Improving the job market for bloggers and online writers
May 29, 2009 by Jennifer
Filed under Blog Tips, Community Building
Improving the job market for bloggers and online writers is a big task. Since I started posting gigs here daily I’ve noticed a slew of terrible jobs and a much smaller selection of decent jobs that actually pay a fair wage. I don’t think the fault is all on the lame clients who offer low-pay jobs though. A lot of it is dependent on us, the folks who want said jobs.
For example…
1. Apply for work IF you’re qualified: I was chatting with Deb yesterday and she noted that she was shocked by the amount of people who applied for a blog job she posted who had no experience blogging at all. Worse many told her this straight up when they applied. If you’re not a blogger or have no idea about what a blogging gig entails make sure you learn something about it before wasting the client’s time, and all the other qualified applicant’s time. It’s lame to have to sort through crap applications to have to find the qualified apps – it’s no wonder potential clients end up writing ads with all sorts of bogus rules. Blogging and online writing gigs are very different from other sorts of writing gigs. To improve the market, we need more qualified applicants and less junk applicants. To learn about blogging and online writing gigs (BEFORE you apply) start your own blog and read:
- Blogging for a Living: Don’t Enter into it Blind
- Can you blog your way to a writing job?
- Beyond Blogging: Using Your Blogging Skills for Bigger and Better Things
- Do You Need to Be a Good Writer to be a Good Blogger?
- The Warm & Fuzzy Side of Blogging for Others
- Top 11 Reasons Why I Might Quit Blogging & Open A Candy Store
2. Be confident: If you apply for a job, apply with confidence. I’ve talked to way too many blog clients who say they get non-cofident applicants which one, makes them uncertain that competent bloggers and online writers exisit and two, lets them know that lower wages are a-ok. You’d never go to a job interview in person and say, “Oh, well I’m not sure I know what I’m doing, and I’m not that good at my job, but hey, hire me anyhow.” At least I hope you wouldn’t. Be confident. If you’ve got the skills – show that you know it. For help read:
3. Work for good clients: There’s more to a good client than pay. If a client pulls sneaky suspicious acts or never pays on time, they’re just going to keep right on doing this if there are writers willing to write for them. Put your foot down when clients treat you like crap. This benefits all bloggers and online writers.
4. Only accept decent wages: I almost don’t want to mention this, because we mention it ALL the time here, and still it seems people aren’t listening. That said, I’ll say it anyhow; don’t work for pennies. A recent job listing (bid gig) shows that people are willing to work FT (30 hrs a week) for anywhere from $2.22 – $3.11 AN HOUR. Really? People are also taking up clients on all those crappy revenue only gigs. I’ve personally talked to clients who say that to get a gig, bloggers and online writers will offer to work for free. It’s totally insane and makes the market a very bad place.
If you went job searching for a job outside of your home (a non-writing job) would you seriously take $2.22 per hour? Even tax free that’s a crap living. It’s not even a living. Aren’t you better than that? If you think, “No, I’m not” then quit applying for writing gigs. Your time is more important than this. Other writers time is more important than this. Clients will NEVER offer fair wages for work if the workers are willing to do it for free or cheap. And keep in mind that real bloggers and online writer don’t work for nothing. Most of us have learned to score decent paying gigs and top bloggers are paid even more. To learn more about fair blogging and online writing wages read:
- Typical Blog Wages – How Much Money You Should Make Blogging
- Calculate your hourly blogging rate
- Dealing With Blog Compensation Offers – Clients Who Offer Too Much Money
Now, what do you think will help to improve the job market for bloggers and online writers? Let us know in the comments.
Note: Sorry if you came by earlier and the links were not working – not sure what’s up with the site, but it should be fixed now.
I’m no longer writing for many content houses because the wages are sub par. I treasure my relationships with wonderful companies like LovetoKnow and my private clients. Don’t settle for less than the best – if you can write, and you have the drive to keep going, you can make it.
Right – it’s a good point to value the good gigs. If you’ve got them, do your best for sure because right now they’re few and far.
Very sound advice. As always, I disagree with one statement, regarding pay: “Only accept decent wage”. As I say all the time, it only applies to established bloggers, not beginners. I won’t go into that, though, as this isn’t the place and it’ll ruin your comments thread.
I will add two items that came from a different thread on a similar subject (by Jodee). The one I added was to be reliable. I see a lot of ads from employers who get left hanging when a blogger just stops posting or lets them down. That really puts them off hiring online. Someone else added flexibility, within the bounds of the contract. By being a good employee, the employer is encouraged to publicise a positive experience. Both of those are good additions.
Also, it’s GREAT to see posts like this which are aimed at helping freelancers, but which include links to point out that it’s not all happy tunes and sunshine: it’s a very tough market. Splendid stuff!
Yeah, a lot of people disagree with “Only accept decent wages” BUT I don’t agree that it only applies to established bloggers. If you blog at your own site for a while before applying to gigs, and learn the ins and outs of blogging, you ARE established. My first paid blogging gig came after I had already been blogging a good long while at my personal blog and it wasn’t penny or revenue only pay either. If you’re not a blogger in any way shape or form, then why apply to blog gigs? If clients only hired bloggers to I don’t know, blog, it might raise the bar.
I agree that reliability and flexibility are good points too. I’ve also talked to clients who are fed up with bloggers, although, I’m wagering that the bulk of these were folks who decided to blog on a whim, didn’t know the biz, and thus we’re back to the whole don’t apply if you have no clue issue.
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I’ve personally talked to clients who say that to get a gig, bloggers and online writers will offer to work for free. It’s totally insane and makes the market a very bad place.
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This is the same exact thing that happened to the photo journalism and stock photography world. Newspaper, magazine, etc.. now pay hardly anything and the quality has gone down hill. So many people are willing to give away the work to these publications for a by line. This really hurts others trying to make a living in the field.
Trust me, if people think this will help them in the long run by giving away there work it wont. Even for the beginner it will not help because as soon as you start asking for decent wage, they will drop you like a rock regardless of how good or loyal you are. They will find the next guy willing to do it for free. All you are doing by working cheap or giving your work away is setting a precedent for the industry of low paid workers. Remember they are ( publications ) are still making the same, they are just having a better bottom line, more profit in their pockets at your expense.
I now see this same trend in the blog world.
Thank you for this article, great post!
Agreed. I’ve been considering getting back into print, and many of the markets I’ve been checking out do want free work. However, I really believe that you get what you pay for. I think eventually (hopefully) clients will realize this. I’ve scored higher paying blog gigs by pointing this out to a potential client. The client will say, “I’ve got so and so offering to work for free.. why hire you who wants pay?” I always point out, you get what you pay for, and sometimes it works. Many clients do want decent writers and don’t want to do the hiring process over and over to get it.
I’m going to have to continue to disagree. Blogging for free (or ANY kind of work for free) is immensely dumb, that’s true – unless it happens to be a front-page article for Time Magazine or something. That really will get you nowhere.
But blogging for a lower starting pay? What’s the option? Do it and earn, put food on the table and hopefully get something better afterwards OR don’t do it and don’t work. Hmmm. Tough choice. I’ll go for door number one, please.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think people should consistently do it. I’m just saying that the lower end is often the ONLY way to get in. Your own personal blog? Why would they care – you set the rules, you set the criteria, you post when you want, you do what you want. Yes, it shows that you have endurance and can write, but that’s it. I’d be very surprised if you’d be considered anywhere near as interesting as someone who’d guest-blogged (even at $1/500 – they wouldn’t know) and been published on various sites.
So far, I’ve taken on two low-paid jobs. They should be the last: one is ongoing because it’s fun (which is why I’m doing it) and the other REALLY wants me to continue, so is willing to throw in extras. Because of those, I’ve been contacted by other people, at better prices. I have my foot in the door – but ONLY because I did the cheap jobs first. (I know this, because I know where the potential clients saw my name.)
Looking at this very calmly and in detached fashion, I think a lot of it comes down to personal experience. Nearly ALL the starting freelancers I know can’t get the good gigs: they’re overlooked for “more established” people and they have to start at the crappy end. Nearly ALL the comments on ruining the business, encouraging low pay and so on come from established bloggers/writers/workers who’ve noticed a decline in their workload or pay.
For example, you mention your first paid gig, Jennifer – was that in the last few months, or a year or more ago? (That’s not a pointed question, I’m genuinely interested to know if you bucked the trend I see so often!)
Like I say, personal experience.
Hey again Spike – I agree about the free work. I once was asked to write a free piece for a HUGE site as a favor, and almost didn’t, but in this case, it would look amazing on my resume so I did it. The editor has since remembered me for real gigs so that’s cool.
You say, “blogging for a lower starting pay? What’s the option? Do it and earn, put food on the table and hopefully get something better afterwards OR don’t do it and don’t work.”
It might come down to how low of pay you’re talking. In my opinion $2.22 per hour is WAY too low. $5 a post is reasonably low because if you can do many in an hour, even though it sounds low, you’d be making ok wages. $5 for a post that takes an hour is too low in my opinion as well. I’m an advocate of reasonable pay for a lot of reasons, but here in particular because one, I won’t take crap paying jobs so why should I tell others to and two, this site is about making a living as a writer, not making some cash on the side. I’d rather quit writing than work for peanuts – to me this is a JOB, and real jobs pay, and while I also love blogging, I don’t love it enough to starve my son for it.
My first paid blogging gig was I think over three or four years ago, my first online writing gig was before that, and before that I wrote for other writing venues (mags, business, etc). For a while in between, I didn’t blog or write online for a bit, and now I’ve been doing this FT for about two years.
I really don’t think that you have to start with low paying gigs IF you bring something to the table in the first place – like previous writing experience (preferably some of that writing should be blog-based), expertise in the topic area, or a good amount of personal blogging experience with a good blog to show off. I think if you enter the blogging and online market empty handed, yeah, you might need to work for less, but really I don’t think it’s wise to enter this market empty handed because the best paying gigs want to see experience of some sort.
I think it’s easier to break into writing elsewhere then transition to blogs an online – BUT of course that’s my experience. On a side note though, many of the successful bloggers and online writers I know did the same thing – broke into writing in another venue, kept a personal blog for a while, and then jumped in.
All of this comes down to you being right about one thing for sure, “a lot of it comes down to personal experience.” I guess I’d just like to make that personal experience better and more time worthy for most of us.
PS I’ve taken a job for low pay, like you once, because it was fun – that’s a whole other issue
Hey Everybody: What happened to the old lists of gigs, like the ones from yesterday? I checked the list yesterday, but now the whole list is gone. Were these archived somewhere? Now today’s list is gone as well. What’s the deal?
@Emmbee – I have no clue – but that is really weird. Hang on… Ok, I think the deal is that I accidentally posted it in tips, not jobs. Jobs for the 28th should be found on the job link now – http://freelancewritinggigs.com/networkblogging/category/blogging-jobs/
Lots of good stuff there, Jennifer. Thanks for the complete response. A few things, then I’ll go away and leave you in peace… I had typed this whole big response, but it’s unnecessary (and it’s late, so it might sound really aggressive when it isn’t).
I shall just reiterate my concern that I would think it unfair for a relatively new writer to see a statement like that (the salary one) and feel guilty for taking a low-paid job. I maintain that it’s something for established writers and perhaps affects the established-writer market more.
Your experience is cool, and is exactly what I meant – you have background, experience and so on, so would expect better pay. I don’t know what the market was like 3-4 years ago, but I suspect there weren’t 150 people bidding on every job (though I suspect there were a heck of a lot fewer available roles!). Bear in mind that I talk to maybe two new-to-me established writer every week and about a dozen entirely-new writers every day, so my view is probably skewed.
You say it beautifully yourself: “I think if you enter the blogging and online market empty handed, yeah, you might need to work for less, but really I don’t think it’s wise to enter this market empty handed because the best paying gigs want to see experience of some sort.”
This is still a really, really good article, despite my contention on that one point.
(Incidentally: “In my opinion $2.22 per hour is WAY too low” – I still have a copy of an ad offering 89 cents per hour. How scary is that? Bleh!)
Improving the blogging job market will require several actions, many out of our direct control. We will never rid ourselves of the ‘don’t work for peanuts’ concerns because we lump ‘writers’ together like they are some amorphous group. Instead, writing is like any trade; there are some great writers, more average writers and many, many more terrible writers. Some type of certification (even if it is voluntary) needs to be created to help differentiate the groups.
Secondly, writers railing against accepting indecent wages often remind me of women who went through the 60’s and 70’s fighting for equality to now see their younger ’sisters’ accepting the same conditions originally fought against by the women’s movement. One generation of bloggers needs to pass on the trials and tribulations they went through to succeeding generations.
Third: the rise of ’social media’ devalued writing while at the same time developing a mindset in writers that such work was valid lead us into the trap we are in today.
Beautifully said, Ed. (Ooh, that rhymes.)
One thing I would not like is the certification: like art, who’s qualified to judge what’s good and bad? I mean, I can pass grammar, punctuation and vocab tests easy (they’re now on several of the big freelancing job sites), but that doesn’t make me a good writer. Or a bad one.
Yeah i found it was buggy as well, the pages here load really slowly. I suppose it happens from time to time with sites