AOL Joining the Free Freelancer Bandwagon

AOL to Movie Writers: You’re Fired, But We’d Love It If You Write for Free.

Seriously? According to CNET News, AOL had revenue of $596 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. Granted, that figure was "down 26 percent year over year," but you make over half a million dollars and you ask your writers to work for free?

Is it just me, or, the grand scheme of things, is such a request worse than those that come from startups?

The Ultimate Get-a-Clue Freelance Request for the Week of April 25, 2011

Peter Bowerman recently brought this week's Middle Finger Award winner to my attention. In particularly, he pointed out how many people were jumping at the chance to bid on it: "...puts a human face on all this willingness to work for nada..."

Indeed, seventeen people placed bids before the project was cancelled. I'd say said cancellation was the best thing that could have happened to them. Unfortunately, the project poster has completed 64 similar cheapskate projects, all but three to rave reviews. Both of the one-star raters complained that the buyer was "rude" and asks for more work than the project calls for. (Big surprise!)

I particularly loved this comment, though: "Stay away from this guy, he gets the price right down using newbies, and then treats you like a donkey." It takes a Screw You! A$$ to know one, I guess.


Project Description: I am looking for a writer to write me sale letter for SEO service web site.

Specific Project Request:

- All articles must be written in perfect UK English.
- 100% manually written . No software allowed.
- Articles should be delivered by email.
- Articles will be 500+ words each depending on my requirements(excluding article title).
- Articles must be written in perfect English (native English speakers only).
- Correct spelling or grammatical errors.
- Articles must be written manually, sound natural, and be easy to read.
- I will own the full copyright once I purchase articles from you. (you may not reuse them!)
- Each and every article MUST PASS COPYSCAPE and dupefreepro
I am looking for a writer to write me sale letter for SEO service web site.


- All articles must be written in perfect UK English.
- 100% manually written . No software allowed.
- Articles should be delivered by email.
- Articles will be 500+ words each depending on my requirements(excluding article title).
- Articles must be written in perfect English (native English speakers only).
- Correct spelling or grammatical errors.
- Articles must be written manually, sound natural, and be easy to read.
- I will own the full copyright once I purchase articles from you. (you may not reuse them!)
- Each and every article MUST PASS COPYSCAPE and dupefreepro

My New Freelance Diversion: Chart Porn

Maybe it's the math geek in me, but I find Chart Porn almost as addicting as Clients from Hell. I dare you to click through to either and not get sucked in.

The Ultimate Get-a-Clue Freelance Request for the Week of April 18, 2011

One of my favorite fellow freelancers, Katharine Swan, had her B.S. detector on high alert when she forwarded this week's Middle Finger Award winner to me. She presciently copied the project in its entirety, suspecting it would be flagged, which in due course it was.

Project Description: Volunteer Article Writer (Denver)

Specific Project Request: Are you a passionate about writing? Have you been told that you have a way with words?

Yeah well, I don't, and that's my problem.

What I DO have is the ability to create great web pages and drive traffic to them. I love creating designs and layouts and writing the code. Where I am weak is content development. So here is my idea. I am looking for a content writer or wordsmith to create interesting content for me to post on my website. Typically they are 500-750 word articles on a wide array of topics and subjects. In exchange for your content creation, I would like to feature you and your work as an expert author on the site. I would like to market your articles on the web. In the end, I envision being able to help you get into freelance writing if you want to do that.

Now, I am looking for a very specific kind of person. This is of course a nonpaid position, so if you are expecting to feed to feed a family of four or even just yourself, then this is not the right opportunity. If you are looking for a hobby, something to do in your spare time, then I would love to hear from you. You might be either a student, or retiree, or someone else who has nothing else to do and wants to do something fun and creative.


I'm passionate about a lot of things, jerk, but I happen to get paid for them when I provide them to anyone other than charities, family members or friends. As for hobbies and spare-time pursuits--well, I certainly don't engage in them so that others can profit from my budding talents.

But I'm feeling generous today so I'm gonna help you out a little in the 'way you don't have with words' department. You know that Screw You! line that goes, "This is of course a nonpaid position, so if you are expecting to feed [sic] to feed a family of four or even just yourself, then this is not the right opportunity"? Give it another shot. In particular, substitute the words 'nonpaid' and 'expecting to feed a family' to an antonym and then try again.

George Bush, Demand Studios and Fuzzy Math

It's been a while since I've blogged about the content mills, and since then my least favorite offender, DS, went public. You did all know that, right? If not, I can post the article about it for you all to groan over.

Mostly I like to observe the heated debates from afar, but I still have my feelers up for rumblings within this vile writing segment that gives professional writing a bad name. It's quite a few months old now, but I found this article particularly interesting: Demand Media Uses Fancy Math to Support Aggressive Accounting.

Thoughts?

The Ultimate Get-a-Clue Freelance Request for the Week of April 11, 2011

This week's Middle Finger Award winner comes from a reader, Angie. She wrote that she found it on one of the more notorious freelance-bidding sites and she forwarded it to me on the basis of its "highly offensive" rate--an assessment with which I whole-heartedly agree.

She also sent me a copy of the posting "in case they find a qualified candidate and take the ad down"--loved the snarkiness. Unfortunately, the project is still up as of press time, with seven bids ranging from $30 to $50. Note that some of them are LESS than what the poster is offering, but least there aren't more of them.


Project Description: Short Blog Post Writing

Specific Project Request: Our company is looking for some writers to create and submit 150-word posts to BuildMyRank.com on a regular basis. No experience with Build My Rank is required. However, if you do have positive experience writing BuildMyRank posts for others, that will be a major advantage.

Chosen applicants can expect to be assigned 50 to 100 posts per week (to be completed at a rate of 10 to 20 posts per day).

The $50 budget for this project is the amount we'd like to pay for 100 posts. That means we'll pay $0.50 per post. However, for the right writers, this could mean regular weekly payments of $25 to $50 for every 50 - 100 posts submitted. Please keep this in mind when you bid.

The posts submitted have to be unique or BuldMyRank will reject them. Posts should be at least 150 words and should be optimized for the assigned keyword. What this means is that the designated keyword should be used once in the title of the post and once again within the body of the content.

Plagiarized, rehashed, or software-generated articles will not be accepted under any circumstances. The content must be able to pass through CopyScape without duplication. We do check!

The content has to be completely original. If BuildMyRank rejects a post, the responsibility lies with the writer to rewrite any rejected posts until they are approved. In the rare even this does occur, this process is quite easy and often only requires a few small edits.

If we like your writing, you will receive weekly assignments from us. For the right writer(s), this job will be a piece of cake.

The work is pretty straightforward and easy to do. It's very easy to get bored with this kind of work. But we pay on time every time. So, you can expect regular work from us if you're able to submit posts regularly.

We are looking to get started immediately. So, if you are available, feel free to apply.

To confirm that you have read this posting in its entirety, please include the phrase "I like coconut" somewhere in your application. Applications that do not include this phrase will not be considered.



Look it, bud, no matter how you spin those numbers $100/week, $0.50/article or 0.3333 cents (or one-third of a cent) per word, it's still the same ole manure spreader of crap. I like coconuts ... and I also like giving projects like this a BIG middle-fingered Screw You!

Freelance Funny of the Day: Lesser-Known Editing and Proofreading Marks

If you've ever done editing on hard copy, I think you'll particularly enjoy this cartoon: Lesser-Known Editing and Proofreading Marks.

The Ultimate Get-a-Clue Freelance Request for the Week of April 4, 2011

Project Description: Need writer today! Beginners welcome


Specific Project Request: I need a writer who enjoys the creative writing process. Today I need 3 press releases $20 ea. AND 3 450 word articles $5 each. If they don't have grammar and spelling errors. You can write for me daily. Great for college students who are English majors to add spending money. Pass this along to good writers you know. There is also the opportunity to write min-articles (150 words) for several blogs. Please email me without attachments and ask for a subject to write a paragraph writing sample. I will check it for grammar and spelling and if it looks good you can start today. Must have PayPal. Thank you.

Bridget


•Compensation: $25press release & $5 articles


Veteran freelance writers would have probably stopped reading this week's Middle Finger Award winner at the headline. The fact that the poster is targeting beginners is a dead giveaway that the pay won't be worth digging any deeper. And as it turns out, that red flag proves itself to be a well-waved one. What really ticks me off about this particular job posting, however, is the idea that if you enjoy doing something, the cash value is just a little icing on the cake. SCREW that!

And yes, I enjoyed a bit of superiority over the sentence fragment that ups the ante for articles that don't have grammatical errors. News flash: Fragments *are* grammatical errors. Anyway, I'm doing what Bridget asked and passing this one along to all the good writers I know--you my readers. I trust you'll know exactly what to do with it.