Content & Writing Tycoon

**pristinewriting** · 07-04-2012, 07:44 AM

I have been using freelancer.com right from the days when it was christened GAF. Possibly many of you have noticed the sharp fall in the number of jobs available under most categories. In May 2012 there were more than 3,000 writing jobs though under different genre. In June 2012 the numbers started tapering out and early July portrays a very sorry state of affairs. The infection appears to have been contagious spreading across the job board.

How are others feeling around the globe?

**chrishirst** · 07-04-2012, 05:57 PM

and would you like to know the reason for that?

**chrishirst** · 07-04-2012, 06:11 PM

Assuming a yes.

It is the poor quality of "freelance" writers that makes clients stay away.

Would you even consider employing somebody like this?

Or if you had done already, would you go back to the same place you found that one?

**vultren** · 07-06-2012, 02:08 AM

I get a lot of business from people willing to pay more to fix the mistakes that these cheap outsourcers made so they can make their profit bigger and larger. This will go away, the business of "freelancer.com" will fade due to competition on other sites and the fact that their product (outsourced and underpaid individuals) sucks.

**wayfarer07** · 09:02 AM

It's possible that the writing work is just moving to other marketplaces, or other areas of the world (I don't know where you're from). The research being done by freelancer is not all that good. Odesk has a really cool new bubble chart that shows the number of projects being completed by category, based on various parts of the world: http://research.odesk.com/visualizat...board/#/bubble

Of course, it's only their marketplace, but it's an interesting visualization. For writing, the majority of the work is being done by those in Canada, the United States, and the UK. Australia completes a lot of writing projects too. Basically, all the English speaking nations.

**pristinewriting** · 07-09-2012, 01:52 AM

Thanks Wayfarer07. The O'desk visualization is pretty engaging.

**MattBarrie** · 07-09-2012, 04:32 AM

We banned some spammers.

**MattBarrie** · 07-09-2012, 04:34 AM

And standardised the amount of time projects are open for bidding so they don't sit on the site for months.

**pristinewriting** · 07-15-2012, 11:05 PM

Thanks MattBarrie

I am indeed glad that this post has drawn your attention. Yes, indeed, some of the spammers have been consigned to their rightful places.

Another area you may want to look at is 'frozen' projects remaining frozen for endless length of time. Small is indeed beautiful rather than a chunk of junk.

**awundrin** · 08-09-2012, 08:00 AM

I for one am finding it harder and harder to find good paying work. I have been writing successfully for many years. This summer has been tough though. It seems as though all the job boards are over-flowing with so-called writers who will write 500 word articles for a buck.

**pristinewriting** · 08-23-2012, 12:26 PM

Looks like Matt and team have succeeded in breaking the jinx. Sunny days appear to have arrived again on the freelancer.com portal. I am thankful to all the folks who viewed this thread and shared their thoughts.

**stedav** · 10-05-2012, 10:30 AM

best check several sites and mix up bidding sites with job boards. Plenty of work around, but yes, lots of these write 500 words for $1 jobs.... horrifying, that they get picked up.