You know, sometimes I just have to laugh and shake my head. Occasionally I visit a couple of freelance websites to look for short-term writing projects–copy or content–to make my work schedule less hole-y. I did that this morning.

 

I visited Upchuck Upwork (formerly Elance/oDesk)–where I have earned TOP-RATED provider status. But what I see there just cracks me up:

 

“Seeking professional copywriter. Paying $4 for excellent 1,000-word articles.”

 

Do people not understand what the word “professional” means? It means, “Making a living (in a specific field)”– in this instance, as a copywriter.

 

Does this buyer not realize that professional copywriters get one to three dollars per word for evergreen copy and that ” an excellent 1,000-word article” can take five hours or more to write (not always, but sometimes more) depending on whether the source materials for the piece are provided or whether independent research is required?

 

The sad/funny thing is that the project described above is not an anomaly at freelancer websites; it seems that a majority of buyers expect professional writers to be salivating over these countless “opportunities” to live in their cars and starve to death!

 

My God… are small business owners really this clueless?

 

Not all are, thank God! And it’s the clued-in ones who are hiring professionals because they know their return on investment will make what they paid for evergreen copy ridiculously low since it can be used for months, years, even decades in many instances.

 

The supreme lack of savvy buyers makes wanting to visit these fleece-lance sites less and less appealing.  You have to slog through pages and pages of project listings to find ones that are worth pursuing. Then you join the ranks of other professional providers who are hoping against hope that their proposal will strike a chord and convince the prospective buyer to engage in the next step, which is finding out if the provider is a good fit for his or her project.

 

I know it does little good to rant. But I figure if I rant often enough, one of these gems will go viral (get shared) and total strangers who want to hire a professional writer will get an education and realize that “you get what you pay for.” If you want something fit for lining the bottom of a bird cage, hire someone willing to write a 1,000-word article for four dollars.  It won’t be excellent. It won’t be well-researched. It will be slapped together with spit and bubblegum and it will read that way.

 

Knock yourself out if that’s all you need.

 

For the rest of you who want to build, sustain and boost your businesses, you need a different plan. One that includes hiring actual professionals to do the things you can’t–or don’t have the time to–do yourself.