When hiring a forum poster, article rewriter, or content writer, I think there are a few things you can do to help yourself and those who want to write for you. I'm sure others have different ideas, but here are mine. 1) Say what the topic is and, for posts, provide a link to the website. No one is going to steal an idea based on 'webmaster forum', and I don't want to go to the trouble of PMing someone only to find out the forum is about Aussie Rules football. 2) Specify terms. For articles, state length, the number of articles, whether it should be keyword based, when you need them, and whether there may be more work. For posts, specify when you will pay (after 10, 20 and 30 posts, for instance), give a minimum word or sentence length, specify how you want the posts spread over the forum, and give any other restrictions. 3) Edit the original post to say 'CLOSED' when you no longer need responses. 4) Keep a list of posters and writers who have done good work for you, and contact them first. Offer them more than you offer here, because you know you are paying for quality. 5) Pay promptly, of course, and pay often. Asking people to do lots of work without being paid is not reasonable. 6) Specify how payment will be made. For those hiring posters: 7) Keep the specifications for posts simple. 8) If you don't want people to do all of their posts at once, you may have to pay for that. Every time a poster has to go to a site takes time, and that is what posters want to minimize. If you want people to use different names, you should be paying more for that, too, since once again you are asking them to spend more time. These points address my personal peeves. There may have been other threads on the same topic, but I haven't seen them.
For example, I PMd someone, and the response stated the article was needed the same day, and the maximum pay was less than $.01 per word. Knowing that I would be unavailable all day and the rate is below what I will take, I wouldn't have responded, and the hiring member of this forum wouldn't have needed to make a response. It was just a waste of everybody's time.
Excellent post. I'd like to add, when looking for services for your site, and working out payment terms, keep in mind if paying through paypal you have 30 days to tell paypal the seller didn't deliver. There really is no reason why you shouldn't pay for services to a verified paypal business member before work commences. If you are purchasing a larger order, request 50% up front and 50% on completion, this is a great way to keep the playing field fair. For those of you who English is not your fluent language, it is admirable that you are even able to complete an article in another language than the one you were raised speaking.... A good tip though, you might want to consider having your articles edited by somebody who was born speaking English, editing articles can be very quick and simple, I could offer such a service for next to nothing, and it would increase the quality for your English speaking employers / clients. - Cheers.
Yes, always try as hard as you can to remember to leave iTrader. It really helps the community work well. Cheers.