What is the solution? There isn’t one unless you opt for a closed society but all that will do is invite extreme inflation…

Perhaps the real solution is developing a skill that can not be imported. That will probably involve using your hands… House cleaners make $20 an hour… “Good enough” writers can be had for $5… Amazing, scrubbing toilets pays better than writing… Mark Twain would roll over in his grave… FYI, He was paid 7 cents a word in his day….

We should all flood bidding sites and bid only what we’re worth — even on projects that say outright that they will only pay $1 for 500 words.

The best ones are those that request “U.S. only” and then tell you they want 10 to 20 articles a day for up to a whole $2 each (that, by the way, is by no means the lowest rate)! Of course they want perfect grammar and highest quality. Ugh.

The ‘new economy’ strategy James suggests – excellent idea! Here’s how I see it playing out:

1/ set reasonable rates for your work
2/ be consistently undercut by someone from another country willing to work for 2 or 3 dollars a day (yes, a day!)

3. grumble and complain about how you can’t compete

4. Opt for building an offshore company that, essentially, takes advantage of those who are forced to work for low wages (and actually encourages lower paying rates)

If enough people do that, there won’t be decent paying jobs for any of us!

Granted, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, but I’m of the mind that being competitive shouldn’t necessarily extend to chewing the legs off our own neighbors.

In the past the limitations of presence and distance meant that your market was effectively restricted to local competitors…those days are over, or soon will be.

There are a stack of sites which allow your customers to find less costly service providers in other parts of the world. Now, while I agree that someone who charges $5 000 probably should not be too concerned by the idiot charging $5, what about the guy charging $2 500?

@Hesster: America does not have a monopoly on quality. If foreigners (in what were once third world countries and in some cases still are) can figure out how to make your shoes, cars, computers AND finance your national deficit, they can probably learn to write copy. It does not have to be as good as yours, just good enough.

I suspect the solution is probably to be like Bob…multiple income streams, global market (first learnt about Bob when I bought one of his books in the Mid East) and 4-sentence blog posts which inspire dozens of comments!

The $5 article market though is just pathetic. Business owners, especially those starting out, need to realize they are not only purchasing a product but a service as well. You do get what you pay for 99% of the time.

The $5 article market though is just pathetic. Business owners, especially those starting out, need to realize they are not only purchasing a product but a service as well. You do get what you pay for 99% of the time.