Day 7: Money, money, money…or not.

Unfortunately now whenever I see the words money, money, money together I think of Donald Trumps face and ridiculous hair — erggghhh. But Donald Trumps face is a actually a good analogy for how I feel today about my efforts to earn some money in the sharing economy — trampled, slightly disfigured and a little bit greasy.

So let me take you through what I have pimped myself out for in the last 24 hours.

#1 I have written copy for an Accident Helpline (read lawyers angling for compensation cases) — for £4 for 250 words.

I saw the job advertised on Copify and thought seriously how bad can it be? Well it turns out pretty bad. For someone who struggles to write corporate video scripts, this was heinous. I wrote things like “Burry Port, the home of famed flyer Amelia Earhart, is a wonderful place to visit. However when some drivers treat the roads like their own runway accidents can occur.” Yep, because I googled Burry Port and the only thing that it is known for is Amelia Earhart.

I did two of these each taking me half an hour — so a grand total of £8 and hour, if they get approved. I am still waiting on feedback.

#2 I have bid on a million crazy Freelancer jobs and not got any.

So despite having written professionally for almost 10 years it seems like I am not a good candidate.

#3 I have agreed to tutor a Romanian boy in English for £12 an hour.

So I signed up to another sharing economy website — UK.care.com This is a platform that allows you to find baby-sitting, tutoring, pet-sitting and care jobs. I signed up to be a tutor with a pretty honest profile. I detailed my experience in teaching, added the fact that I had worked in TV, and sprinkled in a little — I will be a different kind of tutor but with my enthusiasm and positivity I will inspire your child to learn.

I met my potential first client Camelia at Liverpool Street Station and told her about the Sharing Experiment, the press coverage and about my experience in the english language and teaching. And still £12 an hour.

#4 I have spent the afternoon writing bios for my friends.

Well to be honest I haven’t minded doing this at all, but only because I am doing it for people I like and genuinely want to help. If I was doing this for strangers the $5 price tag which equals £3.27 is kind of crazy. Even if I do them in 20 minutes that is just shy of £10 an hour.

So , so far the sharing economy is letting me down on the ease of earning money from my skills. Back in Sydney sharing my car made me some easy cash but here in London without any assets life is a little more difficult.

I have been thinking about why it is more difficult to make money off skills in the sharing economy than it is in the normal economy and I have come up with a few thoughts.

• Location — I am selling my skills through marketplaces that traditionally favour low prices.
• Reputation — because unlike on your own website, there is little branding on these platforms, and no reputation marketing. Therefore clients can read my skills through a CV but in the end I am probably put in the same basket as students, and less skilled writers.
• Anonymity — It’s easier to pay someone you don’t know less. They are just an email on your screen, not a person who you interact with and would feel bad about paying so little to. I am guilty of this myself when I have hired freelancers on Upwork. I have to admit I haven’t chosen the admin assistants or the researchers who are charing $15 an hour but the $5 an hour ones that often come from third world countries. And I think this is in part because …….
• Quality — There is no easy way to know what kind of quality you will get, especially for writing. Sure there are past work examples (although how do you know they are their own work) and ratings, but I don’t know it doesn’t feel the same, it always feels like a gamble.

Look, these are just my own opinions, and maybe I am wrong, or jaded from today, or this is just a teething problem in the way the sharing economy has been set up so far.

Anyway at the end of today I have earned a sum total of $25 which is £16.37 for a good couple of hours of work. I topped up my oyster card with £20 so that leaves me in the red for today. There has to be an easier way to make money in this economy — I just need to find it.