Writers - DON'T write articles for free

I hate to see people giving their hard work away for free, or severely under charging for their work (except in some exceptional circumstances). So easy to get yourself locked into a race to the bottom that way.

Be confident, and don't be afraid to hear "no". You know how good you are (hopefully), it's your clients that need convincing. No one else is going to do it for you (although the samples are a large part of it) so your attitude and persistence is key to landing that first client. That being said, be ready to hear "no", especially if you aren't published anywhere and only have your samples to go off of. It happens though if you stick to it. Every one of us was at "0" on the client marker at some point.

Just a tip for writers starting out, make sure you get a deposit. Sit on your hands until you do. I've been burned several times by trusting clients too much.

Nice tip Shay. I made the mistake of offering 'review copies' of my work when I put out my first "Warrior for Hire" thread.

It did lead to a good long term client, but 2 of the 5 I wrote never got back to me and skipped town with free content. (I have since hired a private investigator who has tracked them down to a small town in Northern Pakistan. Soon I'll pry my review out of his cold dead fingers.)


The only tip I can give for getting started is to be confident in your skills and once you do get the first client, always deliver as promised (quality, turn around time and anything else you agree to provide to the client).

If you dont value your own work and skills then how can you expect anyone else to?

Shay good post. I wouldn't coach and consult people for free, same for article writing.

I am sure there is/are a few reasons to do articles for FREE....especially short ones...but it's a short list....

I agree with the overall sentiment of this thread, but I have seen one method of offering free services that makes a lot of sense to me.

Rather than just doing a few free "review copies" for random people. Try proactively offering your services to people with a little bit of a following. If you are prepared to do a little free work to get your foot in the door somewhere, you want to do it in a way that maximizes its effect.

You see this with some web design companies. They offer a discount for for displaying the designers link and thus bringing in more business.

I was so glad to see this post. I've been working as a ghostwriter for years part-time and recently left my job to do this full-time. I think that if you want people to value your writing, you have to value it. Go ahead and give a free sample, but don't work for someone for free.

Also, I agree with getting money up front. I actually ask for the full amount up front because I've had bad experiences with chasing people for payment after they've received the product.

Shay, I respectfully disagree (in a limited sense).

For my first year or two online, I wrote EVERYTHING for free.

Then, a scout for what would become About.com found my writing -
and invited me to be a Guide.

About.com went on to be a Top 10 Web property - a position it
still retains, with some ups and downs.

That led to many interesting opportunities, which evolved into my
becoming an Internet Infopreneur - and being able to fund a long
cherished dream that took a lot of money to create and sustain.

Giving things away for free is grossly UNDER-RATED.

Especially from the intangible viewpoint of how it makes you FEEL
and how it gets you PERCEIVED by the rest of the universe.

When you GIVE value without expectation of any return, you set in
play a forcefield that ripples in unimagined ways.

Writers write. It rarely is "hard work" for those who truly love
and enjoy their craft, grow better over time, and find writing is
quicker, easier and more fun than before.

I can pen a 500 word article on a topic I enjoy and know in 15
minutes. Giving it away for free once or twice isn't a big "loss".

More to the point, delivering something of real value to readers
helps with positioning you - not just from the "writing skills"
viewpoint, but from one of showing how generous, helpful and
caring you may be, for giving away such value for free.

There's this quote I love, from Seth Godin's "LINCHPIN":

Think about that before deciding whether or not "giving away"
review samples is, indeed, a "mistake".

All success
Dr.Mani

Hi Shay,

Your post will do the talking for us in terms of convincing aspiring writers not to give free content for the sake of showing some reviews on his/her thread.

Yes, you should either use them as samples instead
of giving the ownership of them as review copies.

The trade-off is obviously imbalanced.

I personally think that demonstration of your offer is
far more valuable than having social proof. That's
because people are thinking WIIFM.

But of course, it's a little different if you're writing
copywriting, because of the taxing amount of market
research in the preparatory phases.

Winston Tian

I never did either, Shay. I always showed a portfolio.

That said, I co-created a course on ghostwriting and the other creator recommended that they DO give away a free article.

We openly had differing opinions on it.

Then when we had customers telling me that they tried his approach and not only got feedback, but a permanent client, I felt like it might work for some people. I'm stingy. I probably still wouldn't. lol
tiff

I have been saying that from beginning. But the newbie writers are killing the market along with the value of writing with these tactics.

Typically, it's not my idea to give free reviews not just content.

Like my self acclaimed saying goes: "there is no good writer anywhere, the only good writer is the one that goes back to his piece a second time".

As far as am concern, you don't need samples or rating to even sell your work, as a writer with great style and English command, your sales page/thread or whatever can be your sample, full stop.

According to the bible, "you can know them from their fruits", It's doesn't hide.

Recently, i found a great writer that does my content for $5, he lacks sales, rep and rating on his thread. He is damn so good that am currently taking it upon myself to shine the lights in his path. He is so good that some of my clients want to know where i do get my content from. I noticed one problem with him, he doesn't have anything on his sales page but pricing an a few testimonials. Am working with him to improve that and probably get his fees higher to $25 per 500words.

Great advise Shay..

It is a pretty known fact that as a person who has not landed a client, desperation sets in and the 1st thought that crosses our minds are to give away free articles for reviews... DON'T.. instead emphasize on your writing methods.. tell your potential client about ways you use to produce a good article.. and lead them to an example preferably related to what they want..

Don't just stop there.. be sure to provide the best service and value to your client..

Remember, bringing value to your clients pocket will take you a lot further than trying to just bring value to your pocket.. this is a general tip that will apply in any biz you do.. have a nice day folks..

I thought long and hard about whether to respond to this post, but in the end decided I just couldn't let it pass without offering my two cents.

As one of the writer newbies that recently offered a WSO for free articles in exchange for testimonials, I took this post very personally. Interestingly enough, my decision to run the WSO was based on a suggestion offered here in the forum by a fellow warrior. Perhaps I'm too trusting or just plain naïve, but the thought never occurred to me that people would take advantage of this offer and not, at the very least, provide me with a review of my work. I will fulfill my commitment to complete the sample articles for those who have requested them, and if they choose not to fulfill their end of the bargain, then I have learned a valuable lesson.

Recently I have seen a bunch of writing gigs where a sample article is required, this really puts me off. Say I was to apply for 50 different writing gigs in one week where each require a sample, how would that work exactly, I write 50 pieces of content?

Not the best use of my time I think.

Just thought I'd toss this out there. I just got Carol Tice's latest newsletter and she had something to say about writing for free:

But note that she isn't talking about writing free samples for every webmaster who comes along. In fact, I think someone up-thread also suggested pro bono work for legitimate non-profits and other organizations.

Good points however we used to have a name in the trade industry called "A love job" (get your mind out of the gutter)where you would do a handful of free jobs for friends or family while you learnt.

For example; when I was cutting concrete with my new concrete saw I decided to do two love jobs for my dad and a random dude. I learnt a little about the blades and the amount of water I needed to use while spraying the blades.

I got some confidence out of it too.

So there are other benefits which are undeniable.

Although this may make it harder for article and content service providers to compete with freebies it's just one of those things and unfortunately no thread will put a stop to it.

Well, you can write an article for a highly discounted price. This i agree but writing for free is just slave trade

There is always the portfolio route. A writer doesn't have to
give away articles for free to attract clients. He can always
refer the prospect to a personal blog or show samples.

To get attention, some may choose the "give away"
strategy, but keep in mind that some prospects will
take advantage of your offer the same way that consumers
take samples of products but never buy.

It's the cost of advertising.

-Ray Edwards

Good that i found this , thread , i think i need to re-write my options, because i too, offered articles for free.

I kind of disagree. I can see both sides of the argument though. I personally offer to write one free article for any new client. It gives me good practice and helps me avoid doing work for someone who is not going to like my style of writing.

Yeah, some people will take advantage of the offer. But the clients who are fair about it tend to appreciate the gesture and it helps to build a strong relationship right from the beginning, which is something I really like to establish early on.

While I appreciate testimonials/reviews for the first free piece, they are not something I require.

It should also be noted that I have the luxury of staying with friends at the moment, so my financial situation is somewhat relaxed. If I had bills to pay and deadlines to meet, I may not be able to continue the free offer. So I realize that for some people this is just not realistic...

When I was offering writing services, I always offered a full refund if the client was unhappy with the work. This really helped me gain clients, as they had nothing to lose when trying out my services.

I really found this to be a great way to weed out those that just wanted a free article and never really intended to use my services.

I never had to give a refund and most of my clients always returned for more.

My services very quickly went from $10 an article to $50 + an article. I completely attribute this to the fact that I knew what I was worth and I focused on proving it to my target market.

There are many ways to market your skills without having to give them away for free.

"To thine own self be true."

This thread clearly shows that neither metohd is better than the other. However, you should only write free articles if you have a plan for doing so...and are able to stick to that plan.

In other words, don't write for free "just because"; do so with purpose.

Deep down you know if writing free articles is a good idea for you or not. (Hence the quote at the start of this post.)

All the best,
Michael

I've written 7 fiction novels and despite getting an agent etc I was ultimately rejected 100's of times. In the end I put them online and sold them as ebooks when no-one knew what an ebook was.

Now I'm a (semi) former personal trainer who writes workout programs. Usually I got paid a lot, but sometimes I did it and still do it for free, but only for people I know who I am 99% sure will use it properly.

Now I combine the two and write fitness articles for my website, but in the beginning I sent them to article database sites like ezine articles and became a platinum writer as quick as it's possible to do so, without a single rejection. Although it helped my website initially I realised I was devaluing myself and my writing by doing so (even Google agress with that!), so instead I write solely for my own website.

I'm not trying to get work as a writer, but if people like what they see and want me to write for them they'll ask me, or they might see my old articles on other sites.

If you're just getting started you could try having a blog and a submitting articles for traffic, then at least you're getting something for your work.