The Word Wrangler

The law of supply and demand – as well as its relationship to the economy – is a pretty easy concept to grasp.

When you have a huge supply of product the price is generally low. When demand outweighs supply, the price goes up.

But what happens when both the demand and the supply are worthless?

The Internet as an entity has a voracious appetite for content. It needs daily feedings to survive. With millions of blogs and web pages out there, it would seem that the demand far exceeds supply. And good writers should be able to name their own price when it comes to having their work published online.

But that’s not the case. In fact the opposite is true.

If you take the time to browse Craigslist, Guru, Elance and other freelance job boards, you’ll notice that fees willing to be paid to writers are low. So low in fact, that if you figure the amount of time it takes to handle these projects versus the amount of money you’re getting paid, you’re much better off financially, working at a fast food restaurant flipping burgers. And that’s not an exaggeration.

(Just a side note here: I guess telling people you’re a writer sounds much better than telling them you’re flipping burgers even if you’re making much more money at Mickey D’s than writing, but whatever).

Why are the fees so low?

Two reasons. One is that supply and demand thing. Do a quick Google search and you’ll find hundreds of freelance writers. Everyone is a writer now. Throw up a blog and BINGO, you’re a published writer. Add to that the thousands of people overseas vying for these jobs and you’ll find no shortage of people able to produce content that feeds the beast.

The second reason fees are so low is that very few people are making money online. Everyone WANTS to make money online, but few people know how to do it, because the web is – for lack of a better term – a garbage dump for content. Everything is free for you to pick through at your leisure. So, when people aren’t earning money online, they’re not paying for content - though that doesn’t stop them from wanting it and it doesn’t stop people from providing it – even for nothing if necessary.

Combine these two situaitons and you have worthless demand for worthless content. Sure, the argument could be made that the content is worth SOMETHING to the readers, but nutrition information on cereal boxes is worth something to its readers too. Doesn’t mean you can make a good living writing nutrition information for cereal boxes.

If you’re a writer and you want to be taken seriously, and for your work to be valued, you ought to get off the web.

Unless you have a skill for writing copy that compels people to spend money, most of what you write for the Internet is wasted and valueless. Strong words, but I believe it’s true. If someone’s willing to pay you ten bucks for a well-researched, well-written article, and you’re willing to do it, then neither the work nor you have any value. (I mean as a writer: We’re all valuable as people).

Otherwise you should consider going to work for a company that needs writers or at least joining the afternoon crew at McDonald’s. Chances are you’ll be in a much better financial position with health insurance and a 401K plan in five years than if you continued on with your freelance career.