I had an order 9 days ago about photography and have written and sent them at his deadline but then he hasn’t paid me up until now. He was a former client of mine so I was very patient with him but now, he’s not even online on yahoo messenger anymore. Those are 15 500-word articles and it caused me valuable time writing those and I deserve to be paid. I want to sell those articles to dp members here but how will I know if he had already used those articles? How can I check and could I still sell the articles here? I hate being scammed. I have never scammed anyone in my life and experiencing something like this makes me want to puke! Can anyone help me please? What’s the best thing to do?
Have you considered copyscape? For one thing, copyscape isn't perfect by any means. It's just a so-so checking program but unless your article has been rephrased, it can really hit the nail on the head. You might have to upload your articles to a website to use copyscape but it's worth the effort. And, I think copyscape only allows 10-15 checks for a specific site; so, unless you can upload to multiple sites, you may have to pay a small fee towards the end of the checking run. There's another option. I would never suggest this to any writer unless they've really been ripped off. So, before/if you do this, make sure your buyer has actually scammed you ; don't jump the gun. Here's the deal: simply, rewrite the articles yourself, make it a PLR pack and sell it. Don't sell the articles as is. You have 15 articles, yes? So, price the pack at $10 and sell only 20 copies of the pack. Mention this 20-pack limit in your sales pitch. If you can do this, you're making slightly over $0.025/word which isn't bad considering you've been diddled Again, I don't recommend this; use your own judgment. Cheeeeeers
I use copyscape and I do have a premium account. I've checked the articles and they're not yet detected. Does this mean he hasn't used the articles yet? Though I think freshly published articles can't be detected by copyscape yet, right?
As I've already said, copyscape can only do so much. I'm not an expert at this; maybe others can shed a little more light here. But if you ask me, I'd advise you to wait for a few more days, drop your client a few more emails, and if you're finally convinced that you've been had, do a little paraphrasing and sell the articles as a PLR package.
Okay, a few things... First - Always, and I mean ALWAYS, get at least half your payment up front! Do Not write one single word until you've received at least half of your fee as a deposit. If a "client" refuses to pay, send him packing because guaranteed they'll try to get out of paying you somewhere down the line. Second - I'd be curious as to how many days have actually passed since his deadline. You said you received the order nine days ago, but failed to mention when the articles were turned in. If the deadline was nine days ago (ten now), and you have sent your invoice, my next question is what terms did you specify for payment? On delivery, within ten days, etc. If your terms were "On Delivery", send a PayPal statement for the entire balance along with the note: Then, after ten days, if he does not pay; either post them as samples on your blog, or resell them to the highest bidder. Hope that helps
Oh, I might have not made it clear with my first post. I meant I sent him the articles 9 days ago. He gave me 3 days to finish all 15 which I did. I didn't ask for an upfront payment because he had ordered articles from me a few times before so I trusted him. After I sent him the articles he asked me to wait awhile for the payment then after a couple of days or so, I sent him an invoice but then he emailed me back asking for 1 more day which I said was okay. It's now 5 days after and I did not receive any e-mail from him after I e-mailed him a couple more times asking if there was a problem and if he wants me to wait further or if he'd just allow me to sell the articles instead. I guess I'll wait a couple more days...
I made the mistake of not requesting 50% up front, and found myself in exacty your position. I had a client who owed me quite a lot of money. He didn't reply to my several emails requesting (then demanding) payment. Finally, I called him out-- told him I thought he was scamming me. And eventually he paid up... after a month of waiting. In the end, I don't think he was trying to scam me. I think he was just taking his time paying, trying to hold onto his capital for other projects. Once threatened, he paid. So maybe you will receive payment from this client... and maybe you'll have to threaten him first. Either way, you'll want to follow Jessalynn's advice in future, and take at least 50% down. Not only does this protect you, but it's also a good way to sift the wheat from the chaff. Good clients will pay it. Bad clients won't. Best of luck! Karen
Do this, go to all the search engines you know, starting with the most famous ones and pick out 30 word sentences or fragments from your articles, put them in quotes then type them in and search for them. That way you will know for sure if they have been used somewhere or not. Second, as others have mentioned, always take a portion of the payment beforehand regardless of who the client is. Hope that helps
you may know the result if you have received from article site that your article has been approved and posted online.
the recommendations here are all doable and effective somehow. i really hope things will go well. it's a shame that the buyer's a former client
Thankfully everything turned out well. This thread can now be closed. Thanks everyone for all your recommendations