Excuse Me?

I actually saw this listed in one of the Freelance job sources:

Long term copy writers needed. Excellent English skills required. Must be able to delivery 20 500 word original articles daily, Monday-Saturday. I pay $3 per article and I pay once a week. All articles must pass copyscape. No article spinners!!!

Um, excuse me? While the pay is actually higher than a lot I see on there, let's do the math. They want (20) 500 word articles, daily. That comes to 10,000 words. It takes even a good writer about 15 minutes to do one 500 word article. That means a possible 4 articles an hour if you do not stop at all. To complete 20 of them would take 5-6 hours. Are you with me so far? Good. Now, for each of these articles, he/she is willing to pay a whopping $3. $3 times 20 per day is $60 a day. That sounds pretty good (and as I said, it is higher than a lot of ads that I see) BUT realistically, is it work you would do for $10 an hour? Many of you will say yes and some will say no. Coming up with 20 unique and fresh articles in one day on ONE topic can be difficult. Personally, having done this for a while, I can tell you that although the money sounds good, by the time you are finished writing 10000 words on Bass Fishing Boats, you'll reconsider if you are being paid enough. Also notice, you only get 1 day off a week. In any giving week you will be writing 60,000 words.

I'm not here to tell you what jobs to accept and what jobs not to accept. For some, the above job may be great, particularly to gain experience and freshen up skills. No one is judging you. However, for those who have a steady background in writing, the above ad is akin to seeing the following ad for help:

Wanted: Brain surgeon for local hospital. Must have had no fatalities, must be willing to work 6 days a week, for minimum wage.

How many physicians do you think would be hopping onto that band wagon?

Only you can decide which jobs you are willing to take and the good news is; no one says you have to sign a life-long contract with these people. Do what is right for you, but NEVER let anyone underestimate your value as a writer!

Note: Along the right side of this blog is a list of jobs available at Get a Freelancer. It IS worth checking into, just know that you have to separate the good from the bad on there. I have picked up a couple of decent jobs through there, so it is worth a shot to make a few extra dollars.