I average about 65 emails a day, and *SPOILER* around 45 will be press releases. I think every journalist can relate to this. But freelancers get a few extra surprises thrown in the mix… Here are 25 some of the weird and wonderful requests I get from completely random people ALL THE F*CKING TIME.
👉 Can you turn this around by tomorrow?
👉 It’s unpaid, but great for exposure
👉 Sorry! The invoice got stuck in a backlog
👉 I saw your article and thought you’d like to hear about our product
👉 You’re a journalist? Let me tell you about my company
👉 I’ve got some news that you’ll want to write about. We have a new head of HR
👉 Can I pay after I decide to publish on my website?
👉 You should take some time off and try to work less
👉 It’s a very competitive rate – 22p a word
👉 The feedback process usually takes 2-3 weeks
👉 We don’t really have a content strategy right now … Do you think we need one?
👉 Can you make it a bit more salesy? You’ve hardly mentioned our product
👉 We’re looking for a freelance writer to join us four days a week.
👉There are our standard rates for English copywriting, I’m sorry you feel this way*.
👉 Just quickly… How do you write an article?
👉 The payment will go through on Friday (Spoiler: It never does)
👉 And can you get our articles into the press, maybe the Financial Times?
👉 We don’t have any SEO keywords or anything
👉 We were hoping you could get started straight away
👉 How do you feel about ChatGPT?
👉 That’s a bit more than we were hoping to pay
👉 If you’re ever writing an article about [insert super obscure topic here], you should interview [insert family member here]
👉 When are you going to start hiring people?
👉 I’ve written a blog! Could you re-share it?
👉 Go on! Make me jealous. What’s the temperature like over there? 😋 ☀️
… I’ve also had some creepy ones. Maybe for my next post, I will put a list of the 25 most pervy messages I’ve ever had back from interviewees…
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*I copied and pasted this line directly from an email. ICS Digital have a particularly extortionate rate for freelancers:
| 500 words | £18 |
| 600 words | £21 |
| 700 words | £25 |
| 800 words | £28 |
| 900 words | £32 |
| 1000 words | £36 |
| 1100 words | £39 |
| 1200 words | £43 |
The person who reached out to me in July 2020 expected me to write articles on Finance, Forex, Cryptocurrency (which takes about 3 days) for under £40 each. That is so far below minimum wage that I don’t even have words. Disgusting, right? And they have big name clients, who I am sure pay a lot for the articles!
