If an ESL writer were to truly work on his craft and develop it over time, then yes, he might eventually be a match for EFL writers. Working on the craft means finding a way to immerse themselves in the English world to the point that they neglect to use their own mother language already. That is the only way they can ever become a match for ENL and EFL writers. By creating a world where they speak, write, and think only in the English language, then they can begin to progress with their writing quality. They must also read quality English sources of information like newspapers and magazines. The must void the bilingual sources of news and supermarket tabloids like Us Weekly and People Magazine. The bilingual news sources need to be avoided in order to not tempt them to revert to reading their natural language and the tabloids, well, if they are going to read in English, they may as well increase their intellectual capacity as well. Tabloids will teach them to speak and think in "trash" talking English, which will not help them to improve the quality of their written work.

I do not buy the excuse that the university monitors these websites in order to catch students using the service. It doesn't follow because they would actually have to work for the website in order to keep up their cover. Thus aiding in the violation of the very academic rules they claim to uphold by doing the undercover work. That sounds like a professor trying to use a scare tactic on the students and nothing more. Using essay services can never be considered plagiarism because the rights to the paper are turned over to the student for his use in the manner he requires. Essay companies will not willingly submit the essay to a site like Turnitin, which would render the paper useless. A student can safely use the essay without fear of plagiarism provided he changes the model paper enough for it to contain most of his own words. In fact, he should only retain the in-text citations and paraphrased information with sources for use in his original paper. A student who speaks English fluently will not have a problem paraphrasing the entire paper if necessary.

@RandomRandom the problem is that, by experience, the legitimate independent writers have had extremely bad experiences with Kenyans and the ones who run the scam academic sites out of Kenya. A majority of the inferior Kenyan writers have made it difficult for the legitimate writers to gain the trust of the clients because they have already been burned a number of times by the Kenyan scam artists. You will have to forgive us for our immediate distrust of independent writers and Kenyan run academic writing companies because of the proven track record of these people. If you are not one of them, then you will have to prove yourself and earn the trust of the independent writers here. Prove that you are not one of the scammers and you will be offered an olive branch. Coming out as Kenyan means you will have to work harder at proving yourself, setting yourself apart from those who came before you that caused this situation. You should not stop caring that people will trust you less because you are Kenyan. It is because you are Kenyan that you have to work harder to prove the shared opinion wrong in terms of the collective mindset regarding Kenyans. If you are different from them, you can expect to be embraced by those here. Just remember that trust is not freely given in this instance. It must be earned.

@RandomRandom glad to hear from you buddy! I apologize for not remembering your username in reference to the situation. I would like to thank you for giving us an update regarding the situation that you had with the company. It seems to me that they are playing a con game here and whoever lasts the longest at the company ends up on the losing side. It is good that you managed to figure out that the payment policy is not on the level and that you have made the right decision regarding your participation on their site. I hope that you can find an alternative to their company in the near future. It may be best for you to steer clear of these sorts of companies for now. They seem to be proliferating on the internet, preying on the writers who want to try to spin off into another academic related career. I hope that putting Enotes on hold for a rainy day pays off for you in the future. I wish you the best of luck pal.

If you want to do serious damage to these companies, all you have to do is utilize the power of social media. You can post it as a one time blog set up on say Wordpress and then link social media accounts to that blog using a particular hashtag series so that any student looking for online help via social media (which is their preferred method of client recruiting these days), your blog post will automatically show up and inform the students of the hell you went through with the company. It isn't hard to set up social media accounts and it is even easier to link it to various online blogs. A blog is a permanent electronic format of your plight. It will be there for years and decades to come. One posting, a lifetime of help for generations of students. You can also Post a short version of your plight via Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and the like, all using the same hashtags, but targeting the same abusers. That would be one way of getting back at them. I am sure that I don't need to remind you or teach you about how to protect your identity from being traced, just in case right?

I think that this is one instance where the wise words of the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt can give you some strength. During his campaign, when he ran against Herbert Hoover, he said the following wise words; "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself... nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.". If you let the fear of what they might do overtake your life, then they have won. They have more to lose by blowing their cover than you have by ignoring them. These blackmailing companies are strengthened by the fear that the students have of getting caught trying to circumvent the rules of the university. I do not believe that they will take action against you simply because an anonymous email from an IP address that can be traced to a scam company will not be taken seriously by the university. Academic complaints that are taken seriously come from either your professors, who have evidence of your misdeed, or your classmates, who can prove your wrong doing somehow. Think of it this way, if you were doing badly in class in the first place, and the test that was taken for you by someone else proves that same trend, then they cannot prove that they took the test for you. All that proves is that your university firewalls were penetrated and hacked. Based upon what you told me, it is possible that you are not the only student suffering in silence at your school. I am sure that you are also familiar with the saying "Bad news travels fast" right? So keep your ears open, if you hear about a student who got turned in based on a similar situation, then you have something to worry about. If not, then go about with your daily life, as you were. Don't let the fear overcome you because they are playing a psychological game and hoping that the mental anguish and personal turmoil that you are experiencing will work in their favor. Ignore them. Take the consequences if any comes (which I doubt) because you did to something wrong. We can't erase that fact. You can't let them hold you hostage because there is always a remedy for your problem. The fact that you dropped the course before a grade could be handed out will also work in your favor (I think) because you did not complete the course requirements and get graded for it. Their complaint or charges will be null and void. I hope you received all of the good thoughts that I poured into this message for you. I am here if you need someone to listen to you and bounce off on. You aren't alone. Take it easy and try to get some sleep. Things will always work out for the better.

@ya_ya Thanks for the heads up and the additional information about the company that you provided. We need more students like you at this forum who has honest intentions of helping other students avoid getting scammed. I am sorry to hear about your experience with this company in particular. I was worried for a bit that perhaps your school expelled you or something as that is the usual punishment for this sort of academic violation. You are extremely lucky to have gotten a mere slap on the wrist at your school. As for Paypal, don't close your dispute, while you may not win the case because of the "virtual" set up of the service, the fact that they have a pending case means money the cannot collect on just yet. If you can't get your money back, then you should very well make it extremely difficult for them to collect on the payment. If you can affect their income for a month of so, then you would have had some sort of financial revenge on them at the very least.

@monsta2005 How did the temporary gig turn out? Did you parlay that into an actual teaching career (of sorts) eventually? I hear that some academic writers for hire eventually find themselves as teaching assistants once they go in for a masters of PhD line of study. Was it the same for you? Or did you decide to make a go of the academic writing thing as part of your regular income? The one thing nice about being an academic writer is that it doesn't tie you down and allows you pursue your other passions in life, even as you make a decent income assisting other students in their quest to complete their own studies. I am very confident that you were never found out since you had no plans of advertising at your own university. I hope that you can still see this message and hopefully, you can give us an update as to how things have gone for you since your last post. You sounded like a person with a host of career possibilities at your fingertips. I am eager to find out which ones worked out for you and which ones did not.

The students are paying for a professionally written "model" paper. Therefore, the paper that is submitted to them must be in a usable form, regardless of whether or not they will be turning in the paper directly. The grammar and punctuation in the essay matters because the student still needs to read the paper and make sense of what was developed for them by the original writer. As such, a poorly developed paper will result in a confusing read and most likely, an unusable model paper for the student. Specifically, because the student will be taking quotes and citations directly from that paper. Or, the student may even go to the extent of using certain parts of the "model" paper for their own version. Hence the necessity regarding proper grammar and punctuation in the model papers. A student is paying good money to receive a paper that could be turned in for a grade if they choose to do that. So the quality of the paper must always be of the best possible academic kind. It should not be a paper put together haphazardly just so the writer can collect on a payment.

Having worked for a number of non-US based writing companies during my time as an academic writer, I can attest to the statements made by @essaynews, but only for the non-US based writing companies. I would not want to lump all the bad eggs in a basket because, as far as I can tell, there are some UK and US based writing companies that know how to treat the writers fairly. I will admit that the main reason I finally decided to quit writing academic papers for a living was that it was become more of a bother to write the papers regardless of the amount of money I was paid.

Between the treatment I was getting from QAD and HR, plus the abuse from the clients, the money eventually earned just wasn't worth the daily stress and aggravation anymore. On a positive note though, I still manage to work for myself, I still haven't been forced to go back to the 9-5 job that I had previously, and I continue to make good money as a self-employed person. As for academic writing though, I have to agree with the OP. I don't see myself ever going back to that sort of work now or in the distant future.

If you want to do some serious damage to this person, you should submit the paper to as many plagiarism checkers online that you can.

Turnitin is a definite must. Then there is grammarly, that checks fro both grammar and plagiarism possibilities, and some other new sites that store a copy of the original submission in their server for the purposes of future essay and research paper checking.

Most professors and teachers use Turnitin so you will be more than assured that the essay will show up in any instance.

You can also just publish the paper openly on blogs or forums and the plagiarism checkers will normally send the results back in with the paper.

There are so many creative ways to do damage that I pity the fool who did not pay you for the paper. It is just right that you render the paper useless after you put in all that work for nothing.

Do Turnitin first. That is where you can do the most damage as that is the most popular online plagiarism checking tool to date.

People who say they work for these websites mean just that.

They work for that particular website which is most likely the mother company of some umbrella companies. These academic writing sites try to start up and maintain various writing "fronts" as websites for the clients to sign up with.

There is however, only one company in charge of all of these sites The writers don't even know half the time what the umbrella companies are until it starts showing up in the communications with the client via PM. In order to join the company, you can ask for website details of the mother company from the client assistance officers.

Ask if they have an opening for writers and usually, when the response is affirmative, they send you a link to the mother site where the application process takes place. The umbrella companies also have "jobs" links on the main site, which lead you back to the mother company for application purposes.

Some of them give an email address that you can send your resume to then, once your application has been reviewed, you will receive a link to take a test within the mother company site and from there, if you pass the test that is, you will be given the keys to the kingdom where you can finally create your writer profile and start "working" for them.

One of the users here recently signed up for a similar account at a company and is currently running around dazed and confused about the payment policy of these companies.

I tried to have a look at other similar assignment response companies online and their payment systems are really confusing.

As in, you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the confusing method of points, awards, rewards, and payments that they make their educator participants jump through hoops in accomplishing before they can even get a payment credit for their account.

Somehow, I feel like these companies are a different form of scam.

One that evolved from the academic writing mold. This time, direct responses are given, but the payments are just as difficult to get from the company. The companies cannot be truly authenticated because they don't even list a US address half the time.

Sure anyone can sign up and get started, but making the money then collecting the money will be a totally different ballgame altogether.

A trustworthy academic outsourcing company will not ask you to disclose any personal information when you place your order. The company will even assign a client number to the student in order to help mask the identity of the student. Any company that asks for any personal information during the sign up process is getting ready to eventually scam the student. As such, the student should stay away from any company that asks for more information other than the email address for your Paypal or other payment form account. If, for any reason during the drafting process. the writer or the company asks for additional information, you, as the student should definitely cancel the order as soon as possible. There is never any call for the personal information of a student. While you can attempt to write the paper yourself, and I will applaud any student for doing so, there may truly come a time when you will need the extra help so just be careful about what sort of information you divulge to the writing services. Better yet, contact a freelance writer directly on this forum because they know how to protect their clients from scams and do not ask for personal information at all. Again, I am not a practicing academic writer anymore, I am just making this helpful suggestion for the benefit of the students.

If a website is on the Do Not Discuss list of ES, then that is already a confirmation that the company is a scam and you should definitely stay away from those companies. The reason the company is on the list is simple. The company has scammed so many clients in the past that the complaints about them are well known. Therefore, they requested that their company no longer be discussed here because it affects their business. As for the writers, you can read the various threads here and judge the writer for yourself. While I am not an active academic writer anymore, I will advise you to look for a writer whose writing style or mode of thinking is similar to your own and then contact that writer. See if you can work with him on your paper. You were already given previous advice as to how to judge the writer for validity. I would like to add one thing though. If the writer is constantly engaged in a battle of words on the forum, and his grammar is really atrocious while doing so, then don't even give that writer a second thought. That one is sure to be a scam.

One cannot even be sure that the company being dealt with online is truly a company based in the United States. We have to remember that English is the de-facto internet language so almost all of the online companies use English as their form of language communication with others. Their website is in English because it gives them a sense of importance and a type of gloss to the company name and services. There is nothing in the rules that says the company must give their actual, physical location on their website. People just automatically assume that these companies are in the US. Then some more tech savvy users do a reverse IP look-up and discover the truth. That these companies are not really based in the US. Technically, they never said they were in the US, just that they used US and UK writers. The addresses in the US is purchased in order to make their charges via Paypal seem legitimate as Paypal requires a physical business address. So I don't think that the "American" companies intentionally hide their corporate addresses. It just isn't necessary for them to reveal their actual location as their business doesn't require them to disclose that information to the client.

Are we doing ethical work as freelance writers?

I guess the response to that question lies within the very definition of the word Ethics. Ethics, for all intents and purposes is defined as "a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct." There are the keywords right there "Right or wrong conduct". Let's see, when a parent hires a tutor for his child, the tutor helps the child learn his lessons either by further explaining the lesson or by helping him accomplish the homework or projects that are related to his class.

Consider also, that some parents actually do the homework or projects of their children. The tutor gets paid to help. The parents do it for free. Nobody complains what a tutor is helping a student cheat when he practically does the project for the child. Nobody says a parent cheats the system when the parent does the whole project for the child. Yet, based upon ethical principles, what these two people did is wrong. However society sees nothing wrong with it. As a paid academic writer, the employee is doing the same thing, assisting in the completion of an academic task for a fee. The same thing a tutor does.

So, where is the ethical violation there? From my perspective, as a former academic writer, the work being done, based on the evidence provided, indicates that an academic writer is doing an ethical activity. The conduct of the academic writer is right and not wrong because he is offering a service for a fee, thereby justifying the action as ethical. It is not wrong to help someone with his lessons or to get ahead in his class. Otherwise tutors would be out of a job and parents would be in jail for writing book reports for their kids or having their office staff complete the more complex class projects.

Yep, I truly believe that academic writers are doing an ethical job.

I think that one of the differences has to do with the history of the English language itself. The British version has a more archaic approach to its spelling, wording, and presentation while the American version is simply straight to the point. The Britons seem to prefer a roundabout method of discussion for some reason. Sure the everyday terms used may be as different as night and day, but that is when it comes to general English references. As far as academic writing is concerned, the spelling and presentation is where the differences come in. Aside from that, the British sources of information are a bit harder to come by for a US based writer. In my experience, the UK research papers prefer to not have American references included in the research as much as possible. I have had clients before ask me to limit the reference to US research without offering a clear explanation as to why that limitation was in place. I think it has to do with the history of the two countries as well. I believe it was Prince Charles who made a reference to America not having spoken "proper" English in centuries or since its emancipation from the British empire.

What makes an academic outsourcing site popular? Hmmm... That is a trick question. Nobody really knows what makes a writing site popular among students. It could be anything from the low prices, discounts, referral programs, resale arrangements for previously completed papers, or any number of money making ventures for student affiliates. The quality of the paper is always the last consideration among students on a tight personal budget or limited allowance. If I were to hire a writing service though, I would base it on the recommendations of my classmates who have used previous services. If my classmates are satisfied with their service, then there is a high probability that I would also be happy with the service. Client services are also a must when considering these services. We aren't just talking "get the student to sign up at any cost" services here that promise you the Milky Way just to get the student to sign up. I am talking after sales service with a decent TOS and revision policy in place.

You are technically correct. There are no legitimate writing services because the academic writing business exists in a gray area. An underground economy that is not acknowledged by educational authorities and disavowed by students when asked pointedly by educators. However, that is not to say that you cannot deal with academic writers on a professional level.

There are US and UK based academic outsourcing companies, that, although not totally legal in the business sense, deals with their clients on a professional basis. You must have ended up dealing with one of those Ukrainian or Asian services that portray themselves as professional but are nowhere near being an amateur company with even partially competent writers.

I really find it offensive that you have grouped all "legitimate" writing services with the bad apples in the basket. There are actually a number of red flags that possibly got past you in your rush to hire a writing service. The red flags are usually staring you in the face as you read the blurbs on these websites and also, when dealing with the client services of the company. The first clue, is the horrible English used to create the advertising on the website. The next one, is the fact that you won't be able to talk to these client representatives anywhere other than a chatroom. The list goes on and on.

I am sad that you had this bad experience but you have to understand that not everyone in the business is a "scam" and not all the companies are "illegitimate".

I received emails like this from my former offices. These normally come out within a few days of the salary payment dates. The companies that use this ruse are the ones who know that they cannot pay the full salary of the writers, hence the made up charges.

Or, they are the companies that try to keep most of the company earnings for themselves so they claim "plagiarism" in various writer's works because that is the easiest claim the company make, with the cooperation of their so-called Quality Assurance Department, whose staff members can barely spell their made up English names.

Normally, the large amount of plagiarism are really non-existent. Even if you have a valid plagiarism checker report from one or two independent plagiarism software, they still won't listen to reason. I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I hope that you somehow managed to collect what you can from those thieves. More importantly, I hope that you left that company soon after they did this to you.

Before you start giving us a "holier than thou" sermon here, you should first consider why you decided to write model papers in the first place. You needed money and writing academic essays was the quickest way for you, using whatever limited expertise you do have, as I do not believe that a self-respecting PhD certified professor will every give in to the temptations of model writing papers, to earn the money that you needed. So don't come here and say you will "never" do whatever. The students know very well that they are not supposed to turn in any model papers for a grade in their classes. If they do that, they do so at their own risk. As their professor, you should do what you have to do in order to fulfill the academic integrity requirements of your university. You know the inadequacies of your foreign students, you know that they are struggling in the class. They will get help in any way that they can. A professor who has more of a heart for the student's plight rather a wish to look good before university management would have given the student the chance to submit a new paper, without reporting the problem to management yet. Everyone deserves a second chance. Most specially the students who are trying their best to pass a class. You know the student can't hack it, so why don't you help the student instead of telling them to not seek help with their writing problems or failing them, or reporting them immediately while pretending to give the student a chance to pass the class?

According to my friends, the business is starting to pick up these days, but it is still slower than they are used to and they are earning less on a year to year comparison.

One thing that they are attributing it to is that students are becoming more research savvy these days owing to far easier access to electronic and physical research materials.

Added to that is that the professors are also becoming more and more technically proficient so they are starting to spot the plagiarized papers and "paid" papers being submitted to them.

Since they are facing some financial difficulties because of these scenarios, they have already diversified to some related fields such as editing and ghost writing.

None of them are willing to be retrained for a new skill since they are far more comfortable doing writing related jobs.

So their only option, due to the changing student landscape, is to try to catch a student for the semester at the very start and then hope that the student keeps coming back. In the meantime, blogging, editing, and other non-academic related jobs keep their finances as balanced as they possibly can keep it.

If you have tried 2 essay writing services and both provided you with an inferior paper, but you were able to revise these into something usable, I do not see the necessity of you trying to get it written by someone else a third time. For all intents and purposes, the essays that you paid for are not for actual submission. Those are model papers meant for you to use as a basis for your own essay. So what you did, revising the essay outright in the parts that you see as mistakes in the essay, is exactly how you were supposed the essays. Actually, if I were the one in your situation, I would have probably rewritten the whole paper myself since I am sure that, at the very least, the research portion was accurately accomplished by the writer. Revising the content to make it plagiarism free will be simple enough to do from that point. You could have a more proper essay written for yourself by a true ENL writer, but it is going to cost you more than $50. As my mother is always telling me, you pay for quality.

Their payment guidelines are unclear.

The only thing I could get out of their website is that the payments are tied in with the points that you earn.

There is nothing specific about how you get paid. Maybe something will turn up automatically within the system when you hit a certain score. I am wondering though, did they ask you for any payment specifics when you first signed up?

What was the payment arrangement you agreed to with them? Bank transfer? Paypal? Western Union? If you have a specific payment system with them, then you could email them and ask about that. Do it in the guise of asking if they need any additional payment information from you.

They seem to be secretive about a lot of things, specially when it comes their payment schedules.

I am afraid you may not have not clearly understood how the payments happen. If you are not participating, then you may be losing out on an opportunity to earn. It is important that you reach out to them and try to get a response from them. I wish you had not signed up to work for them without being clear on how you will be paid first. Anyway, I hope you get this matter cleared up soon. Let us know how it works out for you.

Considering the grammar that was used to construct this post, I can understand why AR decided to withhold your payment. The plagiarism accusations may have been on the level considering the letter that the OP wrote made my eyes bleed. There are times when AR actually does apply the fining and penalty system upon a writer based on fair and just accusations. Normally, a plagiarism accusation is accompanied by an actual plagiarism report, which the writer can refer to. Also, there are instances when the QAD asks the writer to reduce the percentage of plagiarism prior to the final submission to the client. I don't think that this poster is telling us the whole story. As a previously AR connected writer who had plagiarism problems with the QAD once in a while, I knew that all I had to do was change the presentation of the supposed plagiarized portions and the paper would go through, be delivered, and after two weeks, I would see payment. I know I sound bitter about AR most of the time but I will be fair to them when I know that the whole story is not being told. I will always call a Spade a Spade.

A professional is someone who is adept at doing something. It is an acquired skill that one develops over time. Based on that definition, I would definitely say that academic essay writers are professional writers. Considering that there are varying definitions for a writer (screen writer, novelist, playwright, creative writer, etc.) an academic writer has a specialization indicated just like the others. I once did it for a living so yes, I would have, at the time, called myself a professional writer. A professional academic writer to be precise. If anyone asked, I would have, at the time acknowledged how I made my money and explained to them what it means if asked. Hey, it's an honest living in a grey area. I'm not stealing from anyone. Instead, I am giving a person a piece of my intellect. Therefore, I should take credit for it. I don't believe in downgrading my own profession because not everyone can do what, at the time, I did for a living.

Students are not required to send any identifiable information in the first place.

The name of the student will be received automatically when the student pays for the order.

However, the other private information such as the university the student attends, the phone number of the person, the address, and the name of the professor are things that should remain forever unknown to the writer.

Unless of course the student is dumb enough to ask the writer to write the cover page for them and offers this information of his / her own volition.

Yes, there are students who could serve as a cautionary tale with regards to these instances. However, the students themselves don't protect themselves from these problems because some of them are just too lazy to work on a simple cover page.

Or, some just don't care about protecting their personal information because we live in a day and age of open information exchange. Being cautious is not something they have to be reminded about. It is something that should be standard practice for essay writing company dependent students.

Use EssayJob if you want to protect your personal information.

Et Tu Google? Writing Services Still Listed

I just googled essay writing sites and came up with 10 pages of various essay writing websites.

Looking through them, the companies all reek of a scam to me. Which is why I am wondering why Google even has paid ads coming from these sites highlighted on their search pages.

Considering that they previously announced that they would be removing all these academic sites from their system, I was surprised to see that the whole presentation on the part of Google was just a sham. It was meant to make the academic world believe that they don't promote academic fraud and yet, the evidence is still there. It exists to prove that Google just paid lip service to the academicians.

There is even an advertisement for "Legit Writing Websites" that is supposed to direct you to legal sites, which I really doubt. Just to make sure that I wasn't seeing things, I typed in "Academic writing sites" in the search box and got another 10 pages worth of search returns.

So I guess the lure of the paid advertisements and Adwords considerations coming out of these companies were more valuable to Google than moral integrity?

Normally, the assignment process takes longer than one hour, depending on the complexity of the paper. The academic company places the order in a list of available jobs and the writers "bid" on the assignment. The company will then study the qualifications of the writer applicants and assign the one with the closest capabilities to the paper. This could go on for an hour or more. Some papers, in my experience, get assigned and reassigned multiple times before it finally lands in the lap of one writer who actually has the chops to handle the requirements of the paper. After he confirms acceptance, the company will then email the client to inform of the writer assignment. At that point, the writer is also required to make first contact with the client and begin the collaborative writing process until the paper is finally completed and submitted. In this instance, I would not worry so much just yet. It sounds like the paper is just in "assignment limbo" at the moment.

The company that placed that disclaimer in the TOS is one that is not on the level.

There is a reason that they put that in there.

Most likely to use against you in the future in some form.

All of the academic outsourcing sites I have worked with do not have disclaimers like that. In fact, the disclaimers are the exact opposite. It informs the client that after the paper is submitted to them, all rights, intentions, and purposes for the model paper transfers to the client.

Therefore, the client has all the rights and privileges of the original author and as such, they are allowed to modify the model paper to their hearts content.

When you consider the amount of money that you will be paying for the paper, it doesn't make sense to pay that much for a paper that you don't own. There are many other academic outsourcing companies out there that transfer rights to the client.

Look for one of those and work with them. They are more on the level when it comes to the use of the paper it seems.

When I first started out as an academic writer, I signed up for all the companies I could Google since, at the time, Google was still academic outsourcing friendly.

There was also a good chance that the companies were not under an umbrella organization so it was easier for me to sign up.

I treated the jobs like I would try on hats. Those that fit my personal requirements, I stayed on with. Those that were unreasonable or never paid on time, I had no problem letting go of. I guess that is why I did not have a true average of writing sites.

At one point in time, I was working for 10 companies simultaneously. I eventually worked that down to 3 companies.

Over time, as my relationship with these companies evolved, I began letting go of the others until I was eventually left with one company where I climbed the ranks so fast that even the summer down time was not a real down time for me.

By the time I left the business, I was only connected with one company so I guess that would be my average number of sites worked for in the long term.

@Unbeliever_Paradox did you ever collect on the money owed to you?

Since this case was different from an academic paper, I was wondering of Pheelyks advice was appropriate for your case.

You did say it was a web article issue and not a college paper problem.

So I am interested to learn whether or not you were able to collect and how you managed to do that after all the time that passed between the submission of the paper and your client contacting you again.

Did you make good on your "threat" to simply publish all of the posts in order to render your submissions to him useless? If I were in your situation, I would do the exact same thing.

Sometimes, shaming a person into doing the right thing is the only option that might work.

I said might work because if the person happens to be one of the few people on the planet who doesn't have any shame, then nothing you try to do to collect your payment is going to work.

I would not want a third class UK or US student writing my paper for me. Neither would I trust the skills of a "competent" ESL university professor. The only academic person I would trust in this instance, who isn't in the list, is a US or UK tenured professor. Since a tenured professor will not have any interest in writing students papers either privately or through an academic outsourcing site, I am out of luck. Now that I think about it, why are you even asking? You obviously know that the response to your query will be on the negative side. Why even bring it up? Are you trying to test the waters? Don't try to sell any of us on the idea that you are competent ESL university professor, your grammar alone is a dead giveaway. No way you could even pass yourself off as a grammar school teacher. So forget it, you won't be conning anyone with that question.

It certainly seems like I am on the opposing team even here at ES. In fact, the discussions coming up remind me of the discussions I had with my friends. The reasons being mentioned are the same and they did tell me that I am the one who should shift to "classic technology" because the classics work better than the new technology. One of the reasons that they mentioned was that the PC is cheaper to purchase than a laptop. I begged to differ and told them that the two items are priced the same provided they contain the most current technology. I guess the way I use my laptop is what spells the difference for me. They are constantly updating their hardware and software, while I just keep updating my software. My hardware works fine all the time. Maybe because I am more into the text of things and I don't make my laptop double as a gaming machine. Which they have a tendency to do with their PC's. Also, I did write within a totally different field from them. They were more into computing, spreadsheets, and other mathematical topics while I was more into the scholarly research of things.

Having worked for numerous essay writing companies over the past 30 years, I have had various experiences with a few of them who actually try to help the writers by acquiring accounts at places like Questia and JSTOR.

The only problem I had with their accounts was that it wasn't really helpful to the writers. Only one writer at a time could access the site because the company did not purchase multiple accounts. In some instances, we had to contact the point person for the scholarly site, tell him what books or references we needed, then we had to wait for him to get the book, upload it to a specific access site, and only then, could the writer use the article, journal, or whatever. Due to the time consuming method of scholarly journal access, I decided to skip the website sponsored access and just get my own accounts at the same websites. Since the access to the sites were plagued with problems and complaints, the websites eventually decided to end the practice of site sponsored scholarly journal articles.

Getting back on track.

These days, the independent writers cut out the middlemen at Upwork or other similar independent worker bidding sites. It gives them a semblance of credibility. Others though, specially those who prefer to hide their country of origin and actual writing skills, ride the social media bandwagon in the hopes of scamming students. Twitter and Facebook are flooded with these sorts of independent writers who may or may not be on the level. You don't have to pay a cut to the social media site on your earnings.

However, these sites prefer that you pay for advertising or priority level features so that your independent writer profile gets top billing on their sites. While the cost may be kind of steep for some writers, my friends tell me that this method of self advertisement actually works well because of the discussion exchange and personal contact that the social networks allow them to have with clients. The clients get to know their writing abilities and can verify that they are ENL writers and not an ESL writer trying to cover his tracks.

In my opinion, any academic outsourcing company that requires such vital private information is up to no good.

Either they plan on blackmailing you in the future or, they plan on using the information for the purposes of identity theft. Either way, I would not deal with a company that doesn't uphold the privacy rights of the client.

They get enough private information when they receive the electronic payment as it is.

So there is no need for the client to fill out that information in the order page. Besides, they hate calling the clients.

They prefer emails so that they can hide their identities from the student.

If a website requires this information, you should find another site to work with. Normally, when a site uses PayPal, they don't require any additional information from the client during the sign up process.

Just the email address of the client for contact purposes. Some of the companies claim they need the number to call the clients, which is total BS because they only make phone calls when prodded to by the writers during times when they know that their call will go directly to voice mail.

My previous company I worked with had this habit of doing a bait and switch on the writers when it came to their CPP. They would get you used to an extremely high rate for say, a blog of 2 pages, then, when the blog pages increase to 6, they drop the rate through the barrel. So I have experienced writing a high blog request for $ 24 for 2 pages, then a low of $2 per page for 6 pages. Since it is a regular client who "requests" for my services, I tended to blindly accept the order, thinking that it was the same page. When I realized what was going on and I tried to get the order reassigned, the company refused to do so and threatened to penalize me for wanting to have the order reassigned. In order to save my future salary, I had to take the bait. I had no choice in the matter as it was a case of "Damned if you will, damned if you don't".

Hi @FreelanceWriter, I wasn't really asking about how many laptops or computers one should have in order to stay abreast of the job or to stay healthy.

I am more interested to find out which type of computer the independent writers prefer as that is what our discussion was all about. That is why I presented all of the considerations we discussed during our selection process. I would like to thank you though.

Your post was enlightening. If you don't mind, I'll share your set up with my friends during our next coffee date. It looks like I'll be bringing and starting the discussion this time around.

I only have one laptop because I cart it with me wherever I go along with my trusty tablet and android phone. If one gadget falls asleep, my clients can still reach me for consultation via the other gadget. I prefer the portability the laptop in particular gives me and I've never had to use more than one because I found it was sufficient for my purposes.

I never had one break on me in all these years. I actually run it into its final stages of life because I am a person who has preferences for everything. So if I like using one laptop, I will keep using that laptop because I feel comfortable using it, wherever I am or wherever I sit.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. Thanks for the tip again. I'm sure my friends will appreciate it too since they refuse to leave the academic writing business even if I keep coaxing them to do so. They have to stay healthy somehow.