Freelance Writing Jobs for Monday, January 14, 2008
January 14, 2008 by Jodee
Filed under Writing Gigs
Leads…
- Bloggers with Wordpress Experienc – Contract/On-Site -Washington, D.C.
- Colors NW Magazine Accepting Applications for Freelance Writers
- Freelance Writers for Financial Blog
- Southwest Florida Newspaper Seeks In-Depth Biz Writers
- Aviation Industry Freelance Writers Needed
- Book Translator – Mandarin Chinese and Russian
- Writing ($20 for 400 words)
- Creative Design Blogger Wanted
- Freelance Writer @ Digital Graphics
- Write My Business Plan
- Web Site Content Writer Wanted – Las Vegas
- Stand Up Comedy Writer Needed ($1,000 for 10-12 solid minutes)
- Horror Blog Writer
- Miami Dolphins Columnist @ RealFootball365.com ($15 for 300 words)
- Children’s Adventure Writer
- Copywriter Needed – Part-Time or Freelance – Miami ($15 per hour)
- Writer/Editor @ Arrowhead Publishers
- Do You Have a Passion for the Blues? ($25-$50 per article)
- Writers – Experienced Journalists or Children’s Writers Only
- Full-Time Condo Blogger Position – Manhattan ($13 per hour)
- Real Estate Blogger - Midtown/New York ($50 for 1,000 words)
- Copy Editor – Orange County
- Freelance News and Feature Writing - Jersey Shore ($150 per story)
- Bilingual (Spanish/English) Writer
- Lifestyle and Fashion Freelancers
- Art Copywriting for Website
- Creative Writers @ Sandbox International
- San Francisco 49ers Columnist @ RealFootball365.com
Good Luck!
Jodee
Jodee,
Thanks for the leads. There are some really good ones today!
Hi. I hope nobody minds, but I have two questions that I hope you can help me with. (You were all so helpful last time I needed advice, I couldn’t resist not coming back!)
First, has anyone ever written for Associated Content or Helium? I’ve been thinking about trying those places and I was wondering if someone with more experience thought that it is worth it.
Second, do you all think that PayPal is safe for receiving payments? I don’t have a PayPal account and I get so many scam/spam/phishing emails about my PayPal account that I’m a bit hesitant to get one at all. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing since so many beginning freelance jobs seem to pay through PayPal. I’m probably being overly concerned but it can’t hurt to ask.
Thank you so much!
Nicole
@ Mary Ann: You are quite welcome.
@ Nicole: I can answer your question about PayPal. I’ve never had a problem with security and receiving payments through PayPal.
@Nicole – I’ve written for Helium and hated it. To date, the article I wrote on Hemochromatosis (my aunt suffers from it) has earned a whopping $3 after a year. Associated Content isn’t much better, but they do pay a flat rate for some articles. One woman claims to have made $120 off just one article, I’ve never made that much – usually I earn about $7. I stick to things that are not very marketable around here = like area restaurant reviews. The papers don’t publish them and if a restaurant is really deserving, I like to get the word out any way I can.
Paypal. I have never had problems with my account. I do get those phishing emails, but I delete them without opening. If Paypal really had an urgent issue with my account, I figure they can call me and I’ll call them back or they can mail me an official letter. Same goes with any account I own – if it isn’t in an official letter, I don’t respond.
Like Nicole, I was wondering about a site … I’ve been looking at eLance, has anyone registered with them and if so, what was your experience like?
Thanks,
Gina
Over the weekend someone hacked into my paypal account and sent themselves a few thousand dollars. Paypal didn’t contact me, and my bank account is now majorly in default while paypal investigates. I plan to ask my clients to pay by check from now on. I have one international client who will only pay by paypal. Other than this client, I would rather not take the risk. Paypal has also frozen my account “for my protection” so I have lost the little bit of faith I ever had. I recommend following your gut. I feared using paypal but went against my instinct. Now I wish I’d never put myself into the position to get so royally screwed.
I was going to say I never heard of problems with PayPal, an eBay subsidiary, though I’ve only been on the paying end with my account. Then I read Amy’s post.
Would suggest if you use it, you clear money out of there as soon as it arrives to avoid the type of problem Amy encountered.
If that’s the only way a client will pay, you’re stuck. But you also don’t have problems of payments getting lost or delayed in the mail. I’ve seen postmarks on payments that were 10 days old — and the client was only 25 miles away.
However you accept payments, learn clients’ payment policies. I have a few that pay on specific days each month, so if I don’t have a check by a week or so after that, I’m on the phone.
@ Amy: I’m so sorry to hear about what happened. My thoughts are with you.
Thanks Jodee.
Phil,
Even clearing out the funds as they come in won’t save you. I always withdraw my funds as they’re received. The problem is that the paypal account is connected to a checking account. When the hacker logged into my paypal account and sent himself (or perhaps herself — I’m no good at sexing Indian names), there was no money in my paypal account, so the money was automatically taken out of my checking account. Paypal makes you have a “backup funding source,” so there is no getting around having paypal connected to your checking account (as far as I can see). I assume Paypal will refund my money, but meanwhile I’ve got bills bouncing. I don’t keep a whole lot of money in my checking account (just a little more than enough to cover my bills). I’ve reported the fraud to my bank, so I’m hoping they’ll wave their set of overdraft charges, but there’s nothing that can be done about waiving the overdraft charges by my cell phone company, credit card bill, etc. And Paypal won’t pay me for those fees.
Sorry for the rant, but I’m frustrated, and I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this. I’m hoping this doesn’t happen to anyone else. But it seems to be an arbitrary thing (the hacking). It’s not like I responded to any phishing email, so I have no idea how this person got my password. As far as I’m concerned, if it happened to me, it could happen to anyone.
Amy,
I was unaware about it being tied to checking account. This is one of the reasons I use a credit card, not a debit card.
You have every right to rant.
Identity theft can happen any time and to anyone. I’ve been victim – after the Marshalls/HomeGoods/TJ Maxx employee admitted to stealing customer information and selling it. I only ever paid by check, but some of the information they’d been storing turned out to be checking accounts as well as credit card and debit accounts.
I have a friend who used her credit card to pay for her Netflix account and someone in that service stole customer information and went on a shopping spree. It took her two months to get that issue squared away with her credit card and she’ll never use netflix again.
I make a point to check accounts in the morning and then again in the afternoon just to catch anything that might happen early in the process. It’s a good habit to get into. If you use a work computer to check accounts, remember that some companies keep logs of what their employees are doing and any coworker with a cell phone camera can capture an image of your computer screen. The same is true every time you had a waiter/waitress your credit card.
Constantly monitoring your credit report and accounts is the only way to prevent this – short of reverting to the days when you keep cash hidden in your house and only pay by cash.
post?
Thanks everyone!
I guess I don’t really know if it is worth the risk, so I haven’t decided yet.
But I did want to say that I contacted my credit union to ask their advice about using PayPal and they said their only recommendation is to open a second checking account and use that solely for PayPal.