What's the lowest rate you've been offered for writing?

I'm looking for some additional writing gigs at the moment. Thankfully, I'm not struggling and have several established clients that keep me busy and pay reasonably well, although I do have the capacity to take on more work.

Having decided to set my LinkedIn profile as "Open to Work" and given my extensive background in a variety of niches, based on previous experience, it doesn't usually take long for recruiters begin reaching out.

Today I received a message from Captain Words, a writing and translation agency that's basically a content mill (I've heard of them before). Now I know that such mills pay some of the lowest rates, but they offered me $0.014 per word! In the last two decades, that has to be the single worst rate anyone has ever offered me.

I wouldn't even switch on my PC for such a derisory rate, even knowing how much has changed over the last couple of years with the eruption of AI and whatnot. Frankly, though, I was gobsmacked by such a low rate offer, even from a content mill. And I dread to think what the quality is like for such prices.

What's the lowest or worst rate you've been offered?

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