She may be paying bi-weekly to allow herself time to edit your work and make sure her employer approves it, I’ve seen that happen before. I don’t do much subcontracting though because I’ve been burned. The last time, the person came back after two months (she’d already paid me) and demanded I rewrite four of the ten articles to match her viewpoint on parenting, not my own. She claimed she hadn’t had time to edit them until two months later. Had she said the articles had to be from a specific viewpoint, I would have matched, but it seemed odd that she waited two months.

The outcome to this was that she’d purchased the articles from me to turn around and sell as a PLR package on the Internet and one of her buyers wanted changes. I also learned that she’d been selling the 10 articles she paid me $80 total for $99 a shot and she’d sold 12 of them already. So her profits off my articles was already far more than she’d paid me. Once I discovered that (thanks to the woman’s business partner), I was steamed and put her on my block list and refused to do any rewrites.

Is it a little weird that she gets paid weekly from the company she is sub-contracting for, but then only paying her writers bi-weekly? She said that my first payment date would be exactly two weeks from my start date…so it’s possibly not falling on the same days as other writers. Sounds a bit unorganized to me, and I don’t know if I should do two weeks worth of writing before getting my first payment. What do you guys think??

I emailed her and said I’d give it a go but made it pretty clear I’m not too sure of the work she’s wanting me to do vs. the pay. It will be the first actual job I’ve ever had my foot in the door for so I’m just trying to find a jumping off point… however, I’m not willing to work my rear off for ridiculous pay. We’ll see how it works out!

I hit enter before I was done. I’m deciding against it. It sounds like everyone who applied was sent the same email. After copying and pasting the sample she gave and then cutting it down to the minimum 5 to 7 lines she suggested, I came up with about 60 words. So that’s 60 to 80 words for 75cents. She wants a guarantee of 20 of these a day, all submitted by midnight daily, plus possible weekends. That around 1200 to 1600 words per day for $15. She claims she has writer’s doing 200 of these a day earning $150 a day. While I’m sure that’s true, it also sounds like something that would cause writer’s to burn out pretty quickly.

I heard back from her too and am undecided. Her email address is only linked to her own freelance writing company, so odds are high that she is sub-contracting the work. I’ve never had extremely good luck with subcontracted work, many times the person has taken the work and run off without paying. While this isn’t always true, I’m not sure I want to put in that much work for 75 cents each, even if it is only a few lines each.

Thanks!

I saw the same ad posted on different message boards with different areas also. For instance, today there’s a post on CL, same ad in the Mobile area. Don’t know if it’s a scam but it’s kind of odd to post in areas so far away since they specify that you have to do work in the Richmond area occassionally.

Lindsey — I had a client like this. I eventually dropped him because it wasn’t worth the aggravation of having to chase down my paycheck. (He’d eventually pay me, but it would take a month longer than it should have and several “did you receive my invoice” emails.) This client was good money, but how good is the money really when you have to chase it down and worry you’ll never get it? For me, it wasn’t worth the stress. It was taking up a lot of my time — time I could have been spending finding other work.

I don’t think that sort of thing should be par for the course. I like to know when my money is coming, whether it is 30net by check or via paypal as soon as the work is completed. From my guy I learned to always get this stuff in writing up front. If they don’t do what they say more than once, I drop them. Just as I’d suspect that if I flaked out and didn’t do my job and simply disappeared until after several email reminders, I’d expect a client to drop me as a writer.

My clients pay when they say they will pay. And,I make my deadline when I say I will make my deadline.

One client, I had an email from him that said he’d pay me after 20 posts. He didn’t respond to my invoice for over a month after weekly emails asking if he received my invoice.

I then sent an email stating that I would report him to the National Writers Union and other Freelance Writing Job Boards that he doesn’t keep his agreements with writers nor pays them for their hard work.

To say the least, I recevied payment the next day. Of course, I no longer write for him. Of all my years writing for the Internet, I have only had to do this twice and got paid right away. Not bad if you ask me.

I also farm out work. I get busy but I know the importance of keeping a promise and staying in communication.

With PayPal, it’s an easy action to pay someone.

When I run into this, I will not do any more work for that person until they’ve caught up. I understand that problems arise. All of the people I am currently working for have a set payment schedule, one pays every Weds. providing I have the work completed by noon Tuesday. Another pays every other Thursday. I love the ones that pay as soon as the article has cleared their editors, but not everyone pays on that schedule.

I think I’m frustrated more about the lack of feedback on my articles.