Few days ago I was reading an excellent freelance related article talking about the experienced writers frustration regarding the horrible pay some would get in such sites (elance, guru, RAC etc.)

We are talking about quality content experienced writers, people who master the words and can provide some amazing articles. I do read some of their work and it makes me wanna quit communication altogether since I really feel like a stupid monkey, if I compare my writing skills to theirs.

These people don’t work for 1 dollar an hour, as I don’t work for such low pay myself, even if in my country you might expect us to do this.

Their frustration came from seeing bids being won by people who’d write 3 books for 10 dollars. OK, it’s far fetched, but the prices some are willing to pay are absolutely an offence to any serious developer, being he/she a designer or a content creator.

I had 40+ bids on 2 freelance sites. Was able to get 2 jobs so far (one on each I am still working), with 10+ feedback and pleased customers. Extatic I might say since one of them is preparing some more work for me already. I did bid on “decent paying” jobs since, even if I am new there and in need of good initial feedback I won’t be a prostitute to do a 1000 USD work for 10.

Today, on RAC, there was a guy who wanted 3 .psd designs for a layout and had the maximum bid of 10 USD. I wanted to kick him. I wanted to smack his nose and teach him that creating 3 UNIQUE and beautiful layouts is not a 1 hour job. I do work extremely fast in Photoshop (I do have 7 years experience now) and can come up with a mockup design in few hours of inspired work, but even the best and fastest artist cannot work 3 different unique layouts in 1 hour. And 10 USD/hour I think is the MINIMUM any one should accept as payment.

And the cherry on the shit cake was: ‘I want unlimited changes on the designs, until I am pleased”. Of course, we’ll work for 2 weeks, until you’re pleased and then I will get 10 dollars for 100 hour work. And then I can throw my computer and go work on emptying trash cans in the city. I am sure those guys do get paid way better, not to mention they don’t kill their eyes as we do.

It’s not a singular case. The sites are filled with people who want huge projects to be worked on for dismal payment. I read some proposals and almost fell of my chair. Huge sites, with custom programming for 200 dollars? Let’s be serious.

In the end I think it comes to us to accept only good jobs with fair payment for our time. And the clients to learn that “cheap is not always better” and that sometimes it’s a better idea to pay a bit more for an amazing service. Not to mention that the top players in the design/content world don’t create sites similar to ebay for 10 dollars

Related:

• July 28, 2009 -- Freelance sites … is there anything worth using? (10)