Copywriting is becoming irritating............tired of chasing people for payments.

Personally, I've never been cheated out of my payment, so I think I must be doing something right. And the proven method you suggested is, of course, an obvious choice, but only if you're working from freelance sites.

There are other situations, such as referrals and job offers coming from forums and other places online where escrow is not an option.

Honey

 

What stops then use escrow if you even get a job from some forum (DP for example). You both register there and make a project done. Both happy.

As for referalls, I think escrow not even needed. By reasons everyone understands.

 

Sounds like you have a plan in place to correct the problem.

I always ask for 50% payment upfront, without exception. I don't start working on an assignment until I get the deposit. People can flake out on you at anytime, it doesn't matter if you've worked with them once or 1,000 times.

In your agreement, make sure you clearly define payment terms - the number of payments to be made and the date by which they should be made. Always specify how long the client has to make the final payment. Something like "Ten days after invoice date" or "Seven days after receipt of assignment" is reasonable. Make sure you're giving your customers time to actually receive and review the assignments. Allow time for weekends and holidays.

 

Escrow is a waste of time and they often screw you on the fees as well.

Simple, if you're a doing a job worth more than $10.00, take at least some of the money up front; even if it is a buck so that you have their details.

 

I have had that recently, what bothers me is the people want to get the content then use it to see if it churns any money. If it doesn't (in their standards) They feel they don't owe you. I have 700.00 pending out there right now and the guy keeps telling me to hold out and stick with him because this is a hungry market. Can't live like that when you have bills and mouths to feed.

Got to be proactive in how to deal with these situations. I woul say to stand firm in what you are saying and don't let them bully you. Also if they don't meet your criteria, then let them go. A better client will come along.

Jim

 

Take it from someone who started small, with a couple of writers doing small projects here and there for webmasters, to now processing literally thousands of dollars (per order) in web content orders:

Get the payment up front. If you are already established in the industry, and you have some reputation before you, your work will speak for itself. When i first started Article Authors in 2005, i gave away free articles, gave people the ability to pay at the end after delivery, etc. I did what it took to get established.

Did I get burned? Sure! But the postive orders outweighed the negative one. After awhile, i made it a business decision to do orders on a payment upfront basis..and it's been one of the best biz decisions i've made. Now my corporate contracts are another matter altogether. I've got service contracts for those

 

LOL I feel your pain, man. I'm currently in this situation. I wish people here were a bit courteous and honest.

 

That is a great point, I've been ripped off about 3 times now by DP members, I finally got sick of it and started looking elsewhere for writers.. I've been sold exact copies.. etc.

When I freelance - I write gambling content on occasion, i also buy it. I don't do any work for a new client without a deposit.. bare minimum. Usually 100% in full up front.

After I've built a relationship with a client, things get a bit more relaxed and I usually use an invoicing system.

 

Olate Iono ? (Google it)
It might help

Jac

 

The olate iono site seems to be more for software sales...I wonder if it would it work for written stuff as well.

It's a shame that DP has soooo much valuable information and yet apparently maintains the reputation of being the go-to place for some of the cheapest writing online.

While I know many marketers probably love that aspect of it, it saddens me to see people working for $2-4 per article. Especially when I see others (elsewhere) charging as much as $35 for a 400 word article.

There ought to be some middle ground there, where a writer can make a respectable amount of money for the work they do and a marketer doesn't have to go broke outsourcing.

Honey

 

I guess no one is safe, even those with high i-trader reputations. Have about $300 worth of pending payments, supposedly for my son's school fees and I'm now cramming for work because these idiots don't value honesty.

 

I agree with honey, no one should have to develop hand issues trying to break even.

The unfortunate but not so unfortunate aspect is that DP has alot of overseas writers that charge pennies so in order to get anything. The American writer then feels in order to compete, they have to de-value their standards.

What I have noticed with the marketers are they are trying to churn out articles as fast as they can so they can start seeing a profit for whatever they are promoting.

I also see that if you want quality and not have the risk of plagiarism, you will have to pay for the quality. I know that when I pay for quality, I am paying a good amount of money. My clients expect me to deliver quality if they are paying a good penny for it as well.

I am not saying that all DP overseas writers are not quality writers, but you just have to really look out for the good deals.

Another thing to do is don't pick out the first writer you see, test them all out. Some will be good and some will unfortunately turn out to be bad apples.

To Success!
Jim

 

I agree a lot on this one, Jim. I am from overseas and the pricing works for me at least. However, what I cannot stomach is that words are becoming mass produced here to the point that they eventually lose their meaning.

I've been guilty of this for several times already, but it never stops in getting me into thinking that I'm not really growing as a writer here. When I start thinking about it, the money loses its appeal.

Anyway, all I can say is that I'm trying to give the best that I can no matter how sh*tty I think most of the topics are as well as the pay. Maybe writers should go on strike here to and demand for a higher pay. LOL

 

I always thought a good iTrader was a sign you could trust the client. Scares me to think iTraders aren't worth much. I've never been burned thus far, but I am probably going to scrutinize iTraders in depth from now on!

 

The primary problem is that people don't always assign the same priority to paying bills as we do. I fully understand the frustration of late payments. I am reminded every once in a while though that there are times when the delays are unavoidable. Things do happen. I had a customer get checked into the hospital about a week ago. I had been wondering why he wasn't responding to my emails. I finally called him and got him in his hospital bed. He had to have emergency surgery. Did he have a great reason to not answer in a timely fashion? YES! Stuff happens. I am trying to be more patient and understanding with people. I do know the pressure of being on the last penny and nobody is answering. I've been there in years past and it's not a nice feeling. Thankfully today I can plan ahead better and avoid those tight spots. Saving money is a part of it these days.

 

ITrader would be like Ebay whereas it can only show past history. When the tide turns (if it does) and someone's circumstances change drastically, all bets are off. I've learned people do what they have to do to survive.

Heck, even Ebay's feedback isn't accurate or useful if an account is hijacked.

I still like to give people the benefit of the doubt until they give me reason not to. Due care is still a good thing though.

 

Feedback is paramount in getting new business I believe. The freelance writing world, and most successful freelance writers, operate on a referral basis. The more positive feedback that you hear from clients, you can be most assured that if the opportunity presents itself for them to gloat about their content, they'll tell someone. Now, that may not be the case for ghostwriting, but by and large if a client is happy, they'll tell you and maybe someone else as well.

Cheap content does not always equate to quality content. There ARE clients out there who are willing to pay top dollar for a quality piece of content. Don't sell yourselves short in that area. Do what you have to do to get established, but then find your niche and run with it and charge out what you feel is a good price.

The funny thing is, based on the feedback from my own writers (who always want more exposure), I set up a freelance writers directory so that writers could get more exposure and have clients leave feedback for them. What a coincidence to this thread www.findyourwriter.com

 

For me I usually charge half up front, or if it is a new client or a very large order I use escrow. Any buyer who refuses escrow is one to stay away from. I usually have payment due in full within 72 hours of delivery accounting for the weekend, as little as 24 hours during the week. If they can't pay for service when the service is done they shouldn't be conducting business; no excuses.

 

Being the buyer of content I don't mind prepaying be that 50% or 100%
I usually find writers here at DP, check the iTrader status, check the reliability with a small order ($10-15) and then order more.

I've only been duped once by the content writer who took the money and never sent the content but I didn't invest much effort in tracing him down.

Just my 2 cents

 

On the other side of things there are clients who are being screwed over when they pay first and then never receive anything... I probably won't be using DP for copywriting again because of the trouble I've had with "CopyWriter1" ... I usually use GetAFreelancer which has a system for keeping both sides safe from being scammed.