I love also what you’ve said about complacency. Careers – and that’s what we’re building here – take work. You have to want more in order to achieve it, but also you have to put action behind it. I think it’s terrific that you’re helping beginning writers understand that online jobs are not their sole source of work, nor should they be.

You can read my blog about it, “7 Reasons Why I Won’t Write $15 Blogs” here: http://caroltice.com/blog/27

I applaud your cutting the garbage ads and helping writers focus on gigs that pay at least enough for a meal out. I finally developed my own system for wading through the online job boards without letting it take up too much of my day, which you can read about here: http://caroltice.com/blog/20

As you say, the really good stuff is out there, in in-person and online networking, in cold calling and otherwise marketing your business. I think the very low-paying gigs become a distraction to many writers who would be better advised to spend their time marketing. That’s what I tell my mentees to do. Just say no! And work on your own business plan.

With your site, it’ll be easier to find the good stuff! Thanks again –

Carol Tice
http://www.caroltice.com
http://Twitter.com/TiceWrites

I looked through the WWG again and felt great to see that, hey, that just isn’t my target market. I’m trying to get more focused now because I want to work self-starters…I need to find the ones that will both understand the value and understand the need for what I provide. Someone running a two-digit startup cost MLM / franchise whatever deal isn’t that market.

So get all shivery Jenn :D

But we check listings, too–in addition to networking, querying, cold calling, sending out our brochures, letters of intro, etc. And we are getting hurt, too, by the cratering rates–so this is so welcome, I cannot tell you. I will come every day to your site, get your numbers up if I can, even tho you will list jobs one day a week. This effort should be supported.

I agree that $50 is too low. But we’re not talking magazine features that take days to weeks to complete (where $1.00 per word and more is not only much more reasonable as you noted, but also still very achievable). The $50 threshold is in reference to the type of quick Web content that people are often accepting now at $5 – 15 with the justification that the low per-project pay is okay because the work is quick. We want to show that you can get paid much more than those rates for the same kind of time commitment. You’re not going to see more labor-intensive gigs listed here at that low of a rate. Remember, $50 is the bare minimum to be eligible for inclusion. It’s not a representation of what all of the gigs and markets will look like.

The point of the change is that we’re not going to offer any support to the bottom of the barrel client crowd, and are only posting listings that are a serious step up for those low-pay writers who want to make some progress. That said, we’re obviously still limited by the scope of the gigs that are publicly advertised, and as I’m sure you know the vast majority of great gigs are not. As always, the listings are not for experienced freelancers. They’re perfectly capable of going out and getting their own gigs through established networks and their platform without trolling job listings here or anywhere else.

@Erik – Thanks! You painted a much better picture than I ever could have, and you’re right on target!

@Star – It’s a double-edged sword – lousy advertisers but also as much the writers’ fault for taking on the gigs in the first place. It was always important to me to help writers in that rut move beyond it if they wanted to. Some simply don’t. For those who do, we have plenty of information to get them in the right direction, and for those who don’t, well, they’re welcome to go elsewhere for a pat on the back when they get a $15 gig. AFW isn’t about trying to be everything to everyone. We’re about the forward-thinking freelancers who are ready to get out of the sandbox, start looking for more, and who are willing to go out there and actually get it. There’s nothing wrong with the hobby writer type of crowd. It’s just not who AFW is speaking to. And you’re right on about educating clients. In fact, I’ll be releasing a paper on that very topic within the next couple of months (looking at the differences quality writers make versus ridiculously cheap SEO content, and why both older authority sites and many new ones go that route).

So thank you for the applause, but I’m not out for praise. Just doing something that should have been done a long time ago.