Getting my head around the industry

Hi,

I kind of stumbled onto this site trying to research the industry and have a few questions I'm hoping won't require a fire retardant suit.

I assumed this industry was more about polishing essays and editing, but having spent a lot of time reading here it seems it is more about writing them. Am I correct?

Is editing/proof reading a significant part of the industry or totally dwarfed by writers preparing whole essays?

You are right, skippy.

skippy

generally yes.

in most cases "editing" supposes that you'll have to re-write completely a bunch of nonsense written by someone unqualified and the problem of "to-be-edited" papers/projects is not in the language, but in the content, as the previous author may not have a single idea about what they are writing about.

as to the editing in general, i guess many freelancers would use the assistance of an educated native speaker, this would speed up the process and boost the quality. i would.

Before long-standing members (including me) can assist you, I'm sure they'd like to know WHY you are 'trying to research the industry.'

You quoted the wrong pat of his statement, 2Mock. this is a question; it can't be right. Gosh I hate you.

That's a fair question, so I guess a rough who am I is in order.

I'm from Australia and have called myself a webmaster (internet jack of all trades and master of none) for the last dozen years. That has included writing, coding, designing, SEO and marketing my own websites primarily for affiliate marketing purposes. I don't consider myself great at any one of those skills but sufficiently competent to achieve what needed to be done.

With respect to writing I don't consider myself a competent writer but again have written the content for several reasonable sites where my knowledge of the subject has covered up or made up for my poor writing style. Several years ago I ran an online writing competition, the site for which is still up and running today although it hasn't been updated for years now.

I'm researching this industry for the same reason I research any industry I am looking for opportunity. Can it be done better, cheaper, faster or can I find a competitive advantage. In all honesty I will be looking at everything from the very simple such as an adsense site, to the potential for more demanding projects such as setting up another service. Then again I might just walk away muttering that was interesting as I have done in the past.

So in summary I'm a potential competitor if you run an essay service or similar, a potential employer if you are a writer or a nobody if I can't make the numbers add up. Can't think of anything else that is relevant at this time but if you have questions fire away.

It may be better to either focus on editing/proofreading or custom writing. In both areas the competition is strong (mostly because of the misleading/fraudulent sites that use all available marketing tricks and gimmicks without legal liability).

Running adsense - I guess it's hard to compete with scammers and content scrapers these days, too.

No.

Major
Spammers, scammers and outright thieves are just one of the hazards of working online that you quickly learn to deal with or go out of business. I've had so many images, titles, pages and in a few cases whole sites stolen that it doesn't phase me anymore. Amusingly I have even had pages stolen where they failed to remove my linking codes ad have made sales from them. I simply assess the damage then apply a fairly standard response set.

WritersBeware
I am yet to come across an industry that could give an unqualified "no" to that question. It can be amazing what a fresh set of eyes sees that experienced yet perhaps jaded eyes miss.

I'm sorry, but no newcomer is going to do anything better than the top dogs, considering their 15+ years of experience and extreme assets.

Thanks for the feedback, I am happy to get any input at present. It is very possible I could eventually come to the same conclusion. Who do you consider are the "top dogs" of the industry?

this is very strange, you've been in business for twelve years and didn't move any further than promoting the referral links

funny-- this pride is coming during a fall.

extreme assets, lol. and what do you say when your writers ask for a raise, or more perks? you admit you're broke.

the truth is, the "top dogs" have been turned upside down by global competition, and are in fact bleeding customers, falling by the wayside, staying in the same place, acting as shills on message boards, etc.

you're going to face a lot of paranoia on this board, and see a lot of heads in the sand. if you do start your own company, I suggest you think of two major factors that will separate you from the new "top dogs," who are arguably worse than the old ones.

1. treat your writers with respect.

2. concentrate on building word-of-mouth advertising.

why don't you start your own company, where you implement all that stuff you keep talking about?

i'll tell why: because you don't have a slightest idea of how the business is done.

For ex


How?

You have no actual idea what these companies do for their writers upon request. Again, your impassioned responses and conclusions are not a substitute for facts and rational arguments.


Yeah.....that's why there are over 50 new orders per day right now at one of these companies, with the pace increasing daily (as it does entering the busy season).


You already proved you don't know how to use this word; stop stealing my lines.


Well there's an image that doesn't work. You might not see a lot of heads because they're in the sand, or you might see a lot of people with their heads in the sand, but seeing the heads in the sand would require some sort of weird sand-seeing-through goggles.


You've said many times before that you have no connection to this industry and no direct knowledge of it. Pray tell, who are these old and new dogs, and how do you come to make such judgments about them?


My guess is he's already involved somehow. Eddie is one more sleazy moron who thinks he has an upper-hand because the Internet makes him invisible. Really, he's just an overeducated idiot.

Are you here all week? Too funny . . . . You should have your own act in Vegas.


Hahhaahhaha

if I'm looking on objectively, with my head held up high, then of course, I'm able to see which head is buried in the sand, and which isn't.

if you're going to nit-pick like this, at least get it right. while you're at it, get a grip.

That's exactly what I said:


I did get it right. Sorry you suck so much.

I'm sorry you get so sophomoric when you're being defensive. it's really boring. speaking of what the internet does to people, why don't you try acting like you're an adult?

I like this. This pheelyks thing annoys, its so juvenile that you are left wondering. You have hit where it pains...congrats.

Even if that were true, he'd still be about 8 grade levels above your intellectual capability.


You hit him where it pains? Really? Ya know, sometimes, the thesaurus is NOT your friend.

i kinda doubt that. if editor75 is somehow offering his/her services directly to the clients, what would be the point for posting the same half-witted ideas over and over again?


nowadays it's called smo or web presence

smirk (what a charming name!):

Student A: "X company was great; I got an A."

Student B: "what company??"

is not

Student A: "X company was first on Google, and they have a Twitface page; I rolled the dice on them."

Student B: "You did?"

that's fine if you think I'm a half-wit... fair enough. but if you're going to "go there," be prepared to know and demonstrate the difference between word-of-mouth advertising and web presence.

I get sophomoric when I'm gloating. You've given me absolutely nothing to be defensive about--none of your arguments have any merit. Your head's as empty as your pants.


You mean by having a rational discussion, where one person says something, then another person says something n response, and the people don't ignore the facts and points the other parties bring up? We tried that, remember? You weren't any good at it--you kept failing to acknowledge other people's points while repeating your own arguments in an increasingly whiny manner.


Oh, it's on now! There should be a movie about this s-i*, with Eddie as the underprivileged misunderstood underdog who shows the big bad established essay industry just what a good company looks like. I'm working up a treatment as we speak....

Well what this thread lacks in detail it makes up in laughs.

smirk
If you were aware of the income certain referal links generate you wouldn't think it strange at all.

Ok no one is naming names, I guess that might be against TOS. So a new subject, seasonality has raised its head, so does anyone want to talk about that? The high and low months would be...

Pheelyks-- it's interesting that you say, "it's on," in response to a comment that wasn't addressed to you. I'm sure that smirk can and will speak for their own confusion.

also, when I say, "try acting like an adult," I do mean it. that means you need to tone down your interest level in my pants... and stop calling me "Eddie."

Sorry, I confused this for some sort of public forum where the comments were viewable by everyone and thus open to response by any and all forum members. Something clearly appeared to be "on" between you and smirk, and given my misinterpretation of the context wherein this thing came to be on I though it was worthy of comment. From now on, I will be sure to ignore what is a conversation so private it will show up in google search results in a few days.


The many times I said "try rational arguments" or "try backing up your assertions with facts," I meant it, too. I guess we both have something to apologize for.


I really don't think it's possible for anyone to have any less interest in your pants than they already do, Eddie, myself included.

this refers to seo, not smo. do you know the difference?

i didn't say you're a half-wit, i said your ideas are looney. i usually refrain from insults.


not only this one, almost all threads, where editor75 or 2MockingBird used to post, have a
touch of irony and nonsense


i am, i know that's quite lucrative. i refer to the professional growth, however planning on launching the writing service can be considered as such.

Now....that is a nonsensical assertion. There are usually a group of three or four forum members who fires the first salvo and when you hit back, you are labelled a bad boy. I think that is not fair.

does anyone want to address skippy's latest question, or are we going to start snapping towels?

Go ahead. Oh, that's right, you claim not to be involved in the industry at all so you would have no knowledge of....well, anything pertinent to the purposes of this forum. Tough position to be in....

Skippy, the seasons in this industry follow the seasons in.....wait for it....the consumers served by the industry. When they have work to do, we have work to do. There are students enrolled in classes year-round, of course, but there are some times when more students are actively completing courses than others. August: slow. October: pretty busy. And so on.


That wouldn't make much sense in a web-based forum such as this, Eddie. If you really like welts on your ass, though, I'm sure you could find a dom that could help you out.

This isn't g-yscam.org.

Thanks for the assist guys. An old post suggests ~ March - May and October - December are (roughly) the high periods if anyone would like to confirm.

A few observations. (Opinions I am starting to form as I look further into the industry.)
- This sector of writing seems to be looked down on somewhat by other writers, as it is construed as helping cheaters. Anyone else feel this?

- The industry is very self destructive with many sites having warnings about others.

- I have already run into some of these site operators in other industries.

- There are some very distinctive groups each with strengths and weaknesses but overall none that look to be doing anything that couldn't be done better.

sure, that's why phabulous here is thinking long and hard about my pants, working up a movie treatment in his head starring me, and talking about welts on my ass. maybe it wasn't gayscam.org...

skippy-- you're right. what this industry needs is a fresh perspective. it's run by a couple of squabbling scumbags who get absolutely no respect from the reputable side of either academia or publishing... most of them are also as dumb as rocks.

Why do you need to know it?

Yeah. Where you play the Gabrielle Union character in Bring it On. Well, actually you play the entire Compton Clovers, I guess. Any one of whom I would almost certainly find more attractive than you.


You have a point there. Not exactly sure how to keep this industry actually involved in this industry and change that fact, but thanks for pointing it out.

Major
From a management perspective it is always nice to know your expected high and low periods. Ensuring you have sufficient numbers to fulfill orders, timing of marketing/advertising campaigns, when not to take holidays and more all need to be considered. It's just one of many questions I like to know the answer to when considering whether to make an investment in an area.

I don't buy it. You don't even have a website yet and you are already worried about 'sufficient numbers'?

must be another Bolshevik Indian tax lawyer... better double check your washroom.