Yesterday was somewhat productive. I managed to wrap up and invoice that large project. What pleases me is it was done in record time and with the least amount of hassles imaginable. I love when clients know what they want, convey what they want, and read fully my emails. No overreactions, no stress – my kind of client!
Anne and I did some puttering at the Five Buck Forum. We’re enjoying the interaction with so many talented writers, including newbies. So far, I’m pleased with the amount of info we’re providing and the environment that’s being created.
I did a little marketing, too. I sent out two queries and put up a Craig’s List ad. I heard back on one query. This is how it should be done – they sent a note stating they’d received my query and would be in touch within five weeks. If not, they’re not buying. Clearly stated, simple to understand. If only all publications would work that way.
While I was on Craig’s List, I noticed some pretty heinous offers. Obviously, that means it’s now time for This Job, Not That Job…..
Here’s one of the worst offenders:
Hello,
I need someone to write 10 articles for me. They do not need to be written from scratch.
There is an existing website I will send you and I basically need 10 pages of this website re-written (so the content can be unique for my website). That means it cannot be plagiarized and it has to be at least 50% unique (or the search engines will flag it as duplicate content).
If you have an article spinner that is okay too, I just need you to edit so that it makes sense.
I can pay $2.50 per word document, so I can pay $25 for the total gig. Each document is roughly one page.
If everything works out, I have about 100 pages more I need written.
If you’re interested, please email me:
1. Your name
2. Your email
3. Your phone number
4. Links to any work you’ve done
5. Please tell me about your experience & tools you use.
Thank you,
Matt
Well Matt, where do I begin? How about the “they don’t need to be written from scratch” line? So you’re promoting writers to recycle copyrighted material in order to fill your pages? Risk plagiarism and copyright infringement charges so you can get it on the cheap? Oh but wait – it can’t be plagiarized because you’d be in trouble then, wouldn’t you? So it has to be 50 percent original, which means someone is still stealing content for your site, but maybe you’re off the hook.
And let’s talk about cheap – $2.50 per document? $25 total for 100 documents? Any chance you could go lower there, Matt? That’s just nuts. Let me ask this – would you accept those rates, Matt?
Instead of Matt’s incredible bout with insanity, try writing for someone who will pay you a better rate. Something like this may work:
Needs stories on history, architecture and decorating, antiques, studio crafts, and travel. Pays about $500 for a first feature from a new writer. Features run from 750 to 2,500 words.
That way, you can use someone else’s original work as research for your historical article.
What else would work? What have you seen that’s worthy of a guffaw or worth a second look?
I definitely want to check out the latter. Since I live in New England and all . . .
I have a question. If we put Matt in an article spinner would he come out with 50% more brains? You know, shake him up a bit and see if we can make him out to be unique so the search engines won't flog him. I mean, flag him.
I don't know what worries me more; that I've never heard of an article spinner, or that it exists in the first place.
Devon, I did think you'd enjoy that one.
Wendy, thank you for a laugh so hard that tea went dribbling down my chin. I like the flogging better. 🙂
Joseph, I'd be more worried about the latter. 😉
Wendy's lucky I just made my tea and it's too hot to drink.
Like Joseph, I've have no idea what an article spinner is.
I'm not sure why, but to me it almost read like a lure – you know, like the online chats the "teenagers" use to lure the pervs into the trap in To Catch A Predator. Anyone unethical enough to take a job that flat out instructs you to "borrow" material (50% from one site, maybe 50% from another?) deserves to be charged with plagiarism.
BTW, Lori, this morning I had a similar reply to a query I sent the other day. It was a personalized auto-response saying their editors carefully review all submissions and if any of them are interested in my query they'll be in touch within 8 weeks. A big improvement over utter silence.
Well, canned responses are better than no responses, I suppose.
I think Matt here is calling Copyscape a "spinner." I've no idea what he means, either.
Is it horrible to admit I don't know what Copyscape is?
Is it sad to admit that I know all about article spinners and used one once to see what it was like? I didn't inhale, though, I promise!
Flog-Flag, it's simply a slip of a finger… (I'm sure you can guess which finger)