So you want to be a writer, huh?

I’ll be honest with you – it isn’t easy. It took me years of work and learning the hard way from multiple mistakes before I hit some semblance of a stride. Split infinitives and post-colon capitalization lurk in my peripheral vision, and spellcheck saves me a minimum of a dozen times an hour, even a decade after I first got the notion to do this for a living. I’m a good writer – an imperfect one, perhaps, but halfway decent if a bucketful of happy clients is any indication. You can be too, if you’re willing to work at it a little and keep persistence as a constant goal.

I started The Freelance Writer Guide to…

Avoiding Craigslist Scams: Freelance Writing Jobs on Craigslist

With MediaPiston shutting its doors for good and other content mills scarce on work, a lot of freelancers have hit the digital bricks in search of more sources of work. Craigslist, long a standby for those in search of day labor, clerical work, and other service industry jobs, is an obvious stop in the freelance job process. This nationwide classified ads site is divided into towns and metro areas by state, and offers up everything from old couches to questionable companions to free kittens. That disparity should automatically put searching freelancers on notice for scams, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to – they keep popping up, which means they’re still getting victims.

Here is a little guidance for anyone searching for freelance jobs on craigslist.

1.)    Google it!

Snag a sentence or two from the middle of the post and toss it in Google, using “ “ type quotes around it. This tells Google to only return searches that use that exact phrase, and it will instantly tell you if that craigslist poster is putting up identical posts across multiple states and cities. If the same post shows up in a rural craigslist and a metro craigslist that are right beside each other, this probably isn’t cause for concern – so long as they’re in the same state. If a Pennsylvania craigslist ad shows up under the Chicago listings? Skip it – it’s more than likely a scam.

2.)    If the post passes the Google test, take a long look at it.

• Is there an affiliate link in it? Affiliate links will usually show up as a few numbers or letters after the usual web address, such as Awebsite.com/afflink/12345. While this isn’t *always* an immediate full stop, it’s a hell of a red flag.
• Does the text appear as an image instead of typed words? Meaning, can you highlight the text by clicking and dragging your mouse over it? If the answer is no, skip it – this is a scam that’s trying to get by filters and astute Googlers by using an image that isn’t “read” by Google’s robots.
• Does it give very little information, instead using very strong “salesy” language to get you to go to a scammy-looking site, watch a video, or download a program? Walk on by – they’re up to something!
• Does it use phrases like “potential to make” , “make as much as”, “work from home”, “opportunity”, or “paid training”? Does the text or phrasing sound foreign? These are key tip-offs that something is amiss. Remember: a real, legitimate job will not make you buy start up kits or uniforms, encourage you to sell to friends and family, demand information for a “credit check” (this is actually illegal!) nor make you pay for your own “background check.”

3.)    If you decide to check out a post by emailing it, hit Google again when you hear back from the poster.

Google the names, company names, and even phone numbers of the person you’re corresponding with. (Keep a notebook nearby during phone interviews for this purpose) Do not give out any personal information such as a phone number, email address, and especially your physical address or social security number until you have verified the company is 100% legitimate. The only place you should ever reveal this information is on a W-9 IRS form, and even then you should be very cautious about who you surrender it to.

If you find a scam, feel free to report it to Craigslist directly by “flagging” the post, and drop a comment on our SCAM page here on the Freelance Writers Guide. You’ll be protecting fellow freelancers from falling prey to these slimy faux clients.

Freelance Writer Guide Forums – Come Visit!

I’m pleased to announce that The Freelance Writer Guide now has its very own freelance writer forums! You can make a free account by following the link or clicking the “Forums” tab at the top of this blog.

As some of you may be aware, MediaPiston recently dropped a bombshell on its writers by announcing it would be folding at the end of February. The MP forums have a fairly robust community, so I decided to give them a new place to roost when the site goes poof in two weeks.

I encourage you to go take a look, make suggestions, and poke around. I’m excited about this new step in connecting freelancers!

Freelance Writing Site Info: iWriter

Freelance Writer Guide Asks: Is iWriter legit or is iWriter a scam?

My readers know that I will typically walk through every aspect of a writing site, detailing procedures like applying to write for pay online, the experience one can expect once approved, and even pay frequency – iWriter breaks the mold because I don’t feel they deserve that treatment. iWriter was pretty low on my totem pole for review, as the site is extremely sparse on jobs and much like the scam Write.com seemed to perpetuate, drew newbies in with the promise of high pay that wouldn’t manifest until several months of pittance-pay grunt work had been plowed through.

Essentially, the idea is that you start off as a beginner at iWriter.com, and you aren’t able to move up to the higher ranks (premium and elite, respectively) until you’ve cleared at least 30 jobs. Beginners make about half a cent per word, which is ridiculously low; so low that I’d immediately dismiss it as a possibility for my fledgling writers. I checked the site just before writing this and the only job available to beginning English writers was a 500 word piece on Indian Real Estate that paid a whopping $2.63 and came from a client with a 53% rejection rate track record. Um, no thanks.

Normally I’d just shrug this off as a bad site and move on, but iWriter lined themselves up in my sights with an appalling email. Actually, the iWriter email wasn’t so bad, it was the stomach-turning iWriter.com SCAM it led to. Here’s a screenshot of the email, with my comments in red (click to enlarge):

“This breaks down to a whopping 2.02 cpw at the highest level available on their site.”

 

Okay, I’ll bite. A special iWriter test that I have to take to get a higher rank, maybe? Let’s find out by logging into the iWriter.com site (click image to enlarge) -

Wow. Just…wow.

 

So this iWriter.com scam expects newbie writers to not only fork over $147 (!!!) to prove that they’re “serious” about writing, they also want three free pieces of SEO content to prove your “worth”. Any freelance writing site that engages in these scam practices needs to be crossed off your roster, period. No legitimate site will EVER make you PAY to work for them on ANY level – that’s not how employment or freelancing works, it’s actually the polar opposite of how it’s supposed to work.

iWriter.com is a scam, iWriter.com is a waste of time, and they should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for attempting to take advantage of new writers like this. Avoid iWriter.com.

 

 

 

 

Connecting With Copywriting Clients: The Message

While I mentioned taking steps towards cementing client relations in the freelance writer guide, it’s important enough that it bears repeating. As a new or aspiring copywriter, you’ll be faced with many days – weeks, at times -where work is just plain slow. Whether it’s economic or time-based in nature, open order clients periodically tighten up their requests or stop requesting projects all together until business picks up. This is often only an appearance, however, with the bulk of available work simply earmarked out of the “public” eye on work sites. If you write for money online, you can either starve through the lean times or treat every project as an opportunity to open doors. I highly recommend the latter!

The first step is to craft a brief message, roughly 2 or 3 sentences, that communicates both gratitude and professional marketing of your skills. In addition, adding in the client’s name (where available) and referencing the article(s) you’ve just finished for them personalizes your message and makes it more likely to make an impact. Here’s an example, but be sure to craft one in your own voice:

“[Client Name], thank you for giving me the opportunity to work on your [Article Subject] article. I strive to deliver 5-star level work to my clients; if you agree that I’ve provided it, please rate me accordingly. If not, please let me know how we can get this piece to 5-star status for you. Thanks again, and I hope that we can work together in the future.”

With perks such as the ability to claim more than one piece of work at once, higher pay rates, and even access to more work, getting high site ratings when you write for pay online is a vital consideration. The stress on the level-5 rating will ensure you don’t suffer low ratings due to client misunderstanding or neglect, while the mention of future collaboration will inevitably land you on some exclusive team/favorite lists within each site.

Almost every content mill site – MediaPiston, TextBroker, Interact Media – has a method for contacting the client in some fashion. With some write for money sites, a digital wall or board is available within the article writing interface, with others messages may be sent to the client’s inbox directly. Send or post your message with every piece you write; I recommend typing it out manually each time to prevent a cut-and-paste snafu that references the wrong job or client -that will send the wrong message entirely. In the event that posting or messaging options aren’t made available on the site you use to write for money online, try working your message, minus the name and article subject, directly into your profile page text.

Protected: Thank You! A Note to my Donors…

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Freelance Writing Site Info: Interact Media Review

Freelance Writer Guide Asks: Is Interact Media legit or is Interact Media a scam?

What is Interact Media?

Interact Media, also known as Zerys, is a content mill site, in the realm of Textbroker and Media Piston.  The site uses a job board to present writers with projects. An initial star rating system, based on a writer’s sample, is used to determine what tasks are available to a given writer.

How do I get started at Interact Media?

The application process is long and somewhat convoluted. I actually got some of the way through and ended up leaving off because I had work at my already-accepted sites that was more lucrative than slogging further along. I eventually finished my application when a pleading email came from IM citing 400+ jobs had flooded in and they needed fresh writers to work at them. Here’s the hoops you need to jump through:

(deep breath)

Okay, seems simple enough.

Email auto-received after filling out form.

Whoa. Lot of stuff to do!

Once you’ve confronted the checklist, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and dig in.

Requisite profile “stuff”. An image is required.

Lengthy signup contract. Logs your IP addy, which I’m not keen on.

Here’s where things start getting complicated. Your next step is to pick “expert” categories to denote what subjects you will write about. Simple premise and not wholly unexpected, but there are four levels of each category, and a host of sub-categories in levels 2, 3, and 4. These sub-categories are extremely arbitrary, with paths for things like family > family crafts > craft terminology, and the inability to leave off if there’s further availability in the “path” – in that example, you couldn’t stop at “family crafts,” for instance. You must choose ten permutations and you must restrict yourself to no more than 5 level one categories. Sorry, renaissance people – you only get to be so talented.

The category-picking page.

The expanded info on “YoExpert” (which will come up again soon)

Random category paths I picked out for this walkthrough.

Once you manage to get through the odd system of category-picking (you can choose up to 100 paths, by the way, if you have hours to kill) you move to the inevitable sample page. I will give IM credit in that they allow you to choose whether you want to submit an already-written sample or create a new one, but the fact they expect the new one for free kind of cancels that credit out. Cue skepticism re: every place that’s ever fished for free writing, citing “valuable exposure”.

Gee, it’s not like they -emphasize- one over the other or anything..

Assuming you decide to continue from there, you can expect an email a few days later with a congratulation message for making it inside, along with your editor-issued star rating. (From here on out, your rating will be entirely dependent on client ratings of your work.) What they’ve neglected to tell you until now – and what you’ll quickly discover – is that while there are 2 and 3 cent/word jobs that show up on the boards, they’re few and far between, vastly outweighed by the appalling .007/word work. No, that’s not a typo of 7 cents, readers – that seven tenths of ONE PENNY per word. I’ve never in my career seen a legitimate American site paying such horrible rates, and I was very, very disappointed to find that a fairly well-known site is responsible for perpetuating that it’s perfectly fine to pay skilled, native writers in fractions of a penny.

The numbers don’t lie.

How do I get paid at Interact Media?

Hopefully, twice a month via the paypal address you supplied in the application process. I say “hopefully” because the site has, easily, the longest review times I’ve ever seen. According to an email I received in response to my query, “editors” – who don’t work for IM, by the by, and are agents of the clients who post the jobs – have 14 business days to look over your article, with the potential of 14 more business days after that if they request a revision on the tail end of the countdown clock. Direct clients, those that don’t use an editor, have a far more reasonable 5-7 business days to approve or reject the article. (EDIT TO ADD: More insight into this timeline can be found in the comments below. )

Screenshot of an actual email.

How is the overall experience at Interact Media?

For me, it was terrible. After waiting for the better part of two weeks to get a measly $5 article approved, a $12 piece I had labored over (an article subject instructed to be tied in with a business that had nothing to do with it, along with links) was unceremoniously rejected – literally the first time in 8+ years of writing on content sites that I’ve ever had that happen. No recourse, no appeal, no revision attempt or opportunity allowed. Just a dismissive digital hand wave and my hard work left me with nothing but a highly-branded piece on a very odd subject that I had no hope of reselling.

Helpful Hints for Interact Media?

If you decide to try it out, do yourself a favor and check out a client’s profile prior to accepting a project. There will likely be telltale comments from previous writers if he or she is difficult to deal with, or exceptionally demanding. Don’t rely on this site for fast money, as the review times are absurdly long and they only pay twice a month.

When to Say When: Troublesome Clients

Writing itself is a difficult undertaking, but when frustrating clients get into the mix it’s enough to make a writer want to throw her hands up and stalk off muttering. I’ve had the misfortune of stumbling over a rare few this week and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that they definitely rained on my confidence parade. When you get your speed up and feel like you’re doing great, one of these clients can come across as a punch to the gut, and the momentum-skew is able to knock newbies right into the realm of “Maybe I can’t do this, after all.” Don’t let that happen! Here are a few rules to guide you when clients start tangling you up:

1.) It’s OKAY to “fire” a client.

This could mean releasing the job, refusing direct/personal/solo orders, or communicating the “86″ directly with the client if they’re a private hire. Your time is valuable, and one of the greatest benefits of freelancing is choosing the people you want to work for – allowing a “bad” client to eat up your time and patience is essentially tossing that benefit out the window. If you’re going to do this, don’t do it often or you’ll gain a rep for being unreliable – if you find yourself doing it often on a site, it may be time to switch sites, and if it happens everywhere it may be time to take a good long look at your own behaviors and tones.

2.) Clients aren’t perfect.

Money, education, experience, and personal creed don’t make a jerk any less of a jerk. Some clients are bullies that will treat you like an indentured servant, and some are new to the game and have unrealistic expectations for the money they’re willing to put out. It’s your job to lay clear boundaries, keep your workload reasonable, and communicate frequently if you’re lost as to what they’re looking for.

3.) Cherry-picking is A-ok.

There are a lot of arguments made for challenging yourself in the freelance arena, and while I agree with some of them, the time for experimentation is not when the electricity bill is overdue. When making money is the goal, grab a pair of 300-word articles on a subject that you’re familiar with, as opposed to a 600-word article on something you’ve never heard of just because the end pay is highest. More often than not, the time/pay ratio of researching and writing that unfamiliar 600-word could have been applied to three smaller articles and netted you a higher gain.

4.) Don’t be afraid to tattle.

Treat your liaisons at content mill sites (Textbroker, MediaPiston, etc) like managers, not babysitters. If you’re having trouble with a client bullying you or expecting far more than he or she outlined in the initial instructions, drop a note to your liaison and ask for guidance and assistance – don’t rely on them to fix every small problem you may have on the site. You’re expected to act like a professional, but even professionals need help sometimes.

5.) Keep your cool.

Even if the client gets insulting and starts throwing curses, don’t rise to the bait. YOU are the professional, and lashing out with snarkiness, sarcasm, or hostility will almost always come back to bite you. Remain collected, answer in a neutral, businesslike tone, and if that doesn’t diffuse the situation, refer to #4.

As a small reminder that I’d previously mentioned in the guide, if you’re going to complain on forums about clients (and you really shouldn’t), it’s always best to use a forum-specific nickname and avoid details that could lead back to you, such as subject matter and word counts. No one wants to work with someone that whines, no matter how warranted it may be, and blabbing details might just get you booted off content mill sites for violating buried non-disclosure clauses in the opening contracts that many don’t read.