Internet pay rates are a joke (now click on my rant)

https://medium.com/ladybits-on-medium/your-newfangled-media-algorithms-are-bullshit-493c9597bb55

http://jimromenesko.com/2014/05/30/yes-people-are-clicking-on-erin-bibas-piece/

Another writer figures out that being paid by the ego boost doesn't do much.

 

I'm glad this is in sequence with the "Is it worth it?" thread, because everyone starting out should read that.

It's good humor mixed with utter hopelessness.

 

You're reading hopelessness into it. It doesn't automatically read as hopeless. It reads as a person who's not going to take projects that pay her shit.

This is a valuable thing, if enough writers are wise to it. Far too many sites -- sports sites especially -- want to get away with auditioning writers for months/years on spec, for free. And far too many writers have taken that option.

If the sites die, fine with me. They need to die. Some are worse than Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart pays poorly, but there's a benefits package to most jobs, a consistent wage, if not a living one. These sites may pay nothing, offer no benefits, and intend to make writers dance for their food. Hopefully they plunge into the sea.

 

I can see that side of things. I'd love it if that happened.

But the endless supply of labor that will agree to do that work tells me that won't happen. You'd think after something like HuffPost -- when people were shocked, SHOCKED to find out they wouldn't be paid out of Arianna's profits -- that this kind of thing would dry up and everyone would develop some self-respect. Unfortunately, too many people don't have it.

 

The bitching is what made her the money. If you're paid by the click, this is what happens, is her message.

 

The message is that good work doesn't matter in this model, which, as much as people acknowledge its flaws, doesn't seem poised to change anytime soon.