Sure, writing an essay yourself would probably result in the best possible and honest grade that you can muster. Now, I am not saying that independent writers and writing companies help the student cheat. The model paper that is given to them by these services are not supposed to be submitted for a grade. If the student wishes to do so though, then that is their prerogative. My question is, what about the students who absolutely need essay writing help? Let's face it, there are some students who excel in Math and Science, and some who excel in the languages and arts. Wouldn't it be good for those who have a talent for writing to help those whose forte isn't in the written word?

I don't see anything wrong with students who seek essay writing help. For whatever reason they have for hiring a writer, the point is, their essay, because of their direct communication with the writer who develops and writes it for them, reflects their opinions and interests. The students who simply say, "Just get the paper done." are those who care about their grade enough to know that they need help but don't have the time to bother with it for some reason.

While others can easily write a paper themselves, there are always those who will require extra help in that area of their academic study. They just need to make sure that they pick a reputable independent writer or essay company (Again, I am not a independent writer and my comments are not meant to gain clients. ) in order to get the best service that they possibly can.

If a website already has a few grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, that doesn't bode well for the quality of the work that will be coming out of their company. Any writing websites that accepts copy-editing without double checking it using their own copy editor or their best English writer on staff is almost certainly run by scammers from India, Pakistan, Ukraine, and the Philippines, to name but a few scamming countries with academic writing companies. Only the worst kind of ESL writers and company owners would not see any of the spelling and grammar errors on the websites.

These mistakes would immediately be obvious to native speakers and ESL writers of an almost native speaker English ranking. In my opinion, the website is the first thing that the writer will read and consider when thinking of hiring services. Therefore, it has to be flawless in terms of grammar. Students should not hire any writer from such services. The owners of the website are guilty of not only promoting a scam, but also doing it in a very sloppy manner. Their website should be shut down if only because it is guilty of butchering the English language.

@writers2beware I never implied any of the information that you stated in your post. I was merely relating the information that I know to be factual and true based upon my previous work experience at academic writing companies. In most of the orders that were placed with the companies I worked for, a specific instruction had to be stated by the student regarding the level of English writing abilities they needed the writer to have. ESL students say, "I prefer a non-native English speaker". The native speakers state the same.

That is why I made reference to actual English vocabulary and writing abilities of the writer. The students themselves make those requirements known when they place an order and the companies match them up with the writer closest to their requirements. The reason behind it is because they did not want to give away the fact that they are not writing their essays and have hired someone else to do so for them. I never implied that the ESL writers are incompetent, regardless of where they come from. I only stated my opinion which is that they can also do well in the field, regardless of their writing skills, based upon the need for their writing abilities by certain clients.

Yes, there are. Most of them come out of Kenya, the Ukraine, India, and Pakistan. Those types of writers can barely string together a coherent English sentence. They seem to get by as they offer their services as ESL writers to ESL students. That way, they don't easily get caught in the web of language proficiency deceit that they promote. If the student has even worse English grammar than the writer does, he comes out looking like perfection as he is able to imitate the writing style of the student without any effort. The student doesn't know that the writer he hired can barely write in English himself.

Let me add some information regarding bad independent writers in relation to writing experience. Before the writing experience is even considered, the applicant must first display a thorough command of the English language. Meaning, he must be fluent to the point of being a native speaker. If he can't even write a cover letter but has writing samples, I would not even read the samples, I would immediately place his application in the reject pile.

I have heard of some writing companies that prefer TOEFL and IELTS passers as ESL writer applicants. They feel that the writer has the most basic college level writing skills if they pass any of those tests. So, if you consider the score that the applicant got in one of those tests, coupled with their writing experience, then maybe, just maybe, the student won't end up with a bad freelance writer doing the work.

Just as with any other profession, a writer gets better with time. Through experience writing various types of papers and exposure to various fields of research, a writer, whether connected with a company or as an independent, gets honed and his writing talents improve in the process. While anybody can write a research paper, not everyone can write an excellent research paper guaranteed to deliver good grades to the client. It is this guarantee of a well written paper that comes with the experience of the writer. It is necessary for a writer to improve his craft over time in order for him to be able to gain access to higher level and higher CPP papers at the academic outsourcing company. The same is true for independent writers. The more experienced a writer is, the longer he has been writing, the better the results of his work are. There is something to be said about writers who have been writing for at least 5 years or more. They have the "wisdom of the sage" when it comes to writing papers. They know how to best approach a research paper, or how to represent a simple essay to make it shine for a client who is not a native English speaker. The answer to your question, in my opinion, is yes. Writing experience is necessary if one is to become a good writer.

I never respond to a client more than twice in a day.

Specially if the client has a knack for waiting for my response and immediately sends off an additional email or two throughout the day.

Pick which emails you respond to. Make sure that you respond only to critical emails. Any emails asking for updates, status of current work, or whether you received an additional file or not can wait. Prioritize the writing of the essay, not the emails.

Responding to the emails on a regular basis will not get the essay finished faster. Just send the client an email once saying you will only respond to the important emails so that you can focus on developing the best paper for him/her at the soonest possible time.

Remind the client that a deadline was set before you and you have to meet it otherwise the client will be in trouble with the professor.

That normally stops the regular email inquiries from coming in.

I would probably be working in one of the many writing related fields available.

My dream was to become a copywriter before, but when that turned out to be a dud, I turned to script writing, which led to academic writing.

Moving forward career-wise, I found myself becoming more and more drawn to the idea of becoming a novelist. I continue to pursue that activity and I still dabble in the fiction novel side of writing when time permits.

My ultimate dream is to become a political ghost writer.

I have always enjoyed writing speeches for various celebrities and company executives so I know I can make a go of that career.

Specially since I have been known to have strong political beliefs which I do not hesitate to blog about or post on social media.

Politicians need strong writers who are of the opinionated nature so I feel like I would flourish in that writing arena.

Now, if only I can find that one politician who doesn't have a ghost writer yet. Hahaha!

As a wise student rule, you should avoid including any identifying marks, specially the name of your school when you submit an order to a writing company or to an independent writer. While the risk of the information being used against you is minimal, you will never know when you will be one of the rarities who ends up getting into trouble because you did not think that the name of the university could be used against you. There are specific information that should never be shared with your writing company or writer. These are:

1. Your name;
2. Your location;
3. Your student ID number;
4. The name of your university.

These are private information that should only be shared between the student and the school. Anyone else doesn't have any business with these information. Should you be concerned if you accidentally share the information? I believe that you definitely should be. While not all writing companies and independent writers use these information to blackmail a student, there are some criminals that actually do that. I don't think that having your university name, without your actual name or student number, or both, will result in a problematic or blackmail situation for you, but I would be worried just the same.

Simply put, its all about SEO and rank positioning :-) When I was still working as a freelancer, I had an FB profile for my company that I set up. It was set up to update automatically across all my social media platforms. The problem that I had was that because I preferred a free profile (as I was just starting up), I was not paying for advertising even though FB was constantly telling me that my updates were not getting enough attention (they were suppressing the updates for my profile). Their advice was for me to purchase targeted ad campaigns for specific user pages so that my profile would be "highlighted". The choices were to pay weekly, monthly, and yearly. Hence the term "money to burn".

As for Google, the companies have gotten wise to the advertising situation and found a way to get around it. They now pay to have their "blogs" and "articles" highlighted. Somewhere within all those blogs and articles, you will find a link to the actual writing website. It's an expensive way to get around the ban but it works to a certain extent.

Bing and the other sites still allow for targeted advertising of academic writing sites. It will cost you a pretty penny but paying to use their SEO and top ranking feature does work for most. Based upon information from my friends and self-made network affiliates in the business, the students have come to realize this and have shifted their services search to those websites. My friends and associates now pay premium prices to make sure they get seen as often and at the highest ranking, that their ad payments can buy.

I have more than once had my own friends as clients because they needed someone who has SEO skills and knows how to best highlight keywords that get their paid ads noticed. Since I don't write essays anymore these days, I just help them edit their work before they submit it for use.

If you are an independent writer with money to burn, then advertise aggressively on Google and Facebook. Use targeted ads in social media whenever possible in order to make yourself visible to potential clients. In the event that you are cash strapped, do it the hard way. Pound the pavement and try to get into the colleges and universities or at least, the places where these students spend their free time and do your best to network with them. Making sure that you give your calling card (does anyone still use those these days?) or Vcard, or whatever contains your contact information in relation to your services, to anyone who shows an interest in your services. It is definitely harder for an independent writer to find clients. That's why others opt to affiliate with established companies instead. EssayChat should be bringing in more new visitors this days because of the increased activity here at ES. You may just need to keep your visibility level high at this forum in order to gain new student clients.

The essay writing season usually starts to pick up around mid-September, reaching its peak around Thanksgiving, then again around the Christmas and New Year holidays. That is for the last part of the current year.

The round of hot season orders should hit the company servers around spring break then again towards the end of the school year.

This is what is normally called the "hot" season at the companies and there is usually more than enough work to go around. So much so that the companies sometimes ask their most trusted writers to double up on their orders.

All in an effort to get the pipeline cleared and writers assigned before the clients ask for a refund. Don't expect all the writing companies to have the same workload for all their writers though. Some new companies still get stuck in an order rut regardless of the season. While some better established companies can have more orders than they can handle.

Just relax, lay back, and enjoy the "slow" season while it is still around.

The minute the hectic "hot" season starts, you may find yourself wondering what you were complaining about in the first place.

@Writer2012 You can also try networking with other independent writers so that you can get referrals from them when they are swamped with orders. the independent writers here are the kind who do that when the situation requires it.

To be clear, I am not one of the writers that can be contacted for such a referral because I am not a freelance writer.

Neither do I endorse any writer in particular. I'm just here to offer my thoughts on how else you can promote yourself and get jobs in the process. Don't forget the power of social media. These days, independent writers find themselves having to do multiple social media work in order to gain visibility and grow their networks. It isn't uncommon to see an independent writer with a Twitter handle and an FB or Instagram profile, linked up to other writer websites, blogs, and social media accounts as a part of self and cross promotion. While there is no guarantee that you will gain clients this way, it is a method of keeping yourself visible and letting people know you are available to work.

But be cautious - now is not the best time to start your own academic writing business. The market is more than saturated with legitimate and illegitimate academic outsourcing cites, independent writers of the legal and scam kind proliferate the social media world, and there just isn't any way to accurately tell them apart at this point. The students are jittery and not really trusting of the writing sites and independent writers because they have been burned a number of times by the scam operations. It would be best for you to not start an academic business that requires a storefront. Rather, you should just work on getting into one of the academic outsourcing companies or, kicking off an independent writing career as the others here have done.

That would be the safest way to start your career. You get to write, face some payment problems but still manage to get paid over time, and you won't be putting your own money out into the investment. If you are just looking to get your feet wet in the business, there are other ways to do it than immediately putting a huge investment into a website for your writing company.

@pd2a3z000753 While you may have had some pretty bad experiences with the writer that worked on your paper, it won't hurt for you to show some gratitude. Six years ago, you needed help in completing a paper. Nobody was going to help you for free. You found someone willing to make your problem go away for a fee. Granted that you did not get an A on the paper, you still have appreciated the fact that you did not have to bother with writing the paper yourself.

Without knowing the actual circumstances behind your need to hire a writer, I can only assume that the work that was done for you delivered a grade that helped you with your final grade in that class. Obviously, you did not fail the class even with the B- you got for the paid paper. So being so rude in your post is uncalled for. The writers here do their best to help the students get the work, that they were unable to complete for some reason, done on time. All for the benefit of the student. You come across as an ingrate at this point and I believe that none of the reputable writers here would help you with your paper even if you asked them to at a higher cost than usual because you don't know how to say "thanks for the help". Which, aside from the financial benefit of the job, is the other thing that the independent writers wish more students would tell them upon receiving the work and a decent grade to go with it.

If they are company based client associates or writers with really strange sounding names, they are asked to change it to one that will invoke a sense of calm, trust, and authority in their communications.

That is the same trick that call center agents in those far flung lands use to help shield themselves from blame and/or try to help the client develop a sense of trust and rapport with them during the call.

The same goes for the writers from Kenya, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Ukraine, and where ever else these other writers come from.

They change the name in an effort to win over the client. Now, since the clients normally converse over chat and rarely over the phone, they tend to get away with it.

The clients take the name for granted because they can't hear the accent coming from the other side.

Basically, these unscrupulous client associates and writers want the client to believe that they are Americans, with very bad grammar skills (if you can believe it) as evidenced on their website, chat, and email correspondence, and yet, they have the ability to produce high quality papers. Some students (who are not fluent English speakers and writers to begin with) fall for the name switch while others who know of ES, come here to double check the credentials and claims of these people who email them or speak to them via chat.

Exactly my point. Which is why I believe that if you can't get into an academic writing company due to a lack of credentials, one will have to find a way to promote the writing talents he possesses. Since my excellent reputation as an academic writer eventually preceded me as a company writer, it was far easier for me to convince direct clients (at the time) to take a chance on me because most of them already knew me from their experience working with me at the company / companies. It is a totally different case for an independent writer in this scenario.

If I were this person, I would start with my immediate circle of relatives, friends, and classmates. My relatives would have children in high school or early college. My classmates, are an existing pool of potential users just waiting to be tapped. These are the people who would most likely already know of my interest in writing and the kind of academic grades my own papers produced. So selling them on my services should be easy enough to accomplish. Do a good job with their children's papers (in the case of relatives and friends) then ask them to offer your services as a referral to their co-parents , who may be on the lookout for a "ghostwriter" for their kids (for high school based students) or, ask the student / classmate / dorm mate to make direct referrals if they know of classmates who need writing help. Either way would suit my needs as a start-up writer. I wouldn't hesitate to offer discounts to first time clients just to get them to try my service. I can impose regular rates once they come back for more services.

Aside from those methods, blogging would work if one has the money to pay for advertising, an FB advertisement can also help with self promotion if one ties together his blog and FB profile within his "writer account". It will take some creative thinking in terms of promotion and advertising but, if a talented undergraduate independent writer really sets his mind do it, this should turn out to be something achievable over the long term.

@Major I agree that they have these automated fill out forms that come as part of their investigation process. Lord knows I've filled out enough of those during my time as a seller. You are right in assuming that certain responses or actions trigger an automated response, but I do not believe it is at the same rate that you mentioned. From my experience, calling their hotline number actually gets you a human on the other end who is ready to help you out. The only problem with their hotline system is that one requires the patience of a saint to get a human on the other end because of all the hoops you have to jump through just to get that option. I got to talk to a "human" (after numerous tries and countless hours of being on "hold")who could take care of my inquiries and submission requirements. I do not doubt that the "escalated" disputes also get read by a human as someone has to file a record of the communication and choose which of the company's response templates to send out. The robo system can only take them so far in removing the human element from the job.

The only reason that I sound so positive about Paypal is simple. The company practically pioneered the business of e-payment collections and I have had a good relationship with them as a conduit for my salary collection. I had a rocky relationship with them when I was a seller of physical products due to the "chargeback" system. The dispute usually got triggered because products mailed out got delayed in terms of delivery when the buyer did not opt for a courier service and requested US postal mail services instead.

@Major thank you for the compliment. At the time when I was engaged in online publication, the field was relatively new and with few competitors. I managed to make a decent income from Kindle sales and independent releases. The sales are reliable because Amazon tracks the sales for me. Not too long ago, I also affiliated myself with PayHip for my sales and promotion. These are my aggressive promotional methods that helped to augment my cross promotion deals with other novelists who are always more than happy to help each other out in terms of keeping our promotional costs down.

While I still write with the hopes of bigger sales and recognition for my nom de plume, I've found the market has become increasingly competitive and saturated. That's why I changed my mindset regarding my novels publications from wanting to write the next bestseller (series) to simply writing for the joy of it. If I sell a few along the way then I've achieved my career goal in that field of writing at a degree acceptable to me as a novelist.

@Writer4U I meant no disrespect towards the academic writers. I understand your line of reasoning and excitement about the job. However, when you have written over a fifty thousand papers covering almost 30 years of writing experience as I have, the repetitive nature of the research work, regardless of the new information that one learns about, tends to create a sense of boredom. At least that's how it happened for me. That's why I needed to evolve within the career path. Once you find your brain beginning to stall at having to write an updated version of a paper you've written twenty times over, you'll know that it's time for a career change.

In my opinion, a career change eventually happens because one outgrows the line of work and starts to look for a new challenge. Something that takes you out of your comfort zone. When it happened to me, I found myself in a new, but related field of work. I'm not saying that this will or should happen to you. What I am saying, is that just as in any profession, it's alright to find yourself in a rut that you'd want to get out of. If you find yourself in one, don't be afraid to spread your wings and grow.

Having been a long time user of Paypal myself, both as a seller and a buyer, I know that the company does their best to "balance" the problem transaction investigations. I found though, that the problems with getting refunds from sellers are best avoided simply by being familiar with the clue that Paypal provides to indicate the potential for a problem transaction. If the billing sent to you comes from an "unverified" seller, it would be best to not proceed with the transaction. That is because Paypal uses a verification system to create an aura of "trust" for the seller signed up with them. Without it, all transactions with that particular seller is suspect. While there are other e-payment options available these days, I think that, due to the track record of Paypal, most people still see companies that transact through that system as "trustworthy" to a larger extent. These days, the academic companies are forced to make good on the Paypal charge back / refund requests because of the strong possibility that they can lose their PayPal seller status. As the other e-payment channels develop, both sides can expect further developments from PayPal and similar collection agencies that try to protect both sides in some way.

@abdoface if we base the foundation of your company on the kind of writing that you did on this page, I strongly doubt that you will have a company that will last long. It will be a fly by night company at best because you do not have the ability to properly establish a high quality writers pool.

No decent academic writer will want to be hired by your company and no independent writer will want to be affiliated with you because the quality of your company products will not increase their client base and only create problems for them and any referrals they make to your company. It is almost assured that any work coming out of your company will be sure to result in a disaster for the student.

Having the money to kick start your business does not mean that your company will be a success. If you are not a high quality academic writer yourself, you will be unable to properly develop a writers pool that will increase the profile, quality of work, and reliability of your company.

Students look for company owners who can at the very least, express themselves in coherent English sentences. You can't even provide that.

While I am sure that it will be difficult for your to make your company take-off, you are welcome to try. Like i said, there are enough reasons going against your company but then again, you might be exception to the rule. I strongly doubt that though. Let us know if you were able to properly establish your company and if it still currently exists. Tell us about how you were able to make a success of it (if you were really able to).

@writer4life the Chinese businessmen have an old saying, roughly translated, it means something like; "it doesn't matter if you charge by the cents, that'll turn into a dollar eventually. If they keep coming back, you get more from them over time." I see that you also follow the same work ethic. I applaud you for that. You earn based upon the number of clients you get per month. I am confident that this has translated into a steady income for you in the long run.

While it does hurt to know that we are allowing the students to run a con by us, the fact that the con brings in money, albeit not the in the amount that we would like to have, makes it worth ignoring in my opinion. It is truly better to have something, in the form of the lower priced order for a "liar" client, than to have nothing because we knew the student was running a con and we would rather lose income because the student refused to pay our asking price. That's what haggling at the start of the negotiations is all about for independent writers.

@waqashakeel you sound like you posted a message coming from a competitor site. Most of the students that post such statements here always know that they have to put their money where their mouth is. Rather than making an unfounded claim, why don't you tell us the story of why you had a horrific experience with them?

This is a reputable company that has been around for quite some time. They have a track record for quality service as based upon the number of repeat clients that they have. The mere fact that they can offer discounts means that they offer high quality papers. They can afford to charge less or give discounts ( as evidenced by the post of @Virgo) because the writing level of their writers are above par and they have a high rate of satisfied , regular clients. Don't just go making claims like the one you made if you are not willing to explain yourself. Explain the circumstances behind your experience and allow the clients to judge for themselves. After all, this is a free market where your experience will most likely not be the same as the next person that used the company.

Truth be told, I did not even know about the academic writing field when I graduated with an English degree. I fancied myself a potential copywriter for an ad agency since I had some family connections that could have helped me enter that field. After searching for work for about a year, I ended up as a production assistant for a concert and special events producer. It was good work that found me hobnobbing with some of the notable names in the field of arts and music. The most memorable experience I had in this field was working with the Vienna Boys Choir when they performed at a Christmas concert produced by the company I was working for. Eventually, I moved on to script writing for the same company before I finally quit because the schedule was so rigorous, I was burned out physically and emotionally spent. It was during this time that I started writing short stories and novels which were picked up for publication online.

It was during this time when I began seeing targeted ads on Google about starting an "academic writing career". I found myself piqued and made a few inquiries at a few companies. A few tests and account creation procedures later, I found myself hired by the 3 companies that I applied to. I then moved from company to company, trying to find the best employer out there (easier said than done) and finally settled at one company. Eventually though, I began to feel restless again and tried to find a new career path. That is when I found myself in the academic consultancy business, which is my current career description. I find myself quite happy in this particular business. It is something that I evolved into because of my long term experience in the events production field as well as being an academic writer and researcher.

So, based upon my experience, I don't consider academic research and writing as a final career destination. It is only one of the many steps towards evolving in this particular field. After gaining ample , relevant, and important, experience, one will be qualified for more demanding and highly specialized jobs in the field of academic research and writing. This is the main reason that I am no longer interested in gaining writing clients. It is not my cup of tea because I am already beyond that field of work. I am now a specialized academic consultant. I am just at this forum whiling my time away from my current work.

@charyoutree did you eventually find yourself employed at a writing company? I am wondering if you still pursued this avenue employment since you did not add any information after your first post. I realize it is late in the game but I would like to share my thoughts on the matter with you. I am not here to judge, just offer an opinion.

A majority of the writing companies will ask you to upload your credentials for consideration during the application process. Submitting a copy of your diploma is often required so that might pose a problem for you. Most of these companies ask for completed undergraduate studies, a masters, or a PhD certification. So it may be difficult for you to become a company affiliated academic writer. If applying proves to be too difficult for you, don't lose heart. You can still become an academic writer, you just have to break out on your own as an independent writer.

As an independent writer, you will be able to come clean with the clients and tell them upfront that you are an undergraduate with accomplished research writing skills. You can offer to submit a portion of your research work as evidence to the client. Be sure to watermark the sample though so the client can't use it for his personal means. First things first though, you will need to set up either a website or blog page in order to introduce yourself to potential clients.

You will have to think about how to do self promotion and possibly, engage the help of your friends in the process. While it will be difficult for you to get started in the business, nobody ever said that you can't at least try to make a go of it as a career. Who knows, with enough perseverance and hard work, you just might be able to turn this into a full time career as well.

@sophia911, when you get the model paper and you decide to rewrite it in order to avoid any possible instance of plagiarism, there are number of things that you have to consider and accomplish.

You have to consider whether or not you have enough vocabulary and writing skills to actually alter the model paper to the point where what the writer originally wrote is still retained in the revised writing. If you cannot maintain the essence of the paper, then it is a bad idea to rewrite the paper. You also have to consider the in-text citation placements and how you can change the placement of those references in the essay in a manner that still flows fluidly in the manner of the original.

There are just too many factors that need to be considered in a personal revision of the custom paper or dissertation that I don't think it is worth the bother for you to even try. Look, you paid for a custom paper, therefore you can rest assured that everything about the paper will pass as original content. That is, unless you submitted it beforehand to a site such as turnitin and then your professor or teacher will submit the same paper for plagiarism scanning at the same site.

Since the essay will already be in the system, then it will most likely turn up as plagiarized. If that is not the case, then I would not try to alter the work of the writer anymore. It is not worth the risk on your part. The paper is ready for grading and will most likely get an acceptable grade already.

Just relax and take whatever grade you get for the paper.

I believe that what matters in this industry is the actual English ability of the client that the writer is developing the written work for. Depending upon the English skills of a student, he will either do well with an ESL writer or a native speaker. It all depends upon the image that the student wants to reflect upon his professor regarding his writing skills. A native speaking English student will require a native English speaking writer as well. That is because the teacher of professor already knows that the student speaks English well and will therefore reflect the same in his written work. If the student is an ESL, he will do well to hire an ESL of the same level as his own English speaking and writing skills. The objective of pairing the writer's English skills with the needs of the student is simple, it throws the professor off the scent of a "ghost written" paper from the student. That is why I am convinced that an ESL writer and a native writer will both do well in terms of academic writing for their client, depending upon the specific requirements of the student.

@KCR in all offices, when egos of like minded people are gathered in the same room, you can expect an explosive exchange of ideas and a high level of Adrenalin as each person tries to prove his point and come out on top. Each of them have the same objective, to be recognized by potential clients and gain a slice of the market. That is not what I am here for. I do however, recognize that ES has a thriving and boisterous community that reflects that sort of workplace. Sure we can get rowdy at times and there will always be a difference in opinion.

That doesn't mean that enemies are made for life or that one is weak if he walks away from a debate. It just means that the community is lively enough for the potential clients to make a decision regarding which independent writer appeals to them or shares their writing style. That debate does have a tendency to get out of hand at times, but everything works out in the end. Everyone simply agrees to disagree and moves on from that point. To be clear, I am not here to gain writing jobs. I am not here to gain clients.

I am not here to steal clients. I am just here to engage in a lively discussion with the independent writers who are members of this forum and help to further enliven the discussion boards.

The mistake on your part was that you delivered the full paper to the client. Since he had you on a tight deadline, you had him at your mercy as well. If I were the writer involved in this situation, I would have divided the number of pages by the number of hours till it comes due. I would have sent him only 5 pages per 5 hours. The deal being, once he has the first 5 pages, he will have a useless paper.

So after he receives the first batch, he would have needed to make an additional payment to me before he got the next 5 pages, in another 5 hours. The cycle would have continued until he completed his payments. For the final 5 pages, I would have asked for the balance to be paid before I sent it to him.

It's too bad that you conducted business with this student in good faith and got screwed in the process. It's been some time since this event happened, I wonder, did you ever get the rest of what he owed you @Intelligent? If you did not, how did you handle the situation? I am sure the others here would like to know what happened so they can have a reference point for action should it happen to them.

Unless you have become an independent but company attached academic writer, then there is no reason that you cannot resell your papers online. The only reason you cannot sell your academic paper to other sources is if you are attached to a company because they have a clause in the terms of use that turns over all rights and privileges to the paper that you wrote to the person who hired you to do the work. I think a similar clause exists in the agreement between an independent writer and the client as well. Since you are a student who is out to market his own paper, then you should not have any problems selling it as a model paper through other avenues. I think that reselling your papers isn't as good an idea as it was before anymore though. Just as @editor75 said, that well dried up long ago. These days, you need to write original content for the students already. However, you can still use your original work as your personal model for any related topics that you might be assigned to. It can help to refresh your memory if need be.

@Amy3 That is pretty sound advice that you have given. It is one that is worthy of noting. The problem is though, that these companies all sound legit when you read the company blurb on the website. Unless the English grammar used on the website is truly horrible, most students would not think twice about considering their services. It is best to err on the side of caution and consider the services of academic outsourcing companies that have been around for a number of years already. Sometimes, the location of the company doesn't matter if it has been in the business long enough, like say 7 years or more and has a track record of quality work and cooperation with the students.

These sorts of companies truly exist and are the ones that guarantee a higher than average quality of work from their writers. I am only speaking of companies and not independent writers. If a student wants to consider using a legitimate writing company or at least consider using a reputable company, then our Essay Directory should be able to help point the student in the right direction.

Before you posted here as a company representative from an Australian based company, the least you could have done was run your advertisement through a spell and grammar check program. There is absolutely no way that the students here will even consider trusting your company when it's representative can't even form a coherent English sentence. Your whole statement is designed only for Adword compatibility and nothing more. It doesn't give any real information about your company or the actual type of work that you do and how you do it.

The students here are looking for top quality companies and writers to entrust their all too important homework, research, and other class or business related documents to. Your advertisement doesn't help to promote the quality of work that comes out of your company. Rather, it proves that the company you represent doesn't have the chops to deliver on any promises that it makes in terms of paper quality. Let's not even begin to discuss the quality of writers that the company very possibly hires. If your writing is any indication, your writer base doesn't have much going for it and will only provide the students with problem papers. This whole advertisement is a red flag that should have students running away from instead of towards your company. Seriously, you should have had a real native speaker of English edit your blurb before you posted it here.

Then chalk it up to experience and just swallow the loss. It's a no win situation in Paypal, no win situation via legal means, all avenues for keeping even a part of your cash had been blocked. Nowhere to turn, everything to lose. It's a nightmare scenario that may or may not happen.

I'm sure all independent writers have experienced such a or a similar loss at some point in their careers. Make up the loss with your next orders. The duty of preventing a charge back lies with the writer and how he sets up the transaction. One can only prepare so much protection in this case. If the client is shrewed, the writer has to be slick.

If I were involved, I would make sure I have as many PayPal safeguards installed as possible. When all else fails, I can at least say I tried. If the clients also use dummy addresses then it would be difficult to enforce a block from my end. I would not enter into a contract with a defeatist attitude but I would always go in knowing that up to a certain period, the client could still file for a refund and hope it never happens.

Again, that's why working with a company has some benefits in terms of income and refund scenarios in my opinion. Your income, while still subject to fines and refunds, is better protected in a way.

I would still try to recover it by trying too settle the problem outside of PayPal. If I want to really keep the money, I would contact a lawyer and have him draw up an enforcible electronic contact for me that could be used with all my clients from the moment I started the business. In this line of work, I believe that you should cover the bases and plug the holes before you agree to do any work. This is a work related risk that all independent writers face. As a company based writer, you get to keep some of the pay, even with penalties. An independent writer runs the risk of giving away a free paper. However, I don't think that students would be that dishonest. The whole business is based on trust and honesty. While there may be incidents in the vein of what you described, those cases are few and far between. If it does happen in the manner described, I'll have to chalk it up to experience, dust myself off, and keep going. No sense losing asleep over something I tried to, but could not change.

In my experience related to working for various companies, the company sets a rate of refund for the client, based upon a specific time-frame or degree of accusation regarding the quality of the work.

It is something that they set before hand in order to ensure that, in the event of refunds, only a portion of the money will be returned to the client unless, the charge is plagiarism and the accusation can be proven by the student.

Knowing that the company functions this way, I would try to apply a similar method as an independent writer. That means, I would already have a set of refund policies to share with the student prior to the finalization of the order.

That way, the client and the writer enter into the deal with a full disclosure and refund agreement. As a PayPal "seller", one has the ability to dictate the terms of refunds to the "client".

This is something that PayPal takes into consideration when investigating charge back claims. So, if the client is informed beforehand, and PayPal has a copy of my charge back policy, I believe that the money paid to me will not be stolen or, not totally stolen. In the event of a charge back, one can offer evidence to PayPal, via communication with the client, regarding the refund policy that was previously agreed upon.

That should help to preserve the money that was paid out to me. Companies expect unreasonable charge backs. That is why they not only overcharge the client for the price of the paper, but they also implement refund rules upon sign up with the service. Independent writers can learn from the company business models and adjust it to suit their needs.

As a person who just did well enough in school, I managed to create a pretty decent professional life for myself, I would have to say that high grades do not guarantee success professionally. I have seen classmates and friends of mine who graduated With Honors, *** Laude, Summa ***, and even Magna *** Laude recognition for their degrees who ended up in blue collar jobs because they could not hack the demands of professional life. Sometimes, the world of academics just prepares a student theoretically for a career.

Even with all the internships and training that a course can provide, actually taking on the responsibilities of a real job turns out to be totally different from the temporary work experiences. They were still not properly prepared for the demands of their jobs because they only excelled in theory rather than in practice.

In my case, my closest relatives graduated with some sort of honors from college, whereas I graduated with none. I was an average student. Yet they now envy me because they have to punch the clock and work on weekends while I have a regular job to speak of even though I simply sit in front of the computer, type away, and make an income that can pay my bills and allow me to enjoy my life in the manner that I want.

Adding insult to injury in reference to them, is the fact that, due to today's work and business climate, they often find out that their jobs are "temporary" when they thought it was permanent. The company get sold, closes shop, or is integrated into a sister company.

There is no more security of tenure in regular companies these days. It is that security of tenure that used to indicate the success of a person in his profession. That is no longer the case.

These people / students tend to be less successful in their professional life in that sense. They may have had the grades, but that did not mean they would have a smooth and guaranteed successful professional life for themselves.

I am not sure about how it works at other companies but at the companies where I worked, bidding did not translate to the writer giving an amount for the order he wishes to take. In some instances, the bid just tells the company that you are interested in the topic and would like to be considered for it. It has nothing to do with your bid amount as the price has been preset for the order. Rather, it has everything to do with your qualifications like the length of time you have worked for the company, your reliability in submitting on time, your capacity to create repeat clients, and some other considerations. The company did try to have the writers submit price bids for a time but it did not work out and they reverted to the old "bidding" system. I would not bid too low for these papers though. If you can see what the other bids are on the paper, try to aim for a mid-range cost. That will probably give you a better chance because the client will still have to review your credentials before approving a winning bid and having the paper assigned.

A writer worth his salt will not resell his old assignments. That is an insult to the profession. A writer who sells his model papers knows that the students will only change a bit of the paper and then submit it as his own. I have done the Academon route as well and I eventually pulled out my papers because, as a writer connected with a writing service at the time, the last thing I wanted to have happen was to have the student come back to me claiming a plagiarized paper because the paper I submitted to Academon somehow came to the attention of his teacher through another student.

Personally, I prefer to always write a new paper for the client each time. That way all the source materials are updated. While I will admit to borrowing some old sources for related papers, I make sure that the information that is cross shared is no older than 2 years old. That is a personal policy because professors and teachers prefer to have sources no older than 5 years old in most instances.

With the way that plagiarism programs exist these days, and the fact that after having written over 20,000 papers, I do not doubt that my papers are in some pretty creative student's hands. It is the students who now sell the "original" papers to their friends as "model" papers. So I would not risk putting my old papers out there for any reason. I normally delete them at the end of each term.

@eggman, I am sorry to hear about your experience with the other writing service. While the writer probably did the best work that he could, seeing as how you thought it was a good paper compared to the previous one, it might have just not passed the criteria of your professor / teacher. With that said, I can understand why you will seek a refund and perhaps, further compensation. I hope that you will be able to resolve the issue with the company. How long has it been since you closed the order with them? Normally, a company has a 2 week revision and refund schedule for each order you place. However, if you placed it directly with an independent writer, I am not sure about how a refund and further compensation request would work.

If you paid via PayPal, you would be able to file a proper grievance and most likely, get a complete refund as PayPal tends to side more with the "buyer" than the "seller". I hope that you get your money back and that this bad experience will not make you stop seeking academic help from reputable people and places. There are some bad eggs in the basket coming from both parties but I don't doubt that you will come across on-the-level service providers sooner rather than later. Please do keep me posted about what is going on with your refund request. I hope it comes to a speedy and fair resolution soon.

I have a BA in English, and masters degrees in several related disciplines including English History and Literature. I would have to say that my favorite and most interesting essays to write, that are not related to my discipline are the college and masters degree application essays along with scholarship applications.

The reasons that I enjoy developing these essays are really simple. I enjoy working closely with my clients in the development of their application essays. I have a keen interest in getting to know the person behind the standard information form that is submitted to me because, through our interaction, I manage to get to know the client better in a manner that the form does not account for. Adding those little personal insights and touches to the essays I create for them always results in a happier client and more interesting paper. The client more often than not gets into the school of his choice (along with scholarship offers), or at least, gets to the last round of his scholarship application interviews. Each time I have a successful student who comes back to thank me, I feel that it makes what is sometimes a difficult and thankless job worth all the problems and difficulties that the other clients pose.

My least favorite essays to write are those that require me to actually go to museums, attend events / seminars, or watch concerts. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy these culture related tasks to a certain extent. There are times though when the client does not pay for the tickets to attend the special events that the paper requires. I end up paying out of pocket and making just enough money on the order to cover expenses and a little income. I do the work just the same because I am always striving to gain repeat client business and if they are happy with this arrangement, provided the cost of the ticket is not too high, I don't have any problem accommodating such requests. I am not happy, but if the client comes back to me, then it is somewhat worth it.

I think that if a freelance writer works using low cost prices that allow the writer to earn while being easy on the client's pocket, your clients will keep coming back. It's all about the quality of the work that's submitted to the student. Word of mouth referrals work well provided the prices offerred are reasonable. You may want to start a tip box though and encourage the students to leave a reward for you if they are satisfied with your work. It's only fair since the job you do is no small feat. They live their lives of more importance (sick or working and attending school) while the writer makes sure the student doesn't fall behind in class. Surely that's worth some extra bucks to show their satisfaction. With all of the available services these days (both company and freelance based), the best way to gain clients is by lowering prices, giving quality work, seeking out repeat clients, and basically, hoping you don't get requests for revisions or refunds. I would not pay per hour unless there is an hourly login system the client can check. There just isn't any way to accurately confirm how many hours a freelance writer uses to complete a paper without it.

If the email addresses are free ones, such as gmail or yahoo, then it is indeed temporary and I would not worry about that. As for the private information, it is good that you used Paypal to pay him. That means most of your private data, such as your address and bank account number, are safe. Now, did you, at any time, inform him about your university name? Note that he did not even know whether you are already a graduate or not, that means he is fishing for information. He is shooting blanks and, if you pay attention to him, you just might accidentally supply him with the ammunition he needs to keep blackmailing you.

I would contact his email provider at this point and report him for abuse. That is the first step towards ending the threat that he making upon you. By blacklisting him at the email provider, he will also be prevented from contacting you. Make sure your email account has the spam filters on and block all the known email addresses of his that you know of.

I am not questioning whether he is a real writer or not. At this point, he is nothing but a crook trying to fleece you. It is up to you to stop him. We can't do that for you. You need to take a proactive stance in preventing this blackmail from continuing. Think of avenues that he may have used to get your personal information. More importantly, talk to someone in authority at the university you graduated from on a confidential basis. Make sure you can trust this person and enlist his / her help in sorting out the mess that was created by your previous actions.