Tyler Nals's Blog: Tyler Nals - Posts Tagged "writing-jobs"
Cautionary Tale
After recently being laid off from a good job, my spirits were down. I went to a popular freelance writing site (Elance) and posted my information. I was contacted a few days later and I began working for $15 article. After writing 48 articles in six days, the guy who was supposed to pay me cut off all communications and disappeared. This was devastating.
I can’t do anything to get my money back, but I can at least spread the word to use caution in these situations. I did ask for payment after two days, but he said “they” only paid after seven days. But I eventually decided to take the gamble. After being laid off, I was the perfect target. My big error: I didn’t take the proper Elance steps to protect myself.
Whatever freelance writing site you choose to use, don’t do any work for anyone until you have a company name, phone number, and address. And in most cases, you should consider asking for half of the money upfront. If I saved even one person from working for free, then this was worth writing.
I can’t do anything to get my money back, but I can at least spread the word to use caution in these situations. I did ask for payment after two days, but he said “they” only paid after seven days. But I eventually decided to take the gamble. After being laid off, I was the perfect target. My big error: I didn’t take the proper Elance steps to protect myself.
Whatever freelance writing site you choose to use, don’t do any work for anyone until you have a company name, phone number, and address. And in most cases, you should consider asking for half of the money upfront. If I saved even one person from working for free, then this was worth writing.
