The one that really gets me has happened to me three times this year. On paper, a potential client seems like a promising fit. They love you background and experience. None of those big red flags waving, either, so they seem legit. They schedule a phone call. You spend 15-30 minutes discussing the scope of work and start getting interested and then they drop the bomb.

In one case, it was pathetically low rates (and the fact that you had to know “code” to use their CMS, which was a requirement). That editor should have known that someone with my experience wasn’t going to work for $25 per “article” (They weren’t articles, just blog posts, but that’s still way too low.) And when I said I wasn’t comfortable using their CMS and don’t know helm coding, she expressed disbelief, and asked how I submitted my articles to other clients. Um…by email, honey. And before that, by giving the editor a floppy disk, or faxing it it. And back when I first started, I even sent a couple articles in by regular mail.

Another potential client was offering $800 per article, but wanted investigative reporting and fact checking included for multi-source articles of about 2,000 words. I was desperate for a new client at the time, but was secretly glad that she replied to my first mandated weekly check in with “Oh, I didn’t know you accepted it. Give me a call.” But she didn’t answer the phone and never replied to my call or final email. Phew.

And there was another place that wanted business profiles. Simple, direct, somewhat interested. They paid 40-cents/word, but they sounded fairly simple. Since I needed a new client, I was interested. He sent me all the paperwork, which I filled out and turned in. He said he’d be in touch as soon as he had an assignment for me. That was in March. Ghosted again.

Actually, two other potential clients said they’d be in touch, too, and I never heard back from them, either. I think I dodged a bullet or two, too, since one had a writing “test” she wanted me to do. The other said he’d be in touch when he had “the right assignment” for me. My inner cynic thinks perhaps they realized I wasn’t some green newbie they could exploit and decided I’d be more trouble than I was worth, LOL.