Writers Offering Free Articles. Is it a Good Trend?

codexehow said:
The only writers that will work for free to "prove" themselves to you will be bad writers, period. There are enough clients these days that good writers like myself don't have to cater to beggars.


@ OldSalt,

Because time is money. That's as true for me as it is for you.

Refer back to my garage analogy. Or make it a doctor's office. You have a problem and need it solved. There are lots of other people around here who have the same problem. The doctor has absolutely 0 incentive to spend his valuable time proving himself to you when that same time and energy could be going to money making endeavors.

Now bring it back to article writing post-panda. See my point? The only people who will give you "samples" for absolutely no cost are novice writers who are non-native speakers. For $0 you get Engrish. As it should be.
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Well thank you for reading exactly that line and ignoring the rest. If you read what I wrote, you will see that I am advocating for each writer to write a couple of sample articles on any subject - and then sending those samples to EVERYONE that asks for a sample. If you can't be bothered to create 1-3 sample articles ONE TIME that you simply digitally copy over and over to everyone that requests a sample, then you shouldn't be selling your services. As someone that purchases content, I will ask for a sample (if they don't already have one posted or linked). If they don't want to send me a sample, there's a very good chance I'll just move onto the next content creator that values their potential customers and will send one.

Again, I am not asking for anything custom written for me nor am I asking for a specific subject. I EXPECT that the article(s) that is sent was written by the provider and will be given to everyone who asks for a sample. If you can't do that - then you won't get my biz... simple enough.

*Edit* - If you are wondering why I ask for those samples, it's because there are many providers that claim to be very good, only for us to get crappy articles that aren't worth 1/10 of what we paid.
 
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You could have made it a bit clearer. Sorry for not understanding you.

I agree that any writer should have samples on-hand to dish out to anyone who asks. The topic of the thread is "freebies," so I guess that's why I misunderstood you.
 
I agree with the idea of giving the same samples to anyone who asks. If people want to write freebies that's up to them but it doesn't make writers look very valuable. If potential buyers are really just interested in seeing how well you write, they don't need exclusive rights to original articles. Write 3-4 and give them to everyone who wants a sample. Just let them know that they are samples and not for use.
 
if you look at all the outsourcing sites, writing is incredibly cheap.
however, quality writing is hard to come by. most 'articles' are broad, generic, and empty. it's the one service I always pay more for.
 
You can also think about the free article as an ad that may yield business or not. Works far better than paying for ads in the writing niche if you want to promote your service.

Not saying everyone should be doing this but it is just a technique for promoting the business.
 
No, it's a horrible trend. Money is harder and harder to come back on the web, more writers start to appear which means more competition. How can you compete with free? I managed to get 15 original, superbly written articles for free by exploiting this. Just ask for samples from different writers or take freebies, then you'll have free content. They're the ones getting exploited.
 
Nigel Farage said:
This thread pisses me off, every time I see it.
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What's the problem with you? If you get pissed off by seeing this thread, then why commenting here and pissing yourself more. Doesn't that seem idiotic and irrational?
 
I could see where giving out free articles would give you a great promotional setup to work with. Especially if you are in a position like I am. I have been for TB and just kind of gave up working for them. However, I have zero BHW clients and zero dedicated clients. Therefore, I would probably use free articles to get my name out. So I am fine with them. Just as long as they don't become a standard that I would have to compete against.

Dustin
 
dshad said:
I could see where giving out free articles would give you a great promotional setup to work with. Especially if you are in a position like I am. I have been for TB and just kind of gave up working for them. However, I have zero BHW clients and zero dedicated clients. Therefore, I would probably use free articles to get my name out. So I am fine with them. Just as long as they don't become a standard that I would have to compete against.

Dustin
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If you are a native writer, then I could be some help for you. I would give you a good number of websites, which pay good to native English speakers. PM me for more details. Have a great day ahead.
 
peerless2acme said:
What's the problem with you? If you get pissed off by seeing this thread, then why commenting here and pissing yourself more. Doesn't that seem idiotic and irrational?
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Not really. It's just that I worry about the consequences of telling people to mind their own fucking business, and that if someone wants to give away their labor, time and skill for free, it's their business and no one else's. And also that these "something needs to be done" people are the same low-life m- f-rs that advocate that the government sticks it's nose into everyone's ass-crack at every opportunity. Some people are in desparate need for someone else to tell them to shut the fuck up, and mind their own business, and if I don't do it, who will? You? When?

If these retards are not confronted, they collectively might degenerate down to the possibility of making some kind of rule, or even law, that prohibits people from giving away their work for free, which is no different than slavery. I fear the cumulative effect of retards in large numbers, and what happens when more intelligent people are cowed into submission to them by being expected to adhere to some kind of social decorum while attempting to address the real possibility of legislative re-enslavement.

The proposition is outrageous, and outrage is a natural result of that proposition. It falls into the same class of offense as if you were standing in an elevator with a woman, and when the doors close you look her straight in the eye and ask if you could see her pussy. "Hey, I have an idea. How about you with your superior talent, volunteer to become enslaved to my retarded ass?" Somehow, to me, a polite "Uh, no thank-you." just doesn't cut it. Instead, I have visions of 9mm bullet holes spattering across someone's cranium. So, I figure I'm doing pretty good by reducing all that outrage to something vaguely resembling speech.


But that's more of a "higher level" set of ideas that I do not think would be interesting to most people in this discussion. All they are dimly aware of is that there are things happening that they don't like, and they wish for some kind of central authority to force people to do things the way they think should be done. I think this is because they have become discouraged by their repeated failures to achieve a level of self-control, and so that desire gets redirected into a desire to control other people. It requires less effort, no skill, and is consequence-free (which is the problem; these people are in desperate need of painful punishment) They have a sick pathology, and in many ways we'd all be better off if they were "wished into the cornfield", preferably before they have managed to procreate.
 
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Nigel Farage said:
Not really. It's just that I worry about the consequences of telling people to mind their own fucking business, and that if someone wants to give away their labor, time and skill for free, it's their business and no one else's. And also that these "something needs to be done" people are the same low-life m- f-rs that advocate that the government sticks it's nose into everyone's ass-crack at every opportunity. Some people are in desparate need for someone else to tell them to shut the fuck up, and mind their own business, and if I don't do it, who will? You? When?

If these retards are not confronted, they collectively might degenerate down to the possibility of making some kind of rule, or even law, that prohibits people from giving away their work for free, which is no different than slavery. I fear the cumulative effect of retards in large numbers, and what happens when more intelligent people are cowed into submission to them by being expected to adhere to some kind of social decorum while attempting to address the real possibility of legislative re-enslavement.

The proposition is outrageous, and outrage is a natural result of that proposition. It falls into the same class of offense as if you were standing in an elevator with a woman, and when the doors close you look her straight in the eye and ask if you could see her pussy. "Hey, I have an idea. How about you with your superior talent, volunteer to become enslaved to my retarded ass?" Somehow, to me, a polite "Uh, no thank-you." just doesn't cut it. Instead, I have visions of 9mm bullet holes spattering across someone's cranium. So, I figure I'm doing pretty good by reducing all that outrage to something vaguely resembling speech.


But that's more of a "higher level" set of ideas that I do not think would be interesting to most people in this discussion. All they are dimly aware of is that there are things happening that they don't like, and they wish for some kind of central authority to force people to do things the way they think should be done. I think this is because they have become discouraged by their repeated failures to achieve a level of self-control, and so that desire gets redirected into a desire to control other people. It requires less effort, no skill, and is consequence-free (which is the problem; these people are in desperate need of painful punishment) They have a sick pathology, and in many ways we'd all be better off if they were "wished into the cornfield", preferably before they have managed to procreate.
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Are you sick friend? Read my post once again, maybe it will give you some insight about what I mean to say. What I meant to suggest is that there needs to be a regulatory system, which differentiates between genuine freebee givers and fake ones, who are not going to get the task done. I am telling you to use common sense here. Just think, if there is partial involvement of mods in this entire process, then we can wave off a majority of idiots who are giving freebies without much intent to get them done. This is what I mean to say. I am repeating it again, I don't give a damn who is offering his services for free or at $100. It's none of my fucking business you are right but at the same time I would wish that there's some regulation over the guys who are offering their services for free, it's all about filtering. I hope after reading this, you will give your rebellious point of views some rest. Have a great day ahead.
 
peerless2acme said:
Read my post once again, maybe it will give you some insight about what I mean to say.
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I understand what you "mean to say" more completely than you will ever be capable. I know you, and people like you, more completely than you know yourselves, and have made my objections to your continued existence perfectly clear.
 
Nigel Farage said:
I understand what you "mean to say" more completely than you will ever be capable. I know you, and people like you, more completely than you know yourselves, and have made my objections to your continued existence perfectly clear.
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Peace. Have a great day ahead.:clock:
 
I hope that this freebie trend will eventually run its course and these writers will wise up. My reasoning is that anyone writing online articles already has a hard enough time getting a decent rate per article. Giving time-consuming written work away for free devalues the writer, the article, and the rest of the online writers out there. The OP makes an excellent point that desperation is a nasty state of mind, and this goes double when looking for online work. A short sample article is appropriate in some cases, though there is always the risk of a shady client taking it and publishing it while rejecting the writer for written work. I've only run across a small minority of these clients, and an advantage of some content sites like Textbroker is that they have policies in place to curb that practice.
 
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