You've all seen the listings: multi-billion dollar companies trolling Craigslist for volunteer writers, Guru.com ads for splog articles at $5.00 apiece, eLance offers for copywriters looking to make $10 per hour. I don't know about your bank's policies, but I can't pay my mortgage with eyeballs and prestige. And for $10 an hour, I could work at Starbucks AND get health insurance, something a bit more valuable than exposure on sites whose sole goal is to show up high on Google searches.

But if you are sitting at your desk twiddling your thumbs, you might be tempted. Don't do it, says Dina Giolitto at Absolute Write. "Freelance websites who pit writer against writer for the lowest rate have one-up on the writers. Not just you personally, but ALL the writers," she says. "If you play the game, you end up working your tail off for virtually no profit, and guess who comes out the big winner? The buyer, and the bidding website. But not you, dear writer! Not you."

Read her article, and get inspired to stand your ground when negotiating your best rate.

By the way, if you hate getting those splog sites as much as I do, scroll down to the bottom of the Google results page to the "Dissatisfied? Help us improve" link, and report those suckers.