| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: SiteBits.com and writing tidbits for a pittance. |
Topic: SiteBits.com and writing tidbits for a pittance.
| Author | Message |
| Micus | Posted – 9/21/2006 9:47:25 PM | show profile SiteBits.com is advertising on Craigslist for people to write little (-500 words) bloggy pieces on culture/arts/travel type stuff, at 15 bucks a pop. Not stellar pay, to say the least. But a potentially nifty little site, apparently quite a bit of leeway content-wise, and I suppose one could pick up a pretty easy $100+ a month if one turned out a couple of these a week - it's not really clear to me how much stuff they're looking for you to produce. Do people have any specific notes on this site? I did a little googling and haven't so far found any "SiteBits scammed me/stole my writing" stuff. One odd thing: they seem to have been around for a few years, with only a few posts a month. They're just getting around to thinking, "Hmm, we need more people?" More generally, what are people's personal feelings about these kinds of gigs? Waste of time? Got potential? Degrades you? Degrades the writing profession to accept such work and encourage other sites/publishers to follow similar routes? ------ Mike -------- "We must live today by what truth we can get today, and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood." --William James |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 9/22/2006 2:31:58 AM | show profile Did a quick look at it myself. Supposedly, it's been around for six years, but I'd never heard of it and I don't think it gets much attention. It's discussion forum only has 71 registered users. At best, from a writers standpoint, it looks like a dumping ground for travel pieces you couldn't sell to anywhere good. I don't see much point in writing for it specifically, unless you are desperate to get some travel clips or maybe get on some of those travel junkets. - -Do people have any specific notes on this site? I did a little googling and haven't so far found any "SiteBits scammed me/stole my writing" stuff. One odd thing: they seem to have been around for a few years, with only a few posts a month. They're just getting around to thinking, "Hmm, we need more people?" More generally, what are people's personal feelings about these kinds of gigs? Waste of time? Got potential? Degrades you? Degrades the writing profession to accept such work and encourage other sites/publishers to follow similar routes?-- |
| writesonwater | Posted – 9/22/2006 2:51:48 AM | show profile If I busied myself with $15/a pop stories, I'd be broke. I've seen some of the pap these places that pay chump change put out there, and generally speaking they seem to get what they pay for. And in that case, your good stuff is lumped in with all the rest ... |
| Thabit | Posted – 9/22/2006 9:15:58 AM | show profile do not pass go, do not collect pittance Agree with other posters. I had a blogging gig that paid slightly more than that -- but I had a contract that stipulated the no. of posts + pay, loved the people, knew I'd be paid and could re-use the material. I was offered another one recently by a much bigger site, but for less pay and more work. At first I thought much as you did, but then realized that any work I chased down instead of doing these throw away bits would be better. |
| slavito | Posted – 10/19/2006 3:45:07 PM | show profile | email poster point-by-point Wow! A "dumping ground for travel pieces"!.... How wonderful it feels to read about yourself sometimes! Well, I happen to be the person who posted the ad, so may be I can offer some insights. First of all, about the age of the site and the number of postings - SiteBits was effectively launched twice - once in 1999/2000 (before anybody knew what a 'blog' was) and then again in 2005. In between, it was simply my personal site, hence very few postings. Second of all, $15 is certainly not a lot, but on the other hand, we're not asking for much - 300-500 words is your average email (well, may be not your average, but pretty close to my average email). There is, in fact, a lot of leeway in terms of topics, as the original posted noted. And by the way, after I posted the ad on Craisglist, I saw a similar ad from Shecky's. They were offering $16 for Chicago bar reviews. What a difference it makes working for REAL professionals! Perhaps most importantly, although I didn't know how to make it clear in the posting, we were hoping to find people who'd do it for reasons other than the $15 involved. You know, peer review, "look, ma!" and all that. And, to be honest, we weren't expecting to get responses from seasoned professionals (still got a few!) - certainly not from people reading/posting on this board. Anyway, thanks for the frank comments! P.S. In case you're interested in the results of our search - I am proud to say that at least two of our NYC recruits are working out quite well - I hope together we'll make our "dumping ground" a lot bigger :) |
| kravhfl | Posted – 10/20/2006 2:02:26 PM | show profile $15 for a short article sounds like a goldmine to me! (Sad, yes, I know, but very true.) I've been searching for freelance work since spring of this year, and it has been a struggle to find gigs that pay more than minimum wage. I frequent the bidding sites and job boards (and do my own Google searches), but I find that the majority of employers are only willing to pay a maximum of $5 per 500-word article. I also send in submissions and queries to print publications; however, I need steady work. Funny how $15 to some seems a pittance, but is sounds divine to me. (And I live in a Detroit suburb--not India. ;)) |
