There are many fraudulent schemes in the work-at-home freelance writing niche. One of the most popular is what I call the “writing sample” scam. While it usually doesn’t cost you money, it does cost you time, which is your greatest asset as a freelance writer.
You could end up spending a lot of time working for free. Here’s what this scam is and how to avoid it.
How the Freelance “Writing Sample” Scam Works
The way this online writing jobs scheme works is that a business will place an ad looking for articles or some other type of content (for example, blog posts) on a certain topic. When you apply, you will be asked for a writing sample.
“Great”, you may be thinking, “I just wrote an article about this last week, I’ll send it in as my sample.”
However, they will contact you to say that the article must be original and that they want to “judge your writing ability and stick to their guidelines” or some other similar jargon. They usually promise that there will be continued work “if your writing sample is accepted.”
So you think, “Hmm, an opportunity for work in progress. It’s only 300-400 words; I can finish it in an hour or so.”
So you do it and send it. You’ll never hear from them again and/or if you do, they’ll tell you that your writing sample didn’t pass their guidelines, so they won’t be able to use you.
Good, you think. It sucks that you spent the time writing the article, but you have a few other sources that you can submit it to and probably sell it to.
One day, while mindlessly browsing the web, you come across your article, on your site, word for word. It just doesn’t have your name. They’ve named it after him and they’re using it, and they haven’t paid him a penny!
If this happens to you, you have been scammed.
The reason behind these types of online writing jobs scams is simple: the company/person gets original content without paying for it. You see, they’ve probably fed the same story to hundreds of freelance writers who fell in love with it. So they get hundreds of pieces of original content, for free.
Why This Online Writing Job Scam Is So Prevalent
The reason they do this is because content costs and they are either too lazy or too stupid to produce it themselves. Many behind these types of scams are internet marketers and affiliates with hundreds of websites.
Paying someone to write original and informative content for your sites would cost you thousands of dollars. Thus, they take advantage of unsuspecting web writers who are new to the industry to produce the content.
How to Avoid These Types of Online Writing Job Scams
It’s surprisingly simple. Do not write original content free. Legitimate companies will pay you to write a sample if they are considering using it. However, most of the time, they won’t even require it. Samples you already have will work just fine. So remember this.