The problem with freelance sites where you compete for work is that the low price usually wins. Same goes for pitching to magazines and customers . . . the lower you value yourself, the more likely you’ll get stuck with that price. Not only will you get paid for less than you are worth, but you get labeled as someone who works on the cheap.

The problem with racing to the bottom is that you might win.

You do not have to lowball your value in order to work. Unfortunately, in the publishing industry, we seem only to think we can either be the cream rising to the top or the lowball, scrambling for quantity instead of quality. You can ride the middle ground, always striving to rise, but starting at the very bottom, working for pennies, means you have further to go to reach a respectable wage. Why do that to yourself? Why compete with third-world companies where engineers and doctors are freelance writing to make ends meet and are satisfied with writing 2,000 words for $10?

You compete against way more competitors at the bottom. That’s where way more people underestimate themselves and hang out.

You compete against fewer people closer to the top. That’s not saying the competition for quality isn’t fierce, but fewer people dare to play in that arena.

Quality wins at either financial level. You decide whether you want a lot of $10 articles, or whether you want to strive for a few $500 articles. That is all on you. It might mean more rejection to race to the top than the bottom, but where would you rather be?