Comments on: Freelance Writing Jobs for Thursday, July 31, 2008

By: Therese

Therese — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:50:06 +0000

@pgh: I absolutely agree. I sent off an email for a food blogging gig and the editor wanted me to write “free” for a week to get a feel for my writing. He said he was “screening” the bloggers. Yeah right! He was trying to generate free blogs from writers so he wouldn’t have to pay anyone. I emailed him back and told him it sounded like a scam and that in no way was I writing for someone for a week without pay. You really need to be careful of how these job descriptions are presented (especially blogging gigs). I’ve weeded out a few scam artists and I love it that they never respond when I call them on their bluff.

By: Quentin Cougher

Quentin Cougher — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:45:11 +0000

I really don’t mind the general trash talk about my service being “spam,” but the one thing that is patently inaccurate is this issue of “the jobs come from craigslist.”

Not A SINGLE JOB listed on my program has come from craigslist. Also, and maybe I’m going out of my league here, but if I were listed contact info for craigslist jobs, wouldn’t the contact emails be job1239812398@craigslist.org, or however they are structured.

To answer the question of where the clients come from…there are many folks involved in our web business, and we have, not only more than one computer, but — believe it or not — MORE THAN ONE EMAIL ADDRESS TO CONDUCT BUSINESS! We’ve been doing web work for over 5 years, and as such, have a large database of clients who email us weekly when they have writing requests. Then, we put their requests in an email to our writers.

This is just SO SIMPLE that I can’t believe there is this much controversy!

In short, these postings on FWG seem to have only inspired interest from folks in “seeing if it’s a scam,” as interest in our program has more than tripled over the last 3 weeks. Moreover, not a single person has requested their money back, nor asked to be removed from the list.

Best regards,
QC

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:07:31 +0000

@Renee (re: Quentin Cougher)

For whatever reason, he put me on his mailing list though I never paid him a dime. Most of the listings he sends out are items I’ve also seen posted on Craigslist, so I don’t find him particularly legit.

I also won’t pay for Elance. A couple years ago, I did one job with a free trial they’d offered and landed a job but the employer decided drop the job and successfully got their escrow back. Elance really didn’t offer me much help saying that the employer had a valid reason for dropping the job. Maybe there was a valid reason, but I’d spent a lot of time doing the work to have the project dropped without receiving any pay.

By: Renee Simao

Renee Simao — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:23:07 +0000

Hi Al
Regarding Quentin Coughlin and his fee for the listing. Jodee, you said you shouldn’t have to pay to work but Elance charges a monthly fee and all the writers seem to really like them. Also, Guru charges 74.95 for a minimum 3 month membership. I joined Elance and used up all my connects but haven’t gotten anything yet. I don’t think it is me because I have gotten gigs from Craig’s List. Thanks for the info on Flying Adventures. I almost applied but when I checked the magazine, the articles had too many adjectives (big grin). My travel writing is guidebook style. So many thanks to all of you for saving me some time. Renee

By: cathryn

cathryn — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:46:26 +0000

two of those listings were removed one in philadelphia and one in minneapolis (that one was flagged for removal). fyi…

thanks.

By: Erica

Erica — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:11:39 +0000

Demand Studios has always been a pleasure to work with, I’ve been with them for several months now
Thanks for the links Jodee

By: pjh

pjh — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:10:55 +0000

Kelly (and others):

You wrote: “I spent a good hour putting the proposal together and then never heard back from him.”

Assuming he asked others to do the same, he basically got a lot of information for free. I think people need to be wary of these kinds of requests.

By: mmeetoilenoir

mmeetoilenoir — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:41:53 +0000

There was another of those a couple of weeks ago. Eeek!

Actually, I just got picked up by Demand Studios. I answered the listing from here. Wow! Thanks, Jodee!

By: Chrissy

Chrissy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:10:56 +0000

Thanks for confirming my instincts Jodee!

By: Jodee

Jodee — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:58:02 +0000

@ Chrissy: Run like a thief in the night from this one. You shouldn’t have to pay someone to work.

By: Chrissy

Chrissy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:56:06 +0000

Hi everyone!

I’m not referring to any of the job postings listed here, but I’d like some advice on an a Craigslist ad looking for freelance web writers I just applied to. I got a response within five minutes from a Quentin Cougher who said it’s basically a list of gigs where the writers can contact people directly to get hired. There’s a $6.75 inclusion fee to be on the list to get the gigs.

I’m not getting a good feeling so I’m not going to proceed. How does this sound to you?

By: Shermika

Shermika — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:34:46 +0000

Thanks for the list Jodee!

By: Eric G.

Eric G. — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:03:04 +0000

Hello everyone! First time posting here. Thanks to Jodee for her hard work, I applied to three of these. The ACW one would be right up my alley.

By: Kenna

Kenna — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:45:02 +0000

Thanks for the list, several I applied for with my intention to work.

By: Susanna

Susanna — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:16:32 +0000

Kelly, thanks for that bit of information…

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:53:46 +0000

I’d be interested to hear how anyone gets along with Michael Higgins – Flying Adventures (travel writer posting). He advertised several months ago and I responded to the ad. It took him several weeks to get back to me and then he requested that I draw up a proposal of how I thought I could improve his publication. I spent a good hour putting the proposal together and then never heard back from him.

By: Wilson

Wilson — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:09:47 +0000

The mountain bike writer position only pays $0.01 per word. I don’t think this is a good expenditure of time for most freelancers.