Mark, I do the same as you with my freebie email account. I use it to apply to blind ads and then forward them over once I’ve made contact. Gmail is my preference, but I’m sure any one would do the job.

Christie, sadly I know a few people who’d jump at that chance. I agree that the ad’s pretty cocky and asks for an awful lot for too little pay, and I’d never write for anyone whose ad said “write your own ticket in our company” (no matter the rate), but there are probably more than a few of Deb’s readers who would be interested.

Sarah, I don’t think they’re even a job board. They’re just affiliate marketers. They don’t seem to be selling a product or service of their own. I subscribed to their so-called newsletter, and it was promoting all kinds of affiliate programs for people who want to work at home. I knew it had to be some kind of racket, but I signed up just out of curiosity. I’ve seen their ads all over and was dying to know what they’re trying to sell that would justify spending so much time placing ads (most of which get flagged). The ads aren’t just for press release writing, either. The first one I saw was a bogus ad about newsletter writing, which is something I do, so that caught my interest until I saw the screwy application page. They’ve had tech writing ads, content writing, article writing, all kinds of stuff. It’s a shame CL allows legit ads to be flagged but lets people like this flood the boards with their ads.

Jodee, I think I’ve found a new replacement gig already.

Do not use your primary e-mail address to respond to blind advertisements. Get a disposable one for that — yahoo, hotmail, gmail, whatever. (Sometimes you can use your primary provider if they offer multiple e-mail addresses on an account.

I do that – I have a “markl@yahoo” or a “lastname@msn” or whatever that I use for responding to blind ads. If the offer is legit, I eventually switch to my business e-mail. It does prevent getting a lot of spam as the spammers send messages to the disposable blind ad account. When spam levels get too high, abandon the account and create a new one.

Once I got a job doing a weekly column with a Chinese magazine — English-language — that I found through Online Writing Jobs. I have noticed a lot harvesting traps on that site, so I am cautious. What was funny is that the magazine’s editor also had a blind e-mail address. He was worried about the same thing. Once we convinced each other of our bono-fides, we both switched to our business accounts. His turned out to be with a major Pacific Rim publisher.

Another thing: Get a spam-trap e-mail address for online registrations. I have one I use just for “free online registration” with major newspapers. That e-mail address, even though I never use it, except for that purpose, gets sixty to ninety spam messages each day. Doesn’t matter since nothing in there is legit. I just pitch it unseen.

:S

Hey all,

Just a heads up about these adverts that are coming up all the time for a press release writer.

They tend to look like this:

(town, city) bussiness looking for press release writer

The pay is usually impressive in these ads, which usually appear on craigslist.

Don’t apply for them!

It’s a crappy job board or Chinese company looking to get subscribers; it has nothing to do with press release writing.

Ok well saying don’t apply sounds a bit off.

Apply if you want but they will spam you as soon as they get your email address.

I know, I applied!

And it seems hard to get off their list.

Thanks,

Sarah

Saved me some time looking into that one.