Pinckney D Rivers, click
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Blogs by Pinckney D Rivers
So who hired me anyway? 9/28/2010 7:57:52 AM
what to do when the one who hired you isn't the one who fires you. Relationships VS business. I am a freelance writer; I've told you of the pitfalls of the job. I have an excellent track record of ghostwriting for other people. I have a way with words and they don't: they hire me to write what they wish they could. I bid on the jobs through a company called ******. The buyers ask questions, peruse your portfolios and decide if you are for them or not. Then they award the job and you are on the way. The person who is the buyer is supposed to tell you exactly what they want from you. If they don't I always ASK. I also make certain that any communications we have are through the workroom at ****** where we work. After all, they are paying for the project and I am getting paid. We both need to be protected. Unfortunately, there are people out there who have figured out how to work the system. They want to pay you at the conclusion of the job and not by the article (Stay far-far away from these), when you have uploaded all the articles to the workroom they tell you they are unsatisfied (when all along they have been sending emails saying how great you are)then they want to cancel the job. You don't get paid. Some of these people planned it this way. They think they get to keep the articles. Newsflash! they do not! Unless the person who contracted to buy your articles actually pays you for them you still own them yourself and can either use them yourself or sell them to someone else. I, personally, post mine on my website on selfgrowth.com
There is a reason for this. When a buyer doesn't pay but has access to the articles anyway he may decide to go ahead and use them. Sometimes he/she will alter them a little but if they are good enough they don't usually change them enough that they won't set off Copyscape. "Copyscape", you say. "What's that?" Well, THAT is a way to keep people from stealing your stuff and it really WORKS!"
I broke my own rule and accepted a job from a woman who had bought many others prior to mine. I forgot to check every little detail; she had 86 posted jobs, afterall. If I had checked I would have known it was a losing proposition. But I didn't and I got stuck! Shame on me; it won't happen again.
First, Lady Looney Tunes sent me an email off ***** inviting me to participate in her group. I accepted and signed up and posted my profile. She had suggested I could get some other work through there..Sounded good to me. I messaged her through ***** and asked for her topics and keywords. Three days passed without an answer. I finally went on her website and wrote by using one of the articles she had posted. Her objective was to drive business to her website through ezines...I have written over 700 ezine articles for buyers in the last 4 months and received positive feedback every time, so I know what I am doing.
The first article must have been wonderful because she never said a word about it. The second got a nasty reaction with a scathing tone of voice. It didn't sound like the woman who had hired me. I made the changes she asked for (which were minute, to say the least) and she messaged back that she was quite pleased. "YOU ROCK!" was her comment. I asked her again for topics and keywords. She said she would ask her ASSISTANT. A list arrived in the inbox. I wrote two more articles and was cut off from access to her website (which she had instructed was to be used in each article). This was on Saturday night. The email (from the ASSISTANT) said I had gone into an area where I was forbidden (oops, didn't she read her boss's invitation to join???????). She would see about getting me a small amount of access on Monday. That meant I would not be able to work on the project all weekend. It would be due the following Friday. How was that going to work out?
I worked on a different project through the weekend but went online on Monday AM to see what was going on. NOTHING!
Tuesday, still nothing. No answer from several messages I left..so I had to go to the public part of the site and write the articles from that. They were quite good, if I do say so myself. I uploaded them to the workroom and five minutes later received an unpleasant message about how I was a hack writer and not suited for their "brand" and how did I want to cancel the project. Underlying message? "You ain't getting' paid, Sista!"
I have a temper. I have a BAAAAD temper. I have to literally sit on my hands to keep from answering this woman who SAYS she is the person who hired me. Personally, I think it's the assistant but the outcome is the same. I waited thirty minutes and went onsite and cancelled the project totally. I sent a message that her escrow was refunded. I got a message that said "Thanks! all the best!" Maybe she is schizo!
I am waiting to see if she tries to attack me through ******. Unfortunately for her I cut and pasted all of her outside emails to the site so that the administrator could see what was happening. I also posted all of the articles I had written for them to my selfgrowth site. So, if she tries to use them she will get zonked for plagerism. After all, she didn't pay me and time is money.
I also went through her profile portfolio and found that out of those 86 jobs only about 5 were completed to her satisfaction (and they were jobs anyone could have done; cut and paste operations).
I usually love my job but this time I was NOT amuzed!
