An Important Lesson in Pricing

I ghostwrite a blog on a subject that I am very familiar with- one that is enjoyable and takes minimal research. I saw a posting on a freelancing site recently for blog ghostwriters to write about a very similar topic. Great! I inquired and was told that the rate was half the minimum rate that I charge for blog posts. But, there were no commissions and I could do the posts easily and at the same time as my ghostwritten blog. Fabulous. I accepted.

A few days later I was hanging around RentACoder looking at stuff, and there was a posting there for someone to write blog posts about the same topic. I applied, at my usual rate for posts, and was accepted. The buyer then told me that she'd had a couple of other bloggers that had agree to write the posts for half that amount, and that if we continued after the project ended, that would be the price. Weird, but ok. I now had three blog projects that were on the same topic. What could be better?

I then got the information for the RAC project. If you haven't put this together already, and I hadn't, the two projects were for the same site. That's right- I actually underbid MYSELF. I was one of their first bloggers for the off-RAC project and apparently helped set the price point that the site was now looking for. Yes, I am an idiot.

Six Hours and 15 Minutes

They were a little slow today, but to fair it was a Friday afternoon when I posted. It's late evening now, so I think it's safe to say that they have more than one employee doing this. There's where your fees are going, folks.

ELANCE

I've noticed that every time I mention the word ELANCE in a post, an employee from Elance takes a look at my blog. Yes- every time. That means they have at least one person, likely full time, searching blogs to see what people are saying about Elance. You know what we're saying? We're saying Elance. That's right- Elance. And if you guys can afford one or more blog trollers, why was it that you had to triple our fees again?

I'll post back with how many minutes it took before an ELANCE employee sprinted in here to see what was being said about ELANCE.

If you want to experiment with this on your own, I'd love to hear back about this bizarre phenomenon. Just mention the word ELANCE once or twice (or nine times) in your blog. How many minutes did it take? Did they leave a message or just read the post? How fun was it to mess with them?

Smorty Paid Blogging

I had Smorty recommended to me by another web writer, and I just signed up for that. The site's layout seems similar to PayPerPost, and the posts pay similar amounts. What I recently found out about PPP is that Google is reducing everyone's page rank that uses them. I don't give a crap about page rank, but I know a lot of bloggers who do, so it's something to think about.

If you want to blog for money, Smorty seems like a safe choice. Google is not penalizing them and the projects look straightforward and simple to perform. If you're interested in blog advertising, Smorty can get your item and link on blogs in whatever categories you choose. And if you have a site to advertise, it isn't expensive to get started and pay bloggers to mention your site. So, with this site it's not hard to find opportunities to get paid for blogging or to advertise on blogs. Both can be done on Smorty.

Using a Traffic Counter

StatCounter is such a useful, and fun, little traffic counter- and it's free. If you have a site that will take a little javascript, you just paste in the code and you're good to go. I have it on all of my sites, though the ones that won't take javascript just have the html version. If you can use the javascript version, it comes with a fun little link that let's you see where your traffic is coming from. This includes the city your visitors are coming from, and often the link they use to get there.

I love to see all of the international visitors that find it through Google searches, and the domestic ones who usually come in through a link somewhere. Using the StatCoutner, I saw that within half an hour of posting my last blog post, both Elance and the guy who stole work from me both visited my 'lil blog. Imagine that. Such a small world, isn't it?

Elance Fees

A lot has been said lately about the increase in Elance fees and how difficult it will make it for writers and translators to do business with them. I figured that since the new memberships come with a certain (small) number of "connects," I would go ahead and use them for projects that sent me an invitation. I've used them all for the month and I seriously doubt I will ever buy more. The amount they provide every month will probably be enough for my purposes.

But, the Elance fees that I've been the most concerned about are the over $50 in fees that have been taken from me for a job that was never paid for by the buyer. I sent several invoices, at the request of the buyer, and he never paid any of them. Of course, Elance still charged me the commission. Since I wouldn't pay Elance directly for the privilege of being stolen from, they took it out of the next few projects. But, today they actually refunded those fees! I am extremely pleased that, though it took weeks, they have refunded all of the fees I was charged for that nightmare of a project. This is the first time in a long time that I've been happy with Elance. They can act in a fair manner if you take the time to pursue matters with them.

Hotel Reservations

I've used Expedia and Travelocity before, but until recently had not heard about Hotel Reservations. The prices they offer are extremely competitive, and several of the destinations have special internet rates that are guaranteed to the the lowest rates available.

The site has more than just hotel reservations, however. There are also a number of vacation rentals available, which can be extremely difficult to otherwise find without going from site to site. They also offer deals on vacation packages, flights and car rentals.

The destinations that I've searched through hotelreservations.com, including New Orleans and London, brought up surprisingly low rates. The last time I went to London I paid a lot more than many of the rates available through the site. For the same price as my tiny room with a four-flight walk up, I can get a four-star hotel in the heart of London through hotelreservations.com. In addition to the range of hotels available, they also include hostels, giving travelers a wider variety of price ranges to choose from.

This is a sponsored post.