Problems With Finding Work

I recently turned 18, but for the last year or so I've been trying to find online companies that will pay me for freelance writing work.

The types of companies that have you create a profile and then submit a sample of writing, and let the freelance work find you instead of you finding the work yourself.

And those are all the companies. All of them either want me to pay to use them, or they want me to just wait for weeks on end whilst I sit at my computer and hope something comes. Every single time I pass by those jobs.

Why?

Because I know my time can be used for better things than waiting around for someone to notice my work.

So, I kept searching.

You know what I find?

More sites that want my money. More lists of the same places that I don't want to use. Places that will pay me a 5 cents per sentence because they don't understand how freelancing works. And places like Upwork.

I tried to use Upwork once, and immediately saw red flags. There were so many red flags.

First, I make my account and user. Set myself up as a fiction writer looking for work, but I mostly do proofreading work. Then, I go looking for jobs.

The site wants me to use their in-site currency to pay for the job.

Why?

What's the point of making me pay $2.99 for 5 green coins, for a job that will pay me maybe $10. That's a third of my earnings, gone.

The kicker?

I have to use those coins, and then I'm not guaranteed the job.

I have to pay money to compete for the job.

'You can use more coins for a better chance,' I'm reminded.

Yeah, no.

So, I left Upwork and kept searching for more. Which leads me here.

I like the site, truly. But wouldn't I have a better time just making a blog and posting short stories on there? The ad revenue would sure be nice.

I could, in all honesty.

However, making a website look good isn't cheap. I'd have to use one of those overly priced website-making websites, and then scour the internet for a promo code so I don't have to spend $30 on a website.

A website that would make me that $30 back in maybe a month.

Websites take time. Time I don't have.

Should I make my own for others with this problem? Probably. But that's just this site, isn't it?

So, I'm stuck.

I'm still going to look for work. In the end I might just have to actually finish writing that novel and publishing that. Or get a job in a library close by.

But what's the problem? Well, the problem is that finding work sucks. You would think in this age of the internet I'd be able to find one website that's comfortable just taking my views and not my money.

In one jour alone I found countless blog posts with unhelpful lists, with more unhelpful lists hidden inside them!

It's impossible to know what you're going to find on the internet, but one thing for sure is that most of it is unhelpful.

I even found a website that said it would do just what I wanted it to. Give me a place to show off my writing and getting paid while doing it. Then, it gave me a paywall.

'Just sell me your soul,' it was saying.

What's the point of looking so deeply when all I'll find is this?

What's the point?

The point is that I'm broke and in desperate need of money that's not scholarship money.

So I guess I'll keep looking. Maybe this site will be exactly what I want. Probably not. I always find something to hate about everything.

I'm not a lazy person, either. But all this searching only to find nothing, for a whole year, wears a person down.