My prices are going up.
You all convinced me to do it.
Plus, the working 18-20 hour days for 30 days, with most of those orders being cancelled anyway.
And the fact that MOST people are now tipping for their content or saying they want to pay more for the quality (one chap is now paying $40 per 500-words providing he gets within 12 hours)
Just a few dozen hours to get through and BAM. Done.
Please keep us all updated - you’ve took us through hectic times and we’d love to see how progress erupts!
edit: your gigs are not up!
My gigs actually haven’t been unpaused for a month now. When they are, they are unpaused for about twenty minutes AT THE MOST. Then I pause them again 
I have too much work coming in from outside of the site now (at almost 30x the price of that gig) and my affiliate sites are starting to pick up. i am now no longer a fan of me waking up with these messages:
“You have 2 hours to do my gig or I leave negative feedback”
“I told you it would be delayed before you ordered”
“Don’t care. 2 hours. Less chit chat. More writing”
“It is 3am and your gig is 5 hours long”
“Best hurry then”
I then give a gig extension. They accept. I deliver 2 articles to ask them to check the writing style and:
“Mediocre work. not worth the price. Please cancel”
Not ONCE have I had somebody who pays more act like this. The only people who hate my work are those paying $5.00. I frikkin’ wrote an article for $5.00 that has now been published on Conde Naste Traveller with minimal edits, and the client was still unhappy with it. It baffles me. (note: I did that because the client had 6 gigs he was threatening to cancel if I didn’t)
I’m sure you made the right choice.
I wish you all the best! Keep up updated!
BTW I’m sorry you had to deal with the dirt bag you mentioned above. Some people…