@writers2beware
Thank you for the clarification.

Is this case isolated to wordpress only or are other sites affected?

That's a Kenyan phone number............LOL
Not to mention you're responding to a 4 year old posting....but hey, whatever rocks your boat.

You're so lucky, I wish someone would make me that offer............oh wait.....

Got the exact same email last night.

The price I mentioned is the standard going rate, hurried is almost always charged extra. I could be wrong however. As I said, never heard of this particular company.

I don't know anything about the company, but their prices seem way off from what a reputable US based company would charge. This is purely speculative, however, as they might be simply starting up and giving away cheap papers to draw in new clients.

On average, US/UK based companies charge upwards of $30 per page (double spaced), at least from what I saw.

To cite a famous rock band

"When your day is long
And the night, the night is yours alone"

109 Ask for a quote, confirm the deal but never pay, then call on the day of the order asking where is the paper.....I adore this one :)

Lower taxes + increased job availability for students can only help the industry. There's never going to be a lack of students who need/want help.

In theory! Go ahead and try it; do let me know how it went :D

Team work: busy little bees sitting in an office drinking shoddy coffee and debating the next steps to ensure the company doesn't go under.....The boss gives the stern look of dissaproval whenever someone says something stupid. When he's not busy doing that, plays minesweeper on his PC or stares at the wall......

clearly

I once had to write a reflection about racial experience in Detroit for a client. His name was Steve and I assumed (didn't get any info) that he was white. So, I go along and write about the white experience in Detroit blah blah. Tomorrow morning, the dude sends me an angry email that basically said: wtf brah, I'm black..............

There is no team in I. And this is a fully, wholly, entirely an I business. Team work - in the traditional sense - does not exist. Well, maybe it does for the admin departments of large essay firms, but writers rarely, if ever can, or will work in pairs. It makes it so much harder to write something cogent if the other guy or a gal isn't up to the specs.

12 y?

Let's hope someone sends me some whiskey. I'll use the PV rule and cite him as the source when I explain to the sender why I'm not paying :DDD

Well, Questia is really about articles, not books. EBSCO is king when it comes to books. But yeah, textbooks are rarely available, but I generally don't even use them. If I do, I normally get them from the client in PDF. Got a nice collection already.

Thankfully, I have access to a few online libraries that connect to EBSCO. I am yet to find a book that isn't in that database. Also registered to Questia on PV's advice last year; it has heaps of sources.

I believe the UK has somewhat higher standards - at least when it comes to writing essays. The teachers seem to have a well developed marking scheme, even if in the end it's all still very subjective. On the other hand, topics from US students are far more interesting. Just doing two papers on the impact of marijuana after the bill changes :D

Yeah, it seems the entry ceiling for individual writers is rising steadily, dunno about companies.

I saw a 20-30% drop few years back, it lasted for one season IIRC. Since then my order rates have been steady, with a decent growth trend. Maybe you're doing something wrong or you just started out? In any case, the market appears fine to me.

Thanks! Appreciate it

I've had a couple of tutoring sessions where I charged per hour. Basically students wanted me to run them through the paper content and structure. Fun experience, but I prefer writing.

As I said, well worth it. I've put in the work and I found the formula that works (for me, anyway). When one of my clients leaves, or I want to get more work for whatever reason, I just use the targeting matrix I developed and publish an ad. On average, a week's worth of advertising will cover any time spent and get me a good long-term client or two. Sometimes more.

I said elsewhere that I don't use marketing frequently, mainly because most of my income comes from WOM and repeat business, but those 10- 20% that doesn't, I cover through advertising. Some clients simply feel awkward about recommending this type of service to their friends, mainly out of shame or fear (I'm sure other writers face this cundundrum as well)

I've dabbled with SNM, despite the fact I rarely use these services privately. I've had results ranging from very poor (when I started) to excellent (once I found the best method of targeting). Although it's costly, it's well worth it if you put the time into it; I've found quite a few excellent long term gigs this way. It's a great way to "restock" once the regulars graduate.

Students do not want to keep in touch - but they do want to discover services like ours. Trying to be friends with clients on SN is a sure way down - for both sides. Nowadays teachers are just as present on Facebook as they are in the classroom.

We could do like the oil co's do it, and put a cent out of every dollar towards the organization. Once we're set up, we can charge 10% of total profits to new members. Rinse, repeat, we don't have to work anymore...............come to think of it, that's a good looking scam :D

In all seriousness, I agree this would help students a great deal. But there's so many issues around this project I wouldn't know which one to tackle first.

Scammers know this too, and use it heavily to their advantage. You wouldn't believe the number of stories I heard involving "excellent customer service" and tears - all jumbled up in a single sentence.

I agree with Meo though, those of us who actually put in the work and have the "wiring" for this kind of stuff, do well. Most, however, don't.

You don't say? Aren't you the brightest of the herd

If you don't know the person, or if the person hasn't been recommended by someone you trust, ALWAYS ask for payment upfront. I get offered these "deals" regularly. On principle, a scammer will offer any amount, as long as they can pay after the fact. Once I inform the "writer" I want the full payment upfront, they dissapear in the wind.

We also got unicorns and puffy buttplugs to match our new status

No, I do not. Well, I do, just like anyone here, but my agenda is NOT related to companies.

Why would I have a grudge? Against whom? And why? I'm just stating what I see. It is you who's turning to foul language and poor attempts of circular logic. (I am neither malicious in my intent, nor ignorant. I will concede you know much more than me about the industry - but I never claimed otherwise, have I?)

I can read just fine, thanks. My pre-school teacher called me a reading machine, because I could read twice as fast as him (sad image of our education system, right?).

I can also fart 3 times my weight in a day.......Can we use that as a metric? :)

BBB was mentioned by Major and you didn't refute him so I used it.

You really need to pay attention to what I'm writing. The age is just a part of the thing, so don't go pickin' away at it like it's the end of the world.

I know 2002 is a flag, but that CANNOT be a major indication as to how good a company is. Surely many great companies emerged both after 2002 AND 2006. Especially if you exclude so many companies by stating they have to have US based metrics. Furthermore, if only one company has USPTO, among many thousands, doesn't that, kinda, run the mill? I understand your point, but consider this - this is an industry that doesn't really thrive on being open. It is very likely that that company had its name bashed by competitors more than once in an attempt to destroy them. So having USPTO, while good for most businesses, need not be as good for our industry. At least not for the owners, but also for customers, especially if the competition destroys the rep of the company, yes?

The intent of your post was to inform, yes? Do you really think US citizens are the only ones coming here seeking information? I don't have the exact metrics of course, but I'd approximate at least 40% of all visitors are either UK/AU/CA based. If that's the case, your post is helping only a small fraction of students (which goes well with my initial claim).

You are free to hold that opinion, of course, but I'd ask that you don't presume to condition mine as you tried to do in the last part of your post. How am I off base if I find that your grading is fit for only a handful of companies. That's just the truth. You can call it whatever you like, patriotism even.

If your opinion is the dominant one on the site, than this site should be called EssayScamUS......

First - I agree with you about the quality of those sites that actually fit the bill. However, I do not agree with the way you structured your grading.

Come on. 2002 and earlier, seriously? That's like saying you shouldn't buy fruit from this guy because he only just opened his stand, go to the guy who has been selling for a decade (even though there's no apparent difference between their products). I am not advocation here, I have NO interest whatsoever in company legitimacy as I'm a sole proprietor. And my personal site actually fits most of your "criteria". I just think it's nonsensical to judge a company based mainly on age. If that were true, nobody would use Windows, or Mac. Heck, there would be no technology whatsoever because everyone would go with the old guy flipping horseshoes saying - hey, he's been around forever, lets go with him :)

I will concede that some companies are better, and that some companies have been around longer - and that that should amount to something. But that can never be the main criteria.

I can agree with you that the sites which actually (surely by pure accident) match ALL of the criteria are some of the best in the business. That's true. However, there are decent US/UK/AU sites out there that do not, especially not in the age department. But you did your homework, you must know that.

As for my angle - there really is none. I'm not a company owner - as you well know. So the majority of what you wrote doesn't really apply to me. I still find it amusing that you'd go to such lengths and then ruin your otherwise good post with a claim that a company operating since 2002 is ANY indication of quality. It is not, not by itself at least, and especially not the prime element to test validity. As far as I can tell (and I don't really spend my time browsing companies, so this comes from a simple glance), there are several Ukranian and other foreign (which you're vehemently against) companies that have been operating for a very long time. Are they good? Do they treat their writers good? Do they deliver quality?

Furthermore, I know you're always saying this is a US site, but why would legitimate UK companies (for example) have a BBB accreditation or USPTO? If you want to be objective, you cannot rule out companies because they're not from the US (and I'm talking purely about UK/CA/AU companies here, not ESL ones). Since those elements are only available to US companies, you are rooting for the home team, and a very specific team at that. Are you not?

There's nothing to say. Your "criteria" fits exactly 2 sites (1 if you use all of the above) in this industry. And we all know which......

And consider I haven't even been here that long. Still, it's painfully obvious

I immediately saw Damian from "Only Fools and Horses"

That's true Major. And I repeat, we need to stand against scammers. But this is not about scammers, it is about a few good examples in this puddle of mud. To be honest, the number of legitimate companies and writers together does not exceed 10% (this is my own estimate), if not less, when compared to scammers. You wouldn't believe how many clients of mine were scammed before coming to me, it's strange when they don't complain about scammers. I want to turn that around, because we will all be better off if scammers are eradicated. The moves of EC mods are a good step. ES's new policy is another good step. At least students can now see if their writer is a moron who can't write a proper sentence.

That's what I'm trying to show you, there are ways in which sites and companies can be assessed - although those ways need not be completely safe (nothing is 100% safe after all). The same can be applied to private writers, if one only chooses to apply the same logic. We're saying the same thing, but I'm looking at two sides of the coin, whereas you have a coin with only one side.

EssayScam, for one. That's the purpose of this site, is it not? After all, if someone claims to be in business since, say, 2005, and has an account on EssayScam that is 2 days old, that's a good sign that that person is either daft or a liar. For example, I started working solo in 2013. Before going into this, I did a review of all sites that had a connection with this industry. I reckon that every legitimate writer/company did/does the same, so that's a verfiable metric, correct? Age of the domain is not the only metric, because people can buy, sell, trade, hack domains. Same goes for companies, altought not in the same way - but, for example, shares can be sold to a new owner, which is often not as transparent as it should be. By your logic, no metric is safe.

I had a website with a registered domain for a long time. I made it shortly after I started working independently and it works well for me. That's just business 101. But, you probably know this already. I am not arguing that having a website is bad, of course it's not. It can only bring more clients. But I do think you (especially you) and others here HAVE a duty to point out that there are legitimate writers out there, even those who use only their email.

I do the same thing for companies, even those I'm not affiliated with, whenever someone asks me (and I get those kinds of emails from time to time). And I really don't have any interest (financial anyway) in promoting companies, now do I? But, if a client comes and asks me about a company, I think it is my duty to inform clients about their options, to stop them from getting scammed.

That's why I joined this forum, and I'll always hold that position.

P.S - I never implied you should stop advising students. I simply said, you need to include qualifiers, just like you do when you talk about American or other legitimate companies.

Well for one thing, you know very well that (and I exclude myself from this completely, just trying to make a point) at least three highly qualified, native American writers with a long history in this industry advertise on EC. Are they cheaters? Do they defraud clients?

When you say "don't trust ANYONE" on EC, what possible interpretation could that have? That's all I'm arguing. You are perfectly justified in almost everything you say on ES, and I really do consider you one of the top contributors. But you cannot dismiss the little good there is for the sake of weeding out the bad. It doesn't work.

Qualifier is the only thing FW is asking for, rather than the blanket statements you use. The majority is not the same as all, is it? You're constantly pushing one double labeled button and hoping we're all to dumb to notice what's written under the second label.......He never asked that you caveat him personally, just to stop giving blanket statements. That's the same thing I asked a while back. All I got in response were the same antithetical claims you're giving him now. I will urge, once again, that we all stand together against our true enemies - the ones this site was made to fight.