Do you mean the general style of the site? When the site has an order form, I generally assume the work is being farmed out. To where, it's hard to know -- but I have some guesses. An individual writer would not generally want orders to come in via form. The writer would want to talk over the details by mail or phone before accepting the money. The paper might be outside the writer's favorite subject areas, or the writer might be overbooked. SEO and a lot of back-end functionality are, to me, the marks of a site that is farming the work out.

Independent writers live on word of mouth. They fear getting more orders than they can handle and, thus, disappointing people. I would not dream of starting a website of that nature unless I had a reliable team of writers. I don't, and so I don't. In the busy season, I am walking around like a zombie because I'm getting no sleep. In the off season, I'm glad for the break. If I started a site like that, it would have no effect on the customers I already have. All it might do, if promoted properly, is drum up more business than I would want. A small business-card type website is fine, but is quite optional in my case, because by the time they're in contact with me, they're ready to order the paper.

I would call that an unsustainable business model. If you are a serious writer, then you need to get your rates up to what serious writers charge.

I actually get the impression that aleph is for real, and most likely a native English speaker. I just can't figure out who writes for those rates. Not me, that's for sure!

queen sheba
Shameless advertisements are allowed only at essaychat.com. That's where I put mine.
But I have to ask, how can you possibly produce papers of any quality at $10 per page? Assuming you intend to make a profit, writers can only be making a fraction of that. What qualified writer works for single digits per page?

I think I kind of do, too ... not sure.

Why don't you look for an independent native speaker, or a company that employees native speakers? There are at least three or four such companies.

The old "non-answer" answer ...

The essay business is truly an area where you get what you pay for.

I don't know. Good writers try to get back with people right away, and when they're working on projects, they try to provide regular updates. It's just good business practice. Clients hate to be left in the dark. No matter whether you go with a company or an independent writer, there are good and bad apples. As has been noted here before, it's generally the same pool of writers.

I'm curious about this, Major. I haven't written for any companies yet. Surely there is a bell curve for the bidding. What would a typical paper go for in the busy season? Additionally, how do writers have time to sit around and bid on papers during the busy season? When the rush hits, I'm treading water just to get all my writing done, let along mess with a website to see if I won my bids.

Let us know how it goes, fiona. I am curious.

I know that there is no way on God's green earth that I would write for 25 percent of the sale price of the paper. If some companies are paying that low, then I can see why the quality would not be very high.

Not to worry ... you're still here.

When you're a writer and you've just worked a 14-hour day -- producing essays for paying customers -- and somebody emails you wanting you to take a grammar test, you're going to hit that delete button, guaranteed.

I agree that C is the best way, and really the only way. I will add that there is a lot of "sixth sense" involved. Americans have certain subtleties in the way they write emails, as do Brits, as do legitimate students from other countries, as do scammers from various places. You can tell a lot from the idioms the person uses.

I'm more than happy to send all the customers who want free pages to FreeWritingHelp or whoever else is offering pro bono work. Anybody but me! I'll stick with paying customers.

Beats workin', I guess.

The main use that I can see is that if you have others working for you -- you may want to run their stuff through the checker just to make sure no one is cutting corners.

How about before?