What do you think about 'Pay First before Your Order'?

wow, you seem to take the matter really seriously, it's good though

 

I dislike it. Frankly.

 

I charge some type of fee upfront for work that I do. However, I would not feel right about charging the full amount before I do the work. Most clients that I have had are willing to pay some percentage at the start of the project. One of my long-term clients actually pays me 100% upfront but this is something that he decided to do on his own since he has very large orders and likes me to take my time to complete them without trying to finish quickly to receive payments.

 

What do you dislike? I didn't get it

 

Several diffrent factors goes into paying upfront for copy.One big one is the reputation factor. If you have made a name for yourself in the field then paying upfront could be a logical choice. At any rate one solution that solves this....Escrow.com

 

If you want to get them to commit, but want to keep things loose, here's one thought:

Require 50% upfront as a deposit, and the rest upon delivery of the creatives (copy).

If you're using PayPal, you can set things up so that you can send them a second payment link, and have that redirect
to a download. Obviously, that would be the zip file that contains the material they hired you to write.

 

Whether or not I ask for upfront payment depends on a number of things. If I google the company/client and come up with something impressive, I probably won't bother. For example, I've written for the Discovery Channel website. I don't need upfront payment from them --I know they're going to pay me. Private clients with impressive track records and a good online presence don't have to pay me in advance either. If I'm writing for an unknown with a gmail or yahoo account and no website, then I'll ask for a percentage upfront.

 

You're absolutely right, everything depends on the reputation of the company you're planning to work with

 

I think a lot of it has to do with the size of the project. If it is small and won't take too long to write,I suppose you could take a chance and maybe end up getting a new regular client. Obviously you could also end up getting burnt.
But if it is a large project that will take you a long time and involve tons of research work,then get references. If the prospective client won't or can't provide any references,contemplate walking away.

 

WOW

lot of replies from so many of you and great to read such replies as well, it si surely sharing of knowledge here

ok MY TURN

I believe that 2 ways can be followed
First =- take payments in PP = client has 45 days to ask for a refund if work delivered is not up to the mark, always send invoice and mention the terms of service while raising invoice to your client via PP

Second =- All writers should have a blog of their own what i personally do is if any of my client doesn't pay within 24hrs time from the time of delivery then i post them a mail if not replied back in few hours then i post the article written for them in my blog, which makes the content not an unique one hence they are not able to use it

 

agree, u must good repitation before u ask them to pay first, i have a friend that he asked customer to pay 100% first before he did the job

 

Or make sure to get paid first, after all, everyone needs some garantees

 

My policy is to ask for payment up-front first, then if the client won't agree with it, offer 50/50. At this point in my career I won't work 100% on spec, ever.

 

After being stood up several times I've wrote myself a Terms of Service where I've stated that the client needs to pay 20% of the agreed fee before I even lift a finger. Since I've done that, none of the clients have stood me up so I must say that at current time I think that's the only solution for us freelancers.

 

Not a 100% guarantee. My first deadbeat was from a major international company most everyone here would recognize. Just because the company has a good rep doesn't mean the person you are dealing with does.

 

Well, it's clear that you should protect yourself. On the other hand, you should also expect others to be willing to protect themselves either

 

Nice programm !!!!