Asking for money can come across and feel very differently, depending on culture and context. But the simple fact is that if you don't ask, you are overwhelmingly unlikely to receive, no matter how dire your need or cost-effective the opportunity. Especially if you're mostly interacting through a low-context, low-friction medium like the Net.

Especially in those situations, doing right by one another depends on a rich environment of information about costs, benefits, needs, and opportunities. You have to talk frankly about your time, money, and interest, and you have encourage and listen to others when they do so. Otherwise, nobody can have any confidence that people are being treated fairly, rather than seething or starving in silence, and good work is being rewarded.

I've tried in the past to write up a few of the basic lessons we all learn the hard way in freelance work:

https://blog.licensezero.com/2017/10/16/mercenary-rapport.ht...

To spoil it:

Give as you take.

Talk frankly about time and money.

Slice the pie fairly.

Keep your integrity at all costs.

Pay help forward to new people.

Honest pay for honest work.