A year ago, I signed up for oDesk. It's an online marketplace much like eBay, but instead of products you buy/sell services. It's a good place to find legitimate online jobs like data entry, medical transcription, article writing, etc. Or if you're looking for a virtual personal assistant or somebody to redesign your webpage. All you need to do is sign up, take some of their "competency tests" to boost your likelihood of being hired, and search their database for jobs you'd like.
I thought it was perfect. So I signed up and was hired by an online writing team shortly thereafter. I was acutely aware that the pay wasn't exactly commensurate to the demands of the job. A single 500-word article involved an average of 1-2 hours of research and they only paid $4 per article. I figured I was going to roll with it considering that it was my first paid online racket (hehe). And besides, I was enjoying the whole creative process of gathering boring facts, putting them together and turning them into something interesting.
20 articles, 2 weeks, and (only) $100 later, I decided it wasn't worth all the missed opportunities to enjoy a night out in the city or a restful weekend. So I told them that unless they pay me more, I'm quitting. They tried to dissuade me by saying that after 6 months, they'd reconsider. I declined.
Sadly $1-2/article is the average rate at oDesk ($4-5 is already considered steep). The fact that people based in The Philippines or India are willing to receive $2 for an article doesn't help. If I were the employer, why would I hire someone to write articles for me for $8 an hour if I could hire somebody from Cebu for $2 who could write just as well (or even better).
This is not meant to be a rant. I have no pressing reason to complain. I have a job and my short stint at oDesk was not really meant to supplement my income. I was simply looking to see if someone would actually pay me to write. Hehe. But I feel for those in the US who could never compete against their Filipino or Indian counterparts. In this current economic climate, it would be good if they could at least go online, do some telecommuting and thus be able to pay their bills.
What I would like to see happen is for these telecommuting jobs to be governed by minimum wage standards whether they're employing people from The Philippines or the United States. I know it's wishful thinking (and maybe not economically sound for these businesses), but wouldn't that be great? If I was in Cebu right now, I could simply write articles for a full 8-hour day and be paid $80 (PHP3,200) at the end of it (or PHP64,000 a month) by simply logging on to my computer. What a life! LOL. Of course, it's not as jaw-dropping for somebody in L.A for example. $80 a day ($1600 a month) is only enough to pay the rent.
These telecommuting jobs are a blessing to my Filipino friends who have exceptional writing skills. I know of a few who are actually earning more from these online writing projects compared to someone who's working in a call center (and I know for a fact that those agents are paid really well *wink*). So no, I'm not complaining at all.
I don't know if I'll accept another writing project anytime soon. I guess I'll just focus on excelling in my own field first and leave writing to my savvier peers.
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| I wonder if Nicholas Sparks would ever settle for $4 per 500-word article? =) |
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