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CrowdSPRING cattle call: “Work for FREE, suckers!”

If you’re a designer, you’ve probably heard of CrowdSPRING. If you’re a writer, you’re going to hear of them soon.

They’ve been around since 2008 and have billed themselves as a way for freelance designers to access a worldwide market, and an affordable way for small and medium-sized businesses to get logos and graphic design quickly and affordably. Now they’re expanding into freelance writing services.

Sounds great, right? That depends on your point of view.

From the point of view of hobbyists, stay-at-home-moms, out-of-work creatives, students, and desperate freelancers, CrowdSPRING probably sounds like a pretty good idea. From the point of view of a professional, the idea is pernicious and borderline unethical.

What CrowdSPRING is really doing is sounding a freelance cattle. They’re automating the spec work concept. They want to convince you to work for free … and like it!

Here’s how it works.

A business posts a project and the price they want to pay. Freelancers then submit “entries” for that project. CrowdSPRING promises the client at least 25 entries to choose from and boasts that the average project attracts over 100 entries. The client chooses a winner and the freelancer gets the “award,” while CrowdSPRING pockets 15%.

This is a great arrangement for the business. They get at least 25 freelancers to submit work, but they only have to pay for one. This is called “spec” work or work on speculation.

But for the freelancers, it’s not such a great deal. I looked at project and award statistics for the top 10 freelance designers (there were only 4 writing projects when I looked today). This top freelancer has received 944 awards out of 3,942 entries. That means this person has been paid for 1 of 4 projects since mid-2008.

So if this freelancer charges $25 an hour, the actual pay works out to $6.25 an hour. That’s less than minimum wage.

But it gets worse. In the top 10, one of the freelancers has received only 226 awards out of 2,643 entries. That’s 1 in 11. Using the same $25 an hour rate, this freelancer is earning $2.27 an hour. This is getting embarrassingly close to what some kids get for an allowance or a good report card.

And if you can believe it, one freelancer I saw has been paid for just 1 out of 311 projects. That’s so pitiful, I can’t even fathom the lack of self-respect and self-worth that would cause someone to do so much work for so little pay.

To be fair, CrowdSPRING is a solid business concept. It’s successful with over 50,000 freelancers around the world who participate  (though I wonder how many are in the U.S. vs. India or other low wage countries). And the fees for projects seem to be reasonable, if not lucrative. At least you don’t have the ridiculously low offers you find on some other freelance sites.

But you don’t get paid for all your work. You have to roll the dice and “win” the pay.

If you’re a professional, you don’t want to do spec work if you have any real experience or expertise. Spec work is the human version of a cattle call. You are asked to strut your stuff along with a herd of other freelancers and hope you are chosen.

What other professional does this? Doctors? Lawyers? Dentists? Airline pilots? Accountants? What would you think of a dentist who agreed to treat 25 patients and get paid for just one? You’d think he or she was desperate. Would you want to work with a desperate dentist?

For a professional freelancer, doing spec work perpetuates an unprofessional image, devalues your time and skill, and prevents you from reaching your full potential.

I’ve always turned away ad agencies and businesses who hold cattle calls for spec work. I refuse to work with CrowdSPRING or any similar operation. And if you seek to be a full-time professional copywriter, so should you.

CrowdSPRING will undoubtedly attract thousands of writers who don’t want to be a professional, don’t care about the profession of copywriting, and don’t realize they’re being taken advantage of. I hope you are not one of them.

You are not cattle. Ignore the freelance cattle call.

You’ll notice that I’m not giving you links for CrowdSPRING because I don’t want to promote their work-for-free concept. But I will give you links to two sites that agree with me that spec work is unprofessional:

Spec Watch

NO! SPEC

Both are focused on design, but are militantly against doing spec work of any kind.

Please spread the word. Share this article with every freelancer you know.

Related posts:

1. 8 rules for setting your freelance copywriting fees
2. Can freelancers REALLY make 6 figures a year?
3. 7 freelance tricks to get new clients fast
4. 8 time-eating freelance client species to avoid
5. Freelance fees: hourly or per project?

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