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Would You Use a Job Auction Site to Find Work?
I’m puzzled. A large group of writers frown down on job auction sites, and I’m not quite sure why. It’s probably another symptom of the Great Divide, the canyon that separates writers who prioritize work and writers who prioritize art.
- Some say that job auction sites are for small-time writers.
- Some feel the auction sites only offer cheap work and low rates.
- Some believe that auction sites are a rip-off, charging writers money with no guarantee of gigs.
- Some feel that auction sites don’t cater to the very people that keep them alive: the service providers.
- Some believe that auction sites are beneath them and that using them shows they can’t get work elsewhere.
I disagree with all those statements. Does it matter where you get work as long as you’re working and earning a fair rate? Who says that auction sites equal low-quality providers? There are just as many poor writers applying to ads on Craiglist or cold-calling webmasters.
And what’s wrong with paying someone to centralize clients with jobs on a board open for bidding? With all the promotion of outsourcing going on, does it not make sense to pay someone to save you time? Why would these boards not take a fee for their troubles?
I do know that some providers don’t use job auction sites because of fear. They fear their writer peers will look down on them. They fear their peers will see their rates and laugh or gasp in shock. They fear being labeled. They fear ridicule.
They fear the Great Divide.
It’s clear that there are some terrible job auction sites out there. It’s true that the better ones still have issues or irritations. There’s no argument there.
But what is it about job auction sites that sets writers’ teeth on edge or makes them look down their noses? What is it about writers that make some hide their identity on job auction sites to be able to freely bid for work?
I counseled someone to do just that, recently. He had mentioned having trouble finding work and wanted my advice before he decided to give up on being a writer. I was surprised – the writer is a brilliant one already and with more potential in store.
But competition is stiff and it can be extremely difficult to get a steady full-time income going. Harry and I put in a good deal of effort and time to have the successful six-figure business we have now. Had we been alone trying to achieve the same, we probably would have each given up.
“Get a membership on an auction site,” I suggested. “Nothing big or fancy, but get something.” I mentioned the costs and the risks involved. I also mentioned that I knew there was work and potential.
Then I added another bit of advice. “Create a profile just for the boards,” I suggested. The writer had an active, growing blog. “Keep it to yourself. Don’t let your peers know about the profile.”
Here I was, encouraging the perception that having a profile on a job auction site is a shameful thing. And yet, I believe differently. I think there is nothing at all wrong with job auction sites and I agree with their use. I know many writers who have successful businesses and earn good income from them.
So what is it? What am I missing? Why do some writers not condone job auction sites? Why are they not more encouraging of their peers’ effort to land steady work? Why is there a Great Divide, and why do I believe one thing but say another?
Let me ask this: Would you use a job auction site shamelessly and proudly? And if not, why?
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Melissa, I don’t see that as snobby. But I do think it is snobby when writers bash other writers who do take those jobs. The whole “bringing down the world” argument I find as snobby. Whether it comes from a print writer or a web writer. I have my own “I won’t work for less than x” standard, but I also don’t think of telling other writers what they should earn. There is a lot of snobbery all around, I think. The real writer argument gets thrown at me a lot. That is a whole other divide as I see it.
Amy’s last blog post..When Good Clients Ask for Bad Stuff (or, Why I’m at the Poop Conference)
Thanks James! Yes, Deb you are *NOT* a snob. Oh gosh, that could have ended badly.
In my defense, I do have a fever but this discussion was too good to miss. 
Thanks for “having my back” James.
@Amy, I’ve only had it thrown at me once. It was a couple of years ago when I was encouraging a friend to try blogging. “That’s not prestigious,” she said, “real writers frown on that kind of thing.” Well, guess who has a blog now? I’ve always held that the Internet is the future for writers, which is why I’m here.
I don’t know if writers who take on those low pay gigs are driving down the market or not. I would not criticize them for what they do (it’s their choice). But here’s my thinking: if you are only able to get $1 per article as a writer (and let’s assume an article takes about half an hour at best), maybe you’re in the wrong industry. The fact is, you can earn more at a fast food joint (at least that’s true where I live). To me it’s just math and logic and if putting food on the table is the concern, McDonald’s is going to trump the $1 writing gig every time.
I better understand what James meant by snobs now. I think it’s a matter of attitude. $1 articles may not be my cup of tea, but I can’t know someone else’s situation or reasons for taking those gigs so who am I to judge?
P.S. Amy, when are you getting on Twitter?
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Jeff Buckley: Grace (Album)
*redirects conversation away from low-paying gigs and back to discussion on auction sites and the Great Divide* That’s a whole other issue entirely, folks.
Heh. Thanks for not thinking I’m a snob.
@James – I suppose you’re right about the work involved, though auction sites always seemed like more work for me.
I forgot to list another reason I’m not keen on bidding sites – the fees. Either the site gets a perecentage of the writer’s take or the writer pays a monthly fee. Some sites have a membership fee AND take a percentage. Add to that the PayPal fee and I just don’t find it cost effective – especially for those who bid low.
@ Deb – There are fees involved, but what I’m thinking about this is that it’s far better to pay a fee and cut down on the time that you could be doing paying work as opposed to opting for free and spending hours sifting and searching.
On the other hand, places like yours that do the sifting and searching cut down on that time, but take a look at the Tea Blogging job that went up on your site – the guy got upwards of … what, 2,000 applications? From what I see on Elance, competition is less than 30 applications per job and sometimes only 5. Odds are better, it seems.
Now, let’s assume everyone bids normal writer rates that make sense. For the fees and rates, everyone has to be realistic about that. Elance seems to charge about $20 a month for membership. That’s nothing. That’s less than a half-hour’s work.
They also take 8.75% off jobs. Okay, so say you earn $500 a month (and that’s really low-end, I think). You’ll pay about $43 bucks. Let’s call that 1 hour’s work.
Elance sends cheques instead of going through PayPal. No charge.
So for $500 a month, it costs about $63 bucks, or at MOST, two hours worth of time. If you’re skimming and scanning craigslist or cold-calling webmasters or whatever, can you (general you) say that you’re spending less than two hours a month to land jobs?
Now, granted, that’s for someone that is actively looking for work and not those established enough not to have to look. That’s also not taking into consideration the time to check the job boards and put up proposals, but a friend of mine says it takes her less than a half hour a day to do around five.
Another writer I know who uses Elance only takes jobs that pay over 1k or an average of 60$ an hour and then some.
I dunno, but the math isn’t coming out looking like job sites are a bad thing. Maybe I’m missing something.
@James – Regarding the tea guy – he put his ad on at least five boards that I know of – so the response isn’t typical over an individual who only posts an ad at FWJ.
Elance is only one bidding site though. Check out a bidding site like Rent-a-Coder and you’ll see what I mean.
Now. When you talk about offering a normal bid that makes sense. I rarely see this happening. it’s my experience that the people who bid against the same jobs on which I bid offered ridiculously low wages. It was very rare to see a bid above $5 for any gig. True the potential to earn more is there but that doesn’t mean people are doing so.
And really, I’m not actively looking for work right now so maybe I’m the wrong person to be talking about bidding sites.
My experience is that they’re not cost efficient and a well-established writer can’t get a decent paying gig without drastically lowering her rates. Not worth it, in my opinion.
A good and necessary discussion.
I’ve used elance before to find someone to write web content for me, when I was under pressure. I found a good writer who did charge decent rates and I noticed that many others also pay well.
But some of the people who pitched for the job didn’t have a single writing sample to show me. That told me they probably weren’t writers at all – just people who’d heard they could make money on elance. And I think this may be what puts some writers off elance – they simply don’t want folks thinking they’re the same as these amateurs.
Now, before I looked on elance, I found another auction type site through a forum. Some people on the forum were charging next to nothing for their work and doing that type of work on a full-time basis. The standards were low, but who’s really going to churn out their best work when they’re getting $10 for 1000 words?
I know some people would do this type of work to build up a portfolio, but they’d probably be better off doing a guest post on a popular blog.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Quit The Internet Copyright Paranoia
So it seems that the problem isn’t job auction sites per se – the problem is freelancers who don’t know their own value, who aren’t prepared, who are trying to break into jobs with low skills and who aren’t serious about their business.
We’re blaming a resource for writer jobs when the true blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the writers themselves.
While it’s clear that there are buyers who want something for nothing, that’s not always the case and not always in high ratios.
@ Deb – I’m focusing on Elance because I have the belief that it’s the best of all sites out there (not perfect, but the best). Rent-a-Coder falls in the so-so category for me. I’m not even considering the crap sites like GetAFreelancer.
As for snobbery, here’s a perfect example in a comment made by Phil over at Freelance Switch:
He’s “stooped for a few of these jobs.” Perception? Auction sites are beneath a writer. But Phil goes on to say:
Hm. Contradictory? I think so.
@ Deb again – Yeah, I think it is a good discussion. We should all talk about issues like these more often and turn them over as much as possible. Maybe we’d actually change the world
Tamara and I have been quite upfront about the fact that we’ve used Guru.com pretty extensively. It was a great tool for us to get started, and now that we’re established, we are able to get some pretty good jobs through there. I think sites like this should be considered as just another of the tools avialbel to freelancers.
lornadoone’s last blog post..The Work-at-Home Professional
Well, I’m late to this game, but if anyone has snobbery issues with elance, I’d like to note my awesome gig I got from there where I am editing curriculum materials on Shakespeare, Donne and etc, other English Lit. greats…and they said my English degree would get me no where…lol…This was an Elance client and they’ve used me 5+ times in the last year…pay is great, too. I asked them why they chose elance to find a writer/editor and they said “It was the first one that popped up in Google.” There ya go.
I won a rare decent-paying project with these guys. It paid $750.00. My client put $250.00 up front with GetAFreelancer. I left it there until I finished the book. They took $75.00 out of the $250.00 leaving $175.00. So they got their full commission…
Fortunately for me, the client paid the balance in a check directly to me.
I say fortunately as GAF has blocked my account…No reason, they’ve been paid but guess what?
I can’t reach them…I can’t sign in and that means I can’t find out what’s going on…
And they are looking like flakes, theives or ???
I’d like to get my $175.00
Any ideas…
Vern