Craft This!

My first professional clips came from a local craft magazine. My mother founded one of the first craft consignment and homeshow businesses outside of the Ozarks in 1980, and I followed in her footsteps, founding a company in 1994. As a side, I traded advertising with the publisher of this craft magazine and since embarking on my full-time writing career, have kept my fingers in craft, hobby and antique show writing.
So, I was automatically drawn to an ad for "Craft Writers," and automatically turned off when I clicked on the ad:

Looking for creative individuals to come up with craft ideas and write step by step directions.
· Compensation: $5 per craft project

$5 for project? Are they kidding. I then clicked on an ad not to far down:

"I am looking for people who like to write on various topics to add resources for my business. I will start the pay at $1 per article and will increase based on the quality of work. I have many topics and titles for you to choose from and you can write as often as you like. If interested, please reply with topics you can write about and how often you want to write. If you are making a counter offer, please state how much per article. "

From $5 an article down to $1? You can bet I made a counter offer:
"I'm making a counter-offer for $1 a word, the acceptable rate for a professional writer."
I'm sure I'll be hired.