Some say the board is overrun with low quality "fake" English speakers, (Well fake NATIVE English speakers who really are not) The most problem I have as a writer is not finding work, which it is not that difficult to find. More like filtering out all the non payers. I have now come to the conclusion that this is what I watch out for RED FLAGS "employers" who want 5-10 articles PER DAY . A normal blog for example, or high tech site hiring me wants 4-5 articles PER WEEK. Thats standard. High daily orders , I am not impressed with now. More like that scares me away Zero itrader as a buyer, who wants to order my services. I have had people say, yes but you also have zero itrader what is the difference. I will tell you what the difference is. Writers take ALL THE RISK, on the content creation forum , and on this forum that would be copywriters assuming all the risk. Lets say I type 10 articles on credit, send them over , and the guy does not pay. I am out 8-10 hours work, Oh you can resell the articles? Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes the subjects are not resellable. and as you can see on the CONTENT forum, pre typed articles do not exactly sell like hotcakes. Buyers take almost zero risk on the board, they risk a few minutes of their time. If they do not like the articles? They simply reject them and do not pay. If they pay in advance? half down (most will refuse this) they can simply dispute the sale with Paypal, and Paypal will immediately get the money back and lock the sellers account until it is paid. Ok so anyway buyer with zero itrader, THAT is riskly Article writer with zero itrader is not a risk to the buyer, he does not have to pay if he doesnt like the articles. Me? I have 40 positive FIVERR feedbacks so this has helped my sales immensely recently. Ok then next we have "buyers" who want SAMPLES, written. I only now write paid samples, to avoid the sample article thieves. Next is the guys who say PAY MONTHLY, then please write me 5 articles daily. No way will I agree to that. Either I ask for payment for the first article, then proceed from there, and if they do not agree to that, I know they are not serious. Or I might ask for small advance payment. depending on the job writers PROTECT YOURSELF from these article thieves. and there are plenty of them on the board
Most of your advice is spot on. Doesn't matter if the buyer is from here on DP or found your writing site via the search engines. I do disagree a bit with the iTrader. There is a lot of business that is done via PM which doesn't provide a way to leave feedback. I've done far more business on DP than my iTrader rating would indicate. Why in the world would you give any client 10 articles without payment? One maybe. Ten, never.
I agree with both of you. I have written literally millions of words since starting here. My website has a very close count. Yet, iTrader reflects none of my work. Why? Because iTrader is irrelevant. A good writer is a good writer. A good buyer is a good buyer. You must take precautions in any business transaction. Whether or not they have a good iTrader does not change that. You do not know them. This forum is so full of shady creeps that I would never trust an iTrader ranking. Protect yourself all the time against the dishonest and rude people who want to destroy DP as a place to do honest business. Weed them out and focus all your efforts on those of us here at DP who want to do business.
I don't agree that 'i trader is irrelevant'. It's helped me a lot over the past few years as I always refer to it when discussing a project with a writer. I worked hard to earn those little buggers and until DP does away with the system, I will continue doing so.
Strange. I've never had problems with non payment. EVER. In fact, I often marvel at how honest and trustworthy the online community really is. Obiously I'm sure that the content creation business has its fair share of rogues and scam artists, but luckily none have crossed my path. Perhaps it may have something to do with the level of rates charged? Offering services "cheap-cheap" may invite a higher level of exploitation. Who knows. Anyway, good advice: writers, protect yourselves.
I agree with your advice. The current iTrader system is problematic. For those that behave badly, you can leave a correct iTrader to help others, but their vengeful and inaccurate negative iTrader will cost business long-term. Therefore, many times you cannot afford to leave the negative iTrader when it is deserved.
I thought that iTrader is no longer supported by DP? Isn't there a new scoring system based on PayPal and InstantPay?
completely agree here. no site needs a high volume of 30+ articles/week unless they are getting high volume. Beware of cheap rates, overseas writers in for the quick buck, and look for quality.
I completely agree with you. When looking for jobs I think it is paramount to work for someone that you can trust - high volume work is good but I would still ask for upfront payment until you are completely sure you trust the client. If they are reliable they should be happy to pay at least 50% upfront. The problem is that there are also a lot of unreliable writers on these forums. I have both hired and been hired over the years and after being ripped off by numerous writers I changed my rules. Now I offer payment either via an escrow service (so the writer knows the funds are there and I don't release them until the work has been completed) or on a per article basis... until I can trust them (and them me) anyway. And don't ever, ever offer a free sample - that should be high alert straight away. It's best to send links to articles you have written and are published online.