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

There's always the tried and true method of asking for references. Most writers can get a client to vouch for the service work provided.

 

We have used websites such as rentacoder with escrow as buyers - and have no problem with paying upfront into an escrow account. great idea, as risk is distributed. If you write badly or don't deliver, you get no money and I don't have to pay - but if you deliver the money is already in escrow and I can't change my mind. Works for both sides, and all you lose is a small percentage.

sgk

 

IMO, having missed the deadline by one day is no big deal. It's a regular business practice to pay within 30-45 days after delivery. By offering credit terms to your best customers, makes you more sales in return. However, this way you have to hire someone to do accounts receivable, because sometimes payments get lost. That's life.

 

Happened to me quite a few times.. but because of few untrusty people we cant go around suspecting everyone we work with.
By the way, my developers at syproes are coming up with a script ( for inhouse use ) where in the articles are uploaded on our servers, and only a small para is shown to the buyer, and after payment ( paypal ) they are taken to the secure website. Maybe you should think on these lines as well.
Alternatively for clients backing down on orders after you have already written sets, i suggest you hold on to the articles till someone else wants the same keyword.. I had luck selling my articles here on DP that way.
But for large orders like 500$ or more, i suggest you use an escrow service. The one at GAF is free without any charges.and its really good.
even if neither of you or ur client are registered there, you can do so for free.

 

btw, if say 10-15 people are willing to split the cost for http://www.alstrasoft.com/escrow.htm.
how about we start a FREE escrow service for all??
We can register a dotcom or if digitalpoint owners can make a subdomain escrow.digitalpoint.com
this would be great..
and we could run it at 0% commissions, so there's no loss to whoever is using it.
What do u guys think?
I am game to put 15-20$ into it. anyone else in?

 

Sounds like that may be a great idea! You could count me in.
I would think the bigger problem may be in finding someone to admin. I imagine that could take up a good bit of time, do you think?

Honey

 

That would be a swell idea but then you are going to run into issues with that because everyone and their mother is going to want to do this. Then there won't be any fees which will become irritating none the less.

Great idea but needs tweaking, maybe digitalpointescrow.com?

 

Sorry for that. I know how you feel. So annoying people lie for a bunch of measly dollars

 

This IS how I do business, so I'm certainly not advising against it. Merely pointing out that as all things can, this gets exploited too. I've had a few people come to me for 'references' of course when you're providing that reference, you provide them with the most impressing names you can come up with...

I've written for this great site, and that great site.. look how great we are! .. or something like that..

Anyway, so you send these people your customer list - with emails..

Three days later you see a new thread, they're now offering content in your niche :/

Ick.

LadyH

 

Better still to get the funds escrowed if you are working in any freelance site.

 

But best is to get the payment mode clear from the buyer at the time of the deal. Paypal and Moneybookers also has escrow feature for business transactions.So you might well want to use that from now on.That way if you have any dispute, then you have the third party as PP or MB intervening to solve the matter gracefully.

 

This thing happened to me too...I've been chasing him for 5 months now. I really wanna bang his head hard.

 

Here is what I do today having been burned in every way imaginable:

1) 50% down
2) Escrow
3) Deliver work in a PDF using PDF995. Encrypt that PDF using Signature995 so that it cannot be cut/pasted or printed. I know, this is not foolproof but many clients are not techie enough to get around it. Yes, they can take snapshots of the images but it still makes a point. When the client pays, you send the Word document.
4) Deliver work from Authomark.com. This shows the client the work is registered and can be proven as yours if you are not paid.

 

Wowzaz! I bethcya that's effective!