I didn't take PV's posts to be mockery, insults, or attacks on anybody. I took it them as a wisened senior member holding up a mirror to the entire forum to suggest that maybe it should up its game as to the language level. Like Morgan Freeman would do. This thread happened to be his example. The point would apply not to just one or two members, but to quite a few. I enjoy, say, accusing Editor75 of improper acts with livestock just as much as the next forum member. But if someone like PV, a combat veteran with a reputation for fair dealing, has a critique, I'll hear him out. Anyway, I think he was offering an olive branch when he said, "I'll certainly concede the colorfulness (and even the accuracy) of your posts and I enjoy reading them."

These two members should call a truce. If individuals in the reputable hemisphere of the essay world are fighting amongst themselves, then I don't see how students will be able to tell legit from non.

I will butt out now!

Wow! That sucks, but hey, at least it got you started. Now, I'm interested, what factors do you think contributed to your now-higher rates, which you advertise at essaychat as $30 and up? Are you a better writer now? Better businessman? Did the rise of turnitin and demise of prewritten papers factor in?

What is it with you and age? I see that come up again and again. Pheelyks was "well into his 30s" ... gasp!

Let us say that there were a shill, and that person started shilling in 1997. Perhaps the person started at age 22, right after college. Now the individual would be -- gasp -- 38! Is that "really old"?

We're all aging, Sheba, unless you've come up with a solution. And if you have, I'd love to hear it!

And those are just the positive aspects.

This is right. I do not like to do references, because most people who use essay services would rather keep it quiet. On the other hand, a scammer might well give you 8 or 10 glowing references ... from his brother, roommate, and several cousins, for all anyone knows.

writers2beware
I've seen that book. That's the thing I don't like about the panda title and example. It's not an error that anyone would make, and therefore it doesn't really illustrate anything. Like a strawman argument.

This deserves our attention, and whichever company this is should be outed for the serious scam it is. If you don't care about consumer rights, at least care about animal rights. I have heard that at some of these redneck essay hovels, porches have collapsed and as many as 12 hound dogs have died. I don't see how moral people can stand for this.

Unless you have a sense of how many orders they're getting, I don't see how you could hope to even estimate it. If you know their order flow, and their price structure, then revenue is straightforward to estimate. If you know how much they pay writers and can guesstimate other expenses, then profit is simple arithmetic, too. Same as any other business. But it's more complicated when some of the companies are in other countries and you don't know what they're paying, if anything, in taxes.

If you give us enough hours, we may even have time for both!

As long as they do this, I don't care if they are an ESL merchant, the noblest of Americans, a Bantu-speaking herdsman, or possibly even a Canadian.

Pheelyks did my essay, and while the quality was fine, he wrote the whole thing wearing oddly-patterned clogs. I had to rework the entire assignment myself.

What would be wrong with a person being well into his 30s, if, in fact, one were?

Students are welcome to contact me at MayorPlayaEssays.com ...

Devil's advocate: If a guy can get the job done in one area, might he also be more likely to get it done in another area?

I ordered an essay and they sent a rather attractive young lady to my house. She said, "What style do you want?" and I said, "MLA would be fine." Then she said, "No, I mean what position?" And I said it doesn't really matter, as long as the thesis is well-supported. And she said, "You don't understand. You can do anything you want, as long as you use protection?" And I said I don't really need any protection, because I am only using this model essay as a guide for when I write my own work. But since you insist, I would appreciate a plagiarism report. And do you have a verified PayPal account?

I think they should also provide a free cup of coffee. I'm not sure why. I just think it'd be nice.

Totally agree. In fact, I think all writers should provide the papers up front with no set charges. Upon receiving the work, the customer can then decide when and how much, if anything, to pay, depending on how much value the paper brought to the customer's life. Honor system.

WB kicked my dog, and also mentally gave me moderate lower back pain.

Why would you want a life outside the forum? Are we not good enough for you, QS? I'm starting to question your dedication to the forum.

Sheba, I keep clicking and clicking and clicking, about 150 times each, and nothing ever comes up. Can you double-check the URLs? I'm still clicking.

So how have you been these last three-and-a-half years?

Why do I find that hard to believe?

There's always drinking and clowning.

If you're good enough, there's not much competition. And what competition there is, certainly isn't coming from the type of writers you're talking about or from machines. If you want to make it as a writer of any sort, focus on developing your skills and nothing else. (But teaching is the more reliable route for the majority of people.)

Writing is as close to a meritocracy as it gets. If you're good enough, you'll rise to the top. You have to think: Would people want to read my movie reviews? If so, there's a market!

I would be kind of a drunkard/circus clown combo. Or possibly a manw*0re.

I believe No. 2 is U.S.-based. No knowledge of the others.

In order to get paid, you'd have to give them some identifying information. Also, any reputable site is going to want to know your background, particularly education, before contracting you.

Where are you originally from? Could you go back there? The advantage of the essay business is that you can do it anywhere there is an Internet connection. If I were you, I'd just find a pleasant, low-cost location and go for it. But it's hard to know where you'd be eligible to reside without knowing your citizenship.

We're getting Kumbaya going later. I might even break out my ukelele ...

The new year for academic essay writers

Well, I guess the high season will be kicking in before long. Here's hoping to another good year. Thank you to everyone who answered my many questions (asked mostly under my previous name, srandrews) and contributed to thoughtful threads on the model essay industry. I have enjoyed talking with other writers, both on-forum and off. I owe particular gratitude to freelancewriter, who has patiently answered my questions and been generous with advice as I've started in this business. It is a competitive industry and this is an acrimonious board, but I believe that as writers we benefit from treating each other as colleagues, not adversaries.

Best of luck to everyone in 2013!

I want to clarify that 99essays and srandrews are one and the same, that being me. I do not intend to use srandrews anymore. The change is for marketing purposes. Where srandrews has appeared lately, it's been because I used my other computer, where that name was still logged in. Sorry for any confusion.

And when I say "marketing purposes," I mean that the name lines up with what I use at essaychat.

Am I understanding correctly that the writer would be producing this sample with no guarantee of being paid for it? The problem with this business model is that the better writers will not do this. There is too much paid work out there for a good writer to be messing around with producing free samples. Therefore, only marginal writers will sign up to work for such a service. Good writers want a very straightforward system, and they want guaranteed payment.

Trust is an issue in this business, but in my experience, if you are a trustworthy native English speaker, it is not THAT big an issue. (I am speaking from the perspective of an individual writer. I know very little about the companies.) American clients can tell from an email or two whether they want to work with you. They look at the grammar and phrasing. And you can send them a sample of an earlier paper you've done. If that's not enough, you can talk to them on the phone or Skype and they can hear your accent. ESL students can't read as much from the informal communications, so they can be quite guarded. Generally, as an individual writer, you must depend on word of mouth to get many of these customers. When they hear about a good writer, they will pass the name along to their friends.

So in my opinion, if you are offering a good service, it is not necessary to go through a bunch of contortions, such as free samples, to earn customers' trust. If you're trustworthy, the trust kind of earns itself.

That's pretty much the problem with laptops. There's no ergonomic position unless you run a separate keyboard, and possibly a monitor, too.

I have had some communication with Michael, and I feel confident in saying he's not WB and is not promoting a company. Just a writer looking to get better and make more money, same as me.

I wouldn't be able to support all this bling-bling and all these ladies if I did that, Stu.

I'm confused. Do you want the industry to work more efficiently and effectively? Or do you want it to go away, because of the ethical issues? Those two goals would seem to be at odds.

That explains some of your comments, Queen Sheba.

That is true. But you have to consider not only whether you theoretically could do it, but also whether the time you'd spend researching, reading, and learning would justify the money you'd make. There are a lot of topics that I could do if I had to, but that I turn down because I know they will be too much hassle -- especially when I have easier assignments waiting. If it's the dead of summer and work is scarcer, I may be less choosy. Naturally, people who have been in the business longer will be comfortable with more topics, since they've likely encountered them before. Guys like freelancewriter and Professor Verb seem to know a little bit about everything, and I'm sure you do, too, John's Mom.