Is Freelancing Perfect for WAH Moms? (pt.2)
September 20, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
You should first read part one, where I talk about some of the disadvantages to becoming a freelancer writer in order to stay at home with your kids.
To review, while I think there are some excellent writers who also happen to be mommies, I’m sick of the trend where moms are becoming writers, even though they have no skills or experience, because they think it is an easy way to stay at home with their kids.
One of your greatest joys...and biggest distractions. Image: sxc.hu
Now, I don’t have kids of my own. Someday, I hope to drop to freelancing part time while I also stay at home to raise my kids. Yes, I’ll be a WAH Mom. There’s nothing wrong with that if you understand what you’re getting into. But the number of people flooding the market is a little ridiculous.
To be fair, not everyone suddenly labeling themselves as a freelancer is a mom (or dad) wanting to stay at home. With the unemployment rate so high, many people are turning to writing online because they can’t find another job. That’s fine if you’re a good writer and have taken some classes. That’s fine if you’re willing to work hard.
But what isn’t fine is to assume that this is a way to get rich quick or that this job is in any way easy. It is insulting to myself and most of the other writers who stop by here at Bizzia.
You know what I think should happen? I think there should be a licensing program through the state if you want to call yourself a “professional writer.” They have programs for nurses, contractors, insurance agents, and tons of other workers. I realize that we aren’t saving lives here. And hey, I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t be allowed to write if you aren’t certified. It would be a way for people who are serious about making this a career to set themselves apart from the crowd – a way to say “hey, I have the training, experience, skills, and talent you need to complete your project.” It works in the contracting world. You don’t have to hire someone with certification, but if you do, you can be sure that you’re getting someone who knows what they are doing.
The people who are flooding the market with writers (I’m going to called them unskilled freelancers) right now are making the situation bad for all of us. Certification programs would help that a bit. The problems are real:
- Unskilled freelancers, most of the time, charge very small fees. That mom down the street is living on her spouse’s paycheck, so the freelancing is just helping her earn extra money for vacations, movies, and such. So, she doesn’t care that writing is worth more than $3 per article. It encourages clients to continue offering low prices to writers. Beyond that, she doesn’t have the time or skills to get jobs worth more money, even further perpetuating the idea that writers aren’t worth more.
- Because they don’t value their projects, unskilled freelancers are often the writers who will disappear mid-project, turn in work super late, and argue with clients over unfounded issues. It leaves a bad taste in clients’ mouths.
- Unskilled freelancers usually don’t know what they are doing. The work they turn in is of a poor quality, and once again, it makes us all look bad. I’ve had clients attack me before I ever started a project because “writers aren’t usually up to par with the quality needed.” No, professional writers are. We’re a separate group of people.
- When an unskilled freelancer takes a decent job, that’s one less job for someone who actually deserves it. The client gets sub-par work, but might just roll with it because they already paid for the text. They’ll hire a different writer next time, but there’s no guarantee that it won’t be another unskilled freelancer. Instead, the client could have hired a professional writer who actually cares about the work and would be hired again and again. It isn’t fair that some good writers are constantly trolling for work because jobs are taken by unskilled freelancers.
Please understand that I’m not trying to be insulting to parents who are writers or new writers. You can be either (or both) and be a great professional writer. We all start somewhere, and I laugh to think of the projects I used to complete in comparison to the projects I do now. But if you think that you can just quit your job and become a freelancer to live the good life at home with your kids…screw you. That’s like me opening a beauty salon in my home without ever having cut hair in my life. Just because I helped my sister with her hair for prom when we were younger doesn’t mean that I should be charging people for my services. It’s a ridiculous concept, and hurts hairdressers everywhere.
Writing is no different. If you aren’t qualified, stop taking our jobs, creating a market for low-paying jobs, and giving us a bad name.
This was a very good article and gave me a lot more insight into what’s going on in the world of freelancing. I happen to be one of those unskilled freelancers (not a mom, just an someone who loves to write and wants to “break into the field.”)
What I first noticed on one of the sites I write for, Helium.com, is their rating system, which awards you with stars and badges. It sounds exciting, but the people rating your articles are other unskilled writers. I’ve rated a lot of articles myself, and I have to tell you, some of them appear to be written by first graders or toddlers! When I think these are the same people rating MY articles, it makes me want to scream. I would definitely welcome constructive criticism or be rated by someone who knows what they’re doing, but to see an article I worked very hard on, hit rock bottom on a site where a lot of the “critiquers” are practically illiterate, is infuriating. (All this, not to mention, as you say, low pay for your articles.)
I never even thought of it as taking away jobs from legitimate writers, but I did very quickly realize the real money-makers here are not the writers, but the people owning these sites.
Your article has given me a whole new perspective on the way I’m going about trying to become a good writer. (And a legitimate one.) Thank you
Who do you think you are to tell people not to consider a legitimate means of income?
Perhaps it disgusts you to ponder, as you sit on your wicker stool spinning your biro, those awful people for whom writing is not a sacred vocation but a professional one. Fortunately we live in a capitalist society, so the market decides who gets to work, not you.
“Stop taking our jobs” sounded like the soundbite of a far-right politician talking about foreigners, and made clear that your article was founded on bitterness rather than goodwill or even reason.
You’re not qualified to influence opinions that may still have room to sway, especially those of new mothers who may be going through big changes in their lives. Specifically: you don’t write for the WSJ; you don’t write for the NYT; you write little articles like “you know your project sucks when”, so relax, get your 300 words done, earn your $3 a day, and tolerate anybody else who wants to do the same.
Zina – If you are someone who loves to write and are working on improving your skills, you are definitely not the type of writer I’m talking about. That’s especially true if you can recognize the poor quality of many articles on the Internet and work hard on your own articles. I think that you’ll make a fine writer someday…you probably already are one. I’m talking about writers who spew out sentences that don’t even make sense, without doing research. Those “fluff” articles are clogging the Internet. I have a feeling that you’re not part of the problem.
Danyal – There are so many things I find wrong with your comment, I’m not exactly sure how to respond, to be honest. Either you didn’t read my two articles, or you just didn’t understand them.
Let me just say this, so it is very clear, since it was obviously unclear from what I wrote above: if someone wants to be a writer because they love writing and need a job, that’s awesome. It’s a great way to make a living; if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be a professional writer. However, if someone who hasn’t written a sentence since C-grade reports in high school wants to become a writer because they think it is an easy way to make money without doing much work…I find that ridiculous. They’re hurting the whole industry.
And for the record, the idea that someone needs to write for the Wall Street Journal or New York Times to have a legitimate opinion is also something I find totally ridiculous.
Ok thanks for your reply. My comment was over the top and personal, but I was angry because people trying to become writers already have a lot of doubt to contend with, and I felt you were contributing to that. I understand now that you are not. Sorry. :)
Replace “qualified” with “talented”, “able to write” or “brandishing a good portfolio”, and I think I would agree.
But hopefully the market will do this job for you. It might even raise your rates because, when clients get burned by the talentless, they might value the skills of somebody with a good portfolio even more than they would have done if every writer was certified and guaranteed to be good.
Thanks for stopping back again, Danyal (not every commenter does to read replies – I get a lot of drive-by comments!).
In regards to what you mentioned about the market, I do think it is possible that it happens with individual clients, but I’m not sure it will ever help the industry as a whole. I think it is a bit of a cycle – writers who are in it for “easy money” eventually have to give up because it isn’t as easy as they first thought and they are getting fired from jobs. Their clients learn a little and move on to better writers, but then new clients enter the market and hire the new, unskilled writers who are entering the market too.
I guess the key is to just keep plugging ahead and not give up if we want to be great writers and overcome those “writers” who give us a bad name.
You’re welcome. Yes… I suppose I am prone to the occasional drive-by. Most of the commenting I do is in the chatroom of the occasional online strategy game in the company of angry teenagers, hence my talent for unwarranted abuse of roughly that calibre.
Thanks for replying anyway.
Good point, the key does seem to just be to keep moving ahead in the face of criticism or praise. I’ve learned to reduce the amount of effort I put into trying to make myself more efficient or my processes more elegant. The time seems better spent at the inefficient, but eventually productive, coal face.
Resubscribed by the way. And nice one being a writer, it’s an uncertain road, as it seems all the worthwhile roads are, and one day maybe I’ll have the guts to start down it myself.
Don’t worry though, I’ll try to get some qualifications first!