If you’re around at 2 pm ET/11 am PT today, meet up with Anne Wayman and me for the #writingsquared tweetup! Bring questions and advice – all are welcome.
Interesting day yesterday. Got a small project done, managed to stay awake long enough to get an estimate back to a client on a big project, and lined up some interviews for an article. I had a chance also to review an offer that, on first blush, made me think “No way.”
On the second pass, my reaction was even stronger. On the third pass, I was glad I hesitated.
Knowing when to trust your gut is, in my opinion, one of the best business tools we writers can have. When you’re new to writing, it’s easy to get burned. Once you’re sporting the singe marks a bit, you learn to back away from the flames, even if you can’t see them. The memory is enough to make you step carefully.
Here’s the offer:
Hello,
We are looking for writers for our jewelry auction website. You will need to create short (20 –25 word) write ups of daily auctions. We will pay $1.00/word to startup, then increase if it goes well. You MUST be interested in jewelry to take up the job.
Due to payment issues, we can only take writers that are based in the USA for now. Please
send an email to jessica.smith916@Gmail.com to apply if you fit the
criteria.
Thank You,
Jessica Smith
Sounded okay, but not great. $1 a word got my attention, but didn’t convince me this was a real company. Still, I figured there was no harm in responding, so I did. Here’s the response that came back:
Ok thanks for replying to my ad this is what I need you to do and following directions is very important to me so please understand
Click on this link (taken out to avoid giving them any free publicity)
(this is the website I will need you to write about)
REGISTER ON THE FIRST PAGE
This is very important it only takes 30 seconds to do enter your name and email address
Once you have registered on the site take a look around the site at the different jewelry there is
Get an idea of a piece you think you can right a good article about, email me back with the piece of jewelry
you would like to write about and tell me why I should hire you for this job rather than someone else.
Now one of the main things I’m looking for is someone that knows how to follow directions, with that being said do exactly what I said in this email and you have a great chance to be working with me on lots of projects.
Thank You
Jessica Smith
If you’ve been around a while, you probably got the same feeling I did. Here’s why I figured this to be a scam offer:
Lack of direct contact. “Ok thanks” – really? Not calling me by name made me close the email immediately. Curiosity made me go back a few hours later.
Lousy punctuation. Unless you’re ee cummings and paid to get away with it, use a period. Use proper sentence structure in general and you’ll have a better chance of convincing me you’re legitimate.
Signing up just to be considered. Why exactly is that a requirement? Whose contact information are you trying to gather and why? This is not a job offer if you’re expecting me to supply you with ways you can pester me later.
The demeaning demands. Yes, I’ve had writers not follow directions, but if I spend all my time telling them that they’d better follow directions, I’m wasting my time and that of more dedicated writers. If you’re saying it in your ad, you’re not acting very professional yourself.
The empty promise. “…you have a great chance to be working with me on lots of projects.” Right.
I looked yesterday at the link. Sure enough, it’s gone. The message is “You have clicked on an Expired or Corrupt Link” and then there’s a redirect that tosses you instantly into some survey page. Not sure what their angle is, but there’s clearly an angle here. And I’m very glad I didn’t waste more time on this nonsense.
Have you had a situation in which your gut told you no? Did you listen? If you didn’t, how did it turn out? If you did, were you proven right?
13 responses to “Learning to Trust Your Gut”
I'm highly suspicious of people who talk about the need to follow directions/submission guidelines in their ads.
Any professional writer does that.
If you feel the need to say it, that means you're not targeting professionals. Don't say it and toss the ones who don't do it.
Also, the whole registering for considering — no. Either you're hiring me or you want me as an audience member. Not both.
I don't like the email address, it looks too much like a personal one. Using Gmail doesn't bother me too much, but throwing in the 916 part just looks odd to me. If it was the company name or website name it would probably would look better.
As it is, it makes me think of a Nigerian scam.
Lori, first off: Thank you for commenting on my post about this.
Second: My personal email has been disabled by Google because of the scammer. She resent the emails- if you replied Lori you may have received an email from a snarky responder 'Andy'.
I replied back with a link to what 'Jessica' did…woke up to a disabled email.
Watch out for the scammers, guys.
Very weird case there Lori. Definitely reeks of a possible phishing scam with the sign-up requirement with no commitment. Just strange.
Devon, exactly. Anyone who doesn't ask for samples, resumes, or any form of proof that you can write sends up a red flag. Moreover, stupid requirements that have zero to do with the job is another.
Wendy, likewise. I don't normally mind Google (I use it), but as you suggested, the 916 didn't make sense.
MamaStick (I won't use your real name unless you say it's okay), thanks for commenting. I had wondered if that email (and yes, I got one, too) didn't cause grief with email accounts. I tried to respond to you via that and my Verizon account wouldn't let any of it through. I did get that response from "Andy" – I tend to ignore people who try to rally you to the cause, then ask you to vote in the upcoming election (What the HELL was that about?)…
Jenn, I suspect it is a phishing scam. That it poses as a job offer is weird. Honestly, the first red flag went up when I saw the pay rate. No one offers that on Craig's List! LOL
Sad when a new red flag for a writer ripoff is an ad listing a decent pay rate.
Thankfully I haven't come across anything like this. (How are they managing to disable e-mail, anyway?)
One thing I've encountered twice lately are the editors who say, "We're highly formatted so you MUST follow our guidelines closely," and expect you to include special things they never mentioned. Or if they mentioned it, they didn't explain it.
I'm all about trying to match each client's style as closely as I can, but if you say "you MUST include XYZ for each example" and then don't explain what the term XYZ means, don't snap when the writer asks what you mean! Very recently I had an editor do just that. The terse reply was, "It was in your assignment letter." Um…no, it wasn't. It also wasn't mentioned in your FAQ, guidelines, contract, or any e-mails.
Receiving no clarification, I sent in what I had with a note saying I hope that I managed to unknowingly include the XYZ by following the examples I was given.
In short: Editors/clients who demand perfection from their contributors ought to demand it of themselves, too.
Paula,
Yep, been there. Nothing like following the guidelines to the letter and getting back a rude response saying, "obviously you didn't read the guidelines because of x, y, z". Uh, when a, b, c were listed and x, y, z were not — YOU're the asshole, not me! 😉 (meaning, of course, the "editor" not Paula, who is lovely).
It's okay, I'm Julie. Changed my username on this account. I keep forgetting that the profile shows in all of my blogs.
I wish Google would allow the profile name to be set for each blog, 1 to 1.
There are so many red flags in that second email. The thing that gets me the most is how condescending it is. If you think I'm stupid, then why would you want to hire me?
Good call, Lori, to pass on this one. I'm glad you didn't waste any more of your time!
Julie, glad you posted. 🙂 I agree – if Google allowed that, it would be so much easier!
Paula, that is SO frustrating! I agree. If you want me to follow your rules, then follow your own.
Ashley, it was waving on the original post, but I wanted to see what was up. I knew going in this was how it would end, but hey, all in the name of research, right? 🙂
Paula is lovely, isn't she? And Devon, the temptation to say that very thing – oh, I could have been in such trouble if I'd acted on it! LOL
Ha! I published a similar article today. GMTA! Yes, I've gotten several suspicious types of emails recently and it prompted me to write the article.
If you walk away with nothing, it's this: Don't be afraid to ask questions in fear of losing the opportunity. Better than getting stuck in a bad situation and working out of it.
Meryl, great minds indeed. 🙂 Your point is spot on – ask questions. Only those clients who aren't really clients would get upset over questions. No loss there!
Lori & Devon, you two have got me blushing now…
Turns out the editor had sent the info, just in a different attachment. Semantics: when she said "assignment letter" I thought she meant the e-mail in which she officially assigned the work. She meant the "Article Assignment Sheet" that had been attached. I'd looked that over but was so tired from working all day on another thing for the same editor that I didn't even see the explanation of the term when I was looking straight at it. A good night's sleep and a clear perspective and I now owe the editor an apology. (Granted, she could have been clearer about which of the 6 or so documents she'd sent contained the info.) It was in a chart, and turns out I did in fact magically incorporate the XYZs without realizing it. (FYI: Any decent writer would have. The terms I needed to include were different tenses of the main topic.)