How long does it take you to write an article? A good article... an article someone would want to read?
Now keep that amount in mind.. now sell that article for $10 and figure out how much you are making an hour..
Now.. add in marketing time.. time you spent actually making the deal... now again.. how much are you making per hour?
If you accept every offer, or jump on every offer in forums.. then you've created a buyers market..
I cringe every time I see someone sell a few hours work for $10 .. geeeez guyz.. c'mon! Do you know how much these websites make off of your work? .. More than ten bux !
I completely agree with your point, but not for the reasons you state. A rate of 0.02 $ per word seems to be the DP standard now, if not less. This doesn't mean that there aren't good paying gigs, it only means that they are harder to find. I started as a general writer than slowly I have found my niche. For me it was sales copy that did the trick.
My advice for start up writers is not "Ask for better pay rates", but rather "Find a niche that pays better". Become a specialist in a certain segment and then cash in on that.
That's exactly what I'm doing right now but with existing pages. I show the copywriter the page's current performance (time spent, exit rate, dollar index) and ask them to make the page sell better/convert better. 6 weeks later we check out the stats and if both exit rate has lowered and dollar index has gone up (source = Google Analytics) it was successful so we pay based on the rate of change. I've had plenty of sales copy writers willing to put their money where their mouth is like that.
With the current rate of 0.02 USD per word, it is really hard to go against major outsourcing centers. I was shocked to know that there are articles sold at 2-5 USD, some even sell it for as low as 1 USD. Of course, there are doubts about the quality, but the buyers seem to be okay with that.
I find erik's approach plausible. If the current gig is not paying enough with the effort you are putting into it, then I guess its about time that you look for another gig which would pay well for the effort you do.