Girl on the Brink: Surviving Desperate Times with Desperate Measures

I do have work today, so I will get to work after I finish this entry, though I’d much rather eat some cereal and milk. I haven’t had breakfast, and I’m hungry. But all I have in the refrigerator is boxed milk with a prolonged shelf life, the highly pasteurized kind that doesn’t need to be refrigerated and is often given to migrants, disaster victims and the homeless. It tastes awful.

Today’s work: I’m editing a document for another company. I’m getting paid, but I don’t know how much. I haven’t asked: I’m just so flattered to be called upon work. I feel that I’m at the mercy of employers, and if I don’t say “yes” the poor Joe behind me will. Perhaps it’s my lack of self-confidence to work out payment terms ahead of time, but I don’t feel like I have much bargaining power when supply outstrips demand. I did learn something from covering macroeconomics when I worked for an international publishing concern.

On elance.com, however, I do. Elance is a site that matches worker bees with employers. You set up an account and showcase your talents, and then bid on jobs you think you’re qualified for. Writing, sales and marketing, and Web tech work are some of the categories.

Under the writing category, it seems as if a majority of employers have capped their writing assignments at $500 or less. Some of the bigger writing projects expect something for practically nothing. I bid on one for close to $10,000 and would have gotten it but turned it down after I realized I was setting myself up for failure. The employer wanted 1,000 articles for less than $10,000. What’s more, he wanted the articles optimized for search engines and expected me to do all the research for their content—and choose the topics.

On elance, I’m brash. If I lose a job because I bid close to the top of the writing cap, I don’t care because even writing for a living has a bottom line. I think the only ones making money on elance is elance. It not only charges you a monthly fee for a premium profile but takes an 8.65 percent project fee from the jobs you win, which I suppose is disclosed in the sign-up terms, but who reads those?

The monthly fee buys you a set number of “connects.” Connects, which appear to be short for connections, are used when you bid on jobs, as if you have to pay for the privilege. When you run out, you need to buy more in order to bid on more jobs. So far, I’ve bid on nine jobs but have only won one. You can also have your references “verified,” which I’ve done (cost: $45) to raise my credibility and increase my chances of winning bids.