Copyright theft is a problem for all types of freelance writers, but when you write for the Internet, you become particularly vulnerable to it, as most professional bloggers will probably be able to testify.
Although most of my income these days comes from blogging, up until this weekend, I’d never experienced copyright theft. Well, there’s a first time for everything, I guess…
On Friday night Terry and I went out for dinner at my parents’ house. When we got home, I decided to quickly check my blog stats, because, yes, I AM that obsessed. It was lucky I did, though, because there, amongst the referrers for Big-Blogger was a URL I didn’t recognise. I clicked on it, out of curiosity – and found myself reading my own site. But it wasn’t my own site. No, some bright spark had decided to set up a blog, and copy all of my content – every last word of it. Well, why do your own hard work when you can steal someone else’s?
Needless to say, I was absolutely furious, and let me tell you, hell hath no fury like a blogger who discovers that someone has stolen her content. This dummy site (I could think of stronger words to describe it, but will refrain) was running Google Adsense, so basically, they were attempting to profit from my writing. I don’t like that.
Luckily for me, Google don’t really like copyright theft either, and neither do most webhosts, who, as I mentioned in this post will often remove a website found to be infringing someone’s copyright, rather than risk becoming embroiled in a legal battle. So, had I not been drinking wine that evening, my first steps would have been to:
1. Contact the company hosting the website in question (it took Terry just a few minutes to find out this information for me)
2. Contact Google, who may or may not have been able to help, but who do at least have the power to remove the offending site from both their search engine results page and from the Adsense programme.
Unfortunately, though, I had been drinking wine, so before taking either of these steps I had a quick look around the site for some contact details and, not finding any (surprise, surprise!), left a comment on the first stolen post I could find explaining that the content had been stolen from my site, and that, as a professional writer, I charge $1/word for this kind of content, so they could be expecting a hefty bill through the post for it. Oh, and a court summons, to address the issue of copyright theft.
Two minutes later, an email popped into my inbox:
“i’m the administrator of those wordpress instalations a haven’t know about ilegal content. i’m sending emails to get down all content inmediatly. thanks for the advice. you will be notifiel soon as posilbe.”
You can see why they felt the need to steal someone else’s content rather than writing your own, can’t you? I replied to this, saying again that, as well as reporting them to their hosts I would be charging the site owners for the content they’d used, and that it would be expensive.
A few minutes after that? The site was deleted. A small victory, but only a small one, because I have no idea how long my content was being used, or how many other people had also been targeted by these thieves. Another lesson learned for me, though, and from now on, I’ll be checking and double-checking my posts on Copyscape from now on to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
A while back, I posted about red flags and how to spot them.
Today I think I found another one – and it’s one that’s cropping up with worrying frequency at sites like Craigslist and others of it’s ilk.
“Looking for a female writing partner” was the headline. Now, straight away, there’s your red flag. Why female? You’re hiring a work-from-home writer; of what relevance can that person’s gender possibly be – unless, of course, you want them to write about childbirth, or some other event that only women can experience first hand.
This advertiser wasn’t looking for someone to write on women-specific topics, though. He just wanted a woman writer, and, even more insultingly, didn’t even want to pay her:
“Your chapters need not be long, and please understand, there is no money involved in this, simply the pleasure of pursuing it. ”
Ah, the pleasure! That old crock! Because, let’s face it, having your home repossessed because you were so busy writing “for pleasure” that you didn’t make any money this month is just so much fun!
But here comes the kicker:
“Please be well over the age of majority if you are interested in this.”
Um, why? OK, so an adult may have more writing experience than a teenager, sure. But somehow I don’t think that’s the kind of writing our friend here is interested in, do you? I think he perhaps has something else in mind altogether: and if not, well, he’s sure worded his job advert in such a way as to make me wonder. ..
Spotted:
“I need 5 – 300 word articles written about 5 places in Kent England. I can provide links on the web to give you some factual information on these places to give you a helping hand, however the end result of the article must be unique.
I have $20.00 for these articles so please PM me.
Only professional writers please, they are to be used on a law/legal site.”
Quick roll-call. How many “professional writers” do we have out there who are willing to write unique articles for $4 each? Anyone?
You know, I can almost understand the low-paying employers when they advertise on forums (as this was) knowing that the responses they get will be from kids looking to make a bit of extra pocket money, and that the quality of the writing isn’t going to be that great.
I can almost understand that. I still think they’re ripping people off, but if all they’re interested in some low-quality content for search engines to spider then that’s their choice. I may not agree with it (I think these people need to ask themselves why they’re looking for a good search engine placement in the first place. If it’s to bring visitors to their site, then they need to consider the fact that visitors are put off by poor-quality content), but then, I don’t have to: I’m not the person their adverts are aimed at.
It’s when they claim to want “professional writers only” that I start to have real issues with this kind of thing. Because now they are hoping to attract people like me. They’re hoping to attract people like you. They’re hoping that a professional writer – someone who does this for a living, has got it down to a fine art, and does it well enough to pay the mortgage from it – will accept $4 per article.
That’s when I get annoyed.
And the most annoying thing of all? The people who post ads like this want to use your writing to make a profit. Your content will contribute to the success of their business, so they’ll make money from it and you won’t. Other than the $4 you got for writing it, of course.
How is that fair?
I don’t switch Instant Messenger on very often. The reason? Every time I do switch it on, something like this happens:
unique girl says:
hi
unique girl says:
asl plz?
unique girl says:
r u freelancer?
unique girl says:
i want to get guidance abt freelance writing?
unique girl says:
may u help me
unique girl just sent you a Nudge!
unique girl says:
???????????????
Amber says:
Hi, how can I help?
unique girl says:
first introduce urself
unique girl says:
who r u?
unique girl says:
from where u r?
unique girl says:
what do u do?
unique girl just sent you a Nudge!
Note, if you will, the two “nudges” this person sent me – both within the space of about 60 seconds. For the uninitiated, a “nudge” is a method of “prompting” the other party to respond: It makes your screen shake violently, and has roughly the same kind of effect as being grabbed by the collar and shaken. Nice.
Now, I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by going through all of the many ways in which this is not the best way to try and get someone to help you with your freelance writing career. Or why an inability to write in, you know, standard English will maybe be a leeetle bit of a problem in that chosen career.
Suffice to say that Instant Messenger remains switched off for the foreseeable future…
More and more often recently I’ve been noticing ads for freelance writing jobs in which the applicant is required to submit some kind of “test” along with the usual resume and clips.
I came across two of these today: one for a copyediting job, in which everyone who replied had to edit a “sample” few paragraphs of text, another for a content writing position for which each applicant had to submit 250 words on a specified subject.
Now, excuse my cynicism, but take the copyediting thing, for example. I’ve seen this one before, and here’s how it works. Each applicant is sent a “sample” page to edit – a different page for each person, mind. Say 100 people respond (and trust me, with most freelance writing jobs, that’s probably a conservative estimate): the “employer” just got 100 pages edited for free. In other words, a scam.
As for the content writing, the same thing applies. If everyone who replies gives them 250 words, that’s quite a lot of free content they’ve got there (and yes, I know this example is slightly different because they haven’t paid for it so they technically can’t use it, but unless you’re diligent in your searching, they could change a few words here and there and you might never know your work had been used).
My apologies to all of the genuine employers out there who use tests, and who have the best of intentions in doing so. But I have to say, it’s one of those things that puts up a red flag for me as soon as I see it.
I really hope I’m wrong.
One of the most annoying things about being a writer is that you’re not allowed to make any mistakes. Ever.
While that’s fair enough when you’re writing for publication, or for a client (who has a right to expect their copy to be absolutely error-free), when I write for myself, on my personal blogs, and in forums, it would be nice if people could maybe cut me some slack now and again.
Not so, though. Typo in a casual forum post? Someone will take great delight in pointing it out – normally with a “LOL!” and a general air of glee into the bargain. Mistake in my personal blog? Same thing again, with the glee and the “lol” and an attitude of “ha! I caught the writer making a typo! How funny! She’ll be SO embarrassed! I better point out the mistake right away – in public, preferably!”
Here’s the thing, though: sometimes I make mistakes. There, I admitted it. I am not perfect. I write thousands of words every single day, and when you’re as prolific as I am, sometimes you’re going to make the odd typo here and there. Most of the time they are just typos, but here’s another shocking confession: sometimes I spell words wrong. This is because I do not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of every single word in the English language, and when I’m pushed for time and the thing I’m writing is just a casual post on a forum, I sometimes won’t have time to go look it up. It’s also because I’m human. Shoot me if you must.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s OK to let typos and other mistakes slide. It most definitely is not, and, as I said above, when I’m writing for a client, I make sure I never do. When I post on a forum about shoes, say, or dogs, I’d quite like not to be hauled over the coals for the one typo I make in 100 posts, though. Is that really too much to ask?
The thing that amuses me the most, in all this? The people who manage to find a typo in something I’ve written and send me a spiteful, smug email about it – then ask if I’d like to employ them. Because of course I want to work with someone who has just revealed themselves to be have nothing better to do than write smug emails telling me how useless I am. Who wouldn’t want that?*
* Note: emails which simply say, “Hey, I noticed a typo, thought you might like to know,” are fine, and, indeed, dandy. Emails which take a “Call yourself a proofreader?”, rolling-eyed tone make me want to forward the sender’s details to every editor I know…
An excerpt from a post I came across on Craigslist. The post was titled “Will Work For Free”, and this is a paragraph from it:
Unfortunately many editorial assistant positions in New York City offer starting salaries for full-time positions so low that I would barely be able to afford paying my rent. Those jobs are great for college graduates still living at home but not for a 34-year-old single woman on her own…I continue to work full time to support myself, but my hours are currently 1 pm to 9 pm weekdays. So, I am offering to work from 9 am to 12:30 am weekdays as well as possibly weekends as well for FREE.
Things like this just make me feel sad. Because, you know what? This woman is right. Editorial assistant positions don’t pay enough to let you make your rent every month. In fact, very few entry-level writing jobs do. It’s an accepted fact of the industry: you want to write? You better prove how much you really want it by working for free.
If you manage that for a few years, hey, you’ll maybe work your way up to a job where you get to work for a pittance, as opposed to nothing at all. So at least there’s somthing to look forward to, no?
Well, no. Not really. Not until we all start standing up to be counted, by saying that you know what? Working “from 9 am to 12:30 am weekdays as well as possibly weekends as well for FREE” is really not worth it. All it does is convince more would-be employers that if they look long enough, they’ll be able to find a great writer who’ll be willing to provide them with great work – for nothing.
Why should writers have to grovel like this? We don’t see lawyers do it, for instance. Or cleaners. “Will clean your house for free! For the experience!” Now, there’s something you don’t see often. You don’t find accountants willing to do your tax return for the experience. Or teachers taking classes to “build up their portfolio”. We only see it happen with creatives: writers, designers and anyone else who has a creative skill to offer. That makes me sad.
How do these other professions do it? How do they manage to gain the experience they need without having to spend half of their lives offering themselves up as slave labour? Because it sure doesn’t seem to be possible for writers, does it? This woman’s post makes me sad, not because I think she’s wrong to be offering to work for free, but because for so many aspiring writers, there really is no other way.
The post was removed by a Craigslist admin. I really hope this woman found her job, and that she’s actually getting paid for it. But I somehow doubt it.
 This really should be Pet Peeve number one, such is my hatred of it, but the top spot has already been claimed by our friend excessive punctuation, so this week, ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm (or, indeed, not-so-warm) welcome to Pet Peeve number 2: “should of/would of”.
“I should of told her I would be late tonight…”
“I would of called, but I’ve been busy…”
“I should of paid attention at school, then I wouldn’t make embarrassing mistakes like this one…”
Aargh! No! It’s should have! Would have! Not “of”! Where in the wide world do they get “of” from? Have! Have, have, have! Aargh!
Do you ever read blogs? I mean, blogs other than this one which, imperfect as it may be, is guaranteed never to use this cursed phrase? If you read blogs on a regular basis, you’ll see this one all the time: in fact, it’s become so common that I fear an entire generation is growing up with the belief that “should of” and “would of” are actually correct, and “should have” and “would have” are, in fact wrong.
Poor “have”. It’s endangered. Its dying out. Stand up with us now against the “should of/would of” brigade.” We will prevail!
From an Internet forum that I frequent:
I am looking to possibly hire some writers for a site that might be built.
These are the requirments:
1. You have past exp writing articles.
2. You are able to write with great detail and correct grammar.
3. You have an interest in the topic and are well versed in it.
I know its a long shot but we will try
Pay will be $0.50 per article and I need about 100 of them. Articles that met or exceed expectations will be rewarded $1.00
Please apply ONLY if you meet the criteria. Plagiarizism will not be tolerated so anyone caught copy and pasting stuff from others will be fired and blacklisted
For once, words fail me. Oh well, if you insist…
Things like this make my blood boil. I mean, fifty cents per article. Fifty cents per article. Why? What on God’s green earth would make a professional writer (or even a non-professional with the “past experience” and “correct grammar” this guy’s looking for, sit down and write a carefully-reserached (”great detail”, remember!) article for fifty lousy cents – or even the $1 he’s promising if it’s exceptionally good?
If it were 50 cents per word, then OK, let’s talk. But seriously, I wouldn’t even write an easy article for fifty cents. Why would anyone do that? That detailed article is going to take at least an hour to write. Where are all these people who’re willing to work for $0.50 per hour? Where do they live? How are they affording the internet connection? And what the hell are they smoking to want to work for this kind of “reward”?
As a small business owner, and an internet addict, I tend to spend part of each day networking on some of the many business forums which exist on the internet. These are great ways to meet new clients, and some of our most regular work comes from people we’ve met in this way.
Every so often, another freelance writer will sign up for these forums, and that’s fine: competition is healthy. But here’s what normally happens: new writer signs up for forum; new writer has a look around and realises there are lots of potential clients here to ntwork with; existing member posts looking for copywriting services; new writer immediately offers up their services – for free.
I have no doubt that in the above scenario (it happened again this week, can you tell?), New Writer is offering to work for free in hopes of getting “in” with the community – of proving what an all-round fab person they are, and having the lucky person who gets the use of their writing service for free to go around singing their praises to everyone else on the forum, thus leading to a sudden influx of orders for New Writer.
Now, I understand the logic. But it doesn’t work that way. Here’s why:
1. The type of people who expect to be given content for free will never turn into paying customers
No matter how they choose to phrase it, they’re ripping you off. Ask yourself this: do they expect/want to make a profit from your content, even indirectly? If so, they should pay you for it. If they choose not to pay for content, and are given it for free anyway, they will never learn that professional work deserves professional pay. Why should they? If a professional writer offers to work for them for nothing, why on earth should they look that particular gift horse in the mouth?
2. Once you’ve earned a reputation as someone who writes for free, you’ll find it hard to shake it.
Think about it. You go into a community and offer to work for free for the first person who asks. The next person you approach with your service is just going to think, “Well, you didn’t charge him, why are you charging me? If he got it for free, I want it for free too.”
3. You make yourself look desperate
To a professional business community, offering to work for free says two things: you’ve got time on your hands, and you can’t find someone willing to actually pay for what you’re offering. It follows from this that what you’re offering must not be very good if you’re struggling to find work. This isn’t a good impression to make to potential clients.
4. You’re preventing other writers from getting paid work
It’s this simple: if you offer to write for free, no one will use my services, for which I expect to be paid. No one wins (except the person receiving the free work, of course!). You don’t get paid, I don’t get paid. Worse, the members of the community you’ve just joined now have the impression that professional writing is something which is given away for free. Great for them, not so great for the whole community of freelance writers out there who’d quite like to be paid, thanks very much.
I have no doubt that to some of you, all of this will sound like sour grapes. “You’re just scared of a little healthy competition!” you’re thinking. Not so. Competition is fine. But this isn’t competition. I can’t compete with people who work for free, because I have a mortgage to pay, and other clients to keep happy. I just don’t have the time to sit and carefully craft an article for nothing. If you do, then please: do it somewhere else. Don’t come into professional forums and start devaluing all of our work. It’s bad enough when new writers have to work for free to build up clips: when professionals do it, there is no excuse.
|
|
|
