Getting my two cents in
On Craigslist today there was a help-wanted ad titled 'Apple Site News Writer':
Looking for self-motivated writers for a large Apple News site.
- Good English spelling and grammar.
- Consistent
- Need one writer in-touch with the latest Apple news to post two articles per day
- Need one writer current on the latest iphone/ipad/ipod/apple tv jailbreak news to post two articles per day
- basic ftp skills (for article images) required
- basic photoshop skills (for article images) required
- articles should be ~ 500 words +/- depending on what's appropriate for the story
- should be quick on the draw with stories. tech news is old if it's 12 hours late
- have to be capable of reading email to make sure stories don't overlap with other writers
Each story pays $10 up to $620/month.
Please include resume, whether you are a mainstream or jailbreak writer, and anything else we should know.
I was, in a word, flabbergasted. They claim to be a 'large Apple News site' and they are expecting to get reasonably good work for $5 an hour? (Based on personal experience, I can tell you that a well-researched web news item in the technology sector takes about two hours on average. It really isn't about word length; I am certain you could do it faster, but it will show.)
I actually wrote the following response and then thought better of sending it. Frankly, the way I figure it, these are probably the kind of guys who would deliberately turn my email addy over to spammers. So, instead, I will share it with you in the hope you will find it amusing:
Hmm... $10 each to research and write two 500 word articles a day. I am guessing you will get what you are paying for: either someone who is desperate (probably for good reason) or someone who can't do the math. (Two cents a word? Really? That was picayune in 1950.)
Either way, please contact me if you wish to pay a reasonable rate to get better journalism and analysis. Until then, I am going to assume you are actually a content farm and my only interest in your responding to me is to find out who you are so I can avoid reading your site.
Jack
Looking for self-motivated writers for a large Apple News site.
- Good English spelling and grammar.
- Consistent
- Need one writer in-touch with the latest Apple news to post two articles per day
- Need one writer current on the latest iphone/ipad/ipod/apple tv jailbreak news to post two articles per day
- basic ftp skills (for article images) required
- basic photoshop skills (for article images) required
- articles should be ~ 500 words +/- depending on what's appropriate for the story
- should be quick on the draw with stories. tech news is old if it's 12 hours late
- have to be capable of reading email to make sure stories don't overlap with other writers
Each story pays $10 up to $620/month.
Please include resume, whether you are a mainstream or jailbreak writer, and anything else we should know.
I was, in a word, flabbergasted. They claim to be a 'large Apple News site' and they are expecting to get reasonably good work for $5 an hour? (Based on personal experience, I can tell you that a well-researched web news item in the technology sector takes about two hours on average. It really isn't about word length; I am certain you could do it faster, but it will show.)
I actually wrote the following response and then thought better of sending it. Frankly, the way I figure it, these are probably the kind of guys who would deliberately turn my email addy over to spammers. So, instead, I will share it with you in the hope you will find it amusing:
Hmm... $10 each to research and write two 500 word articles a day. I am guessing you will get what you are paying for: either someone who is desperate (probably for good reason) or someone who can't do the math. (Two cents a word? Really? That was picayune in 1950.)
Either way, please contact me if you wish to pay a reasonable rate to get better journalism and analysis. Until then, I am going to assume you are actually a content farm and my only interest in your responding to me is to find out who you are so I can avoid reading your site.
Jack