This is quite tough, though. In the context of freelance essay writing, not a lot of writers would prefer to have their portfolios out in the open. This is mostly because they prefer to work in the outskirts of the career itself rather than having it exposed, considering that the field can garner a lot of contentions from other people.

This has to be emphasized more. I'd argue that your core values as a writer and a researcher would help you in the long-run. However, having a degree would definitively solidify (at least) your grounding for potential employers/contractors.

These types of posts are the exact reason why it is critical that you make sure that you are contracting legitimate companies for your work. Never cheap out, especially for vital projects that you have.

This is true. I've worked with clients who have asked for revisions that no longer appeared to be revisions. There was one that was literally fuming with anger because I would not revise a 21-page essay simply because he kept asking for revisions that were utterly out of the boundaries of the work contract that we had. Additional pay, in these cases, would be necessary.

Yikes. This question. You can perhaps get away with it - although that would be dependent on a multitude of factors. The type of degree being sought by the PhD can also matter. Extensive experience from the writer's perspective can also help. All in all, there are too many facets to consider when discussing these forms of sentiments.

Bringing this up as I resonate with that first line. I don't usually care for clients, however there are clients that I empathize with because of their personal struggles in maintaining a work-life balance. Just accomplish clean and diligent work - and do your best to satisfy them.

This is commonplace in a lot of essay writing sites. I have personally worked for quite a few over the past year; and I can attest that they use these bonuses to falsely motivate writers who are unaware of this business model. If a company fines you heavily and also gives out extensive bonuses, you have to begin asking yourself why you are still keeping up with them.

I feel as though this is the sad reality of essay writing sites. Finding legitimate companies these days are tough. Even for freelance writers who are new to the business, bumping into companies that take advantage of desperate writers is commonplace.

I'd like to bring out this thread again for this reason. I found that a majority of freelance writers (ESL ones) consider the work as almost underground/undeclared work. There's a lot you can get away with, especially if you do not live in a country with stringent tax measures in place. That being said, I have spoken to a few others who consider these transfer payments as their unofficial income tax to (at the very least) contribute to their country, especially if the money is being wired in from a different country. I know that it can be counted as a remittance tax, although I'm quite uncertain about the technicalities of it all.

I don't necessarily think that social media is beneficial for writers - not even for essay writing companies. Out of all the platforms I currently work for, there's only one that uses Facebook. This one is the smallest and youngest out of all of the companies I work for. The others can get by with simply having a platform, building relationships with clients, and making sure that they have built their connections with other students/writers/platforms.

Does not necessarily have to be full-blown music. However, putting on focus-oriented beats and/or working in an environment with muffled noise (libraries, cafes) always helps!

I think that the reputation that holds from being an essay writer also counts. And that quite a chunk of the essay writers I know hold the job for extra income, considering that it is not generally perceived as a long-term career. There are many reasons behind this, of course. I do still agree that hinting yourself as a professional writer while working at this is quite off-putting. I have known a few others who consider themselves as editors and/or researchers - but would never say they're professional writers.

I also can imagine that having the bidding process gives new writers more in-depth perspective on the field itself. It teaches a lot about how much patience truly is required for the field of essay writing, considering that you do need to have to build your reputation and career in long periods of time.

Agreed. But it still stands that a company would be better with them than without. While these guarantees may not necessarily be guarantees, for legitimate companies and independent contractors, having them is a way to (at the very least) communicate to clients that they are serious about the work they do.

I think that a great discussion for here would not necessarily be about their laziness or the individual traits and experiences that students go through. Rather, the educational system has long been overdue for extensive revisions (in a lot of different countries). Some people do order from essay writing sites simply because they do not see the point of particular courses that are mandatory for them to take (ie. not envisioning that it would help them in the long-run in their career). There's so much left to unravel.

@FreelanceWriter
These all make sense. I have interacted with clients who have changed the instructions midway through the allowed revisions for a paid order. It's frustrating to interact with people who cannot communicate their needs or become difficult to work with after a bit of time.

@FreelanceWriter
I do agree that this is a general drawback from participating in online courses. Of course, this is also on a situational basis - and would as well be dependent on the personal characteristics of the individuals. Offline or traditional school settings force these interactions, therefore I could also say that they create inorganic communication styles with people. Communication skills can be cultivated and fostered in other environments as well (day to day interactions, attending cordial events, etc.). It does not necessarily have to take place in a school setting. These are just my general thoughts on the matter anyway.

Bringing out this thread as I perceive it to be essential. I would agree that what has helped me over the past months is maintaining regular contact with a client. Ensuring that the work you are producing would be what they want is crucial - and would save you revisions in the future.

Bumping into this thread reminds me of the time that I thought I built a healthy, communicative work-based relationship with a client. She began to open up about her personal endeavors in the academic field. Afterwards, she turned cold and never answered my messages anymore. A week past the deadline, I still do not know what happened. Luckily, I was working with a company that had resolved the issue and released the money regardless of the circumstance and the "ghosting" of the client. These things happen.

A lot of the clients I have worked for had personal issues (that they obviously would not disclose but would brush upon when initially making contact) that urged them to seek for the service. I found that a handful of them had even continuously rambled and apologized for availing and seeking help in the first place to ease their academic stress. This honestly saddens me. The toxicity of the academic culture simply is not for everyone. There's a reason why these students do this.

Contracting with various companies simply take time. But, as a freelancer, you should be patient in this long and winding process. It would always be helpful to ensure that you are double-checking the sites that you work for. On top of this, once a red flag sets off in a new writing company, don't be afraid to jump the gun and leave. Write for people who treat you right - and you'll be able to make more than what you had initially asked for.

Moving into a freelancing career is daunting. There's a lot of double-checks that a freelancer would need to do to ensure the legitimacy of the work being done. It's almost always helpful to have an optimistic mindset when it comes to dealing with various clients. That being said, I don't necessarily think that I would (at the moment) trade my freelancing career for a long-term desk job. I don't quite know what will happen in the next years; however, as of the moment, there's nothing more relaxing than having to wake up within my schedule, work within my capacities, and then have the freedom to stop when I feel as though I am slowly being burned out. All of these benefits simply cannot be traded for anything else. But again, be cautious when dealing with clients to avoid being abused, underpaid, etc. Consistently talking and fostering healthy relationships is crucial when you are doing freelance work. Your relationships will keep you afloat (and with financial sustenance).

From my viewpoint, one of the most dragging parts of working as an academic freelance writer (or freelancing in general) is that you take the work that you can get; getting burned out is definitively an issue that would be faced in the long-run. While it's true that there are no off-seasons, it's vital to take advantage of periods of time that work is barely around (ie. less orders moving around the systems). This is usually due to the general academic calendar. However, I do agree that academic calendars do not play that much of a role anymore albeit they do slightly impact the flow of work being accumulated.

I agree with what has been said here. It's crucial to be patient when starting out with new platforms, especially if you're working on a marketplace "bidding" system because the competitiveness is high. Not to mention the fact that these long-term clients may have already picked out their desired writers whom they would love to work for them. The key is building a reputation and ensuring that you are placing your best foot forward at all costs. This will take a long time - but the benefits in the long-run would serve you wondrously.

Additionally, I also agree that you could ask the management or the support team of the platform regarding your bidding. I had encountered an instance wherein I had also struggled with achieving bids at a new(er) platform. That being said, I contacted my referral within the company and asked how I could turn this around. What they had done was provide me with an extensive input on how I interact with clients, how the clients have been used to interact with, and what forms of interactions have reaped the optimal results for everyone in consideration. I had applied this; and a week later, my bidding success rate improved dramatically from nearly just 1 per day to 5-10.

If you trust this system and the company, there's no harm.

Best of luck in your endeavors. I know it can be excruciating at times.

In addition to what has already been mentioned here, I find that essay companies would often struggle when it comes to handling new writers. This, in turn, makes a few orders that flow in the site to have difficulties in being completed in due time. While I have noticed that there are companies I used to work for that had preventative measures (ie. not letting new writers take hefty, lengthy and truly complex orders until they build their reputation in the site), there are others that simply let writers have a seemingly marketplace attitude towards essay writing. This has, in turn, created a field wherein incapable writers desperate for money can somehow sweet talk clients into letting them work on the projects. This becomes detrimental because they would then be unable to provide a decent output, creating complaints in the site. Running an essay writing business is a complex environment - more difficult than what others would perhaps anticipate when initially looking at the platform. After working for a multitude of sites, I have found that few can truly manage their orders, fulfill and satisfy clients, and maximize their outputs. Kudos to the sites that can manage these platforms efficiently.

Regular contributors on this site are mostly individuals who have had (at least) long-term experience working with various essay writing platforms. This makes the site credible when it comes to determining which sites are legitimate - and which ones are just out to take advantage of both aspiring writers and in-need students. That being said, always ensure that you are approaching the appropriate platforms to double check on the sites you are using.

I agree with what had been mentioned here that it's mostly due to the fact that not all writers would truly be competent enough to run a full-on business. When I hear this proposition, it almost sounds like a career transition rather than moving up the ladder. The monetary investment necessary when establishing a business in any field would require that individual would be willing to shoulder the costs of a possible failure in the long-run. This may not necessarily be profitable. As I believe that most academic writers do this as a source of supplementary income, I do not think that going through all the hassle would be beneficial for a lot of individuals in the field.

I have encountered requests that were initially labeled as proofreading. However, upon conversing with the client, I found that the client actually sought for rewriting services and got merely baffled with the terminologies. In fact, I do find that there is a thin line between these two tasks. An individual can seek for isolated proofreading services because they do not want their writing to be changed in any way, shape, or form; however, there are also others who would want to have full-on rewriting because they outright mention that they feel incompetent in this part.

I think that one of the key, unforeseen advantages of being an academic writer/researcher would be that your time rolls in and out in accordance to the academic seasons. I ensure that I take up a handful amount of orders (ergo overworking myself) during high season to optimize my writing time. This will make certain that whether or not I accumulate extra work during the off-season, it would not make much of a difference because I'd have a little bit saved up in the meantime. I still do other forms of writing for other companies (blog posts, marketing tasks, etc.), so I would still have a stream of income flowing in from other online jobs that I have.

I do feel as though seeking to be a freelance writer is entirely different from venturing into the field of managing these forms of sites. Although I have met a handful of owners of these sites who started from writing in various platforms, recognized the blanket issues that were crippling writers in the long-run, and decided to act on in through creating their own platform. Again, this is not applicable to all writers. I, myself, do not see myself going into managing these sites. I would see that finding credible platforms that do not take advantage of their writers as the key indicator of progress in this field. Then again, I do not see myself being in the field ten years from now. I have personally known a few other academic writers who have already left the field to pursue other career paths; they only saw academic writing as a way to earn extra money while they're attempting to establish a career.

It doesn't hurt to be cautious nonetheless.
I do feel as though it's necessarily an indicator that the output of the site itself would be terrible. Rather, I would say that it can be an indicator of perhaps mismanagement in the site's ownership.

Speaking of going underground.
I have also noticed that tracing essay writing sites (should PayPal truly go through with these policies) are generally difficult. A lot of these sites do not have the necessity to specify what form of service the person has done freelance writing for. Like what was said earlier in this discussion, there are a few freelance writers who hide in the guise of being a content writer (or any other form of freelance writing). I have also noticed that a few would try to come out as researchers rather than academic writers as both can technically fall under the same spectrum. There's so many overlapping details here that it truly is hard to tell.

Speaking of risks, a lot of digital transactions that we conduct online are all prone to having risks. Students would therefore be assumed to have the responsibility to avoid fraudulent websites through running (double-checking) the security risks posed by a site. It's also quite saddening how the rampancy of marketing methods for promoting websites have made even intolerable, scam-driven sites to be on top of search engines. Always try to practice precautionary measures when it's online.

@FreelanceWriter
This is fair enough. I was referring mostly to a general observation I had when working for marketplace-like essay writing sites. I have noticed that initial requests started pouring it at around 10:00 GMT-7. If not, a little bit later than that. It's also mostly that around 20:00 GMT-7 that there would be less orders pouring in. Perhaps because it's already nighttime - and not a lot of students prefer to spend this time working on their academics? However, upon finalizing the request on working for the order, the time that they would have space to communicate with me would become sporadic. I'm quite unsure if there's a direct correlation between time they request an order versus general interactions with clients.

@FreelanceWriter
This is a sad reality that can also be tied to a lot of culture-based expectations that people have. I would have never reached where I am in life without the external pressure my parents' expectations.

Generally speaking, I feel as though there are base subjects that serve as the foundation of all of the other streams of knowledge for people. When these subjects are fulfilled, they serve as an essentially impeccable platform to develop other technical skills that a person would need in their professional lives. All the other forms of knowledge are what I would consider as supplementary information (things you do not need to know but can be interesting at the very least).

@zoeyw
This makes more sense in the discussion. I think that the age of digitization has definitively changed our overall perception when it comes to handling pressure. Although this does make me wonder when/where we draw the line when it comes to seeking for assistance. Then again, as a writer, I do feel as though it's always been partially my responsibility to assure the clients that it's alright to seek for help. In the long-run, I still stand by my idea that this does not make students lazy. A majority of the time, students who seek for this assistance have valid reasons to do so - therefore, it becomes available with the right intention to help students.

When students suffer from social anxiety and external pressure in classroom-based discussions, having online classes would definitely be beneficial for them. There would be no need for them to undergo these initial barriers. Rather than feeling as though they are being judged on their personal appearance or their superficial behavior, there would be more room for them to actually work on the skills that they need in the long-run.

I'd like to revive this discussion as it is interesting.

I have personally graduated both high school and college with honors. Despite this, I have peers who were not able to acquire the same level of academic achievement - and yet, some of them are now earning a lot more than I am. I still believe that high grades do not determine the level of success - not unless, of course, you are planning to work for the academia. Only then will it matter. Nonetheless, having a degree is certainly pivotal. At least that would be considered as the bare minimum.

I was also sucked into this false belief while I was growing up. When I was applying for work opportunities, I found that companies tend to prefer individuals who have more experience over those who simply look good on paper. Having a balance of both, of course, would be ideal in all situations.

I also have learned that because most of my clients are located on the other side of the world, I have now adjusted my body clock in congruence to theirs.

I also find it utterly difficult to turn down rush orders as the pay rates are the best. Because of this, if there are more rush orders in the night time, it only means that I would not be able to sleep until I am over with all the work (which usually around 6 in the morning, however there was an instance wherein I had slept at 10 am due to multiple rushed orders at the same time).

I also tend to have conversations with my clients wherein most of them would often cite that being stressed out or occupied at the moment with work (or personal life in general) would be the reason why they sought for third-party help from companies. I don't necessarily think they feel "bad" about it - rather, because of the proper intention, they consider it to be something that they look after.