Pros
The flexibility is a definite plus. You work how much you want and decide what it is you want to write. Complete flexibility.
Cons
Every article you write is subject to the will of a nameless, faceless copy editor. So there is no consistency on whether or not you will get your article published. An article of good quality will be approved one day and another of the same quality will be denied the next. The first time it is denied, you receive notes from the copy editor...which are usually terribly vague. If you do not please the copy editor the second time, your article is denied and disappears. So you could have spent 4 hours of work on something and then they flush it. And you've got nothing to show for it. Also, by now most of the "normal" topics to write about have been written about and all that is left are really really REALLY weird topics like "how to fix a furnace built in the 1940s with a toothpick." So even if it is a 15 dollar article, there is no way to back that up with research (which is always required) because everything is so obscure.