I read something quite interesting in the most recent issue of the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. According to the article “Wer entwirft mein Haus am billigsten?”, not only craftspeople offer their services on my-hammer.de. Also academics like architects and translators use the platform to bid for jobs. Yvonne K., an officially appointed and sworn translator, states to have worked for EUR 20 per hour when she started bidding for jobs, which is far too less for an expert as she is. But, says Yvonne, in the beginning it is a good strategy to do a few badly paid jobs in order to receive excellent feedback. The more excellent feedback she receives, the higher her pay-rates will be in the future. And: “…clients are willing to pay more for higher quality.”
This just reminded me of what Sascha Lobo and Holm Friebe wrote in her book “Wir nennen es Arbeit” about respect as a currency. So, you first earn “respect” credits, you save them (just as you would do with real money) and then you earn interests in the form of higher pay rates in the future.
Talking about long-term approaches… 
