If you’re a freelancer, chances are you’ve come across the term crowdsourcing. You may have investigated the meaning of this obscure term or you may have had that inevitable feeling of dread that caused your stomach to turn so much that you simply didn’t want to know. Whatever the case, crowdsourcing remains a constant threat to the arts industry — primarily for professional designers and writers. It also does a great disservice to any client who expects a quality job. As creative professionals, it is our job to fight the menace that is crowdsourcing.

• Crowdsourcing drives down wages even further. Think $5 articles are bad? Just wait until until they want to pay you a meager 50 cents an article. It’s already happening and its frightening.
• The odds of your work getting chosen are slim. Crowdsourcing is nothing more than one, big contest designed to screw over the professionals, cheat the clients, and make the crowdsourcing sites a killing.
• Crowdsourcing breeds copyright issues and that is harmful for everyone involved. Well, you know what they say about beggars not being choosers. Do these people honestly believe that they are going to get quality, original work for free? Most “creative professionals” on these websites simply plagiarize or copy material. No incentive = lazy work.
• The client loses the most. If the client is unaware that they are using copyrighted material as a logo, there could be a lawsuit against them. Even if the client doesn’t get bogus work produced, chances are that the design or ad copy really suck. I mean, we are talking about people doing free work, afterall. You can’t take shortcuts when it comes to labor and expect to have anything good come out of it.
• It destroys industry. Photographers, illustrators, and designers have been hit pretty hard by the internet slave trade known as crowdsourcing. The wages have been driven so low, that several truly talented creative professionals have permanently left their businesses behind. When people talk about the American dream, its difficult not to sigh and declare with a bitter smile “What American dream?” Indeed, the corporate quest for cheap labor has destroyed more than just industry.

I am saddened when I hear of fellow freelancers perpetuating this crowdsourcing trend. Its even more destructive than the East Asian outsourcing. Now instead of cheap labor, people want free labor. How long will we let corporations and their greed make slaves of us?

Efficiency is a necessary component of successful full-time freelancing. After the craigslist fiasco, I took a very, very long break from bidding for work and even working at all. In fact, all of the work that I’ve had the last few months has been from repeat clients. I am very happy with where I am today. I made progress because I was efficient. As I end my summer vacation and get back into the swing of working full days, I’d like to make some notes as to how you can be an efficient freelancer as well.

Eliminate waste. Waste can come in the form of unproductive time (such as chatting when you should be working), subscriptions to job sites that aren’t landing you any work, and other things that can slow down your day and lessen productivity. Most freelancers are contractors – not hourly workers. Its important to keep in mind that unlike at a traditional job, when you aren’t working you aren’t earning. It helps to create a schedule for yourself and set aside a certain amount of time for working, marketing, networking, business maintenance, and so forth.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you’ve landed a huge project and you feel like you can’t do it alone, there should be nothing stopping your from outsourcing. After all, someone had to outsource us so shouldn’t we do the economy some good and give another hardworking freelancer some much-needed work? It’s the right thing to do.

Don’t wait until the last minute. Its a habit for some of us to procrastinate. We may have a project that isn’t due for another week so we say we’ll get around to it. Its a good habit to get whatever work you have done while you have it. The quicker you get it done, the quicker you get paid and the better you look to your clients. Clients love a freelancer who cares enough about their work to get a head-start on it.

Of course, there are other ways to be an efficient freelancer. These are just some of the most basic things that you can do. An efficient freelancer is a successful freelancer and successful freelancers get better work.

Recently, I made the personal decision to stop writing for Suite101. It was part of a larger decision that I made to stop chasing the residual carrot, so to speak. If I want to earn passive income, I’d rather take a more stable approach like writing a book or selling my art prints. I only speak for myself when I say this but there is a lot that led me to this decision. I wanted to share some things about Suite101 that I do not think are talked about very often and some things that people may find controversial. In no way am I attempting to say that Suite101 is not a good company. They are a solid, stable web company with a highly responsive support team and an excellent revenue model. However, there were some deal breakers for me and these are as follows.

• Suite101 has an overzealous, almost cult-like crowd that hangs out in the forums a lot. No one can question anything about the company without being viciously attacked in the forums. Even innocent questions are sometimes grounds for ganging up on someone. Some people even make a special attempt to send hate mail to you just because they don’t like something you said. Its a good reason to stay the heck out of the forums.
• While most editors at Suite are helpful and friendly, there are some that use chat-speak and make silly requests. I had a request that was almost DS-like, which was frightening. That type of thing should not be allowed at a site that boasts “quality” and only hires a small handful of editors compared to most large content websites. Obviously some editors need to be reevaluated, but one can argue that online editors, unfortunately aren’t always the most diligent bunch.
• Revenues continue to plummet. At 29 articles, I don’t even make payout each month. At 15, I started making payout each month until about four months ago when it declined day after day. Although, I seriously doubt this is Suite101’s fault. Adsense is down everywhere. Then again, its not really fair that writers only collect adsense revenue. There are several other advertising programs (infolinks being one of them) that pay far better than adsense. Again, some consider this a non-issue but those are the people with 1000s of articles and tons of spare time. Obviously, I am not one of them.
• You’ll never get your content back. Once its up, its up forever and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. This doesn’t bother me as much as the other issues but it can be problematic for writers who always write their best and/or have articles in specialized subjects in which they would like to sell or place elsewhere.
• They say write “evergreen” articles so you can keep earning but if you stop writing, your revenue dwindles — sometimes your revenue will even be halved. This is what happened to me when I took a three month break due to the extremely low revenues and my depressed state of mind because of my lack of funds.

Despite these issues, I would still recommend Suite101 for certain people. For some people, the positives far outweigh the negatives. I’d recommend it for new writers or people with full-time jobs seeking side income. I’d also recommend it for writers who specialize in a particular subject such as natural health or personal finance since Suite is very friendly to specialists. However, if you are a general, academic, technical, or copy writer I would personally do some serious thinking about joining. You aren’t likely to earn very much from your efforts and a lot will be expected of you for very little return.

If you watch TV, chances are that you’ve seen that commercial where all the various business owners are asking “How do I get paid faster?”. I never really thought about that until I ended up waiting what seemed like forever to get paid from a few clients this month. I’m still waiting, actually. Because I’m a problem-solver, I sat down and thought about this question for quite a while and the following is what I came up with.

How do I get paid faster, anyways?

Well, one thing I’ve noticed about potential clients over the past year is that you can generally tell who’s who and how serious they are about working with you and paying you in a timely manner. For example, if it takes them a week to respond to each email you send you may not want to accept work from them. I understand people are busy, but if you can’t communicate effectively with your clients that can cause problems down the road. If they don’t look at their email at least once every few days, how are they going to get your invoice and pay it on time? That’s just one example.

Another issue for most freelancers, especially online freelancers, isn’t just getting paid in a timely manner; it’s getting paid at all. If you’ve ever been stiffed, chances are that you’ve taken precautions to protect yourself since then. The following ideas can help keep you protected against non-slow-or-partial paying clients.

Aside from choosing projects wisely, a freelancer needs to tune into their intuition. Its understandable to want to jump at a project after you’ve been through a dry spell but you have to resist that urge. You don’t want someone to end up taking you for a ride and not paying you the full project price. Even if you collect a deposit, chances are you’re going to want all of the money you worked for and you’re going to want it before the power company shuts the lights off. I know because I’ve been there. I got ripped off a lot when I first started out. You can usually tell by your gut whether or not a client is worth the trouble. If you’re looking at an ongoing gig, make sure that payment terms are stated clearly within the contract.

You should also get client phone numbers rather than just email addresses. That way if you have to play bill collector for a while you’ll know that it will be harder for them to ignore a phone call than to delete an email like they’ve probably been doing. If you run a business that’s based on the privacy of the clients, then be sure to hand them a copy of a privacy policy.

Something else that works well is honesty. If you are having severe financial difficulties and are being threatened by bill collectors and you aren’t collecting when you need to, be sure to let the client know that you’re having financial problems and you’d appreciate it if they would forward a payment as soon as possible.

If you deal with a lot of different clients, you should invest in Prepaid Legal Services. They’ll come to your aid if a client ever tries to stiff you and membership costs are low. Before you say you can’t afford it, ask yourself if you can afford to get stiffed. Usually, all these guys need to do is write a letter for you and the client will typically pony up the money. If you have a particularly difficult weasel on your hands (like that piece of work James Clemmons I found on Freelancer.com) then you may need to ask for more assistance.

If you’ve got some ideas about getting paid faster, I’d love to hear them. Feel free to share any ideas that have worked for you.

After becoming fed up with chasing no-response, low-paying, questionable looking jobs on craigslist; I’ve migrated to other job boards. Some of the job boards I am with charge a membership fee. For many freelancers, paying a fee to look for projects is a no-no. Just as many projects can be found for free. However, sometimes it may be beneficial to pay for a membership. Here’s why:

• Less competition. Most freelancers hate extra expenses because their income varies so heavily. This means that few full-time freelancers are willing to pay for memberships, giving you a better chance of gaining visibility and the project.
• Employers will take you more seriously. Employers will take freelancers more seriously if we are willing to put the time and money into improving our businesses.
• You’ll land better projects. One thing I’ve noticed about websites that charge membership fees is their dedication to screening all project posts thoroughly.
• No sifting through crummy projects. This is pretty much the same as the one above but with a few differences. Free job sites are plagued with spam, repetitive job posts, and low-paying nonsense. Paid sites will treat their freelancers with respect and dignity.

Best Paid Membership Freelance Sites

I’m sure you can think of more reasons than what I’ve listed. Now, don’t just go paying for any old website. You have to do the research to see if your investment will be worth it. The following websites have worked well for me.

• Freelanceswitch.com. The FS job board charges a membership fee of $7 per month. Their projects are high-quality and often long-term. While I have not personally landed any work from this site, as I have not submitted very many applications, I do know first-hand that its an excellent website and the response rate is very high compared to other job sites. The webmasters are also very professional and dedicated. One time I noticed a bogus ad from a design “company” that wanted free work. I reported it and within 48 hours the ad was removed. Now that is customer service.
• iFreelance.com. This website has been around for a long time. A basic membership costs $5 per month and allows you to bid on as many projects as you want. Most projects receive 5-15 bids. New projects are posted weekly.
• Elance. While Elance can be a free job site, it may be ideal to pay for a professional membership which runs at $10 per month. This membership allows you to bid on more projects. While Elance has recently become notorious for inviting low-paying buyers, filtering projects by price can often eliminate the buyers “on a tight budget”.

Always read multiple website reviews before committing to a membership. Do not simply take my word for it. While one person may have had a positive experience, others may have had negative ones. Read multiple reviews and if possible, contact the website’s admin to learn more about membership. The easiest way to find website reviews is to type in the website’s name + reviews in Google search.

It recently came back to me why I gave up freebie trading. I ended up being scammed yesterday. This one website was supposed to give me a free trial and ended up stealing $10 off my debit card. Then I got stuck going through this grueling phone process to cancel the service and get my money back. On top of that, the website that I was going through never credited me for the offer causing me to lose time and money. Another website I was on theived me out of the money I earned for successfully completing offers. What a mess…

You Know What They Say

Well, there are only two things that have ever worked for me when it has come to earning money online: freelance writing and having and online auctions. Nothing else has ever worked for me. I think I am just going to have to stick with what I know works and expand upon those things somehow. I have gotten more writing work lately but that usually means that within a couple of weeks, things will slow down and dry up again. I’ll keep searching for something that can counter the crazy writing seasons as I will be needing more income come fall when I venture out West again. Wish me luck. I’ll keep you guys posted on my experiments and adventures!

Its no secret that as thousands of new “freelancers” flood the online marketplace, it’s becoming harder to get work. Quite a bit harder, actually. May was the first month since I began freelancing that I did not have at least one private client. Thankfully, I had some companies to fall back on but overall its been a mess. Even after stepping up my marketing efforts, I’ve yet to secure any new project work on my own.

While, I am thankful for the companies that I can find little bits of work from while I await the call or email of a private client, relying solely on them is not possible. The first reason is that these companies are small — so small, that they don’t always have work. The second reason is that they don’t pay as well as my own clients pay me. While they don’t pay an outright insulting wage, the fee that I receive from my services is often not enough for the amount of time or effort that goes into these sort of projects.

This dilemma, coupled with not being able to get any outside writing work, has caused me to seek out freelance opportunities outside of the writing field. Maybe its for the best. Here are some things that I have considered doing myself.

1. Revisiting my art marketing. I’m also an artist. While it is possible to obtain a small commission here and there, you have to be some type of demi-God to live off of the art style that I have chosen to specialize in.

2. Online telecommunications work such as customer service or technical support. While this field is even more cutthroat and difficult than writing, its still worth a shot. After all, what have I to lose at this point?

3. Trading cards. Recently, I got lucky by finding some very valuable trading cards. I’ve decided to sell them and reinvest in a new set. If I’m successful, this could pan out into some very decent side income.

4. Freebie trading. Back when I first started working online, I was involved in freebie trading at freelunchroom.com. I’m not sure why I gave it up at the time but this time I think I am going to stick with it.

5. Building new affiliate websites. I’ve got some pretty good niche’s going for me right now and when I have the extra money, I’ll be making about three more websites to try to offset the cost of this one. We’ll see how it goes.

6. Avon, anyone? Yes, I joined the team. Before you think I am old-ladyish, I signed up with one of their child product lines called Mark. Mark is geared towards the younger-women demographic (16-25). Perfect.

While none of these things are super-powerful on their own, combine the right ones and you could be making a decent living at this thing we call self-employment. Wish me luck. Today is my one-year freelance anniversary. I wish you the best of luck on your personal freelance journey.

Greetings and happy Monday, everyone. I’d like to write about a few things that have been on my heart lately that I think might help some freelancers who just feel “stuck”. As I am sure many of you know, I have been a full-time freelancer since June of last year. In just two weeks I will be celebrating my one year independence anniversary.

It took  quite a bit to get to this point. Let’s rewind a bit, shall we? Two months ago I confidently boarded a plane to Salt Lake City; ready to begin my new life in a better city. I left with access to seven different telecommute companies. One by one these gigs dried up…quickly. Keep in mind that I was only gone for two months. First, my best and most lucrative gig, ShopWiki through Yovia dried up within just a couple of weeks of my move. Another one just stopped talking to me. CL was giving me trouble about my account, which forced me to spend over $60 just to have only two working accounts (3 were defective). One of my private clients stopped calling and I was left destitute with hardly any work and hardly any money.

On the way back to Tampa I was incredibly depressed. I couldn’t believe that once again I failed to leave the one place on earth I did not want to live. When I stared down at the oil in the gulf, it made me think even more about how the bottom just fell out – without any warnings or signs. Then I stopped and thought “Why is that oil in the gulf?”. Desperation and poor planning. Just as the oil companies had been desperate to find new sources of oil and had planned poorly, so too had I been so desperate to leave this place and planned my move very poorly. While I may have left with enough work, I needed better backups. I also should have and could have sought out cheaper housing. I was paying far too much for the room that I was staying in from March to May. I could have saved about $400 had I moved in with someone else.

Knowing this now, I am planning more thoroughly for the next move out of here: permanently. Now, don’t get me wrong. Had I kept at it out there I would have been able to support myself just fine. It wasn’t finances that brought me back this time. Rather, it was a sense that I needed to bring closure to the people in my life that will continue to live here. These people deserve nothing short of my full, honesty and that is something that I was too afraid to give them when I left. Not only that, but I promised my significant other that I would stay by his side no matter what and that we would leave together. He graduates in mid-July. We are both trying our best to move in mid-to-late August. We’ll have our own apartment again in September.

Now, I am sure that everyone knows how I feel about DS. I think $15 is not enough to write an article twice. They always, always, always want rewrites. Literally, everything gets sent back for stupid reasons. I thought I’d try them just once more because I really could use the extra funds since travel does have a tendency to drain your wallet. However, when I got a silly rewrite request (no surprise there, right?) I realized that I was done with that place once and for all. The stress, the headaches, and the pay is certainly not worth it. I realized that I had a lot more avenues than I thought I did and those are the avenues that I am going to explore in my second year of full-time freelancing.  Places like DS really undermine the spirit of freelancing and I am not willing to give up that spirit. It is my spirit. It is your spirit. It is our spirit. Never again will I work for such a soul-destroying place like DS.

Recently, I came to a puzzling crossroads. Being a young professional is certainly not easy. Being a young professional freelancer is even harder but its the only life I know. Its the only life I want. I thought about my childhood dream of becoming a mangaka (comic book artist) and realized that such dreams are not so far fetched after all. I finished the first book of my series about two weeks ago and it’s going through the final editing stages. After its published, my boyfriend and I will be touring conventions all over North America to promote the book. I am so thankful to all of the people in my life who have made my dreams – to become a writer and a mangaka possible.

Dear readers, you can do this too. Never let anyone tell you that your dreams are too far-fetched. I am not going to lie to you and tell you that the path I took was easy. It isn’t. There’s no paycheck every week, no guarantee of what tomorrow will bring. However, when you think about it; all of life is actually that way. If you want to have an online store, be a writer, be a graphic designer, get out of a dead-end job: now is the time to do it. What do you have to lose? If anything, you have everything to gain.

Quality Gal is a small writing website that hires writers to research and write articles that are heavily based on links. There are two main editors as far as I know. All inquiries are answered via email within one business day.

Writing Style(s)

Most articles consist of a few paragraphs and about 15-35 links. These links need to be from quality websites which Quality Gal lists as websites ending in .org, .edu, or .gov. They do accept some .com sites as long as they are not overpowered by ads but the bulk of the links need to be from .org, .edu, or .gov. Quality Gal is not overly picky about style and voice. All they ask is that you write in the second or third person, adhere to proper grammar, and write quality articles with links from the aforementioned types of websites. The editors are quick to answer questions via email.

Payment Details

Most articles pay $12-$15, depending upon the number of links and so forth. They pay once per week on Friday but you need to submit an invoice through the writer panel on Thursdays before 4 PM EST. Quality Gal accepts international writers but asks for a social security number if you are from the U.S. as they are a U.S.-based 1099 company. You will be asked to fill out a W-9, if accepted regardless of your country of origin. This is most likely for accounting purposes.

Personal Experience

Most of my experiences with Quality Gal have been good. When I’ve had questions, they’ve been answered in a timely manner by one of the editors. Recently, due to my own negligence I have had some issues. I’ve been writing articles when I am dead tired and have forgotten to fact-check at times. Despite this, they have still been very friendly and professional. The only other issue I had recently was that I submitted an invoice on Thursday and never got paid on Friday like I was supposed to. I am assuming that it is because I submitted it very late on Thursday so it will most likely be processed this Friday.

Opinions

Quality Gal is okay. They aren’t a bad place to work, especially if there isn’t much else going on. I can’t tell you how many times I thought I was going to get stuck with awful DS and there they were to save my hide. I’m really happy with them, actually. The only thing that bothers me is that there can often be a lack of available or interesting topics. Sometimes there are only one or two and sometimes there are no topics at all. QG usually remedies this issue within a couple of days.

Personally, I would stick with the easy articles and if you’re a quick researcher that is also a plus. I’ve noticed that the shortest amount of time I have been able to complete an article is one hour so keep that in mind when you claim topics. I wouldn’t claim anything less than the $15 ones unless things are very, very slow all across the board. You also might want to take the red, “urgent” topics because that helps the company. Remember, with small companies like these you really want to help them out to make sure that they keep getting work in the system. Do nothing short of your best. These small, friendly companies like Quality Gal are the ones that we want to have around for a long time.

I know that I have briefly mentioned the power of collaboration in this blog but I would like to take the opportunity to restate just how important it is for freelancers to work together. Whether you’re an established and busy freelancer looking to hire some help or a graphic designer looking to hire a copywriter; knowing other freelancers, including those in your own trade is a tremendous advantage.

Her Name Was Sue

A very close friend of mine and an established freelance writer named Sue Oser inspired me to go full-time in June 2009. I will never forget what a difference she has made in my life. It was because of her that I learned what I wanted to do and the areas of writing I wished to specialize in.

Recently, Sue needed her website redone. We’re in the final phases of that process now. In exchange, she has agreed to critique my writing portfolio. I’m not afraid to admit that Sue is older and more experienced than myself. Thus, it only made sense to ask for her input. By having my work critiqued, I will be able to improve upon my writing skills.

A New-found Desire

A freelancer must be willing to learn from his or her mistakes. But more importantly, the freelancer must strive to improve in every area of their business. Just because you have a college degree doesn’t mean you’re done learning. We learn our entire lives.

Call me a nerd, but I love to learn. College is so much fun because I get to improve upon the natural skills that I already possess. That’s something that is really important. Always be willing to learn and improve. Never let go of that desire because the second that you become unwilling to learn is the moment that you stop improving.

Don’t Just Do it, Love it

From one freelancer to another, don’t just do your job; love it! If you love what you do everything – and I mean everything from finances to the lifestyle that you want to live will follow.