Ridiculous content-writing offers at Digital Point Forums

We all know that content writers don't exactly fetch kingly rates. But if you're fast enough, you just might make a decent hourly rate, as long as you don't accept assignments that pay insultingly low offers.

Now, if you are looking for insulting offers, try exploring the forums at Digital Point. This forum, dedicated to Web site owners and the people who provide them services, has its own subsection where Web site owners request content writers for their sites.

Sounds like a good place to find work, right? Well, sometimes. Unfortunately, it's most often a place where site owners ask writers to provide them content for ridiculously low offers.

Here's an example: This guy needs an article writer for a bulk project. The pay he's offering? A miserly $1 for 300 words. But, the poster promises, the work is in bulk. What does this mean? That he'll end up paying writers $5 for 1,500 words. That's pretty damn bad.

This poster is willing to pay $2 for 300 words. Again, this is pretty lousy. What's even worse is the poster's attitude. The poster says that writers who provide three or more "bad" articles will be fired. That's right, fired from this terribly lucrative $2-for-300-word job. What will the poor writer do? Work at McDonald's for even more money?

Overall, Digital Point is a rather depressing place. It's filled with forum posters who can barely string together two sentences demanding perfection from writers for $1 articles. If you're looking for good content-writing work -- and there are good clients out there, even in the world of content writing -- skip Digital Point.

At least I'm not covering high school sports

So my time-management skills were way off today. I put together a small package of content articles for a new client I just picked up yesterday. (I like calling these folks "clients," even if they are paying me the equivalent of minimum wage at times.) It took me about two hours to do this, even though for me to make a decent hourly wage on the project, I needed it to do be done in an hour.

Also today, a client (There's that word again) who owes me a whopping $20 won't be able to pay until early next week. He's waiting for his next paycheck. And I thought I was hard up on cash.

Anyway, it wasn't the best of days. Two people I was supposed to interview for print magazines blew me off. And I found out there's a parents' meeting tomorrow night at my son's school that I didn't know about.

But, it could be worse, right? There's always a worse job out there. And there's always a worse writing job out there, too. Our local community newspaper showed up at my doorstep this morning. I don't pay for this paper, it just shows up. Maybe it's a curse.

The paper had a full-color photo of a local high-school football player in action splashed across its cover. It reminded me of this important fact: At least I don't cover high school sports anymore.

That's how I started my career in journalism, as a reporter for my local community newspaper covering football games in the freezing cold of Chicago winters. Not a pleasant experience at all. I remember games where I couldn't feel my toes by halftime, even though I was wearing two pairs of socks and thick boots on each foot.

But there's something even worse about writing about high school sports. It's so damn meaningless, but the sportswriters who cover the basketball games, baseball games or wresting matches act like it's the most important thing in the world. I know they're paid to do this. But it's a bit sickening to watch grown men and women huddle around a high school sophomore who just made the winning free throw and treat her like she's the second coming of Michael Jordan.

In fact, I don't think newspapers should write about high school sports at all. I don't need a junior tailback thinking that he deserves his photo on the back page of the local paper just because he fell into the end zone on Friday night.

By the way, here's a scary number: I made a salary of $13,000 at that community newspaper so long ago.

Wanting New York Times writing for Podunkville Gazette fees

I've been running into small publishers lately who want wonderful, imaginative, creative and witty writing, and that isn't like anything already on the Web. That's fine. But these publishers also want to pay piddly amounts for this amazing writing.

It's a bit frustrating.

For instance, I just signed up for a new blog. This week, I turned in my first posts. The publisher wrote back to tell me that my posts were a bit too negative. He mentioned that people are already depressed by the economy, and that they didn't need new blog posts to remind them of this fact.

Fine. That's a valid point. But then the publisher directed me to the blog run by Penelope Trunk. This, the publisher told me, is an example of a good blogger who has something original to say with every posting.

Again, the editor was right. Trunk's blog is a must-read. It's fascinating and funny and incisive.

But this guy isn't paying enough to get Penelope Trunk. He's paying enough to get a blog post that I can squeeze out in 15 minutes or less. That may sound harsh, but it's a reality. I can't spend too long on a post that doesn't bring in enough money.

This publisher brought up the low pay rates by explaining that he hoped that the bloggers on his career site weren't writing just for the money, but for the joy and satisfaction of blogging.

Well, nuts to that. I do write for the money. I support my family this way, often by forcing out stories on topics that are so dull I want to scratch my eyes out. But it's a living.

It wouldn't be a living, though, if I spent all day working on a blog post that paid peanuts. Shame on me for accepting this low-paying position in the first place.

Is content writing insane?

So I'm giving content writing a try. It's an experiment. But I'm finding that it's an experiment that is slowly gobbling up all my writing time.

Here's the problem: I've been struggling for months to nab assignments from print magazines. Even my regular clients are stingy these days with the work. (Thanks, crappy economy.) The content-writing folks I've written for, though, love me. They're sending me more work than I can sanely handle.

It's little wonder why. These guys pay low. They, therefore, work with some of the worst "professional" writers around. One content-writing client sent me three stories written by another content writer, to see if I could save them. The stories he sent me looked like they were assembled by randomly hitting a keyboard. None of the sentences linked together. Each paragraph seemed like it belonged in a different story.

Yes, it was a mess.

I turn my stories in on time. And they're readable. That's more than what these content publishers are used to.

Problem is, I'm a sucker for kind words. Tell me you like my writing, and I'll take as much work from you as you can dish out, even if your pay rates stink.

So that's where I'm at now. I'm working late again, trying this time to finish three posts about liposculpture surgery, a procedure I know next to nothing about.

Yep, I can't wait for this recession to end. Come back to me, print-magazine clients!

Adios to Examiner.com

I've had a love/hate relationship with Examiner.com.

Strike that. I've had a hate/hate relationship with Examiner.com. And it's time to cut the chord.

Yes, I'm done with Examiner.com.

This may seem a bit schizophrenic. It was just last month that I applied for and received my second Examiner.com site. That gave me a site devoted to telemarketing and another devoted to residential real estate, both topics that I know well.

Problem is, my page views have been going down steadily. This has happened even though I've forced myself to jam references to "swine flu" into my posts.

During the last week, I've averaged 4 page views a day for each site. That means a grand total of 8 cents a day from Examiner. I'm sorry, but 40 cents a week just isn't cutting it. To make a good hourly rate, I'd have to write my Examiner stories in less than a second, right? That's a tough thing to do.

So it's time to pull the plug on this particular piece of content-mill work.

Besides, the overall quality of posts on Examiner.com is a bit embarrassing. I'm not sure I want my name associated with it any longer.

Would you take this job?

Maybe I can make this a regular feature. I present you with a freelance job opportunity that I've found on the Internet. You can tell me if you'd accept this job.

Here's one I found today. An "editor" wants 20 stories -- ranging from 150- to 250-word stories to press releases -- and is willing to pay from $30 to $250. You can see the job here at GetAFreelancer.com.

When I checked, the average bid was $30.

Amazing. Someone would accept $30 for 20 stories. That's not even $2 a story. No wonder the online writing world is filled with such insulting offers.

Here's the question: How desperate would you have to be for work to take this offer. Even if you were paid $250, that's still only $12.50 a story. That's pretty insulting.

By the way, even as I've been trying to build up my online writing portfolio, I've also been concentrating on reconnecting with old print-magazine clients in the hopes of notching more lucrative assignments with them.

So far, it's been frustrating. Most of my old clients just don't have as much of a freelance budget these days. But I did have some success today. A real estate trade magazine assigned me a feature story. I'll be getting paid $750 for 1,500 words.

This makes the days of frustration worth it. Think of how much online content writing I'd have to do to get $750.

The lesson here? Keep working on the online stuff. It's important, even if it's not always particularly lucrative. But don't forget "old" media, too. That's still where most of the money for freelance writers is at.