it comes to a bidding situation, there will always be those willing to do a project for next to nothing, just to build their “book.” And that’s their right. I just don’t want to play that game. That's why I outline the strategy I do and it doesn't include online writing sites. So, no, I guess I won't give you advice on how to make more money with them because I’ve never used them, and don’t plan to.

I’m guessing you’re not crazy about taking on the prospecting efforts I discuss in my books required to crack the commercial market (i.e., making the calls, doing the direct mail and going to the networking functions). By contrast, using e-mail contacts and sending out resumes on the online sites is easier and less threatening. Maybe so, but it’s also far less profitable. You’re not generally going to find the hourly rates of $60-80+ that commercial writers can command in most major metros. And more than just higher rates is the idea of being paid for all your time.

On an online writing site, to make it easy for both parties, hourly rates are rarely discussed; instead, we’re talking flat fees for unspecified amounts of time. And then the bidding begins.

By contrast, in the commercial arena, even though you may very well give a client a flat fee estimate, you’ve arrived at that fee by calculating how many hours a project is going to take you (factoring in everything: background reading, research, travel, meetings, “concepting,” writing and editing) and multiplying by your hourly rate. Yes, the commercial approach takes more effort but the rewards are so much greater. So, my two cents? Forget the writing sites. By and large, they’re not worth your time.

Peter

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In response to the above, I got some feedback from several readers (and incidentally, no one e-mailed me to disagree). Here are a few:

Peter: The input from that one writer on using the online "placement centers" and your response - I couldn't agree with both of you more! I played around with Guru and some of the others for a few months here and there, but NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, ever materialized that was even close to meeting my criteria for how I want to spend my time and get paid for it.

Peter: Thank you for addressing freelancing through online leads. Thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding us all to stick to the basics and to stay on track with our repeatable, yet very doable systems.

Peter: Thanks for finally telling people those writer sites are crap.

PB: As I see it, thank goodness for these online writing sites. It keeps all these writers out of our way. Let THEM beat their heads against the wall. Not me.

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Column Updated: 01/01/07