Email the authorI used to love Elance. I want to love them again. Don’t know if it’s the economy or if somebody’s asleep at the wheel over there. I’ve made over fifty grand on Elance in the last two years, writing all kinds of stuff for clients around the world, and while it was always bluecollar writing with absolutely no glory (as in, no bylines) — hey, that’s the definition of freelance writing, isn’t it? — it’s all gone to hell in the proverbial handbasket.
If you aren’t familiar with Elance — and if you’re a blogger you should be, because there’s work there — it’s the eBay of online writing gigs. People from around the world who need to hire writers post projects there, and then writers bid on them, backed by a proposal, samples, and an infrastructure that provides user ratings and feedback, categorization and full-service money exchange and conflict resolution. On paper it’s perfect, and for a while it was the answer to any writer’s dream of actually writing for money. And while all that’s still in play, Elance has turned into the garage sale farmers market art fair marketplace of cheap writing. (Note: writing is only one of several skills auctioned off on Elance; some rocket scientist decided to categorically pair it with “translation” , so you’ll be working in the “Writing and Translation” category, which in street terms is like working in the “Tax preparation and car tune-up” category.)
Here’s what’s wrong with Elance lately. Because the posting and bidding process is largely unregulated (the only rule is that buyers can’t ask for free work, though the point here is that they might as well be), the economy — combined with large does of greed, desperation and utter cluelessness — has driven rates for writing services down well below minimum wage. When a buyer posts a project they declare a budget range, and about 80 percent of the time buyers select a bidder at the lower end of it. If the range was reasonable that would be fair, but here’s the shitty reality: they want entire books written for $500… they want twenty articles delivered for $50… they want an entire web page written for $75… they want 1000 articles written for, again, $500. I’ve seen all that, and worse. Much worse. Somewhere Robert Bly (look him up) is being fitted for a noose in his garage.
Here’s an example project I saw this week. Some buyer — and they truly come from around the world; if you read the postings, at least half are obviously prepared by English-as-a-distant-second-language self-proclaimed newbie entrepreneur — is asking for 850 articles of 550 words each. His budget range is $500 to $1000. Do the math. Then get angry. That’s less than a buck an article, up to slightly more than a buck an article. But forget the slightly more option, because somebody, somewhere (think India), will actually bid $500, or even lower, and no matter how strongly you pitch your credentials, the buyer will more than likely select the lowest bidder. Almost always. If you can write four of those things in an hour — and if you can, then you’re a real pro, or just the opposite — that’s a working wage of four bucks an hour. When you apply this same formula to the guy who wants a 50,000 word book for $500 — one that won’t have your name on the cover, by the way — the math is even worse.
The economy isn’t Elance’s fault. What is their fault is that they have no quality standards in place, or even a standard of fair play and equity. You’d think they would understand and honor the value of professional writing, and when they support highway robbery and insulting pricing they show that they obviously don’t. And why should they, the site still posts about 15,000 new projects monthly, on which they get 7.5 percent of the action, in addition to the very reasonable membership fees.
Bit of a rant, I admit. And I don’t really have an agenda, other than fair warning and a sad lament. My Elance user name is Wryterman – check my client feedback and my numbers, and you’ll see that I’ve been there and know what I’m talking about.
And if you’re a blogger, know this: more than ever we must cling to our values and self esteem as writers who deliver value. And as for “free” writing, doing this is far more rewarding that what Elance is schlepping these days.
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@Joe — well said, thanks for sharing this. I wish you luck as you move forward, be sure to let us know when (and where) you find a professional venue where real work from real professionals is fairly compensated. Thanks again — L.
http://www.weblance.com will be implement standards and addressing this very issue
Hi,
Your points are, without a shadow of a doubt, valid. But there’s one thing I’d like to add to the ‘think India’ bit. I’m an Indian, and while there a lot of writers who are willing to take on projects at dirt cheap rates, there are just as many quality writers. We ( I say we since I’m a freelance writer myself) are as irked by these ‘I’ll-write-for-anything’ sort of writers as people in Western countries are. But the fact is that the first point of exploitation is initiated by the person who has the audacity to offer such a ridiculous rate to a writer. And as for people willing to do such projects for cheap, they exist in every country. It’s the need to earn, somehow, anyhow, that fuels their desperation. It’s not really their fault. But yes, I do wish that people regarded writing for what it truly is – an art.
Rohan
I love that. I am going to tell my marketing folks, this is exactly what we want. I hope you don’t mind if that comment lands on our front page! real work, real professionals, real wages!!!!!!!
Rohan, I believe the Indian mage issue is the fact the market still believes they can get something for nothing. You always get what you pay for, in India or the USA. I have worked successfully with great teams in India, but I paid for it!
oDesk appears to be another alternative. Haven’t use it or eLance. Stopped while signing up for eLance due to all the bad experiences people have had with them.
I disagree with Rohan in regards to the statement that writers who will do work dirt cheap (or cheaper than dirt) exist in every country. I’ve been doing this kind of work for years, long before there even was an internet. I’ve also been an Elance member for a while and thankfully, I don’t get most of my work from there and certainly don’t rely on it. Most of the dirt cheap workers are in countries outside of the U.S. I know this because I’m a researcher (that’s what writers are “supposed to do”) and it’s very clear that the lowest of the low bids come from Asia, Africa and the Indian continent. And unfortunately people who want blog content or SEO articles don’t care how they get them. They just want the content (original or not) and they want it cheap. But you can’t fight the Elance system. Instead of banging your head against the wall, it’s best to step back and do thorough prospecting, which means getting work from a variety of sources. My guess is that Elance has allowed such practices and they in the end will be the ones to suffer for it. I’ve noticed recently that a lot more employers have begun to state specifically that they want people who are native English writers and speakers. But the down side to that is people are still getting around the system. I bid on a job recently that required such qualifications, and I noticed comments from contractors such as, “English is my mother native tongue.” No, the person wasn’t from the U.S., and by writing such oddball wording they showed it’s not their “mother native tongue.”
Thanks for this article. I actually posted a project on elance 2 weeks ago for logo design. The only people that bid were from India. Their references looked great, but when it got into the acutal logo design phase, they delivered pile after pile of useless, disfigured poop. A 5 yr old could have done better. I asked for some local Americans to apply, and they did not respond back. I was offering a good, respectable range as well. My opinion is that eLance is dead.
Yep, lately if you look at new jobs offered you’ll see ten or more companies from India offering bids. Word of mouth must have gotten around there and every everybody who knows some HTML is trying to get a piece of the pie.
Their government says they are not in the business of stealing USA jobs but it looks like that’s just not true.
Local americans don’t respond because who wants to bid for peanuts like they do. Some of the job offers come from american idiots who don’t have a clue and think they can get away with cheap work.
It was the British that taught them how to read english so thank the Royal Crown for it. lol
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