Re: Offshore writers and editors & web services

[Michele Davis <michele -at- krautgrrl -dot- com>]

I'm curious about all these sites I've seen lately:

www.elance.com
www.elancer.com (horrible english)
www.gettybest.com
etc, etc.

Here is my frustration. I value good writing, as has been discussed, 
others (companies, managers, etc) don't---and the competition is stiff 
as well as obnoxiously undercut. I've been asked to edit for $1/page. I 
can't live on that type of money.

I feel the whole problem has nothing to do with the lack of quality. I 
feel that people just want whatever is cheap. I did a bid for a 12 page 
revamp of a website, all new content (sales & hard hitting marketing 
copy), new graphics, a business card, a tri-fold brochure, and two 
liability legal contracts. I bid, reasonably, I thought, ~$4000. The 
company liked my stuff, liked my attitude, but I was just too expensive. 
They went with someone who was agreeing to do all that work for $865!

$865? I couldn't feed myself lunch and pay for the electric bill on that 
kind of money. I can hardly wait to see what the site looks like when 
it's done.

I know this leads to an open forum, but must my rates come down in order 
to be accomodating? Or do I just need to look into a new career? 
(seriously.)

Michele

eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com wrote: