I know that Mir has posted often about the disservice women do ourselves and others for not being paid (and paid respectably) for our work.

But in order to get published, you often have to... be published. So, have you ever written pieces and not been paid in order to establish your reputation and to build a portfolio?

I did, a couple of years ago. I say do one or two and then no more free work or poorly paid work. By doing that, you're hurting yourself AND you are hurting everyone else who could be getting well-paid.

Do the articles I've written for this very website count? If so, then yes. I'm still very much a newbie, though, and not really even ready to think about opportunities to get paid for writing.

I have written for free in the past. Those articles were fun because I could just write about whatever I wanted and submit it to content sites. Once a couple had been picked up, I was able to add some "published clips" to my portfolio. It's been about four years, and I still use those same published clips to get paying jobs.

I think it depends on the purpose of writing. When I first started writing I did it solely to market my nutrition business. I didn't consider myself a "writer". I found that I really enjoyed it and started to write more. Now I get paid as a freelance writer for several small projects, but also still write for free for marketing purposes.

I do understand SJ's comments though. If this is your main source of bread and butter then giving away your work for free sets a tone that your writing may not be valued very high. If your portfolio is established then it may be time to stick with paying gigs.