Guys, Maybe this has been discussed previously, but I am a bit frustrated with PMs asking for samples all the time. It's fine if they want to see a previous post/article, but a lot of buyers these days are looking for original samples written on request. Now, I read a thread where a Costa Rican guy narrated his experience of buying a black hat ebook that includes this 'collecting sample' articles and selling them as bundles. Still to offer work as a writer, we have to send samples. I have had 4-5 experiences in last two weeks where I wrote a 300 word original article and the client never got back. What's the best way forward?
Samples are a thing that determine the quality of a writer! It is absolutely fine to ask for a sample. Unique as one may copy an article and say it's his/her!
I like to see samples because it helps me with seeing how they write. Sometimes people are looking only for a certain kind of style and if they don't see it in your sample they might not hire you. Think of it as a blessing in disguise because wouldn't it be a pain to do loads of work for someone and then it be all of the wrong kind because they didn't know how you wrote and wouldn't pay you because of that? One suggestion is to start a blog with some of your articles and just link them to your blog. Good luck on it, I'm a writer myself and I know what it is like when someone does not respond.
I write also. So what I started doing is when I have the feel to write and no clients work to be done, I write a quick sample to show prospective clients. Building my portfolio and soon will be posting to my blog. This way it is readily available for clients looking for work to be done.
Thx for all the advice so far. I have a blog that I frequently point prospective clients to. Still, some do need to see how well can i write in their niche.
Don't give them anything. Show them a link of previous clients. Chances are they can't afford you anyway if you are that good.
There are basically two types of PMs we get one from genuine writers and one from those who say others work as work done by them and differentiating is quite difficult but after certain job is assigned to them then we get to know the result by then we are far too ahead and we have lost our time and money
That would be an ideal scenario. In ghostwriting you never know what happens to your article once it leaves your desk.But ya I see your point. I try to point them to my blog. I wish I had a portfolio of different kind of writing in various niche. Is that a good option to consider? Developing a profile and showcase on the blog.
Either (1) they are a great client that you'd love to work with so much that a free sample won't be a problem, or (2) they'd agree to pay for a sample which shows that they would be good to work with. That's a good world. But I've sent custom samples to one or two people to start myself off, making sure that they are far smaller than the articles that the person wants. Providing something for free is just another cost of marketing as long as the buyer doesn't expect the "normal" product to be free. Not contacting you after a sample article is bad, and they should be named and shamed.
Write your own articles. Nobody reads that spammy garbage anyway. You can tell right away when it's somebodies attempt at SEO, they go overboard recommending their junk. Nobody reads that stuff. Trust me. If you have been writing articles you should have plenty of references they can check out on other sites. I would not send them samples of anything. Who buys articles? Waste of money really. If you have nothing to say then create an eCommerce site and sell socks or something. Buying enough quality articles to make a good site would cost you a fortune. If you know nothing about the topic then why bother owning the site in the first place? I guess it is good for the economy for sure, but it seems stupid to own a site that you can't even write some articles about. Build a porn site... No articles needed.
For the most part I totally agree with you but - I buy articles because I don't want to spend all day every day writing. That's not really my thing. I am a marketer not an author so I find top quality writers (and yes I haggle the shit out of them to get the best possible price) who know exactly how to write a good SEO optimized article that is informative and is not spammy. I have sites that I know very little about the topic. As I said I am a marketer and when I see an opportunity to make some cash I'll take it. But I don't intend on learning about the topic. I really don't care about the latest weight loss fad, or how acai berry juice can help or what its made of. But I know how to make money from those products so I let someone else do the research and write the articles. Back to the topic though. Again I agree. Give nothing away that could be used to go to market with. The black hat fools just don't get that for all the work they do, then get banned for being spammers or breaking the rules, then have to start all over again is just pointless. None the less, that doesn't stop them from stealing your content. Why not give them a 200 word sample. Most worthy article directories won't accept anything less than 200 words. Most consumers won't make a purchasing decision based on a 200 words article. What I tend to do is ask them for their ezine publisher account name or some existing samples but I also ask for references so that I can email a previous client and ask what the overall service was like, and what sort of results they got from the article. But I think that sending a sample via PM is just asking to get burned. Anyone who is serious about buying your articles, and who has experience, and ethics, simply won't ask for a sample via PM.
That is exactly why I buy articles from time to time. I don't do it often because I have a problem with trusting half of them and not knowing of the content is real but yep, you nailed it.
I can write novels worth of material, but what for? Nobody really reads it anyway. I have my Wordpress on autopilot, pumps out articles all day long and I don't have to write a thing. Do I care if they are not original? Hell no. I am in the radio and music business. I don't want to write articles either, but I could. And I don't want to hear that line about Google dinging for dupe content. #1... I don't care, Google can kiss my ass, and number two; if that was the case then why do so-called article directories do so well? You know that same article is all over the internet because that is what people do. Fact is Google doesn't care either. As long as your content is relevant to the topic the chances that they can decipher one article from another is minimal. They are not really looking at the sentences, they are looking at the keywords in the article and how they match the overall topic of the site. It is a proven fact that you can rank the crap out of a site full of gibberish, it has been proven time and time again. If your site is an Ezine, then hell yes you need to write something or pay someone to. But I am selling music and my radio show, the content is just what leads them there. Do they read it? I don't know and I don't care. I want them to buy music and listen to my shows. So I'm with you on that. If you need to pay for articles then that's cool, I don't see a damn thing wrong with it. If you are a writer, I wouldn't give away one word for free. Google doesn't, in fact they sell words for a living... Keywords are not free.
Provide samples of your previous work only. It is absurd for someone to be asking for samples of an article they request right then. Explain to them that you are just protecting your intellectual property rights. If they want to purchase a sample, offer them the option at a fraction of the price so that you can at least assure you get something out of your time spent to 'prove' yourself.
I don't mind writing samples for clients, especially because my old samples make me wrinkle my nose for the most part . (The nose-wrinkling part is because I think my writing improves as I go, so don't come down on me for putting up sub-standard stuff because it's free.) However, to prevent theft I put up the sample on my blog, and let the client know it's been published there. My blog gets a (sometimes niche) update, the client gets a free sample. Win-win situation.
This is interesting but is it really a good strategy. If you were to contact 5 prospective clients per day you'll end up writing 5 free articles every day. And your conversion from sample to sales will not always depend upon how good you can write.(keeping in mind what BadBoyzStudioZ believes) Still the blog-profile approach is best thing to do.Agree with you on that.
Samples jus give an idea abt the quality of ur articles...so we can jus give the prev written articles...
It's beyond inappropriate for someone to ask for free custom samples. Time is a limited asset, and every free sample you give devalues the time you charge others for. If they do require a free sample, I tell them to take a hike. If they can't judge your work based on your past portfolio pieces and they're not willing to pay for a one-off piece as a "sample," they're not serious enough about the project to make them worth my time. And if they do review your work and you simply don't have anything relevant, it means you're probably not really qualified for that gig in the first place. If you want a sample before offering a larger contract, you pay for it. Otherwise you're doing little more than stealing from service providers or preying on the naive.
I couldn't agree more with Jhmattern. But because I am still relatively new here on DP I thought maybe 'free sample' is a norm. Hell No! A similar discussion is going on at another thread, where the buyer is asking for samples openly and would post them on Digg to decide who gets the gig. BTW I got another PM today asking for sample, because they are a company and recruit lot of writers and 'can't keep on paying for samples'. I had sent them 4 of the blogs, I currently get paid to write, as sample. Still free samples. I have now closed my shop gates on them.
If you want to write for free, write for a respectable nonprofit. Then at least the writing carries actual weight (unlike writing for free for some unknown webmaster) and it's good PR for your own business.