It was towards the end of my semester of college and I found myself wanting to make some extra money online. I was presented with what seemed like a great solution: writing for the Odyssey, an online publication.
Here’s the problem: you don’t get paid.
Well, you can, but you won’t unless you get lucky and have an article go extremely viral, and even then it’s unclear exactly how much money you’ll make. It was my understanding before I quit that if you got 50,000 views you could get $20, but some people claim to have made $500 from a single article.
Now, the lack of pay wouldn’t be a problem because it’s really neat to have your works shared and read by people who normally wouldn’t read anything you write. The problem is that you’re expected to write for the Odyssey like you would for a real publication that pays. You constantly get emails, you have deadlines, there are new demands every week and eventually you start stressing over something that you honestly shouldn’t even take seriously because again-there is no pay.
Basically, they expect you to slave for their company with absolutely nothing in return besides “it looks good on a resume” (does it? I don’t even have it on mine that I wrote for them) and “people read your stuff”. Cool. I can share my own blog and people will read it, too.
If you think I’m being dramatic about the stupid emails, let me provide some examples of what the poor authors are plagued with weekly at the very least.
So, as you can see, not only do they want you to write for free, but you also can’t really write about whatever you want. If you don’t write clickbait, you’re reprimanded for it. If you don’t give your article a clickbait-esque name…it will be changed!
I liked our EIC so I stuck around until she left, but good Lord…I hate Odyssey.
They’re the pyramid scheme of the writing world. You’re supposed to recruit people, work for nothing, and constantly spam your friends. They wouldn’t even publish your articles unless you scheduled a minimum of 5 shares.
In conclusion, I quit writing for the Odyssey because they kept implementing new rules (such as banning the word “why” from headlines), expected you to not only write but recruit, made you spam your friends and encouraged you to spam your classmates before school even began. No thanks, I’m trying to make friends!
Also, literally anyone can get accepted to write for the Odyssey so they really don’t turn out any worthwhile content.
If you’re serious about writing, don’t get sucked into that crap website like I did.
Princess on the Prairie 