Comments on: How Not To Waste Your Writing Time

By: Challenge Yourself To Take On Your Biggest Writing Fear

Challenge Yourself To Take On Your Biggest Writing Fear — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:34:22 +0000

[...] the second night of not sleeping, I was ready to give up the dog. I even went so far as to post an ad for him on Craig’s List (which like five people [...]

By: Diane Mettler

Diane Mettler — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:22:50 +0000

Thank you for this posting. I keep getting emails from these cheap labor sites and hoping that writers don’t get sucked in. They make minimum wage seem lucrative. Your $15.00 payment is much better spent finding clients that pay better.

By: Laura Lee Bloor

Laura Lee Bloor — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:36:28 +0000

I remember being desperate for extra freelance work earlier this year when I was trying to scrape every extra penny together to go toward our wedding, so I signed up for Demand Studios. I was just about to do my first assignment when a little lightbulb went off in my head that said, “You don’t have to do this.” As you said, it’s a lot of work for very little pay. My time and my skills are worth more than that. And you know what? We still made our financial goals for the wedding even without those few $15 payments here and there!

I also agree that it’s a great place for new writers to start to build a portfolio, but not for writers with some years of experience behind them.

By: S. Megan Payne

S. Megan Payne — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:20:54 +0000

Also doing a blog. No money, alas! But soul kept right inside me, where it belongs.

By: S. Megan Payne

S. Megan Payne — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:19:51 +0000

I’m definitely on the starting end of the spectrum, but I write what feeds me in a creative sense or else in a physical one. I’ve submitted and sold to Skipping Stones (no pay, but the credit is a major one), written heaps of stuff for simply pleasure, and am in process of editing the mess out of a good juvenile novel and writing an adult one. I have always and will always skip out on the content mill sites. Too much of my soul and nothing to feed me in return.

By: jblan

jblan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:33:03 +0000

@sefcug Yes, those sites are definitely all about quantity over quality, which works OK for something like writing your novel’s first draft (or NaNoWriMo), but not so good for writing articles that you want people to read and actually learn from.

By: sefcug

sefcug — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:30:59 +0000

I always wondered about those kind of sites.

I am not trying to make a living, or extra cash from writing, but I am of the opinion, even before your post, that quality is better than quantity, and that the sites mentioned are the other way around.

I am quite satisfied to have my writings published in one of the two computer user group newsletters I edit, or on my blog.

Maybe, when I retire, I will want to get into writing for pay.