Writing just ain’t what it used to be.
You can blame deteriorating families, global internet, Google ads, readers’ short attention spans-
Hey! I’m talking here!
The point is that there is a lot of CRAP being dumped onto the web for a quick buck.
And I’ve helped.
So. many. ADS!
I worked for 9 months writing clickbait like, “You’ll DIG These Puppy Party Ideas” and “How to Flock a Christmas Tree.” Every day that I worked, I followed the same schedule: look at assigned topic, search l’internet for images, copy and save said images, paste and link back to images, then fill in-between the stolen images with text. SEO-heavy, keyword-laden, ad-interrupted text.
After the article requirements morphed into something impossible (and my kids were off for summer break), I requested a pay raise. The owner declined and we mutually split ways.
Sometime last year, I missed the money, tiny amount of prestige, tiny amount of purpose, and that my writing had produced money.
I therefore joined Freelancer. Look at all these jobs, I thought. I can do these jobs! …Then heard nothing in response to queries. Freelancer even lowered my rating because I bid too often.
So I stopped.
One thing I did notice, however, was how many job opportunities were for writing “medical articles,” “technology reviews,” and “150-page books.” There, in the posting feed of freelancing, exists the dark underbelly of writing. Every need for any words is running through this sludge-producing factory; hundreds of requests a second.
It all made me sick. Plus, I was only approached for fraudulent jobs. I even had a potential ’employer’ deposit money into my account and have me start ‘working’ on a website. Yeah… he turned out to be phishing for me to have money deposited into my bank account for ‘art sales,’ and… yeah.
Freelancer refunded the processing fee after my money magically disappeared. I pulled myself out of the working pool.
Recently, however, I was approached by someone who sent me messages on Freelancer and on my public Facebook page. He had a job for me, even though I was confused who ‘he’ was. The picture was a blonde woman with a child who showed high-level testing results. The person writing to me, on the other hand, was a man from Bangladesh we’ll call Barshi.
He explained that he rented that blonde person’s account and that he bid on jobs then reassigned them to competent writers. I hadn’t had any success winning jobs on Freelancer, so I shrugged and took it.
After I finished, he sent me a message about what his main business purpose was: renting legitimate accounts from people with high scores.
He asked me if I’d let him rent my account. He offered 100 USD a month for it, since I had somehow managed to score 100% on Freelancer’s English Level 1 exam (because I speak English. And I write English).
He asked me to do this dishonest thing at least eight times over the course of our communications, around instructions for other jobs.
I quickly realized that his rate of $10/1000 words was not worth the time. A couple of the jobs he bid on were worth it, but it turned out that his rate was the same whether I edited a video script (15 minutes) or completely fabricated a person’s My Story for his/her blog (90 minutes).
I also learned that clients were not always clear in their instructions, and that working through Barshi made that part even more difficult. Despite crafting a My Story of 300 words from 12 phrases of ideas, Barshi came back and said the client hated it. The client said the sentences “had no value” and the piece didn’t come across as “professional.” That’s probably true, given that the client told him he just wanted people to know he wanted to share his idea of beauty and potential with the world and not make it sound like a sales pitch.
When he came back with that feedback, plus demands that I completely rewrite it despite still only having vague client instructions, plus admitting the whole thing was worth $3, I said to forget it.
I thought I was rid of him forever.
But yesterday, an angry Barshi wrote back to tell me I was a liar about my work being original and unique.
The person to whom he submitted my vacuum cleaner review rewrites (don’t trust what you believe out there, folks) claimed they were not unique.
I am an honest person, to the point of too much honesty. Barshi even knew that, feeling comfortable enough on other occasions to tell me about his family and conditions in Bangladesh. He even gave me his account information when I needed to be paid once.
When the big, bad wolf of debtors came prowling around and he did not understand enough English to tell his client to stuff it, however, that rich man’s servant went skulking around for another to blame.
So I feel no guilt in writing Freelancer to tell them about the fraud among them. I feel no guilt telling you all about the garbage that is out there, that is churned out every second to the webs.
Mostly, I feel disappointed in my fellow writers. I’m talking about the proficient English-speaking ones, the ones who can write and who are agreeing to let people like Barshi ‘rent’ their accounts.
“I take rent from usa people,” he wrote. “Everybody helps me with out you.”
“Are you saying other people are fine with your renting their account?” I asked, to clarify.
“Yes.”
Like I said: writing just ain’t what it used to be.
Chel Owens 
Well, it does sort of explain why so much of what is posted on the Internet is incoherent…
Sorry you had such a terrible experience.
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That is precisely why. Millions of crap-producers copying from the same good source to steal a bite of the AdWords pie.
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OMW they con from all angles.. 😉
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Ya gotta lie to eat sometimes.
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Wow! This is an eye opener. Pretty scary stuff. I know I would like to make money from my writing — I once did [ I’ve had five books published: educational titles] — but your experiences are a cautionary tale. I’m glad you’ve come out of it all right 🙂
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Thank you, Jon. Yes, I feel that many people do not know about undercurrent issues.
Maybe writing will just continue to go downhill.
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A fantastic expose, Chelsea, and a warning to us all. Also, at the very least, Barsha could’ve said that your vacuum cleaner review sucked.
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A missed opportunity, for sure!
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What a strange old world we live in and what a beast we’ve created.
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Yes, and yes.
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I have never tried to monetize writing like this Chelsea, but it sounds horrible. I will stick to writing my books.
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It’s a more honest way, yes.
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What a mess! I had no idea it was such a jungle out there.. Thanks for the heads up.
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More like bogs in the jungle.
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Wow. This is shady. I got a wake up call. Sorry you had to go through that!
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Me, too. I hope to encourage everyone to watch out, and to stick to a higher moral.
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This is such a weird event! I didn’t know this sort of thing happened. Still, it makes sense…
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Especially with what pulls up in a search these days…
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This was eye-opening to me.
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Me, too.
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That is just plain bizarre, and scammy.
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Precisely.
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You’re too patient Chelsea. Sounds like you got involved in a complete scam from start to finish. You probably wrote the perfect piece that was used by the client but they did not want to give you credit for it. Live and learn and move on. Let it act as a lesson for all of us.
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I figured it could be one of those ‘do it now, get better work later’ things. He may have intended a scam from the start, but I believe he just doesn’t understand the customer. He’s too literal. He even sent me a copy of his conversation with the customer, and the guy is complaining about something I didn’t even write.
I just wash my hands of the whole thing.
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Wow. Thanks for the firsthand account of what we all vaguely suspected. The only decent writing that appears in this genre of internet material… actually comes from genuine writers like yourself who are hoping to get a fair price for their labor. Then, often in short time, these genuine writers opt out of the morass. Only the unskilled remain, accounting for the fact that 98.6% of online copy is pitiful.
I’m glad you freed yourself from the tar pit overseen by men like Barsha [a female name]. Thank you again for sharing your trial so others can avoid a similar disappointment.
P.S. — I am confident you would even pass the English Level 2 exam!
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I agree with you. It’s sad, really.
Funny about the name. I just searched for a common male name and that came up.
😀 I have passed level 2 as well, and disagree with the 95% score.
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Wow, what a wild story. I’d heard of Freelancer and I’ve often thought that that’s something I could do but I never have and now I’m happy that my laziness has kept me from the experiences you’ve had. I don’t understand renting accounts or why someone would want to do that. It’s like there’s a scammer and a scam around every corner. I’m glad you wrote to Freelancer to expose the fraud and thank you for the warning.
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You might get lucky, if you pay for all their tests and their accounts and don’t apply for too many jobs and keep your wits completely about you…
Freelancer says they will look into the specific accounts I mentioned …that’s all they can do.
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Glad you’re safe. There are scary people out there. On a lighter note, I recommend going to YouTube and typing in James Veitch, spam adventures. You’ll thank me later. 😉
I really have a high respect for classical literature. Stories that took time to shape, and were not cookie cutter, empty calorie filler. I also get frustrated by the refuse hanging out around there, getting awards for being a flash in the pan. I like deep substance, thinkers and intelligent humor. We should form our own club. T-shirts and everything. 😉😁
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Ooh! Thanks for the tip.
The t-shirts are a good idea. Now if only I can get a legitimate writing gig to pay for them…
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Barshi sounds like quite the charmer. And I thought my comments to you were annoying.
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Charming like a three-headed snake who forgets which head is talking…
You’ve got WAY more to go if you want to reach that level of annoyance..
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Wow
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Yeah… 😦
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People used to be able to support themselves writing. That changed about the time I decided to start writing…
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I’m even later to the game.
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Yikes.
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You’re telling me!
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Oh man, so sorry about this whole awful experience 😦 There is such an art to writing, and it almost feels like a personal invasion of values when you are cheated out of it I’m sure 😦 Thank you for bringing this to awareness though- I had no idea this all existed!!
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Thanks. Yeah, I agree with you.
And I wrote about it because I feel like so many people do not know; from the people innocently typing in searches to the writers who think words are sacred.
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Totally- I am definitely naive in nature, so this was especially beneficial for me to read… and like you said.. “words are sacred”… could not agree more ❤
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