Friday, November 20th 2009 Freelance Writing Jobs
I’ve seen a spate of ads for Suite 101 lately. Word to the wise: they don’t pay well enough. They promise residual income, but trust me, that huge carrot they are dangling in front of your face is a giant lump of… well, something else.
Here are how ads on websites work, for those who don’t already know. A well-traveled niche blog like this one MIGHT make fifty cents a day, if we are lucky. Suite 101 undoubtedly makes more, but here’s the kicker; they won’t share all of it with you. You will also not receive any kind of proper statistics report that will show exactly how many people have visited your article, unless it is washed through Suite 101 staff first. If you have a solidly performing article, which unfortunately requires more search engine optimization knowledge than writing knowledge, you may get residual income of a few bucks a month. For most, that princely sum is a pipe dream.
Do yourself a favour and do not write for any outfit that promises residual income; residual income is just another term for “we are screwing writers” and you know how I feel about that. Doesn’t matter how new you are, you can find something that pays.
Not a lot today, I have another morning of scrambling to get out the door, but hopefully the above tip saved you some precious time you could be spending on something more profitable.
Full-Time
News Writer, Calgary
http://www.jeffgaulin.com/jobs/JobDetails.asp?id=6931
Staff Writer, Toronto
http://www.mediajobsearchcanada.com/job_view.asp?jobID=14061
Freelance
Agency Seeks Writers, Vancouver
http://montreal.en.craigslist.ca/wri/1473071462.html
Not to mention the editors meddle like crazy with whatever you post, and it’s all SEO, all the time. High hassle, low money – no thanks Suite 101!
I’m so glad that you wrote this post. I’ve looked at these jobs and pretty much come to the conclusions that you have drawn, but it’s great to see it confirmed by someone who really knows what they are talking about.
Thank you for this wonderful website!
Yeah I wrote for one outfit, two articles as a test to see exactly how they operated. It was the same drill, too much SEO, too little factual writing, and a low upfront payment that was “justified” by the promise of residuals on the backend. It was bullshit. Unfortunately they do sucker in a lot of writers with the promise of “long-term income”. If you want long-term income, write a book.