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Scams Nearly All Freelance Writers Fall For (And How to Avoid Them)
If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. I’ve heard that often, and it seems to be true especially in our field. Trying to make a living freelance writing is like wading through a minefield of people looking for a profit from your efforts to supplement your income, start a new career, get out of debt, or any other reason we start writing on the internet.
These people are scam artists and we would all do well to learn the tricks they use to waste our time and keep us from making money writing. Scams can come in all shapes and sizes, and while some of them are outright illegal, others are just predatory and unethical. Here are some common ones.
Work From Home and Make Big Money
Any time a scam artist wants to grab our attention, they know that they can hit us right in our most vulnerable areas: our homes and our wallets. Go on Craigslist or do a Google search for “freelance writing jobs” and I guarantee that within five minutes you’ll see an ad that says they’re “hiring writers, you can set your own hours, and you’ll make between five hundred and five thousand dollars a week.”
This is always — ALWAYS — a scam. No legitimate company or website will ever promise you a specific amount of money, and they will never tell you that it’s easy. Which brings us to our next scam…
One Simple System
There will be a video. There will be animation that pretends to be hand drawn. There will be a man telling you about how he quit his job and worked tirelessly for two years and ended up making over six-figures. Then he will say, “I realized my system was too powerful not to share with the public.”
He will then ask you to either A.) Pay money for some course that “guarantees” income, or B.) Ask you to sign up for an email list, a free book, or any other way to ultimately try and sell you something. The only system that actually exists is the one that you create for yourself.
Free Samplers
Often times, on shadier freelance writing sites, a client will ask for a “sample” of your work about a very specific thing. They will then never contact you and use your free sample as content. These scams are based on the premise that we are all so desperate for work that we will do anything to get it.
For example, I was once asked to write 350 words on the restaurants in a specific neighborhood. I did just that and I never heard back from them, but I did find my 350 words that I sent them published on a content mill website under another person’s name!
Always make sure that you read the fine print and don’t give away any publishing rights that you don’t want to give away. Even with tiny blurbs, it’s your writing and if anyone deserves to make money on it, it’s you.
Cheapskates
When we start out trying to make a career out of writing, we don’t really know what our time and words are worth. When someone offers a job paying $.02 per word, we think that we’d be fools not to take it because even though it’s not much, at least it’s something and it will get our name out there. Needless to say, these are scams, although they are legal.
Here’s the truth: This won’t get your name out there. Scam artists are always trying to promise the world through “exposure” or “portfolio building.” These are code words for cheapskates. If you want to be a travel writer, for instance, don’t waste your time composing 1,000 words about something you don’t care about for a mere $20 (especially for a content mill).
Instead, simply write a blog post about travel! People that are willing to pay real money want to see that you can write about their ideal topics. They appreciate your knowledge about these subjects. A free blog post about something you want to write about long-term is worth much more as a portfolio piece than anything these cheapskates will ask you to write about.
Weirdos
Sometimes scams will come with a very strange request, and might ask you to do something out of the ordinary. A prospect once offered to send me money to deposit into my bank account, merely to prove I was a real person. Very strange request. I subsequently asked them for more information, but they never sent it.
A few weeks later I received a letter in the mail, inside was a very obviously faked money order from this “client” of mine. I called the FBI’s internet scam department and reported them. I was told that this is a very common scam, although i’m not sure how it was supposed to work because (thankfully) I did not follow through.
Takeaway: If It seems weird, it just might be. Always do your research before engaging in odd deals and see if any other freelancers have run into similar situations.
There are a million different ways people are trying to scam you. Freelance writing is hard work. There are no simple answers and no get-rich-quick schemes. You can do it, though; if you work hard and keep an eye out for scams and dishonesty, the world of writing is a great and wonderful place.
May 3, 2017 @ 12:26 pm
You mean to tell me the Nigerian prince that offered me $3,000 for a simple article just wasn’t real???? You, Sequoyah, are a liar. I’m going to go find another profitable opportunity at GetRichQuick.com
Seriously though, it IS true that most have fallen for some sort of scam, considering that some of them are rather subtle. Though unfortunately, some gigs that ask for a sample may be legit depending on the client/source/circumstance…. which only makes the overall issue more difficult. But thankfully, this is where due diligence and careful research comes in (as opposed to blindly writing a sample without question).
Thanks for the informative (and entertaining) read!
P.S. Coincidentally, GetRichQuick.com fits your “One Simple System” example perfectly, LOL. Good catch 🙂
Elvis
May 7, 2017 @ 5:41 pm
Thanks Elvis! You’re right, and I wish that I had emphasized that most clients who request writing samples are trying to pull one over on you. Legit clients just want to see who they’re hiring! As with anything, the burden falls on the writer to make the call whether they think it’s legitimate or not. Usually you can have a good idea by which means you used to find the job.
May 4, 2017 @ 5:25 pm
Pretty dope stuff. I have been doing it for a while, and I wish I would’ve seen this beforehand. I’ve worked with and through a lot of those shady companies. However, Writer Access, Zerys and Skyword are all legit. Skyword is the best ,and a writer can make some serious loot!
May 4, 2017 @ 5:28 pm
Thanks Elliott,
I agree about Skyword. I worked with them in the past and was earning quite a bit per piece, so the money is definitely there. It’s all about knowing where to look.
Elvis
May 4, 2017 @ 11:39 pm
I’ll admit that back in ’09 when the economy was tanking I started out with the penny a word thing. It only took me about a month to realize how I was being taken advantage of and I never went back… kind of, since I did the Demand Studio thing for a short while also. Ugh! lol
May 5, 2017 @ 4:54 pm
Ah, yes…..the memories, lol.
I always had a love/hate relationship with DMS, and I think that goes for just about everyone.
My focus was mostly on the Tech category, which allowed me to write countless articles with barely 200 words (and even 100 words in some cases). I could write them with my eyes closed in 10 minutes and earn a quick $18 that week (later raised to $25). So that was nice, as long as you didn’t get a picky editor.
Then they panicked with the whole Google panda thing, and everything went to sh*t right after that.
Elvis
May 11, 2017 @ 6:43 pm
What would you say is a fair price per word in 2017?
May 19, 2017 @ 9:09 am
Yes, this is really is kind of scary. So many scammers out there and what I would call pseudo scammers – they basically hugely devalue your time. And, time is money after all. Thanks for alerting us to some of pitfalls – some had not occurred to me.
May 21, 2017 @ 9:21 am
The time wasting freelancers out there outnumber the ones actually accomplishing something and making money. I am new and landed on freelancer.com…the multi-accounting, multiposting, and freelancer daisy chains have ruined what should have been a good idea. That is my take-away after just 2 weeks on the site.
June 5, 2017 @ 11:30 pm
Hey, Elvis! A nice article and useful news for freelance writer, especially the newbie.
I found some of those companies on Fb groups as well as other platforms.
I, however, not even click on those links as I believe I have a long story with those scamming websites. I’m offering multi services related to blogging and writing, but never use any of freelance site as I’m not so realize on those.
Last month, I got a bunch (10 to 15 articles) inquiring regard my rate. You know? I don’t even have any hire me page on my blog. If you focus on providing quality content on your blog, you’ll have a great portfolio on what you’re doing.
thanks for sharing..
June 8, 2017 @ 10:29 am
Thats pretty interesting and amazing. I hope many of those prospects managed to work something out with you 🙂
Keep us all posted on how you continue doing, bud!
Elvis
July 10, 2017 @ 7:39 pm
Hi Sequoyah,
Thanks for this thoughtful ideas here. I have never fallen for any of these kinds of scam because I don’t subscribe to their ideologies.
I read a few years back that, “Nothing is guaranteed,” so when I see people use that word, or “One simple system” as you called, I quickly raise my antenna.
Someone I know quite well (that don’t know as much as I do when it comes to freelance writing) wanted to connect me to a writing job but I turned down the offer. Why did I do that? I sensed scam in it the moment he said I should send about 400 words for a review. Isn’t that enough for a product review?
You see, that’s why I encourage people to build their own writing platform (blog) and not depend so much on content mill. If you read 30 articles on my blog and you ate still not convinced to work with me, forget. That’s my rule, except I can hold the person if anything goes wrong.
That’s my own opinion.
Thank you.
Emenike
July 20, 2017 @ 7:09 pm
I’ll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for these signs. I appreciate you bringing this to light; it’s a shame these scams even exist, but we must be mindful of them if we want to make smart career decisions as freelance writers. Thanks for the post!