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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Incorrect Approaches To Freelancing

So, as one feels their way through this brave new world of microtasking and cloudsourcing jobs, there is one way to approach work that is counter productive. This is something I have discussed with my wife, at length.

Basically, with the rise of the Internet and more legitimate freelancing opportunities, one often has to gauge their time and whether or not that time is being monetized correctly. However, I do not believe in gauging everything by an hourly rate of pay.

Wage-rates are the domain of traditional work, and when you set at home most of the day, drinking coffee and writing $4 articles about the function of a urethra (for medical websites!), punching in and out of a time clock is an inadequate metaphor. You're a freelancer, after all -- technically every hour can be "on the clock." Plus, not all tasks pay the same. I have written a $15 article in five minutes, once, and a more complex $5 anatomy article in 45 minutes.

So, converting to a variable hourly rate, just for gauging one's level of productivity, is not really helpful. So, I have chosen to look at the day as a whole. How much did I make today? Versus How much did I make yesterday?

Thankfully, those daily totals are starting to improve again --- after a really shitty past two months.

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