If possible, I do everything I can to avoid using any of these options to communicate, getting side-tracked is just too easy. But that's just me…

I didn't get into IMs because they are such time sinks. I'm able to ignore emails until I'm able to answer – not so with chat.

One friend used to IM me all the time. Someone with a "full time" on-site job, yet only IM'd during business hours. I usually said, "Sorry, I'm working. Can't chat." After a while I had to add, "I don't get paid just for showing up… if I don't finish my work I won't be paid." Now that her boss has left and there's a new micro-manager in town, no more IMs (just a couple of e-mails a day – often about how difficult it is dealing with the new micromanager).

It doesn't help that my IM is soooo slow. It can take 1-2 minutes for a short sentence I typed to show upon the screen. Not a fan.

I think IM is a waste. Yesterday's chat consisted of "Can you tell me about the job and the requirements?" and his "Can you do these things?" We still had to move it to email. Total waste of time. Just start and end in email. When negotiating with someone over price, I'd rather not do it over the phone (for the reasons shown in the post – the price always changes).

Devon, even my mother would have to sign a contract. 🙂

Cathy, there WAS a full moon! Glad you could work it out. I'm just not in the mood to negotiate with price changers. Word-count changers – in your case with the count decreasing, sure. But if I'm being paid $100 a post and the word count has gone from 500 to 1,500, forget it.

Yes, contracts are definitely a butt-saver. But I'll admit, I'm horrible at using them. I trust too easily. (You can tell I haven't been burned yet.) The only time I actually put a contract together, I never heard from the client again. So I guess I actually saved myself a lot of time and frustration by NOT getting that client. He was a friend, too! Well, at least I thought he was. So that'll be my New Year resolution – get a contract every time.

And by the way, am I the only one who feels like IM is a waste of time? I type fast, but I talk faster, so phone calls can typically go more quickly. Or is it the written/logging aspect of the IM that's appealing?

The new owner feels since they didn't contract for it, they can re-negotiate to what they would like. I'm all for negotiating, but not when the changes take it into an entirely different direction and I end up majorly short-changed for my time and effort.

In this case, since I knew the forums where the original owner hung out, I was able to get the remaining balance and they got the project as was contracted.

Funny, I had a similar thing happen to me yesterday. Was there a full moon? But, mine worked out. There was a series of back and forth emails about the scope-the word count kept getting smaller. I finally advised that I wouldn't take on projects that were less than X dollars (I just don't find it productive to do a bunch of small "onesies" since the bulk of my work consists of larger projects).

They accepted that and I now have an ongoing monthly project at an acceptable rate.