Bad Writing Gigs: Tell 'Em Where To Stick Their "Exposure"

Last week I did a lot of poking around the job boards during a slow period--which is over now; I'll barely have time to blog this week--and I came across a lot of ads for scamtastic writing jobs. A few months ago I wrote a post on when writing for free might be a good idea, but it's usually not. After reading all these terrible offers on job boards, I've had it up to my ears with scam artists looking for freebies. So here you are: a list of things people will offer you to write online instead of cash, and why they're not worth your time.

Writing for Exposure: In Most Cases, a Total Waste. You've probably seen plenty of those job ads from people looking for free writing. "We can't afford to pay you," they say. "But we can offer you exposure." These job postings always annoy me--because I know that the people posting them are looking to take advantage of writers, and because I know there are writers out there who don't see these postings for the scams they are.

When you're writing for free, you have to consider what, exactly, you're going to get out of it. And when you write for "exposure," what are you hoping to be exposed to? What do you want to get from this gig, if not money? A website that really can offer you great exposure can probably afford to pay its writers, too.

A lot of writers are tempted by these gigs because they have an idea that some editor for some well-paying magazine will spot their article and fall in love with their writing style. But that's absolutely not going to happen. Editors for successful magazines don't troll around the Internet looking for the next big star. They're getting hundreds of query letters from professionals every day. They don't have time to look for you.

Writing for a Share in Profits: Good Luck. I saw a few employers dangling shares in their website's eventual profits in order to get free work. I don't know any writers who've earned decent money from a share of somebody's website profits. Think of it this way: the vast majority of new websites do not become high ranking or receive enough traffic to actually make a lot of revenue. For each website that succeeds, there are probably dozens that flop. There is absolutely no guarantee that there will be any profits to share. No self-respecting website designer, graphic designer, or SEO professional would ever take a job with the promise of "a cut of the profits" instead of a normal fee. Why should writers?

Writing for Pay-Per-Click Sites: Earn Pennies Per Page. The problem with websites that offer a share in advertising revenue is that they don't promote the content: they expect you to take care of that. If you do this really well, you might earn something like five or ten bucks over a period of months. If you just want to write the piece and forget about it, this type of earning stream isn't for you.

Take Associated Content, for example. At this point, they pay $1.50 for every thousand page views your article attracts. And if you think a thousand page views comes easily--even on a well-established site--think again. I've published two articles there so far and have done nothing to promote them. They've been up for several months now; they've had about 110 page views altogether; and I've earned a grand total of seventeen cents through PPM. It's not realistic to expect to receive a decent wage for your writing through these sites, unless you work really hard to promote your writing--and if you're successful at doing that, you should be promoting your own website, not theirs.

Writing for the Promise of Paid Work: Don't Hold Your Breath. I've also seen some job postings that say something like "we can't pay you right now, but we'll have a lot of paid work in the future and we're looking for just the right partner" or even asking for a custom-crafted writing sample in your application. They might promise paying work later if you work for free now--but that work is not going to materialize. Ever.

Here's why: when you work for free, you teach your clients that your work isn't worth money. You show them that they don't have to pay you. Why would they pay you--or anyone--when this is work they can get for free? I wouldn't pay for something if I could get the same thing for free somewhere else. Would you?

Taking writing gigs like these doesn't just hurt your own career. It also hurts the freelance writing industry as a whole. As this great article in Writers Weekly says, freelance writing fees have declined by 50% since the 60's. And a lot of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of people who think a byline, "exposure," or some sort of shaky profit-sharing scheme is worth working for.

If you're a beginning freelancer looking to make a start, don't take these gigs. If you won't do it for your own bank account, do it for the rest of us. Someday, you want to make a career at this too--and if you keep working for free, there may not be any paying clients left.