1. Client advertising for writer to write articles and will not pay until completion. (this is normal on Elance)

2. Writer delivers the articles

3 Client refuses to pay saying they have been copied and proves it by showing the article directories they are on.

4. Writer says sorry but does not know how, but accepts that there is a copy of them on the net

5. Client shows how annoyed he is and gets abusive.

6. End of story - Writer does not get paid and gives it up as a bad loss. The writer cannot use them again as they are on the web already.

Ok here is what has actually happened........

1. In the first place, the client want these articles for the directories in particular Ezine.

2. As soon as they get the articles from the writer (within minutes) they have them posted on Ezine by a made up named author. The linkback in the article is to a website that they are probably being paid for to do it.

So as you can see they get all the articles they want for free. I have noticed particularly here on DP that the clients are asking more and more to see the articles before payment.

Suggested solutions.............

NEVER give out your articles before payment unless you know the client.

I would also suggest that all writers should not be working for less than 1 cent word which is already too low. Again clients are taking advantage and expecting work for as low as 500 words for $1 - I think we should all work together to stop this nonsense. I know there are countries which have a 3rd world economy but this is still exploitation by anyone's standard.

These lance sites are producing this kind of practice and in my opinion should be accountable. I know some people will say if it does not suit then don't go there, but that is not a long term answer. What a lot of clients think is that they are getting cheap articles when in fact their articles are useless for the purpose they were purchased, seo! - If not written correctly, Google will actually penalize the content.

Ok a lot thrown out there - what are your thoughts?

Labels: copywriting